The Family Man comes to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ ONE in March
Michelle Collins plays Gillian
At first glance Michelle Collins has much in common with her character Gillian.
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Both are successful, independent women, both in their early
forties and both, as Gillian puts it: "able to get away with shopping
at Topshop".
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But there the similarity ends abruptly.
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While Gillian is
desperate to have a child and willing to go to almost any lengths
to make her dream come true, Michelle is a happy and contented
mother of one to nine-year old daughter, Maia.
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And, although she doesn't
have any plans to extend her family, she admits that playing
Gillian would make her think twice about trying IVF.
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"Because my age is similar
to that of my character, in some ways it could be me going through
that, so it has made me think about IVF a bit more," she says. "But
I don't know if it's something that I would do.
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"If anything, this drama
would put me off, but until you're in that situation yourself,
it's difficult to say, so I wouldn't completely cross it out.
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"At least
I couldn't pretend I didn't know what I was letting myself in for," she
laughs.
"I'm very lucky. I've got a daughter and I'm very happy as I am.
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"I can understand
the lengths that someone might go to in order to
have a child, but there are a lot of kids out there in homes or foster
homes who desperately need parents and I think a lot of people dismiss
that as they're so intent on having their own kids."
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Having starred in an earlier drama about IVF, Michelle already
had a good idea of what the process involved from her research for
that role.
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She visited a couple of clinics and met patients there, an
experience which she describes as being "a
real eye-opener".
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"I think we've become very used to thinking there's a solution to everything
and we can have whatever we want – babies included.
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I didn't realise how painful IVF can be, physically,
mentally and emotionally, and the
strain it puts on couples," she
says.
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"Women are really put through the mill. It's
time-consuming and exhausting,
for a lot of people it doesn't happen at all, and financially it's hugely
expensive.
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"A lot of women have to give up work, because of the
process they have to go through, injecting themselves and going back and
forth to the clinic.
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"It's a long process and it's certainly not an
easy option."
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As Gillian turns to the internet to find an egg donor, Michelle
also decided to see how easy it would
be to find information on egg donors via the web.
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"I
was amazed at
how easy it was. It only took a couple of clicks and I found pages and
pages of women who were offering their eggs for sale under the heading
'Where dreams come true'.
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"The level of detail they gave about themselves was
incredible and they all looked like they were TV presenters or models.
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"That particular site was American, where egg donation
is legal, but I'm sure if you dug about a bit longer you'd find some for
the UK. There was something quite unnerving about all these bright young
women offering their genetic make-up for sale.
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"The Family
Man
is about modern life - can we really get what we want and what is the
price we have to pay? It looks at the dilemmas that people have to
go through with IVF and how far we should go," explains
Michelle.
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"It
presents the more sinister side
of IVF. All the stories are linked through Patrick, the
fertility expert, but he's become obsessive.
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"He plays
God and it destroys him and his family. Once
his patients are impregnated then, as far as he's concerned, it's
job done but towards the end he realises
there's more to it than that."
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At a time where you can hardly open a paper or magazine without
reading something
about women you have left it too late to have a baby, Gillian epitomises older
women who are left feeling cheated when they decide it is time to have a
baby, but their bodies won't play ball.
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"Gillian is financially independent, strong-willed and never wanted to settle
for second best in a relationship.
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"She always felt that she could choose what
she wanted and when. Then she meets Steve, realises he's 'the one'
and decides that she wants a child, only it's not as easy as that," explains
Michelle.
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"They've tried lots of different avenues, including a trip to Romania where things
aren't as heavily regulated and Gillian's called a halt to things as the pressure's
too much.
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"She could probably go on Mastermind and answer questions
about IVF – she's
gone into so much detail about it and tried every single avenue
she possibly can.
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"But she can't get it off her mind and can't
accept that fact that she can't have a child, and she goes
on the internet to try and find an egg donor.
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"She knows it's not
legal and they'll have to lie to the clinic about how
they met, but she's thought it through, she knows what it involves,
as much as anyone can who goes through the IVF process.
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"For her it's the last resort. Steve goes along with
it because he adores her, and he wants her to be happy."
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Each couple's story
in the drama is very different and Michelle says she can find
some easier to relate to than others.
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"While Gillian is just desperate
to have a child, Paul and Jane Jessop have another goal – they
already have three girls but want a little boy to replace
the one they lost in a car accident.
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"I think this drama will make people think about how far we should go when meddling
with nature.
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"I can understand people who are childless and want
a child, but while Paul and Jane's story is heartbreaking
I find it quite hard to understand and a bit disturbing that they
should be so determined to have another boy.
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"I think society is in danger
of going too far. Should you be able to choose the sex of your child,
or how intelligent you want it to be, or the colour of its hair?
I think it's a bit immoral and I think we're meddling too much with nature," she
concludes.
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Happily for Michelle,
her next role will enable her to spend more time with daughter Maia, as
she will be appearing taking to the stage at the Shaftesbury Theatre
as Ma Baker in the upcoming musical Daddy Cool, about feuding London gangs
set to the music of Boney M.
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"This
is the first time I've done a West End musical, so I'm a bit nervous," she
says. "But
I think
it's always
good to
try new
things and
I'm going
to be
surrounded by
a lot
of fantastic
talent."
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