Jessie and Bebe Cave

[Posy Parker]

Jessie Cave on body image, bereavement and being relentless: ‘I don’t have any secrets’

The actor, comic and writer talks about her bestselling debut novel, the cruelty of costume fittings, how it felt to be in the Harry Potter franchise – and finding hope in small things

www.theguardian.com

interview with Jessie in the guardian today. The stuff about her relationship with Bebe is interesting. I think she looks lovely in the pictures

She always looks lovely. However her interviews always follow the same format: Harry Potter star, YouTube sketches, pregnant after a 1 night stand, grief, Sunrise book and (of course) her fave subject.....weight. She was promoting her new sitcom but still managed to insert a jibe about being considered a fat actress. Yawn!

 

[skyehigh]

Bebe complaining Wilderness is for middle class hippies

 

[blueberriesarenice]

She also seemed to be almost blaming her not seeing beckers symptoms on other people wanting to see her. If I was one of those friends she met up with and heard that I’d be feeling so guilty! Which I’m not sure is fair…
Also interesting to hear her talk about her dad for once and quite odd he only saw Becker at a family party after he’d been out for 6 weeks. Maybe dad lives abroad.

 

[SwizzleMalarkey]

Those are just some names from one of her customers for the doodle shop.

 

[maytoseptember]

I don’t understand this mindset that you have to keep having baby after baby to perfect the mistakes you made before, or get over a traumatic birth. It’s not unique to Jessie, but I still don’t get it. Pregnancy and birth is such an ordeal. Looking after a newborn + older kids is so HARD. Why keep doing it to yourself Only someone with an absolutely vast amount of support could even entertain the idea (well, I guess she’s motivated to keep Alfie with her too, tragic as that is).

She has to be one of those types that doesn’t know anything other than having babies, it’s like her comfort zone. A FOF was like this… she had seven kids in the end.

 

[Topaz]

I love the name Tennessee, makes me think of Tennessee Williams I think I like it the best out of all her kids' names. Maybe like Alansbigplate said, this could be the last baby and she wants to go for a more exotic name choice. I know that when he was first born she announced him as Abraham.

Tennessee > Abraham

 

[sixback]

Not really interested in pregnancy/babies so I won't listen to any more, but I gave the first episode a listen and I think she comes across really well - calm and considered and quite easily funny. I think she and Bebe bring out the worst in each other tbh.

 

[sixback]

Horatio said on his pod that one of his former comedian guests has been called out for manipulating women into giving him money and he was basically using that as a source of income for his wife and kid! He says he's taken the episode down but I really want to know who it is

Okay i think i already figured it out

If you figured it out you gotta tell us?

 

[blatherer]

They were talking about how Jessie is able to ignore negative comments

Yeah except for when someone comments on her bathroom then she makes Stories about it over two days ...

 

[kittymeowlondon]

They just posted today that Alfie and Bebe are doing a few WIP shows together. Wonder how they’ll fare without Jessie, she’s def the most interesting/entertaining out of the three, so feels odd that they’d team up without her

they flirt so much i always worry they might have a fling and then jessie would make that a show
anyway

 

[Hubrisand]

in a nutshell, Margot took a ring home with her which some other kid brought into school and their teacher sent round a note about getting it back (as presumably it had some value!), in a different story Alfie gave Margot a £10 note when he dropped her off at school and (no surprises) at home time she no longer had the note (gave it away as part of a game)

That first one is quite clearly wrong/an example of Margot being badly behaved or at least sneaky but I didn’t like how Jessie seemed to make it seem like the second one was an example Margot being ‘naughty’ and even referred to it as ‘stealing’ a tenner. Child’s father promised her a pound but doesn’t end up giving it to her, a while later child remembers this promise and asks father for pound, father freely hands over £10 note instead because he can’t be bothered to look for a pound, child goes to school and spends the £10. Obviously giving it to another child in exchange for getting her way during a game is a massive waste of money but she was simply given money to spend as she pleased and ended up spending it as she pleased… Fault for the lost money obviously falls entirely with both parents not the child, Alfie for handing the tenner and both of them for not ensuring she knows the proper value of money before giving her money in general.

On another note, seems like Jessie has probably given birth already or in the process of doing so given her uncharacteristic Instagram absence in the last 2 days or so. Hope it went/ is going well

 

[Snazzycat]

Yes, she does.
I also found it unusual that she said people don’t warn pregnant women that labour is going to be very painful.

I find people are constantly telling me how painful labour is going to be.
Also you are pushing a small human out your vagina, what did she expect?

 

[sleepflowers]

Blimey I've never heard so much unhealthy and triggering discussion of eating as in the latest episode. Fortunately I have never suffered from eating issues but I appreciate awareness of eating/weight is built into my life inescapably as a woman, and it could be really damaging for a lot of people

 

[marabac]

There is hope for Bebe - she has the potential to be a self-aware and decent individual, if she can free herself from the web of her patronising narcissist sister. Otherwise she will look back in her thirties and see what a waste she made of her independence.

 

[maytoseptember]

There's a lot of talk on here about them being posh and from a privileged background but I never realised how posh their background actually is! Her grandfather was chief secretary to Hong Kong and the family is full of judges, lawyers and property developers. Jessie also went to a public school that currently charges £20,000 a year. Not the bohemian, artsy family of kooks Jessie wants us to think she comes from

She oozes privilege!

And let’s face it, to get a high profile acting gig when you’re really young you need to be privileged and have connections. It’s all about the nepotism in that industry.

