All is Vanity
Doc Martin star joins hot new period drama
The sumptuous British period drama Vanity Fair comes to TVNZ 1 this week. Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel) takes the lead role of William Makepeace Thackeray’s ambitious heroine Becky Sharp as she tries to claw her way out of poverty and scale the heights of English society. Tom Bateman (Jekyll And Hyde) plays Rawdon Crawley, the man she marries, Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) is cast as Rawdon’s father, Sir Pitt Crawley, Frances de la Tour (The History Boys) is Pitt’s unmarried sister Matilda, Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster) is school headmistress Miss Pinkerton, and Michael Palin is Thackeray himself.
The ensemble cast also includes Claudia Jessie (Line Of Duty), who plays Becky’s confidante Amelia Sedley, with Simon Russell Beale (The Hollow Crown) and Claire Skinner (Outnumbered) as her parents.
Whether viewers will admire the ruthless and manipulative way in which Becky uses and discards people to get to where she wants, remains to be seen, but Cooke is firmly in her corner.
“I love her because I think she’s completely her own woman. She maybe hides behind a man for her own gain but it’s only on her terms.
“She’s completely manipulative when she wants to be but she’s also fun and she sees the light in every situation and she’s never down.
“And even though she’s very selfish she can also be quite selfless in her rise to the top in order to promote her spouse’s status as well. I think she’s amazing.
“She’s multi-faceted and she’s not virtuous or pure and nor does she pretend to be or want to be. “She’s never had anybody to look out for her and so she wants to
get to a comfortable position in
“The story could be set in the modern day – the land of selfies, reality TV, the Kardashians.”
– Tom Bateman
her life where she doesn’t have to fight for it, where she’s got security and social standing. But even if she got it I don’t think she’d be that happy. It’s like the grass is always greener on the other side.”
After meeting the handsome Rawdon, they eventually marry but she is disappointed that he is not the wealthy man she thought.
“I think she truly falls in love with Rawdon but when he becomes more of a hindrance than an accomplice, and when he highlights her own shortcomings in the way that he loves their son and she can’t, I think that’s when the distance between them really grows.”
Tom Bateman thinks the story, written as a monthly serial by Thackeray in 1847-48, has resonance with modern times.
“It struck me that it’s narcissism gone mad and we are more guilty of that now than ever before – this idea that it’s the parties you’re invited to, the clothes you’re wearing, the people you’re hanging out with, to the detriment of all else.
“Becky and Rawdon are a perfect example of some of these celebrities who actually have nothing but they go to all these parties as if they’re the A-list. They don’t have the money to support it and they have to be seen in designer clothes but they can’t afford it and they can’t be seen to get a real job.
“It’s exactly this with Becky and Rawdon. The story could be set in the modern day – the land of selfies, reality TV, the Kardashians. What purpose do they serve?”
Bateman says he enjoyed the story arc of his character in which Rawdon learns the true values in life.
“Rawdon is one of the few characters that goes on such a big journey,” he says. “His is a story of the understanding of life.
“He starts off as this man about town who doesn’t really care for anyone or anything and then he accidentally falls in love and he doesn’t really understand what it is he’s feeling. And then he falls in love with his son and will do anything for him.
“He wants to just be a good dad and have a home and is willing to sacrifice himself for that.”
One of the biggest challenges for Cooke (Becky) was squeezing herself into uncomfortable period dresses.
“The corset is so stifling,” she says. “You are strapped in first thing in the morning and then you are on set for 13-14 hours.
“It does help you to transport yourself to that time and place but it is very restrictive and it restricts your appetite as well. I lost so much weight. “How did people wear those things every single day? No wonder women wanted to be liberated, because it is just so uncomfortable.”