Welcome back to Acting Up! This week Megan and Jordan are catching up and diving into the historical world of female film directors! Jordan kicks it off by discussing the statistics and state of affairs for female directors today (shocker - it’s not looking great) despite the quality and cult impact of the work being made. Are things even changing for the better? Jordan then dives into the life and work of Alice Guy-Blaché, who is widely regarded to be the first woman to direct a ...

Today Megan and Jordan are Acting Up with the wonderful Morgan Beale! Colleague of Megan (shocking) and shockingly talented Actor, Morgan is here to share his unconventional journey into the industry, and how he found himself on the set of Wednesday! Morgan’s journey started as many of ours do, in a school play that ignited a love for theatre he’s still trying to understand. Studying GCSE and then A Level drama Morgan ended up doing a degree in… American Studies? Thank god for student l...

In the effort of drumming up suspense for the finale of our GIFF 2 series, enjoy a simple catchup with your hosts Megan and Jordan! But not TOO simple, as nothing ever is. Sorry about the immediate chronic wheeze. The long overdue catch-up includes: Megan booked a short film (!), the audition process for said short, upcoming auditions and lack of auditions, filling the void with other voids, standing by selectiveness, the myth of “just put yourself out there”, has the podcast served its purpo...

Welcome back to Gloucester Independant Film Festival with your hosts Megan & Jordan! For this, the third instalment of the behind the scenes interviews, the Acting Up girls sit down with the some of the creatives behind ‘The Monster Beneath Us’ - nominated for best feature film, ‘Him Then Us’ - nominated for best short film and ‘Ingest’ the festivals winning Micro-Short. First we have the fabulous actor Nicola Wright to tell us all about her work on the horror feature film ‘The Mons...

Welcome to the grand finale of our series from the second Gloucester Independent Film Festival! Become part of the festival audience and tune in to hear panel interviews and audience Q&A’s with the teams behind the evenings incredible out of competition screenings, ‘Rodent’ and ‘Twain’. Firstly, Megan and Jordan snatch a quick interview (couldn’t let Joshy and Oscar have all the fun) with the incredible Pip, renowned photographer turned narrative writer & director and the wonderful pr...

Welcome back to Gloucester Independant Film Festival with your hosts Megan & Jordan! In this second instalment of the behind the scenes interviews, the Acting Up girls sit down with the incredible creatives behind ‘Two Big Feet’, the festivals winning feature film, and ‘Don’t Give Up’, nominee for best music video! ‘Two Big Feet’ is an improv comedy about two best friends, one down on his luck and craving some cryptids - the other trying to make his friend happy before he inev...

Welcome back to Gloucester Independant Film Festival with Acting Up! For the first instalment in their series of interviews, Megan and Jordan sit down with the incredibly talented film makers behind this years entries for Best Short Documentary. First up, Director Sam Pope and Producer Tom Crawford of Imaginary Man Productions to discuss their truly heartwarming documentary ‘The Little Cinema in Gloucester’ which premiered at the festival! The documentary takes the audience to the Sherb...

We are so back! Post the slightly depressing ageism episode and being professionals at Gloucester Independent Film Festival 2, Acting Up are back with a BITE… Another episode of the ‘Just Two Besties and Their Special Interest’ genre, this week Megan and Jordan are talking vampire media, and they’ve prepared their whole mortal lives for this. Discussions include would you accept the dark gift? Eczema, skinniness and vampirism and the media that most impacted your hosts and the culture. The me...

Megan and Jordan both recently celebrated their 25th Birthdays! And by celebrated they mean crashed out about their impending expiration from an industry famously unkind to older women! Yippee! So here it is - the long awaited and truly infuriating episode about ageism and misogyny in Hollywood. Buckle up because we’ve all been indoctrinated… Jordan confronts the idea of the ‘expiration date’, anti-aging culture and paradoxical procedures to prolong careers, villainous hags and youth as a typ...

This week Megan and Jordan are immersing themselves in the world of immersive theatre, from the history to personal experiences recent and historic - it’s time to go beyond breaking the fourth wall. Jordan covers the basics of Immersive Theatre for actors, what it is, expectations for actors, Equity standards, how it’s been commercialised, what the future holds and the Post-Immersive Manifesto. Megan enlightens us on the pioneers of the genre such as Punchdrunk Theatre, Fruit for the Apocalyp...

