The War of the Worlds has been a part of Anna-Marie Wayne’s life from birth – she was born as the album entered the UK charts for the first time. She’s appeared regularly on screen but is perhaps best known by audiences for her role as Carrie in the arena tours of her father’s musical version of the HG Wells story – a role that she recreates, with a number of twists, for the Audible Musical Drama. Shortly before rehearsals started for the 2018 arena tour, she chatted with Paul Simpson.

Does it feel as if The War of the Worlds has been a third parent at times?

It does, almost! It has – it literally came out the year I was born, and it was always in the background of my childhood. There’s lots of the artwork and the memorabilia that we have at my parents’ home and studio. As a little girl, I always remember, there’s one particular piece of artwork that has a green lady in the front of it, and as a little girl, I always wanted to be that woman and running from the Martians. That’s what I pictured the role of Carrie as being, and I always liked hearing about her – you only hear about her briefly in the original album – but by the time it was made into the stage show and that character was expanded a bit, I was just thrilled to be asked to play the role. I’ve ben involved with the show of it since the very first tour, and it’s really exciting to do it now in the Audible production.

Did your dad expand the part knowing you were going to be playing her?

As the tour has gone along, the role of Carrie has expanded each time. That wasn’t just because I was playing it, for sure, but it was always the role that from the album had the love story to be expanded from it. I think regardless of me playing it, it would have naturally grown anyway, but probably me being the role didn’t hurt!

The Carrie of the Audible production is very different from the Carrie of the album and the tour. Did you have to forget everything that you’ve thought about the character before and treat her as a completely new entity, or could you bring some of what you’ve brought to Carrie up to now?

I felt that I could bring a lot of what Carrie had existed as before to the Audible production, even though there are differences – small ones, such as in the Audible, she’s the Journalist’s  wife, whereas in the show and the album she’s his fiancée.

The new version is really nice because you get to see a lot more of their relationship and their conversations. And two of the episodes are narrated by Carrie, which I really like, because they’ve been split up by that point and you don’t know what’s happened to the Journalist because you get taken on Carrie’s perspective for a couple of episodes and then go back again to him, and you don’t necessarily know what’s happened to her.

Your dad was saying earlier that that came as something of a surprise to him when he read it in the script. The Journalist is much nearer Wells’ character in the Audible version, slightly vacillating and not as strong as in the album, but then there’s Carrie, whose inner strength seems to come out minute by minute. What did you think of that version of her? Was it interesting to get inside her head?

Yes it was. I loved it. I did really enjoy how strong she became and how resourceful she became, a strong woman who managed to keep going and help other characters in the journey.

What was the biggest challenge of playing her for Audible?

I do feel so in touch with her as a character after playing her for all these years in the different forms that she does feel like an extension of me, but it was great getting to work with Michael Sheen and play off each other, and all the other actors that were in it as well. That was what was so fantastic about this version. Often with audiobooks, you’re by yourself, narrating and doing all the characters and it can be quite a solo experience, but with this it was full cast, and great energy and a really fun production. We recorded it at my dad’s studio.

So ensemble scenes were ensemble cast recording, Radio 4 style?

Yes.

How long were you in studio for?

I think for myself I probably did about three or four days but not entire days. I narrated my two episodes, and then came in some days with just Michael Sheen and then other days with a lot more of the cast.

Did you record the narration bits separately, or did you record it with the dialogue?

The actual narration we did separately from the dialogue so for that I did get to bounce off the other actors.

To an extent you have ownership of Carrie; were there things in the script where you wanted to go, “Mr Producer, I want to change a line a bit here please?”

(laughs) No, I did not do that. I thought the script was great actually. There was the odd debate on how to pronounce a certain word. But otherwise I didn’t change any lines.

Was it a very different experience working with your dad on this, compared to the stage show, or was it that you were working for a producer who happened to be your father?

I think because we have worked with each other in different guises over the years, it didn’t feel any different than other things that we’ve worked on. We treat it very professionally. It’s become quite natural getting to work with him.

Did you read the book as a child, or is it just the album version you know? And did you go back to Wells’ text before doing this?

It’s really the album that I definitely know best, and grew up with, but I always knew as well that my dad was quite respectful of HG Wells’ version, whereas over the years there have been other versions that haven’t stayed quite as true to the book. A lot of people reimagine the story, which isn’t necessarily bad but different – the Tom Cruise film didn’t stay in the Victorian era.

Is sci-fi something you enjoy, or is it War of the Worlds, because you’ve been part of that?

I definitely enjoy other sci-fi material. I know The War of the Worlds best because I’ve been around it. I enjoy other movies – the Star Wars franchises.

What do you look for when you’re acting – particular scripts or characters that you seek out or grab?

There’s so many different roles that I would like to play. It really starts with a great script, and obviously which actors are working on it, but there’s all sorts of roles that I would love the chance to play – Killing Eve has a great serial killer [Jodie Comer’s Villanelle]. I like really complex characters but she’s got humour as well, and I like doing comedy as well.

Are you acting fulltime now?

Yes. This year I’ve come back to it a lot more. I took a bit of a break to have three children but this year I’ve been coming back into a lot more.

What’s next?

It’s the tour – we start rehearsals in two weeks, and I’ve been working on it. This tour for the first time, I am live with it. There’s still going to be a lot of film footage, but in the second half I come out live for ‘Forever Autumn’ that my dad was talking about, a couple of the other songs. That’s really exciting.

I did wonder from the descriptions whether you were there. When do you open?

The first show is the same date as the Audible drama comes out, November 30, in Glasgow. We start in Glasgow and end in Brighton.

 

The War of the Worlds: The Musical Drama is available now from Audible

The War of the Worlds: The 40th Anniversary Arena Tour opens on November 30 in Glasgow and ends December 17 in Brighton.