Who’s that actress?:

Luanne Gordon underwent a dramatic transformation for Black Hands.

For fans of her work in the popular comedy drama The Strip – where she played a lawyer who opens a gentlewoman’s club – it might be hard to imagine Luanne Gordon as Margaret Bain, until you see her in costume. In Black Hands, the drama series which tells the story of the Bain family in the months preceding the murders, Gordon is transformed into the modest and deeply religious family matriarch. Even she was surprised at how similar she looked to Margaret once the wardrobe and makeup department had worked their magic. “When I first looked at the part to audition for, my instinct was I didn’t think I would be considered for it. I Googled Margaret and I really didn’t think I looked at all like her,” says Gordon. “I do remember at the recall, after doing the audition, I needed to pull my hair back and they put a pair of glasses on me and took a close-up photo. “And then after I got the job, I saw that picture up on the wall and right next to it was a photo of Margaret. And I was shocked at the resemblance too. And all it was, was me with my hair pulled back and glasses on. “But now I just think I looked a lot like her. I see those photos of when she was younger, and she’s laughing, and smiling and so happy. “Makeup and wardrobe just did such an amazing job.”

Luanne Gordon as Margaret Bain

Despite being one of its stars, Gordon had yet to see the finished product when we spoke before the series’ launch. But she hoped the experience of filming would be conveyed on screen.

“I hope it’s as good as it felt, telling the story, from all of us. I think we all really enjoyed it, weirdly, because it’s not an enjoyable story.”

Gordon, who has also worked on Shortland Street, Hope And Wire and Wilde Ride, says she felt an emotional connection to Margaret.

“I really loved that role. I really did. It’s a challenging part. It’s a really layered story with a lot of complex characters,” she says before quickly adding, “complex people”, bearing in mind this is a depiction of real lives.

Gordon says playing the role of a real person who died in such a tragic manner compelled her to share Margaret’s story “as respectfully as I could”.

“And to give her a voice where she hasn’t had a voice.

“She’s just had lots and lots of people making assumptions based on things they’ve read or seen, which is not always the whole picture.” The ‘whole picture’ of what happened at 65 Every Street on the morning of June 20, 1994 will likely always remain a mystery. Black Hands does not aim to solve the crime but instead explores what Gordon describes as a complicated family dynamic, and one that was also steeped in love and care. With the ongoing desire to find reason behind the senselessness, the case remains a source of fascination to the public more than 25 years later. “We want to find reasons, we need to be able to understand why something happened, it’s just human nature isn’t it?” says Gordon. “And in order to try to understand what happened where there is no definitive answer, we tend to lay blame. “Nothing’s ever as simple as that and I guess that’s what this story will reveal.”

“It’s a challenging part. It’s a really layered story with a lot of complex characters.”

– Luanne Gordon