Charlie, a young woman from Sunderland, has found success as both a model and actress after being discovered by a modeling agency in her hometown last year. She discusses walking in Fashion Week in London recently and the premiere of her first movie 'Lost', which she filmed over the past year. Though it's been challenging being away from her close-knit family for long periods of time, she's grateful for the opportunities she's received. She reveals some humorous anecdotes about working with her co-stars from the North East on the new film. Charlie also shares that while she didn't plan on modeling, acting was her dream from a young age.

1. From Sunderland to Stardom
Sitting on a park bench in the middle of Herrington Park; a cup of tea in one hand
and some biscuits in the other; you’d think this young lady was having a break from
a leisurely stroll, not relaxing back home after walking the catwalk at the High Street
Stores Autumn Fashion Event that takes place over two weeks in mid-October.
Autumn Fashion Week in London followed by the premier of her first debut movie
‘Lost’, which she has worked on for the past year with co-stars James Scott and
Denise Welch, who are both also from the North East.
For the past year, she has had to live by strict rules to make sure that the movie is
continuous and nothing changes too much from scene to scene. However, now that
she has a break, she has lots of plans of how she is going to fill up her newly found
spare time. She has came back to the North East at the perfect time to see the
beautiful views in their Autumnal state.
“I’ve known I’d be coming back home for a while now but it still hasn’t settled that I
actually am back home yet” Charlie says as she looks out over the hills looking lost
in her own thoughts. “I don’t have a plan, I prefer to take each day as it comes” she
informs me as she rubs her hands together in an attempt to escape from the chilling
wind.
We get up to continue our little journey around the park in the wild day, kicking the
leaves and showing our childish side as we go. Both of us continue to carry our cups
of tea and look at the scenery surrounding us as I try to find out more information
about the upcoming film that is due to be released. Charlie was very sceptical of
revealing any extra information, telling me that I should be “happy that it’s a
surprise” but I did manage to find out some more details about what it was like to
work with her co-stars who also originate from the North East.
“They’re very entertaining to say the least, like, sometimes we’d have to have about
sixteen takes for a single scene because we’d all be laughing too much. Denise comes
out with the classic one liners particularly during a serious scene and that’s it, we
can’t film for at least another ten minutes while we all calm down, including the
crew!”
We laugh about this for a while as we contuinue our cold but entertaining journey
through the park.
Our conversation soon takes a turn to how she feels being away from her family and
friends for sometimes months at a time. By the way that she slows down and seems
to become quieter shows that this is a rather touchy subject for her.
“I couldn’t complain about the opportunities that I have been given as time has
passed but they definitely bring their own problems. I struggle a lot when I’m away,
from homesickness. Growing up we were always a very close-knit family but being
away stops me from seeing them as much as I’d like to. It mainly affects me when it
comes to family events that I end up missing, I’ll see pictures from my cousins and
other family members and that’s when it really hits me the most.” Being away from

2. home for a few days can be hard but for months and possibly more at a time, the
difficulty must get bigger every day.
Taking the conversation back onto a happy note, I bring up the subject of Charlie
being discovered last year as a model and then the whirlwind of appearances that
she has had ever since. Last year, Charlie was approached by a modelling agency
from the North East of England called ‘Zeebra Model Management’ situated in the
town centre. Since then, she has been given numeruous oppurtunities to travel the
world and appear in some of the greatest fashion shows that are around at the
moment; her most recent being the High Street Stores Autumn Fashion Event which
takes place in Paris, France.
“That was an oppurtunity of a lifetime. I was able to learn so much from the other
models and made a lot of contacts through approaches and the agency itself.
Working with people like Cara Delevigne and Rosie Huntington-Whitely is an
honour. To have achieved so much at such a young age is amazing, I want to be able
to follow in their footsteps. I’m well aware that I’ll never get to their extent though,
they are incredible at their job.”
She then continues to reveal to me that she hadn’t actually planned on modelling,
but acting was a different story. From a young age, Charlie had aspired to be in a film
or at least be on TV but she always thought that it was a rather unreachable dream
until her oppurtunity with Zeebra arrived. After just 8 months with the agency, she
was offered her first acting role in a small TV series, set to be released in the UK last
August.
“It was a very small role, I wasn’t in many scenes but just having the opportunity
was more than good enough for me. I was over the moon when they said I had the
job, I think I must have screamed so much that the rest of the street must of heard
me”
Our walk begins to come to an end, both of us very cold from the weather and ready
to sit down once again, but not before we have the chance to kick through the leaves
once again.