The Cazalets: Who's Who

Zoe Cazalet Zoë Cazalet
Joanna Page

Rupert's second wife, Zoë is an effervescent 22-year-old considerably younger than her husband. She finds Rupert's children, Clary and Neville, difficult to deal with.

Since leaving drama school three years ago, Joanna Page has found herself cast in a succession of strong female roles, on the stage, in television and film. "The first work I did was The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie with Fiona Shaw at the National Theatre. I then went on to work on Adrian Noble's Buckingham Palace Gala performance of As You Like It, and The Mysteries again at the National." In television Joanna starred opposite Ciarán McMenamin and Bob Hoskins as Dora in the acclaimed BBC/Masterpiece Theatre drama David Copperfield. "Poor Ciarán', says Joanna, "I had to hold sausage-meat in my hand to keep Dora's pet dog close to me and every time Ciarán and I had to kiss I just stank of raw meat."

During the filming of The Cazalets Joanna was reunited with Paul Rhys who played the Doctor who gave her a lobotomy in the film From Hell, which she filmed last year in Prague with Johnny Depp. "I seem to have the funniest love scenes. When Paul and I were filming our bedroom scene in The Cazalets his pajama bottoms ripped from the back right round to the front exposing his backside to the entire crew. It took about half an hour before we could resume the scene because the wardrobe department had to get some new pjs for him and, more importantly, because we were laughing so much."

Zoë's marriage to Rupert -- and her relationship with his daughter Clary, in particular -- forces her to grow up. "She goes on such a journey. She starts out spoilt, selfish and vain. She's a lot younger than Rupert. She's at more or less the same age level as Clary. In fact, Clary is probably much more mature than Zoë. They can't stand each other. Clary can see through her," she explains. "She also hates the fact that Rupert is a painter. She doesn't believe that he'll ever make money out of it. She thinks it's a passing fad and hopes he hurries up with it, gets a proper job and earns some money. Things completely change by the end. They go through a lot together."