 

[LavenderMoss]

I'm glad these two have a thread! I have met them a few times through work and I need to be very cautious with how much I share, but I am always curious to see how they are perceived.

Something that winds me up a bit about their podcast is that they speak as though they're just saying what everyone is thinking. I don't think they realise how toxic and dysfunctional many of their beliefs are, or how steeped in privilege they both are.

I feel like a lot of middle to upper class actors they’re just oblivious and sheltered from so much. They both seem very sweet and charming in different ways, but clueless in certain aspects. I can sense the dysfunction ( parents divorce obviously caused friction) and hope that they can grow and heal in the future ( it’s all a part of being human ect).

If 90% of your peers are also from money or have connections it becomes the norm. So they ( virtually every British actress) often get confrontational when this question is posed. I guess if everyone you know was either privately educated and had parents supporting them financially as they played at ‘struggling actress’ or got cast because they have cousin who is dating so and so ect ...the concept of anything else is too otherworldly ( literally).

( however doubtful that they would have got this far without the HP gig, Bebe is so entwined with Jessie it’s hard to imagine what her direction would have looked like without her sisters influence)

Practically every actress ( of this background) talks about struggling in the industry, ignoring that the foot they stuck through the door was due to family connections ( great uncles who work at the bbc or parents who have careers in the industry). Middle class artsy families are the number one origin of the bit part actresses who sometimes make it big time and give interviews about the ‘struggle of rejection’... ignoring the disadvantages of actors who have to put on a different accent because northern accents ect are not what the directors want.

That sounded ranty. It was a tad. Ooops. I just remember listening to the auditions segment thinking hmmmmm.

 

[Topaz]

I think Jessie looked significantly more similar to Bebe at her highest weight. Her face was much more ‘full’.





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I remember this premiere fairly well as I was slightly shocked that Jessie was actually the eldest of the bunch. I think her insecurities made her seem far more vulnerable ( a slight air of naivety that made me assume she was younger).

Alfie has mentioned and hinted many a time that the Mother ( of Jessie and Bebe) views food as fuel and not for enjoyment. I can imagine that potentially that may have caused some self loathing ( feelings of loss of control) and guilt if Jessie ‘enjoyed’ food that wasn’t consumed purely for the nutritional benefits.

So... all that to say... it is obvious weight is a serious and complex problem for Jessie. I doubt she views that time as anything but horrifying ( even if she states otherwise in regards to relying on her writing skills). Her weight has fluctuated a fair amount of the years ( understandable considering her three young children).

I do wonder if the pressure ( from the mother over food and the ‘bad’ and ‘good’ food) led Jessie to feel her weight was being punished with lack of roles...instead of feeling like she was experiencing a natural lull in obtaining roles.

( I know that the average actress is heavily encouraged to maintain a set weight ...but Jessie was hardly going to nab the role of Rey in Star Wars was she! She fits far easier into off beat comedies)

Perhaps because she generally only fits into ‘quirky’ or ‘highly strung’ type casting she felt pressure to at least be skinny if her looks weren’t valued the same as Bebe ...

(I’m not saying that is the case as I think Jessie is refreshingly natural and exceptionally lovely/pretty...just waffling about why she seems so repetitive about how awful that time in her life was)

It's so sad that she sees herself from then and talks about "all that weight" when she still had a gorgeous figure back then, I think anyone would feel like a house next to Emma Watson. Plus I'm very envious of her post-three children figure, I've had one and wish I looked as good as her! Suppose it's all relative from person to person.

I totally agree with BIB, her style (looks, acting, aesthetic) was always going to make her a niche actress and she's been shrewd to have a range of pursuits other than acting. Of the young actresses in HP movies, I feel (please correct me if I'm wrong) that Emma Watson is the only one to have done really well from them. Bonnie Wright, Katie Leung, Evanna Lynch etc no matter what they've done since then they haven't eclipsed HP. It's the media (esp the Daily Fail) that label Jessie as a 'Potter star/actress' but I think if you follow her you probably forget about Potter. I do, I think of the doodles, stand-up, kids and relationship with Alfie

 

[Sprezza]

I also agree that her breastfeeding posts are not graphic in the slightest but I'm bored of them. The Internet has an abundance of information and solutions regarding mastitis and blocked milk ducts, and like others have pointed out her own mother is or was a GP.
I think the real reason she posts those pictures is to emphasise how good she looks for someone with a newborn and three other kids. She feeds off the compliments she gets from followers telling her how great she is. To be honest I'm surprised she has the time.
I have a newborn too and the last thing I want to do is take selfies, but then I look and feel like shit, so maybe I'm just bitter!

Definitely. I think she's body checking as well. She's always posed so that her shoulders and collar bone are sticking out.

 

[Snazzycat]

She seems to care deeply what others think of her appeareance though. My due date is on Monday, last thing I could possibly give a shit about is getting my vag waxed in preparation! How long do you think she spends plaiting her hair and choosing which kooky outfit to wear each day? How does she have time?

I agree she does zero research before talking about topics on her podcast. That's why I found it really unhelpful and stopped listening, even as a first time pregnant person I seem to know more about pregnancy and one's options during childbirth than she does after already having three.

 

[blueberriesarenice]

The whole “it takes a village” narrative that she said her mum is a big believer in, like yeah you need a good support network for sure, but I’m not sure that the “village” should be to the exclusion of the actual dad!