Pop culture is obsessed with stories of fostered, adopted and orphaned children whose struggles lead them to bigger things: Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Tracy Beaker. The cliché isn’t lost on Jasmine Jobson. When she was 14, Jobson, who grew up in London, put herself into foster care when selling cannabis on street corners and getting into fights started to upset her family. “I was the worst behaved child according to Westminster social services,” says Jobson. “Now look: I’m auditioning for Hollywood movies.”
It was a fateful decision: Jobson’s eventual foster mother was instrumental in changing her view of the world, channelling Jobson’s frustrations into storytelling instead. Inspired by the likes of Angela Bassett, Idris Elba and Denzel Washington, Jobson got involved with the Big House, a charity that encourages care leavers and ex-prisoners to enter theatre. The experience ultimately helped her land her breakthrough role in a Netflix reboot of a certain gang drama – Top Boy. Today, Jasmine Jobson, 28, is being hailed as one of Britain’s most magnetic young actors, and an example to young, working-class people of how to make it without the benefit of family connections, wealth or nepotism. “I’m a bait face now – that’s what we call it,” she says, with a laugh. “I can’t leave my house without being recognised.”
Her newfound fame is miles from her troubled adolescence. “I’ve legit been unstoppable,” says Jobson. “My main thing was I wanted to have my face on billboards and I’ve been blessed enough that it’s happened. I’ve achieved my childhood dream. So now it’s just, ‘What’s next?’”
What is actually next is the psychological thriller Platform 7, due on ITV next month. The show is adapted by BAFTA-winning screenwriter Paula Milne from Louise Doughty’s book of the same name. The narrative centres on two unexplained deaths at Peterborough railway station, and explores domestic violence through a supernatural lens; Jobson describes its story as “treacherous”. “It’s completely different to anything I’ve done before,” she says. “I’m not one for typecasting.”
Jobson is determined to give herself and those around her stability, “Before I eat, my family eat first,” she says, adding, “When you take away everything else, all the excitement, the job, the money, what you’re left with is your happiness, your family, and love,” she says. “That’s all that matters.”