This week Megan and Jordan are asking themselves the age old question - is wrestling real? Why? Because Rhea Ripley that’s why. Inspired by their newfound love for one particular wrestler, Megan and Jordan slam into the world of wrestling, starting with Megan’s brief history of the WWE and Jordan’s honourable mention to oily naked wrestling in Ancient Greece. Discussions include films about wrestlers and the industry, wrestlers who became actors, fakery and nuance, the real dangers of safe st...

This week Megan and Jordan are joined by the wonderful performing, milk drinking, dog loving, plant father that is Thomas Walton! Thomas is here to discuss his journey into the musical theatre industry and how he’s giving back to his community. Thomas tells his story from being a young working class lad in ‘Alifax, pursuing theatre despite the all too common lack of opportunity in his area. Discussing the importance of school trips to the theatre, Pantomime and its accessibility, reach, cultu...

This week on Acting Up, Megan and Jordan sit down with another face from their drama school days, the incredibly talented, not Spanish speaking, dance virtuoso that is Eli Follant! Eli opens up about their experiences within drama school and the industry, including the pressure to be a triple threat and moving away from expectations, moving out at 16, queerness, class clowning, coming out, changing your name, zoom pronouns and effective allyship. Eli gets candid about their experi...

You thought they were done interviewing Megan’s coworkers? Think again! This week Megan and Jordan are joined by the fiercely funny Actor/comedian Madelaine Crabb! Maddie joins Acting Up to discuss all things her life and career (try to listen past the accent will you?). A Scottish child of Actor parents, Maddie delves into when your parent is your teacher, maybe I could have skipped drama school? leaving for London and winding up in the DUNGEONS with Ruth Jones and threatening yourself into ...

This week Megan and Jordan are reuniting with another of their drama school classmates - they are joined by the wonderful, bilingual and certainly not too serious Sophia Cordell! Sophia gets off to a cracking start by telling a tale of Megan in contemporary, but soon rewinds to recount her journey from growing up and singing in Germany to upping and moving country to study Musical Theatre in the UK. Sophia spills on the flights, auditions and lessons learnt that led to her foundation co...

1 year, 1 podcast, 2 besties, 2 countries, 4 counties, 25 guests, 49 episodes, a million train journeys and a whole film festival later?! We're so back. Welcome to Acting Up in 2025! In this episode we take a moment to reflect on and celebrate one more year of the podcast, one more year of friendship and one more year traversing the industry. Discussions include the Spotify Creators Wrapped and the statistics that blew our minds and warmed our hearts (we hit the charts and didn't even know ab...

This week Acting Up are joined once again by the original guest and bestie of the pod - Rhys Tinney. Rhys returns for chatty discussion on a special interest, welcome to three besties on a sofa talking about horror! Rhys discusses their relationship with horror and how they came to be (in Jordan’s words) ‘an infinite well of knowledge’, spills some history and gifts you all a wonderful guide to getting into horror. Jordan laments again on the death of the medium budget film and remember...

This week Megan and Jordan are revisiting a question that haunted them during drama school - why do I cry when I sing?! They each unpack their relationship with singing pre, during and post drama school, having both suffered with panic attacks while singing. Jordan spills on doing everything she could not to sing in first year and the time she had to relive being cheated on in Acting through Song, while Megan tells her past self to stop caring what other people think of her! Of course while a...

This week Megan and Jordan sit down to talk about their new favourite hobby, Pole Dance! From personal experience to a perplex history, this week it’s time to delve into the wonderful world of pole. Guest starring Jordan’s mum! Megan discusses how the film ‘Anora’ inspired her to start, while Jordan discusses how she followed the ballet-aerial-pole pipeline and how it’s healing her relationship with dance. Megan goes into the nuanced and contested origin story of pole dance and how it became ...

This week Megan and Jordan are joined by another dynamic duo, Melodrive megaminds and the founders of Gloucester Independant Film Festival; the wonderful Joshy Lee and Oscar Wenman-Hyde! Joshy and Oscar delve into the inspiration and process behind founding a film festival in a community previously lacking one, nurturing a creative partnership, highlights from the evening itself and taking inspiration from authenticity. Joshy reveals the formative media that kickstarted his career (Transforme...