The Krays, The Bill and my VERY angry father... Hustle star Jaime Murray on why her father tried to stop her acting
By Lina Das
Last updated at 12:56 AM on 5th August 2011
She played a sex-crazed social climber in Spartacus and a pyromaniac who develops an obsession with a serial killer in TV’s Dexter.
So a woman who is a man who has been dead for more than 60 years is perhaps one of Jaime Murray’s easier roles.
The sultry star of BBC1’s Hustle, Jaime’s latest part sees her playing H.G. Wells (‘H’ for ‘Helena’ rather than the famed author’s ‘Herbert’) in the sci-fi series Warehouse 13.
New role: Jaime Murray's latest role sees her play a woman who is a man who has been dead for more than 60 years
‘It took me a while to get my head around the fact the character was a man and is now a woman who has been cryogenically frozen for several years,’ she says.
When we last saw her on screen in Spartacus: Gods Of The Arena, Jaime had died at the hands of a lover — though not before indulging in all kinds of louche behaviour with Sliding Doors’ John Hannah and Lucy Lawless.
‘Doing a sex scene is like jumping into a pool of icy water,’ she says. ‘It does sting a bit at first, but you know it’s going to be fine.’
That London-born Jaime, 34, should have pursued acting is perhaps no surprise — her father Billy Murray is best known for his role as the corrupt detective Don Beech in TV’s The Bill.
Her father’s drama lessons were paid for by the criminal Kray brothers, who had taken him under their wing as he was a keen amateur boxer — and, he says, because they liked his attitude.
Family act: Jaime Murray with her father Billy at the National Television Awards in London in 2005
And that strong-minded approach landed him in trouble earlier this year when he was charged with attacking his wife Elaine and Jaime’s younger sister Lizzie during an alcohol-fuelled family row.
In 1998 he was acquitted of assaulting two dealers after he stormed into a den where Lizzie, then 14, was taking drugs.
Love scenes: Jaime says: 'Doing a sex scene is like jumping into a pool of icy water'
For her part, Jaime says: ‘When I told Dad I was leaving university to take up acting, he wasn’t happy. He told me I was making a terrible mistake.
'I was the first person in our family to go to university, so I could see why he was upset.
'Added to that, this isn’t the most stable job in the world. But he’s very happy about it all now.’ Indeed, he may have planted the idea of Jaime’s profession in her head.
He was starring in the 1980 film McVicar alongside Roger Daltrey and producers were looking for a child to appear in one of the scenes.
Jaime’s mother asked if she wanted to do it, and the then three-year-old replied: ‘No, I want to be Prime Minister or a nurse.’
She says now: ‘I did agree to do it in the end, only to find out I was supposed to be playing a boy. I was utterly distraught. I hated boys and didn’t want anything to do with them — how things have changed!’
After finally deciding acting was for her, Jaime went on to secure small roles in series such as Casualty and The Bill, until her breakout role in Hustle.
She moved to Los Angeles four years ago on the strength of her role in Hustle as Stacie Monroe. Since then, she has worked on series such as The Mentalist and Dexter.
Jaime is now a regular on Warehouse 13. It follows the fortunes of Secret Service agents Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) as they round up artefacts that have been invested with supernatural powers.
Jaime plays Helena Wells, the author behind the works attributed to her brother H.G. Wells. Jaime’s character causes all sorts of mayhem, which has led to a considerable fanbase and plans for a spin-off series focused on her.
Ambition: She moved to Los Angeles four years ago on the strength of her role in Hustle as Stacie Monroe
She says: ‘Lindsay Wagner was a guest star on the show, which was incredibly exciting as I was named after her character, Jaime Sommers, in The Bionic Woman, so I told her that she shaped my life!’
She also may return to Hustle for a cameo appearance in the show’s eighth and final series. ‘It’ll be really nice to see everybody again,’ she says.
‘I’ve been lucky to play interesting roles. It’s funny because rather than feeling pressure to try to look younger, I can’t wait to be older. I was never great at playing the ingenue — there was something about my face that was too knowing.’
A sentiment with which her former Spartacus co-stars would no doubt wholeheartedly agree.
Warehouse 13 is on SyFy on Thursdays at 9pm
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2022564/Hustle-star-Jaime-Murray-father-tried-stop-acting.html#ixzz1U6mg8J4o
