Environmental Management student follows passion for acting after being cast for short film

An Environmental Management student has chosen to follow her passion for acting after securing a part on a short film.

Environmental Management student Urška Dawkins decided to apply for an acting course last year and felt inspired to return to acting after watching the 2022 film biopic “Elvis”.

In her earlier years, Urška attended theatre school and got to perform in musical productions such as “Hairspray”, “Mamma Mia” and “Oliver!” before taking a long break from acting. After watching “Elvis”, Urška re-discovered her passion for film and decided to start pursuing her hobby once again.

Urška started the “Acting for Screen” course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) last year and made connections that would later lead to a role in her first film “One Friend Less”.

She explained: “’One Friend Less’ follows the story of a group of friends who reunite for a personal memorial for their friend who passed away, where an unexpected turn of events around the campfire reveals a disturbing secret.

The film was created by some people that I met whilst on the RCS course and they opened auditions up at the beginning of the year. I thought I had nothing to lose, so may as well just do a self-tape. If I got it then that would be great, but if I didn't then it would just count as experience. Luckily, I got a call back for the part of ‘Ellie Madden’ and secured the part!

Ellie is a very bubbly and friendly character, maybe sometimes a little bit naive to reality!”

Despite the late night filming, Urška has thoroughly enjoyed the experience and has no regrets about returning back to acting. She said: “The experience of filming was definitely tiring. The whole process was filmed through night shoots so a lot of the time we were working until 1-2am!

It was an incredibly exciting experience for me and really solidified that acting is something I love doing and would very much like to carry on.”

Keep up to date with “One Friend Less” on their Instagram page

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media here