Bad habits:
New drama looks at nuns in the Himalayas.
Above: Gemma Arterton and Alessandro Nivola
“My wife (Emily Mortimer) had made a (Martin) Scorsese movie years ago called Shutter Island and he had made Black Narcissus required viewing for all of the actors in the movie. And that was the first time that I’d seen it and I remembered loving it.”
Oddly though, he didn’t remember his character, Mr Dean, from the film. “And when I read the script of this new adaptation, I found Mr Dean surprisingly to be very psychologically nuanced. And this script really, kind of, grappled with the things that he represented in the story.”
Mr Dean is presented as handsome, brooding yet somewhat world weary, even cynical.
“He was a character who had been traumatised by the First World War and had, kind of, become disgusted with British imperialism and had checked out of Western society and moved to a place where he felt all of these different cultures were able to live in harmony together.
“And, so, the encouraging of this very British brand of Christianity felt like, you know, it was in opposition to what he had come to appreciate about that place.”
Kathleen Byron, who played Sister Ruth in the original version, was widely praised for her performance and Franciosi admits to some anxiety following in her footsteps.
“When I realised that the film was so iconic and so beautiful and Kathleen Byron’s interpretation was so iconic, I was a little nervous.
“Sister Ruth is a really interesting character because, you know, in the world of this religious order where you are asked to be stripped of all identity – all of the things that make you you – for the purpose of this blind faith, the psychological effects that it would certainly have on me and I could see having on Ruth, that was something I found really interesting.” Arterton says a mini-series, as opposed to a film, gives actors time to explore what’s really going on with their characters. “This is all about what’s happening inside these people. It’s a thriller, really, a psychological thriller. And so I think, for me personally, I did feel sort of a connection, I guess, to Clodagh, this kind of control freak who is desperate to do well.” The actress says she enjoyed time on set with Rigg, who died in September. “We were on set, in our habits, and she was so wonderful. I mean, she would have been a great young Clodagh, actually. “She told me about this cocktail that she made for herself called D’s Dynamite, and it’s one-part Cointreau and the rest Prosecco. “And so, on her last day, I brought in some Prosecco and Cointreau, and we had them. And she had two. We were really, you know – it goes to your head. “But it was great and what an absolute honour to have worked with her on this and what an amazing legend she was.”