Frances Turner Takes a Walk in Fort Greene Park
New York is the backbone of so much that we do each day at ROSE & IVY. We love how the city spawns ideas, inspiration and connections. We decided to start a new series called ‘A Walk in New York’, where we head to a neighborhood or street that gives the city it’s heart and soul with a women in television or film.
Actress Frances Turner’s story to where she is today is an inspiring one. She went from being a high-powered corporate lawyer in Manhattan, working 80 to 90 hours a week, to taking a leap of faith and leaving that all behind for a newfound passion, acting. She shares with ROSE & IVY how she decided to trust in the universe and leave that safe job to pursue something that made her feel alive. All of her hard work has paid off and now you can catch her on the final season of the acclaimed Amazon series The Man in the High Castle. We took a walk in New York with Frances to Fort Greene Park, an idyll, nestled in the heart of Brooklyn’s charming brownstones.
Yes, I love that I am so close to the park. On a Sunday morning, I will go and get a cup of coffee and sit on the benches by the tennis courts and watch people play. I also love going to the farmers market on Saturday. My ritual, when I am in Brooklyn, is to go and get apple cider donuts—they are so good. I will get like three of them (laughs).
I love the culture of New York. I love how every neighborhood, whether in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens has its own identity and the sites and sounds are different. I love that there is so much diversity, art and Broadway. I also love that it’s walkable—say I’m in Times Square and I don’t have to rush to be somewhere, I will walk all the way back to Brooklyn, sometimes I will just get into a groove. Since I did live in LA for a few years, what I do like is the train; the subway is the great equalizer because everyone is on it. It’s the fastest way to get to where you want to go and it’s the least expensive way. It’s one of the things that makes being a New Yorker a more efficient existence.
Frances with wearing a L.F. Markey jumpsuit
I was always very creative, I was right between left brain and right brain. I played the piano and the clarinet when I was younger, but I really focused on my academics, not because anyone forced me but because I was naturally a good student and that became the focus. Because as a child, who thinks it’s realistic to be an actor? When I was growing up, you saw people on TV but had no idea of how they got there. I ended up going to college and then law school. I practiced at a prestigious law firm in Manhattan doing M&A and high-yield securities. I knew early on, when I was a summer associate, that I didn’t want to do this for the rest of my life, but I wasn’t thinking about what that was exactly. I was thinking corporate or lawyer-minded. In that lifestyle, you work a lot, a lot, anywhere between 50 to 80 or 90 hour weeks. It’s intense, it’s sleeping under the desk or taking the car home at 4AM and having the car wait for you while you showered and changed and went back to work. For me, I wasn’t passionate enough about what I was doing.
There became a point after I practiced for a few years where I needed to figure out what it was that I wanted to do next because I didn’t have a desire to make partner. I thought that while I am figuring that out, let me get back to my creative self. I felt that part of me was dying because I didn’t have time to nurture or make it a priority even as a hobby.
Acting found me because I could have walked into photography class or learned how to paint or take a dance class. It was around that time that I read an article in the Sunday Times about this women named Susan Batson. She was and still is Nicole Kidman’s acting coach. She’s behind so many amazing actors and her own story is she that she is a protégé of Lee Strasberg. I was fascinated by her. I saw a picture of her—she’s this five foot force and a black woman. I got fascinated by her. I was online just trying to find information about her and in doing that I found out that she had an acting studio in the city. I called and they said their first class was tomorrow, but I got scared and I didn’t go. I loved LA Law when I was a kid, they made being an actor look so great. I think one part of me said, I want to be an actor, but that is unrealistic, so maybe I will be a lawyer.
The next week, I did all of the self-sabotage that we do to ourselves. I procrastinated, I left work late but I was on the train on a Friday and something made me get off the train. I was the last person to get into that the acting class. I was a very different person at that time—back then I had this corporate, lawyer, academic shell and armor around me. I was protected in a sense without meaning to be. I went to the class and the style was really method acting, it was intense.
We all had the same monologue and you get feedback from the class and from Susan. She asked me, “Who are you and where did you come from?” She went on to tell me that she saw something in me and gave me more feedback. She told me I had to give her six months. What she was really telling me was that I needed six months to break through all fo this lawyer cover and find my artist. I’m grateful to her for saying that. One class a week became two then three. I was in class from Wednesday to Friday from 6pm to midnight and then on Saturdays from 10am to 6pm while I was still practicing.
Nobody knew except my secretary at the time. Some of my friends knew and parents also knew but no one knew how deep I was into it. It was about a year and a half into it, I realized I found my passion. I got scared because I had bills and a mortgage. I asked myself how do I leave something that I don’t love but is secure for something that I think I love. I thought people would judge me. I’m not a flippant person; I think a lot about decisions before I make them. I remember having this conversation with myself in December and then in January I woke up and I had a moment of clarity. I remember saying to myself, ‘this is what i leave for’. I put a plan in place and took a leave of absence. I started working commercially right away. I eventually went back at the end of the year, so I could get the pro-rated bonus (laughs), and then worked for a few more months, then I left.
For me, once I made that decision and heard that voice in my head, this is what you leave for, I knew in making that decision that it would also mean that I’d have to do the work and whatever it would take—it wasn’t going to be easy. That’s how I am as a person—that’s my parents, that’s NY—that spirit of, I am going to do this.
I self-taped that audition. I got it from my rep via the casting director. I found out the next day that some of the producers had responded very favorably to it and next I found out they were testing me for it. It was one of the most beautiful auditions to date; we just worked the notes and then by the time I got home, I found out that I got it. I had about a month to get prepared before going to Vancouver where we shot it.
There are some exciting things that I can’t talk about just yet. I am really excited and super grateful that the show and the character who I was honored to play was such a multi-layered one. For me as an actor, it’s great to know that people know I can do this type of work. I believe in the power of the universe and that everything happens for reason. As Steve Jobs said, “You can only connect the dots in hindsight.”
Frances was styled by Raven Roberts; Hair by Tracina Dillgard; Makeup by Emily Amick