Episode 31: Professional work with Joshua Millard Lloyd - Part 1

Josh joins us again for the first episode of a 2 part series where we chat about all of Josh's professional work. Josh has done voiceover work, TV and films and musicals Listen along to hear all about Josh's experiences in the professional industry. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

And then the next big thing that I did was um a feature film called Ryan Liz, um which was my first like on on screen role.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Hello and welcome to Theatre Workshop Talks. My name is Alice and I'm a teacher here at the Theatre Workshop. We have a theatre school based in Birmingham, Barnt Green, Blackwell and Bromsgrove. Here you will gain an insight to what it's like being a part of the theatre workshop. Along the way, we will be talking to TTW students, parents, teachers, and also some very special guests. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so you know when a brand new episode drops. Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of our podcast. Um, today I'm joined with Josh again. Hello, Josh. Hello.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Hello, Alice.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

We are today going to be talking about Josh's professional work because we actually realised that we didn't talk about it last week. Josh messaged me and he was like, Oh, we haven't spoken about all the professional stuff that I've done. So we're here again and we're gonna talk about it because you've done a lot, haven't you, Josh?

SPEAKER_02 1:11

I I'll have to be fair, I've been very lucky with with with all the opportunities that I've got um professionally. Um and and and and a few of them uh were were actually like because of um through theatre workshop, so I've got you all to thank for that.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Amazing training. Yeah. So let's just go straight into it. What was your first one?

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Uh my first professional job was um was a voiceover for an anchor bus advert. Um that was back in over ten years ago now.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

In 2015. Um I'm guessing you want me to do the uh my phrase.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

What was your phrase, Thomas?

SPEAKER_02 2:03

This is the best toy ever! That was the one. Um and it was out it was out in the UK in 2015 and stayed in the UK for like I think it was like until 2017. Maybe it may be a couple more years after that. And then it went over to America um and got shown in America. So my voice has been on television in America.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Which is very full.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

How did you find doing voiceover?

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Well, I was how old would I have been? I was I'm eighteen now. So it was uh over ten years it was eleven years ago, so I was was I would have been seven?

SPEAKER_01 2:54

You would have been seven.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Goodness me. So that was your first one? Ever that was my first record, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

And how did you get into that? Like how did you did you have to audition? What was the audition process like for a voiceover job?

SPEAKER_02 3:10

So I'm glad you've asked that. Um it was literally on a Saturday at theatre workshop, um Susie had got a message from like asking for young lads with obviously um, I would assume my accent.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Um and they susie I think I think it was in Susie's car or it was in the old um priory building.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

We had to record, I had to I had to record into her phone saying, um, no, I I can't remember that it was either the it was either the Gruffalo or I had to actually read out, this is the best toy ever. It was one of those two. Um and literally from that, I can't remember if I had if I had to go through any more rounds, but that's the main thing I remember, and from that I got the job.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Oh wow, so it was literally just like from one recording of your voice. Yeah. And where did you go to get that recorded to get the voiceover done?

SPEAKER_02 4:23

I if I can remember right, it was down in London somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Um it was down in London, it was with it was in like this massive studio. Um and I I was sat in this room on my own, like this massive room with a glass wall in front of me, and I was looking at the people recording me. I was sat thinking this is great, this is because obviously at the time when I was seven, I didn't actually realise how how how how how big it was and how and like f for for that being my first job. You know, for me it was just I'm just I'm I'm just going to do this now. Yeah, no, this is when I look back I'm like Yeah, exactly. But when I look back it was it's like wow of of that was my first thing. It was uh so it's just all just all very I'm very lucky to have done everything else.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Of course, that is amazing. So do you think they so you said they wanted someone with your accent?

SPEAKER_02 5:27

I I'm pretty sure they wanted some someone with my accent because they'd they'd messaged Susie for Birmingham and P in particular.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

But sh sh I think Susie just went round and just got us also record this. I don't know what it was, it was it it could have been the brother, but got us to record into her phone and then um obviously they liked my accent for the uh for the advert. Uh and they must have been matching me up with with the other two in there. Although they weren't they the they but they didn't have my accent. They were posh, but um then they must have been matching me up with w with what they wanted for it. So so yeah, and it hasn't changed much since I've done the advert.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

No, still got that accent.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

I have, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

So that was when you were about seven. Then what was the next thing? What did you go on to do after that?

SPEAKER_02 6:30

So I I've I said I've got it, I've got my notes here. Um and it was either um a film called Stan and Ollie, um which was like a uh a feature film about uh Laurel and Hardy.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Um I remember that that that was that was at the Black Country Museum, I think, just for a day. Um so that was very, very cool to be in like a set in that time. And then the next big thing that I did was um a feature film called Ray and Liz. Um which was my first like on on screen role and I played Jason, which was uh leading child role. Um and it was like it was set in um in the black country, so in my area, all around like Dudley and Old Hill and Cradley Heath. Um and it was best in the true story and that was amazing for me being like on screen for like recording for like was it three months? And it was it was and then that film went to Cannes Film Festival and it went to the BAFTAs, so my little face was putting them on the BAFTAs and I sat there and watched it at home. Um yeah, and and and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to say this, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Um when when we got the the message to say that it's been nominated for a BAFTA because it was nominated it was nominated for best um best I think it was best new feature film or best upcoming director.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Um we um they said be on standby because we'll find out if if we're like um close to actually winning it. Because if if if we were I would have had to go down and be at the BAFTAs. Um but yeah, I I wasn't and I didn't win, but just just still to see my face on the BAFTAs with like with uh uh David Tennant in the audience and you know and then uh all these actors.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Wow, how did that feel seeing your face on there?

