Sue and the art of seduction

"THERE'S something special about Geordie girls, something you just can't explain," says Sue Heel, and if she's typical of the breed, then she's absolutely right.

Sitting in a caf in Grey Street, drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette, she seems self-assured. But it wasn't always like that. After years of bullying, Sue left school at 15 with no qualifications and no self-confidence. Twenty years on, she is about to direct her first film. Set in Newcastle, School for Seduction is already being heralded as the female version of The Full Monty and tells the story of Donna Mawson, a Geordie girl who is coached in the art of seduction by an Italian femme fatale.

Until now, the publicity surrounding the film has been focused on the search for a star. Open auditions for the central role attracted hundreds of young actresses from across the region while Sue, who also wrote the script, has stayed firmly in the background.

"I'm not really very interesting," she says modestly, as she sits down, but as the interview progresses, it becomes clear this isn't the case at all.

Like hundreds of young girls, Sue wanted to be an actress. "I went to drama school and did lots of am dram when I was younger but I was quite hopeless and I never got anywhere with it."

Ten years ago, she enrolled on an 18-month film foundation course at Gateshead College, which taught her all the basic skills - script writing, directing, producing and editing.

"I did bits and bobs of everything but I was absolutely useless at them all, except directing. I just seemed to get a handle on it straight away and I absolutely loved it.

"I was still interested in acting and I did the film course thinking I would learn about the industry and be able to pester people for parts but once I started, I found I actually preferred being behind the camera."

She graduated top of her class but decided to put her career on hold to look after her daughter, who was just four at the time.

"I was a single parent and I'd been and done my thing so I wanted to spend time with her. Thinking back on it, when I left film school, I shouldn't have taken time off. I should have gone straight out and looked for work."

In the next few years, she worked on a number of small projects, receiving a commendation for her entry into a Tyne Tees competition for new directors. Then, five years ago, she had the idea for School for Seduction.

"I was reading a magazine and I realised that everything was about image, and there were classes for everything. One was based in Italy and a woman was offering seduction classes for bored housewives. I started laughing and I wondered what it would be like if that came to Newcastle."

She approached Newcastle film company, Ipso Facto, with the idea and began writing the script with a friend who had been at film school with her. It worked well in the beginning but gradually, the pair found themselves going in different directions.

"He saw it as more of comedy and although it is, I didn't want it to be just for laughs. I wanted to focus more on character. I wanted it to have substance and I found I had something to say. I decided to do it on my own but I felt awful having to tell him."

Sue had written before - mainly short stories - but had never had anything published. Writing the screenplay on her own was a huge challenge.

"At first I didn't even know if I could do it but I really started to enjoy it. I based the main character's background on myself and I took bits of myself and put them in her. She was vulnerable, she didn't have a lot of self confidence. I was just sitting there writing down my thoughts and feelings and it was quite cleansing."

Filming is due to start in March. It has taken five years for Ipso Facto to find the financial backing to get the project off the ground. "Everyone who read the script thought it was great but then they asked who the director was. As soon as they found out it was someone new, they just weren't interested, they weren't prepared to take the risk.

"It's not as if I was just coming to them with an idea. I'd written the script, I'd shown them I could do it. It makes me so angry. I never felt like giving up because I knew I could do it but I did quite depressed about it, sometimes quite tearful."

Filming will take place over seven weeks, which, she says, is fairly standard for a low budget, first time film. She knows there's going to be a lot of pressure but she's looking forward to the challenge. She's also excited about working in Newcastle.

"I've lived here all my life and I never get tired of it because it's such a vibrant city. It's got real life about it and there's something different about Geordies. That's why I wanted to have someone local to play the main character, someone who had been to the Bigg Market on a Friday night, someone who knew what it was like."

She found 20-year-old Jessica Johnson, a drama student from Gateshead.

"Some people are good actresses but you know they're acting. Jessica was a real natural. When we asked her to read the scene, she actually changed some of the lines. Some people would be horrified, but I loved it. She wasn't afraid to make the character her own."

Sue is quietly confident about School For Seduction and although she doesn't want to get her hopes up too high, she thinks it could be a hit at the box office.

"I would love to make it really big. Part of me wants to do it for the North-East but I also want to prove to the people who doubted me that I can do.

"When I left school, I thought I couldn't do anything but now I know I can."