During the filming of new feature film "The Little Mermaid," British actress Poppy Drayton would often be carried to the set. It was a necessity once she slipped into her mermaid costume.
"What you see in the movie is a real tail," Drayton says. "The huge prosthetic tail was beautiful but very heavy. It weighed half my body weight. Once I was in the water, the water took the weight of the tail so it was not so strenuous on your legs.
"It was actually very easy to swim in, but I had to be carried to set. I had this lovely strong ex-stuntman carrying my body and a lovely runner took my tail. It's the most extraordinary way I've ever had to get to set before: being carried by two lovely people."
Drayton stars in the live-action family feature that's an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story. The story begins with a grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) telling her two granddaughters the real story of a young mermaid. She recounts how many years ago, a young reporter (William Moseley) and his younger sister (Loreto Peralta) end up at a circus where they meet a beautiful mermaid trapped in a glass tank. They soon learn this isn't a sideshow trick.
Drayton started preparing for her watery role two months before filming started. She would go to the local pool every day, where she would not only practice swimming by wiggling with her legs together to emulate the mermaid movement, but also would push herself to see how long she could hold her breath underwater.
"I would keep trying to challenge myself to increase my breath capacity. As you do it, there are moments where you think you can no longer hold your breath and have to come up for air," Drayton says. "Your mind plays tricks on you to think you are going to run out of air, but if you push through that, you reach this lovely, calm state where you feel as though you can hold it a bit longer."
The training almost came to an end when Drayton started using a monofin to propel herself through the pool. She got stopped one day by a lifeguard who told her the device was too dangerous to use. After a lengthy explanation about how she needed to train to be a mermaid, Drayton was finally given the green light to get back in the water.
Not every role Drayton has played flirted with such dangers. Along with a starring role in the Hallmark film "When Calls the Heart," she's appeared in "Down Dog," "Writers Retreat" and "Unhallowed Grave." She's best known for her leading role in the MTV series "The Shannara Chronicles."
Selecting acting as a career came naturally for Drayton, as her mother was active in theater. Instead of being read books like "The Little Mermaid" before going to sleep, Drayton's bedtime stories were tales from her mother about things that happened during a stage production.
Not everyone was entirely supportive of her acting plans.
"Lovely acting friends would come around for lunch and they would say 'If you can be in any other profession, do that. Whatever you do, don't go into acting,'" Drayton says. "I would listen and then tell them it was something I really, really wanted to do."
When she was 17, Drayton ignored the advice and applied to numerous acting schools, and eventually she was accepted at the Arts Educational School in West London. She jokes that none of her classes during her three years there prepared her for having to spend months in a swimming pool for a role.
Since graduating, Drayton has worked consistently in a range of genres from science fiction to period dramas. One of the most memorable jobs was guest-starring opposite Paul Giamatti on a Christmas special of the BBC period drama "Downton Abbey." She plays a debutante pushed into the older man's arms.
"I love doing period pieces and dipping into other eras. I get into a lot of research, so it is fascinating for me to investigate a time period," Drayton says. "It was such a gift to work on 'Downton Abbey.' The second day of shooting, I was doing a picnic scene with Penelope Wilson, Dame Maggie Smith, Paul Giamatti and Shirley MacLaine.
"I looked around and thought I don't know how I ended up here, but it's wonderful. I kept pinching myself so I must have been covered in bruises by the end of the day."
