You may have noticed that stunning actress Janine Nerissa, star of the indie Britflicks The Krays Dead Man Walking and The Exorcism of Karen Walker, as well as the upcoming Nemesis, has changed her name across her social media channels to Jeanine Nerissa. We caught up with her to find out why.
“I was actually born Jeanine,” the actress explains, “but growing up in the seventies nobody – and I mean nobody – could pronounce it and I got fed up of being called Jeanie like something from Aladdin’s lamp. So I changed it to Janine, which everyone could say but I was never mad about it. When I met my partner Jonathan Sothcott I told him this and he said I should use the name I like – he’s used to struggles with surnames as he gets everything from Southcott to Scott – and I decided I’d start the new decade with my real name. So Jeanine it is!”
In Nemesis Jeanine plays Billy Murray’s glamorous wife Sadie. The actress is excited to be working opposite a genuine screen legend “I can’t remember a time I didn’t watch Billy, going all the way back to McVicar and The Sweeney. When I’m doing the ironing I watch ITV4 and he’s in everything – he’s part of the UK’s Televsion DNA. The Bill was one of my favourite shows and he and Chris Ellison were really the top guys in it. It’s an honour to be playing his wife.”
