Suranne Jones talks acting challenges and being a swot
The Bafta-winning star on her new acting challenge, stealing from the Doctor Foster set and bringing up a baby
It’s no exaggeration to say that Suranne Jones, 39, is probably the most in-demand actress on British TV right now. After a second smash-hit outing for her astonishingly powerful Bafta-winning turn as Doctor Foster, she could have gone for something light and frothy, but instead she’s dived straight into another hugely intense show – Sky Atlantic’s six-parter, Save Me. This time, she stars opposite the drama’s writer, Lennie James (The Walking
Dead ), as Claire, his former lover and mother to their 13-year-old daughter, who goes missing while on the way to visit him.
The series is part crime mystery, part gritty character study, as well as being full of fascinatingly fraught relationships, not least that between Claire and Lennie’s character, Nelly. Just to make things that extra-bit complicated, Suranne’s character is also married to another dodgy bloke, played by Barry Ward. And having watched some key scenes, no one does wide-eyed intensity like Jones. In real life, Suranne is relaxed and open, answering each question carefully, but with enthusiasm in the rather unglamorous east London location where
Save Me is being filmed. Despite not yet hitting 40, Suranne has had an amazingly accomplished acting career, incorporating nearly 500 episodes of Coronation Street, then five excellent series of police drama Scott & Bailey, which she co-created with her friend Sally Lindsay, and not forgetting a wonderfully funny turn in Charlie Brooker’s crime spoof A Touch
Of Cloth. She also exec produces
many of her own shows, has a 23-month-old son with her husband, writer Laurence Akers, and right now, her evenings are spent wowing West End audiences in the play Frozen, which, oddly enough, is also about the disappearance of a young girl. Spooky…
You’re in demand at the moment. How do you choose your roles?
You read a script and you know if you need to do it. Everything starts with the writing. I just look for really good stories.
Do you miss your son when you are at work?
Yes, but I know how lucky I am to be able to say when I want time off. But if you get a script like Save Me, you want to take it and do your best work. This has been a very free and different way of doing things. The director wrote to me and promised that it would be a great experience and it has been.
How do you juggle your work and your family life?
I take time out and have good breaks where I get to be mum and nothing else. Afterwards, I go back to doing some work. It’s a luxury, I know!
Do you find it easy to switch off when you get home?
It’s easier now I’m a mum, because as soon as you walk through the door, you have duties and you want to be switched on completely for them.
Do you watch your shows?
I produce as well, so I watched footage every night for the last
Scott & Bailey, and I’m an associate producer on Doctor
Foster. I am pretty good at not just watching myself. You have to switch off, otherwise you wouldn’t be able do it well. There are times when I think, “Oh my God!” But I don’t think any actor likes looking at their face. I am learning to watch a story as a whole and just not look at the wrinkles.
Are there any roles you’d love to play?
I’d like to play Mary Stuart [Mary Queen of Scots] onstage and do more theatre. I think I’d like to play some of Tennessee Williams’ women. I like singing and dancing.
What attracted you to taking on Save Me?
I had just taken six months off with my boy, when my agent told me to look at it. I had gone back to Doctor Foster, which was such a big show to return to, and I needed some time off. But then I read the script, and Lennie’s writing was so different to anything else I’ve done on TV. I was going from Doctor Foster to something where I am part of a great ensemble with Lennie, Susan Lynch and Stephen Graham – they are people that I respect as actors, and to get to work with them was amazing.
What is your character Claire like?
She’s “new money”. She’s a wife and a mother, has expensive highlights in her hair, and her husband works as a promoter in the record industry. Both of them are working class, so they have come up together. A nd their house is utterly amazing. It was nice to go shopping for her, because we went to the high-end shops – Selfridges, Fenwick – and we had a bit of fun.
Your house in Doctor Foster was amazing, too – do you have a clause in your contracts saying that you must have nice houses?
You’d think so! But we’ve also been filming outside Deptford [in south-east London] station in the cold, so that obviously didn’t filter down. Next time, I’ll put down that I’ll only do my scenes in the nice houses.
what’s Claire’s connection to nelly and his world?
She had a relationship with Nelly 13 years ago. Her parents owned the shop opposite the estate, and that’s how they met. It was a summer of love and she spent three months in The Palm Tree, which is this amazing pub. Now, Claire finds herself back in her old world and, because of the circumstances in which Nelly finds himself in, he finds her. They join up, and have to get to know each other again. He drags her back to the world she is trying to get away from.
Does he turn her world upside down?
Yes. Imagine her house, money and her new relationship, and then put someone like Nelly into the equation. It’s like a bomb of history has blown up. Her new husband knows of Nelly and doesn’t want them to get close.
what do you think makes this series unique? why do you think people should watch it?
It’s the writing. I love the fact that an actor has developed something that he felt hadn’t been seen on TV before and then got a really great team together to make it. It’s an investigative story that isn’t about the police and it’s not necessarily a crime drama. It’s about a real person in a world they don’t know any more.
what was it like acting opposite the show’s writer?
It’s great. I did it with Amelia Bullmore in Scott & Bailey, too. Like Lennie, she knew the characters so well and you could ask questions. You have to do your homework a bit more, but I am quite a swot, anyway. I like stationery.
what accent have you got in this? And did you enjoy doing it?
South-east London. Claire’s not from the estate, but she’s from the same world. I’ve done something similar onstage before. I like a challenge and I don’t like to be pigeonholed. In my early career, I did very similar things, so it’s nice to do different stuff. I think I push myself more onstage, and now I get to a chance to push myself in other areas. is there ever anything you want to keep when you leave a set? I don’t tend to take stuff, although I did take some of Doctor Foster’s jewellery, because it meant something. And it was really nice!
Have things changed much since you won your Bafta in 2016?
I am very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had and for the people I’m getting to work with, and if that’s thanks to the Bafta, it’s amazing. My philosophy has always been to put in 100 per cent. The award came at a time when my baby was born, so it was a whirlwind year. It’s a huge part of our industry. Whenever I feel like I’m getting fed up, I ask myself, “What would my 16-year-old self feel like?” And she’d feel so grateful. She’d be like, “Wow, you did so well,” so that keeps me grounded.
‘i can be a bit of a swot – i do like stationery’