KEELEY IS TOUGH ON SCREEN AND OFF...
I insisted on equal pay for my latest role... I would not have felt confident enough to do that five years ago
There is still work to be done but it is a good time with lots of females in lead roles KEELEY ON THE CHANGES IN HER PROFESSION
Keeley Hawes admits she has never been “a political animal” and finds Westminster’s party power play thoroughly “depressing”. In fact, she and actor hubby Matthew Macfadyen rely on their 18-year-old son to explain the latest Brexit developments around the dinner table.
“I mean, we try our best,” she sighs, “but he’s probably more clued up on exactly what goes on than me. It is a very difficult thing to explain.
“We try and keep it as simple as possible... if only the politicians would do, too.”
This may come as a bit of a shock to viewers when they see Keeley in her latest TV role this weekend.
She gives an extremely convincing performance as a steely, confident and super-ambitious Home Secretary faced with a deadly terrorist attack.
Keeley, 42, is starring in the sixpart BBC conspiracy thriller, Bodyguard, about a minister and her personal protection officer, played by Game of Thrones star Richard Madden.
Playing such a powerful female politician gave Keeley confidence to demand equal pay with her male co-star.
And she welcomes the campaign by leading women in the TV industry to close the gender pay gap.
“Certainly, five years ago, I wouldn’t have felt like I was in a position to say, ‘I want the same as my male counterpart’,” she says. “Because I would have been worried about losing the job.
“And then I would think, ‘I want to work and I want to pay my mortgage’.
“But now, I do think businesses and corporations that we work for seem to be taking it very seriously.
So yeah, it’s not so much of a fight, anymore. It really does feel like there’s been a real sea change here. It feels different.
“And I feel more empowered when I go into a project.”
Especially on a project such as this, where she shares most of the screen time with Richard.
“If it’s something like Bodyguard and there are two of us,” she says, “and you’re discussing your contract, just say ‘We want parity’.
“And more often than not, the actor will also say, ‘Yes, we’re doing the same amount of work. The same process, pay us the same’.
“And personally, that’s how I go about it now and I feel empowered to do that because of brilliant people that spoke up from the beginning and people who have made a stand.
“It allows everybody to be in a better position. We are getting there slowly but surely.
“It’s very exciting, there is still work to be done but it is a very good time with lots of females in lead roles.”
Her latest role as Julie Montague was helped along the way by former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who was forced to resign over the Windrush scandal in April. “Because there are
Julia is very ambitious... she wants to be Prime Minister KEELEY ON HER NEW ROLE AS THE HOME SECRETARY
so few women who’d done that job, inevitably there will be comparisons. “Julia is not based on anyone but Amber Rudd was a brilliant source.”
Keeley adds: “I watched a lot of videos of her on YouTube and I stumbled across an interview with her sister, who was talking about their childhood.
“It was quite moving because you don’t think about these people in that way. It’s easy to see politicians as caricatures, figures you love to hate. But it opened my eyes and I started to see her as a person.”
Keeley says the role of Julia was “a nice change of scenery” after filming ITV’s The Durrells, where she plays loveable mum Louisa.
“After doing eight episodes in an apron I was ready for something different,” she says. “So when this came along, with car chases and lots of action, I couldn’t wait. I love The Durrells but it’s a long shoot.” Bodyguard was also a huge attraction because it meant working again with writer Jed Mercurio – creator of Line of Duty, which won Keeley a Bafta nomination for her role as Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton. “I feel very safe with Jed,” she says. “I feel safe with his writing, I feel safe in terms of where his stories are heading and the characters and his research. “It is all there. Jed’s absolutely brilliant. “He doesn’t really follow a format. You think you know where you are, and where you are with the characters or with the story and by the end of the hour, it’s all been thrown into a blender. “You know, you’ve got no idea where it’s going to go. He dabbles in comedy and various other things – he’s prepared to take risks as well. I’m happy to go along with that and I loved working with him again. I think I probably would have said yes to this having not read it. It’s one of those sort of no-brainers really.”
Set in and around Westminster, Bodyguard tells the fictional story of David Budd, who is a troubled war veteran now working in for the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch of London’s Metropolitan Police Service.
He is assigned to work with Home Secretary Montague and, while she continues to speak about military action, he is torn between his duty protecting her and his beliefs.
“Without giving anything away, it does get into fifth gear by episode two,” says Keeley.
“Julia is a very powerful woman, she’s very ambitious, she wants to be Prime Minister. She’s makes no bones about it. The thing I liked about her, she’s very dry. When I first read it, it made me laugh much more than I expected to. She’s not really terribly likeable, but she’s a grower.” Chatting in her West London home, Keeley, who, as well as 18-year-old Myles, has a daughter Maggie, 13, and son Ralph, 11, with Ripper Street star Matthew, insists she did not swot up that much on politics for the new role. “I’ve tried to steer clear of the news,” she says. “It’s getting quite depressing if nothing else. I keep up with it, but I’m not really a very political animal. “I don’t envy what the politicians are going through. You’re never going to keep everybody happy all the time. It can’tbe easy.” ■ Bodyguard starts with two parts shown over the Bank Holiday weekend on Sunday and Monday at 9pm on BBC1.