JOANNA PAGE0006Swansea based actress Joanna Page who stars in Love Actually pictured at the films screening as part of The Cardiff Screen Festival at the cities UGC Cinema tonight. ( Monday 17/11/03 ).
© 2003 Roger Donovan, Media Photos

The very lovely Swansea based actress Joanna Page who had just starred in the hugely popular film Love Actually arrives for the films screening at The Cardiff Screen Festival in the cities UGC Cinema in November 2003.

I was working for the Festival photographing all the different personalities, events and screenings throughout the duration of the festival at various locations around Cardiff. Joanna arrived with her mum and dad and posed for a couple of pictures with them as well as posing with a poster of the film. The shot with the poster required her to sit on the floor because of the posters strange positioning so low on the wall. She didn't mind though, nothing was too much trouble.

Like most photographers I was still looking for "The" picture. The one that would get noticed. The striking feature about the UGC Cinema at the time was the UV lighting and blue decor of the walls where the escalators were. I felt that UV glow would provide a striking backdrop and Joanna duly obliged by travelling up the escalators again for me and posing for a set of tight portraits, three quarter length and full length shots against the blue background. This particular shot is my favourite from the set.

I'd not seen the film at this point so didn't fully appreciate the hype around it and her part in it in particular. I've since lost count of the number of times I've watched the film and whilst I know a lot of people dislike it, for me I think it's a brilliant film. I love the way so many stories blend together and run through the whole film. It's a real feel good film and we all need that from time to time and of course I've also met Joanna the real star of the film.