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Back to Tara's page
7 November 1996
Daily Mail
by Diana Hutchinson page 53
Actress Tara Fitzgerald on her fiance, holidays and chopping up
her ear
Tara Fitzgerald, 28, leapt to fame with her portrayel of the nubile
young Polly in the TV serialization of The Camomile Lawn. She played
Ophelia on Broadway to Ralph Fiennes Hamlet, and starred opposite Peter
O'Toole in Our Song. Later this month, she will be the crinoline-clad
heroine Helen in Anne Bronte's Tenant of Wildfell Hall, opposite
Rupert Graves.
Although her name is Irish, and her mother, a photographer, came from
Ireland, she was brought up in Knightsbridge and went to school in Clapham.
She left at 16 after doing her O-levels and went to North London Drama
Centre. She worked in a Mayfair boutique before she began acting.
She shares a Victorian house in Barnes, South London, with actor Dorian
Healey from Soldier, Soldier. They have been together four years
and plan to marry.
* YOUR FAVOURITE ITEM OF CLOTHING?
I haven't got enough cleavage to wear Vivienne Westwood or Alexander McQueen.
Even aWonderbra needs something to stick into it. My favourite jacket is
a dark blue Galliano, with a sailorflap collar. I bought it eight years
ago, before he became really famous, at Browns in Mayfair, where I worked
for awhile. I was appalled at the amount of money women were prepared to
pay. I can't get away with wearing complicated clothes.
*WHAT CLOTHES DO YOU FIND SEXIEST ON A MAN?
Dorian's favourite thing is an Agnes B grey suit cut in Sixties' style.
He likes simple, clean shapes.He always gets a table at a restaurant when
he wears it.
*YOUR FAVOURITE PAIR OF SHOES?
I recently bought a small Prada faux-ponyskin bag and Dalmation-effect
shoes. I got them in the sale for $120. They are very comfortable, with
small heels and square toes.
*WHAT IS ON YOUR DRESSING TABLE?
A wooden jewellery box from Costa Rica, and a photgraph of me and Dorian
on location in Australia- I am sitting on his knee. It was taken at the
beginning of our relationship and we look very happy together.
*WHAT SORT OF MAKE-UP DO YOU WEAR?
For foundation, I choose Orlane and Kiehls. It's used by mountaineers to
protect their skin from the sun. For make-up, I wear Mac and Bobbie Brown.
It's hard to beat a Chanel lipstick, because it really does stay on.
*WHO DOES YOUR HAIR?
Stephen Way of Mayfair. I must go to have the colour sorted out. At the
moment, the ends are blondish, for Brassed Off. The middle is reddish,
for Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The roots are brown.
*WHAT DO YOU SPEND MONEY ON?
My house. Also, I recently bought a dog, a chocolate brown cocker spaniel.
His name is Famous ,though he isn't famous for anything yet. I seem to
be spending all my spare time and money on him. I'm saving for another
spaniel, whom I shall call Rich. Their puppies will be Filthy.
*HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU TAKE GETTING READY TO GO OUT?
If I've bought something special, it only takes me 20 minutes, including
a shower. I always do my make-up in the car on the way. If I haven't bought
something special, it takes three-and-a-half hours to sort out my wardrobe.
*MOST EXPENSIVE THING YOU HAVE EVER BOUGHT?
My shared house in Barnes. Dorian and I have been together for four years.
We are engaged and will get married at some point - next week or next year.
*HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR FIANCE?
We met at a bar at a private club that has since closed. There is something
seedy about meeting your intended in a bar. We got on very well. After
a few months, I just didn't want to leave him, so we moved in together.
*THE MOST YOU HAVE SPENT ON ANOTHER PERSON?
I bought Dorian a word processor, because he's writing scripts. We buy
each other exotic holidays. Last Christmas, we bought each other a trip
to Costa Rica. It was wonderful. The mosquitos were partial to me, but
it was worth it. And the coffee's great.
*WHAT DO YOU LIKE/HATE ABOUT YOUR BODY?
I sometimes wish I could go back to the time when ladies wore gloves. I
have potato-pickers' hands:square and too big. I also bruise very easily.
When I played Ophelia on Broadway, it was a physical performance. Each
night, Hamlet threw me to the ground. I was always covered in bruises.
I also snipped off my ear. I had real scissors to chop off hair, and I
was a little over-zealous. The blood was pouring down, but the audience
thought it was part of the action. I used to like my skin. I have been
accused of taking my clothes off too readily for the cameras, but nubile
young things with good skin can get away with it.
*WHAT IS IN YOUR HANDBAG?
Water, keys, Filofax, pictures of my dad and my mum, pictures of me and
Dorian.
*YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT?
In Our Song, Peter O'Toole was in the middle of a monologue, facing
the audience. I came on and wrenched a dress from wardrobe, scrathing my
arm on the hinge. The blood poured down my arm on to my cream dress. I
started licking it to stop it, and the audience started laughing.O'Toole
turned round and, with profound professionalism, said: 'Oh darling, shall
I get you a plaster? 'I said yes, and he went off the stage to find one.
*YOUR FAVOURITE FOOD?
Thai. Dorian went to Thailand and, while he was there, learned to cook
local dishes. He's a very good cook.
*BOOKS BY YOUR BED?
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. I see that Madonna has just read
it, because she quotes from it. And Alain de Botton's novel, The Romantic
Movement.
*WHAT DO YOU WEAR IN BED?
Sometimes nothing, sometimes a T-shirt. And my scent.
*WHAT DO YOU LIKE/HATE TALKING ABOUT?
I would never discuss my deepest dreams, but people think it strange I
talk about my ectopic pregnancy. But that was a fact of life. I was 19
and going out with a medical student. He made me go to hospital when I
got violent pains. Nobody wanted to listen to him because he was a student,
but it is thanks to him that I am still alive.
*HAVE YOU ANY REGRETS?
My father left when I was three, when my parents' marriage broke down.
He sent me tapes from the Bahamas. I just thought he was going on long
holidays. He moved back to Britain and remarried when I was seven. I was
so excited: I wanted him to be here. But it didn't work out. When I was
11, I was told he had been killed in a car accident. I was 19 when I found
out he had killed himself. I felt I could and should have done something.
I come from a Catholic background and didn't like to think of him in purgatory.
Now I really think he is all right.
*YOUR EPITAPH?
She did what she had to do.
This site was created and is maintained by John Robinson © 1995
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