I love when a character isn’t just an indestructible woman... We’re more complex than that
DOWNTON ABBEY STAR JESSICA BROWN FINDLAY TALKS TO KERRI-ANN ROPER ABOUT TACKLING THE HORROR GENRE
PLAYING Lady Sybil Crawley in Downton Abbey, Jessica Brown Findlay was used to staying in grand houses, but not ones where things go bump in the night.
Her latest project, horror film The Banishing, sees the actress playing a vicar’s wife living in a haunted manor house.
The 31-year-old says it was a role she found “intriguing”.
She takes the role of Marianne, wife of young reverend Linus Foster (John Heffernan), who moves into an old house (based on Borley Rectory, supposedly England’s most haunted property) in the 1930s with their adopted daughter.
When a vengeful spirit haunts the little girl and threatens to tear the family apart, the reverend and his wife seek the help of local spiritualist Harry Price (Mission Impossible star Sean Harris).
Jessica says: “I’m naturally someone who leans away from watching horrors, but thrillers I’m starting to realise, I really enjoy.”
And she says she was keen to take on something challenging.
“I’d worked with the director (Christopher Smith) before and I was at a point where I wanted to just try new things, take opportunities that were coming to me rather than overthinking things. I thought (this would) be really interesting.”
British director Christopher – famous for films such as the chilling Creep, Severance, Triangle and Black Death - says he was drawn to the period setting of the story.
Says Christopher “What struck me, apart from that I was always interested in the period – the idea of an anxiety of impending doom of World War Two – was that I had never made a haunted house movie. I didn’t want to explore the Harry Price story, the famous ghost story at the time. I didn’t want this to be a story about just one thing. And as soon as I started to move towards my vision of it, I felt less encouraged to do a character that we had seen done a certain way before, by other actors. “So, I said, OK, let’s base it in a true context which is the build-up to World
War Two. Let’s push the idea of the gathering storms of war and use the rich characters that were in the original script and channel it in a different way.
He continues: “I’m actually much more interested in films like The Shining, which is almost more of a psychological film than it is a haunted house movie, so this film very quickly went down the line of... ghosts being the demons that you bury away in yourself... what’s haunting you.”
For Jessica, the character of Marianne is one in a line of many strong females she’s portrayed on screen since bidding farewell to Downton. Last year, she starred in Sky’s lavish sci-fi drama Brave New World, loosely based on Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel of the same name. She’s also been seen on screen in Black Mirror and the BBC’s The Outcast and Harlots. She says: “It’s interesting because, as an actor there is very little control that you have over who you play, over the stories you get to tell, because unless you are right at the top of your game, you go where the work is.
“So there must be something perhaps then that others see in me. But in the sort of books I read and the music I listen to, I am always drawn to women. Women fascinate me (as characters) and always have, far more than men.
“A strong woman is obviously necessary, good stories are necessary, but the complexity is also essential. Someone may make a bold decision and then five minutes later do something ridiculous or not brave. I think the balance is important. I love when a character is all of it and not just, this kind of indestructible, brave woman, because I think that puts so much pressure on women – we’re more complex than that...”
Jessica and Christopher previously worked together on 2012 TV series Labyrinth, and the director says of her: “Jess has just got this incredible vulnerability that she can put on screen with ease and
I felt so sad that the arts... was seemingly made to feel so pointless and expendable
Jessica Brown Findlay on the impact of Covid-19
grace, she can just inhabit a character”.
The film, which also stars The Terror’s John Lynch, was shot before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
When we speak, Jessica, who married actor Ziggy Heath, after they met on the set of Harlots last September, is contemplative about the last year.
She says: “One of the main things is that I’ve been safe. Outside of that, there is very little to complain about because that is a very lucky space to be in. This virus doesn’t seem to care about your age, occupation... where you’re from, and it’s affecting everyone so much.
“I miss work. I love my job so much, and it is so collaborative and interactive. It is sort of everything that lockdown isn’t. So, creatively, I’m very hopeful that there will be a wave of stories to come after this time. I’m an optimist so I hope that things will get better for everyone.
“It’s not really going to be better until it’s globally better, that’s something that is so important it’s not just about me and I, it’s about us, as humanity”.
The actress reflects on the impact of Covid-19 on creative industries, adding: “Especially early on, I felt so sad that the arts, everything under the umbrella of that, was seemingly made to feel so pointless and expendable... that artists should just retrain as something [else].
“I think lockdown has shown us how essential it is, sitting and watching films, reading brilliant books, listening to music that you will dance headily in your living room to is what makes life.
“So much of the invigoration of life comes from that, it fuels us and it kind of mirrors our feelings back and I hope more than anything that it can flourish once we’re out and that it’s supported.”
The Banishing is released on digital platforms on March 26.