Getting Too Close is risky ...both on and off screen
Emily Watson reveals how she went to prison for new thriller Too Close and tells Marion McMullen what it was like filming during a pandemic
GRIPPING psychological thriller Too Close looks at the compelling and dangerous relationship between Emily Watson as forensic psychiatrist Dr Emma Robertson and Connie Mortensen – a woman accused of a heinous crime she claims she cannot remember.
Dr Robertson is not easily shocked. She’s worked with her fair share of high security patients, but Connie starts to brutally exploit her deepest insecurities.
Here Emily tells us more about the show and what is was like filming during a pandemic.
How would you describe your character?
Emma is a forensic psychiatrist and the very best at what she does. It takes an astonishing amount of time to become that qualified and to have that specialism.
She has a great depth of knowledge and experience, but also a very troubled inner life because of what has happened in her past.
Her marriage is still intact but that has destroyed it from the inside. Her encounter with Connie is a catalyst for all of that to open up and come crashing around her ears.
Where did you film many of the scenes for Too Close?
We filmed the psychiatric unit scenes at the now closed Holloway Prison in London. It was a really grim place. Now a dead building which has housed so many sad lives.
Those scenes are very intense, but there is also a real thriller element to Too Close.
It’s a detective story thriller in a way and a race against time to uncover the truth of what actually happened. It has a real energy to it.
Filming was delayed by the pandemic. Did it take long to get used to all of the new restrictions?
I was tested for coronavirus every three days. I was going home every night to my family, but nobody was going out. It was just travelling to and from work. That was it. We were really lucky because we filmed when infections were right down in London.
What was it like on set?
Everybody wore masks on set, aside from the actors when they were acting. With social distancing and sanitising. Hair and make-up, wardrobe and actors were all in one bubble.
But once we were on set we just said, ‘OK, so now I’m just going to do things as I normally would within the scene. And if there was anything against the regulations then stop me.’
Did it feel strange?
A film crew is a real herd. It’s a crowd, a group. And everybody is very collaborative. That’s your instinct, but even things like handing over a prop, it had to be disinfected.
Every time I got in Emma’s car to drive, which I did a lot, the owner of the car had to disinfect the steering wheel, all of the handles and so on.
You did get used to it fairly quickly.
The hardest thing I found was not being able to read people’s facial expressions.
People who were close by like the camera operator, the director and people on the crew who are at first hand interacting with your work. They are saying something but you can’t read their face. But you do get used to it.
■ Too Close starts on ITV tomorrow at 9pm