Fifteen months ago, Hollywood actress Beanie Feldstein – whose movie credits include a starring role in the comedy film Booksmart– flew to the UK to perfect a Black Country accent in order to take a lead role in a new film, How To Build A Girl, which recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Beanie’s challenge was to spend two weeks working in Wolverhampton’s gift store the Shop In The Square as a sales assistant, where she was tasked with speaking in a Black Country accent to serve customers, as well as when inter-act with colleagues.
“No-one picked it up at all,” the Shop in the Square’s manager Charlotte Clark told The Times. “A couple of times she revealed who she was but at other times she just let customers leave thinking she was a Wolverhampton girl.”
The movie is based on a semi-autobiographical novel written by Times columnist Caitlin Moran, who commented: “She’s done an absolutely ‘bostin’ – amazing – job!”
Shop in the Square, which first opened its doors in 2013 as a pop up shop, with funding from the Portas Pilot and High Street Innovation Funds, is a community interest, not for profit company. It support a wide range of 30 local micro businesses in the creative industries sector, all of whom create unique handmade gifts.
Top: Shop in The Square in Wolverhampton.
