Emily Berrington: Outtakes

Some quotes removed from my recent newspaper interview with Emily Berrington that are too good not to publish. 

On recognising herself in Simon Bird's Inbetweeners character, Will, and finding comfort in the TV series

This kind of recognition is what appealed to Berrington about The Inbetweeners on TV. She personally identified with Bird's Will “a hundred per cent”, “because he wants to do everything and is also a little bit cautious. I remember finding myself, particularly as a young teenager, in situations where someone would be like, 'Let's do the Ouija board.' You're not brave enough to say, 'I'm going home,' so you just sort of hover around on the sidelines going, 'Should we be doing this?'”

The friends were also recognisably like “lads from school who showed off about sexual experiences they clearly never had, or if they had nobody cared about anyway.” Perhaps explaining why the comedy has attracted a large female following, Berrington says she found the awkwardness of the characters reassuring at a time when she also felt “awkward and teenagery”.

“I remember watching and thinking, 'Maybe to boys I actually am like this glamorous, really sorted goddess, because they're dealing with far worse stuff, potentially. So maybe through their eyes I am actually alright; even though through my eyes, I'm this awkward, greasy teenage girl.'”

Girls are "psychological geniuses"

“My experience of girls at school was that they can be very destructive towards each other, subtly. I felt like boys, things would kick-off between them and it would all be out in the open immediately. Whereas girls there would be weeks of slightly weird vibes in science classes where you'd be like, 'Is something weird going on? Are people talking about me?' Girls are psychological geniuses at the age of 16. They can make anybody feel anything about themselves.”

Could there ever be a female Inbetweeners?

“Little girls, children, I think, are expected to behave better,” says Berrington, who'd love to see a distaff Inbetweeners. “If a boy's naughty at school he's a little bit cheeky and mischievous. If a girl's naughty, she's trouble. And I wonder if the same could potentially apply if it was a female Inbetweeners series, that people could think maybe they should know better or maybe they were being slutty? Particularly if there was a female version of Jay. I'm not sure if people would warm to her particularly, which is sad in a way. Because I feel like girls go through the same things.”

On David Cameron's appointment of just two new women to the cabinet 

“People made such a fuss about it. I opened the papers last night and thought there's going to be at least 10 or something. No, just edged up to five. Well done. It's a bit depressing that that's something to be celebrated. But it's a difficult issue because I wouldn't want women to be patronised and you do want the best people in those jobs. But I find it hard to believe that it always happens to be men that are 'better' at the job.”

The Inbetweeners 2 is out now