SPEAKER_02 8:55

That was that was the first one when I was like this is actually like m m m massive what I'm doing. Um I remember we've still got the recording on my mum's phone. We were stood there, my dad was my dad was at work and uh and we were stood there recording it um on both of our phones and yeah it's very overwhelming when I think about it and it's it m because uh at what eight years old I I I've done all that already. I've experienced all of that, so it was yeah, and uh recording that film whistled so lovely because the producer Jackie Davis and the director David not not David Billingham. Is it David Billingham? No, it wasn't David Billingham. What was his name? The producer was Jackie Davis and the director was Sean Billingham. I'll I'll I'll check that in a sec. Um but they were just so lovely, they were so so lovely. Um and the director, it was about his life, him and his brother.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

So I was playing his brother, yeah, who I actually got to meet at the premiere of the film. Um what did he say? Oh he was he was lovely. He he um he loved me.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

I've still got I've I've got the picture on my phone of um of him lifting me up um and we got the pictures together. So it's it's a very heavy film though. Um it was a very film. He was trying to find the name of um of the the director because that said Alice, that's gonna bug me. It was Richard Billingham.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Richard Richard Billingham we found him. Richard.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

That's the one. But yeah, it was it was I loved doing that. Um that was because there was there was so many cool in like uh recording experiences with that with like being outside and stuff, like going on through the night. Um so that was very, very cool. I was treated like morsey to be fair. Oh yeah. Is it brilliant? Yeah Did you have to take time off school?

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Well, I'm guessing you did, but was it a lot?

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Yeah, loads. Um I I was recording basically every day for like th three or four months. Oh wow So yeah, so and it was the same I actually got time off school, we'll we'll speak about it in a bit with the Civic and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Um so but yeah, I actually had time off school. And my school at the time, that was at primary school then, they were absolutely brilliant. Like that couldn't have done more for me, though they were so encouraging. Um so yeah, that that that was my second thing that I did.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

And how did you get into that? How what was there an audition?

SPEAKER_02 11:54

So so with that one, um that was just by chance. My nan spotted a poster in a cafe wanting a child in between my ages from this area, Black Ventury area. Um, and the audition was actually just held in literally it's about a seven minute journey from us, ten minute journey from us.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

That's fate. Um it was meant to be.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

And I went yeah, yeah. And I went back. I did uh for this, I I remember I did about four or five audition stages for that. Um and obviously fine I got the role. But every audition stage was was very different for that. Um Yeah, but yeah, that was it.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Amazing. What would you I mean I suppose it was a while ago. What do you think you learned when you were doing that job?

SPEAKER_02 12:46

What did I learn? I learnt very loads of aspects of professionalism on a film set.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Um I learned all the ins and outs of um of like all the different jobs on the film set and like how much they have to be like set with like licensing and timing. Um also about like acting on screen and it's especially because I w I was playing somebody else. I I I was actually playing a person who had gone through all this.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

I kind of had to you know, because s some of the scenes that that were being recorded, um I had to sit there and think, someone actually went through this.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

So it was like Was it almost like a bit of pressure? I wouldn't say I felt any pressure. I think there was one time where I felt very nervous, like a couple times because I didn't want to do certain things. Obviously I was seven or eight.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

So but no, that was that was just me being scared. Um but like it definitely taught me a lot about acting, and I think it definitely helps with my my next role that I got. Um because it was like it was so it was so I had to be so natural and just act like like a childhood, like an innocent childhood. Yeah. An innocent scared childhood. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

It's completely different to theatre action, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Oh, it's it's completely diff completely different to what I thought I went on through. It was at the completely different as an escale, but I I I love them both. I love them both for v for very different reasons. Um because they're they're both amazing experiences, but they teach you very different things. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Cool. I think that takes us nicely on to your next job.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

It does so my next job um was probably um it well, it was obvious it was my longest.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Um because it wrote the more 17, 18, 19, three years. Um and it was Nativity the Musical, and then the Nativity rocked in between. Um and that was just I've got so many, I mean from all of these I've got so many happy memories. But particularly from those three years doing Nativity, I've got so, so many happy memories with like all the different cast members, all the kids, all the chaperones, all the places we went to and toured, the audition processes, all all the people we met, um, because there was there was celebrities in the cast in in in later years, so it was it just amazing and the filming experience with Nativity Rocks, so many happy memories with all of that, Alice.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Aw. So for someone who d who doesn't know, so Nativity the Musical was stage or screen?

