LOVE ON THE ROCKS – TV’S NEW DIVORCE DRAMA
In tackling the role of Hannah, an incredibly smart, and smartly dressed, divorce lawyer in The Split, an absorbing new British drama, actress Nicola Walker admits she encountered one major difficulty – Hannah’s clothes.
“Hannah has an impressive wardrobe,” exclaims Walker. “Because of her job and because she’s at the high-end, there’s an expectation from her clients in the way she presents herself.
“Abi (writer Abi Morgan) refers to it as ‘putting on her armour’ for the day.”
The actress, who has also starred in Spooks, Last Tango In Halifax, Unforgotten and Collateral, admits that, “It’s a real departure for me personally. I do not possess any of those clothes in my wardrobe.”
She reveals that, “I made an astonishing discovery that when I wear anything that isn’t a trainer or a welly, when I’m put in high heels, I have an ability – and it’s a real skill – to clip the back of my heels and send a beautiful high shoe flying into the air. “There are so many outtakes from The Split of the director shouting, ‘Cut! Her shoe’s come off again...’ You’d see it flying over the heads of the crew. It must be the way I walk. It took me three weeks to master it.” Apart from that, the 48-year-old actress relished working on The Split, which charts the struggles Hannah experiences as she tries to balance her stressful professional and private lives. Walker was especially taken by the scripts written by Morgan who also created The Iron Lady, The Hour, Sex Traffic, Suffragette, Shame and Brick Lane. The actress reflects that, “Abi’s understanding of human behaviour is just perfect.
Nicola Walker (right) puts her best foot forward as she wrestles with difficult decisions in her role as a divorce lawyer in British legal drama
The Split. James Rampton reports.
“It is an intimate relationship between a divorce lawyer and her client.”
– Nicola Walker
“She notices everything – the best of ourselves, the worst of ourselves, and everything in between.
“The show’s set in the world of divorce, but Abi’s actually writing about marriage and love, and what we do to each other when we’re married and when we say we love each other, and what we have done, and then what we will do to each other in the future – all in the name of love.”
Walker proceeds to assess her character in more detail.
“Hannah was born into a family of divorce lawyers – her mother Ruth (Deborah Findlay, Cranford) is feared and admired in their shared professional world.
“We meet Hannah at a pivotal moment in her personal and professional life. She’s spent her working life with the family firm Defoe’s but, controversially, she’s leaving and joining rival firm Noble & Hale. It’s a huge moment for her.”
Hannah is the oldest of three sisters and, since their father walked out when they were little, she has played a significant role in nurturing her two younger siblings.
Walker explains that, “Ruth’s brought them up to believe it was the four of them against the world, and Hannah loves her sisters deeply. The thing about being the eldest, especially with their father abandoning the family when they were very small, is that Hannah’s always taken on a great deal of responsibility. “She’s always been relied upon, and she held the family together in some ways when the father left, even though she was only a child herself. She’s a fixer within the family.” But the equilibrium of the family is exploded when Hannah’s father Oscar (Anthony Head, Buffy The Vampire Slayer) comes back into their lives after a 30-year absence. Walker says that his return, “Is like a grenade being very gently dropped into her life. “It forces her to re-evaluate everything about herself, everything that happened before this moment, how she moves forward. It brings the past back to haunt them. They’re all rocked by it.” Walker closes by considering whether she could do Hannah’s job in real life. “I doubt I would make it in that world. I think I’d get too emotionally involved and then you’re no use to anybody. “It is an intimate relationship between a divorce lawyer and her client. You find out everything about them and their marriage. That can become a very blurred line, but you are not being paid to be their friend or therapist, and your first duty is always to the court. “I think I would probably find that really difficult.”