SPEAKER_02 15:42

That was stage and that was an adaption of the original original Nativity film, um, which was came out in 2009, I think.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Cool, and then Nativity Rocks was screen, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 15:56

That was not Yeah, that we yeah, that was screen, that was screen.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

I think didn't wasn't someone else in Nativity Rocks that we know very fondly.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Yes. Um near the end of it when we're doing the big rock opera, um it was Susie, Julie, and Georgia. We're all we're all in it, all in the crowd. Um all in the crowd, and and there's actually there's definitely shots of them in the film. I'd I'd say there's I'd I'd say there's a few to be fair, right at the end, panning to them in the crowd. So uh next time you watch that, look look look out for them.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Amazing. I absolutely love Nativity. I think it's up there with one of my favourite Christmas films.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

It's amazing. It's especially being again going back to the musical, being in it for three years, seeing it change over time, and seeing how it just brings everyone together, all the families come and watch it. It yeah, it's just it's just it was just amazing. Going to all those different places as well, like I being being an an eight, eight, nine, ten-year-old, and going on tour, coming away coming away from home within the chaperones. I mean the chaperones were absolutely incredible though, and lovely. And I I was still in touch with them to be fair nowadays. Um but with the places we went to, like um we went to Liverpool, Cardiff, uh, Edinburgh, London, uh, Manchester, all these places across the world. Plymouth, Plymouth as well. It was just like so amazing seeing all the different views in these places and all the different like like in Liverpool, that was that would have been the first time that I saw the docks in Liverpool, and obviously they weren't there in September, so I think I think that might be an influence of of of white shows there as well. Um and and you know what? I met so many amazing people, like all all the kids and stuff that I worked with, even even the adults as well, like that like that they were and I actually messaged um I messaged Scott Garnham the other day um on Instagram. Um Scott obviously played Mr. Madams the last two years of of the of the musical. Um because he put he put a post on about some of the I also went to watch, so I messaged him and he got back to me, so that was very nice to hear off him again. Oh, that's nice. And my dad actually keeps in touch with um with the first Mr. Madams, so from the one from the first year of the musical and the one who plays Mr. Johnson in the film. Um and I think it was around Christmas time we we last spoke to him. How much was it after that? I think it was about Christmas time. Um and he's doing very uh his name's Daniel Boyce. Um he's doing very well, he's in Hamilton right now.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Uh yeah. He's playing King George, I think that's the name of the character.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Um but yeah, I loved doing the Tivity. I absolutely loved it. Uh I'm not sure if you was in the in the bulk of people that came to watch when when we did. I'm not sure if you was even I think you'd left this workshop. Yeah, you just left. Um But yeah, th everyone came to watch me in the Tivity. Um, from theatre workshop. Um It was so amazing to be in a musical and actually have that option since uh beyond those days for three years every single night and feel the crowd, you know. Obviously the films and the films had already made it with with with Debbie and so the crowd knew all the songs. So when so when they were when they're there clapping along. And it's like I think I did Christmas Eve one year, I performed Christmas Eve in Yeah, in the London Hammersmith, um Apollo. So it was like it was it was and there was families coming to watch and it was so nice, just it I when I looked back, there's certain things that I pick out from like like certain memories that I'll go to straight away. Um I think that that was one of them. It was just so nice, but there was so so many memories. I mean you asked my parents that they've got so many memories coming to watch me and that. When I look back, it was I was so so lucky to feel it for all three years because there was some people that didn't do all three years, but unfortunately kept reauditioning and got in all those three years. Um which obviously led me on to the US rocks, but I loved doing a civility and if I had a time machine I would absolutely go back and do it all over again.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Amazing. So what what would you obviously the acting side is different with stage and screen, but what would you also point out as a huge difference between the two?

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Um, there's there's massive differences b between the two. Especially being on a on a tour in a show is very different to just but like being in one place. Like we did the f every single year we did it. I said I said that's a lie. The first year we did it, I think we did two weeks in Birmingham and just stopped there. It could might have been longer to be fair. Um just going home every night and doing that. But being on tour in a show is very, very different. Um because it's obviously you you you wake up at like six, seven am in the morning, go and get on the coach, um, meet the chaperones, and then you go off and you you and you and you get to explore all these cities with the chaperones, um, and see all these sites and stuff. And whereas and you and you have to be on it like obviously you know Alice, you have you have to protect your voice and stuff. Um obviously doing Massinite evening, Massinite evening. You have yeah, uh and you have yeah, you have to it's a lot more energy being in a like a toy musical than it is recording a film because obviously in a film you sat around for ages.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

And that's very different to a musical where you know, get to the venue, you're basically on straight away.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Thank you for listening to TTW Talks. We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode and look forward to hearing the next one. Make sure to follow us on Instagram at the Theatre Workshop Birmingham and TikTok at the.theatre.works beham to see all of our class and show content and all of the exciting things we get up to. Once again, thank you for listening. This has been TTW Talks.