LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX, LOVE AND ... CHEATING
RUTA Gedmintas was chatting about relationships, betrayal — and propositioning an older married man.
It was an innocent conversation, about a play by Owen McCafferty called Unfaithful, in which she will appear with Matthew Lewis, Niamh Cusack and Sean Campion. However, Ruta was about to board a flight to the U.S., so I hope any fellow passengers who overheard her didn’t get the wrong idea.
The actress, whose breakthrough role came in Guillermo Del Toro’s vampire TV series The Strain, explained that McCafferty’s intricate play is about two couples: one in their 20s; the other in their 50s.
‘Both have trouble with the mundanities of modern life. They haven’t got access to opportunities that could provide them with extra excitement,’ she said, carefully.
So Tara (Ruta’s character), who is mightily fed up with her job at a supermarket, thinks cheating on her boyfriend will make her happier. ‘It’s heart-wrenching,’ said Ruta of the play, which will run from August 26 at the off-West End theatre Found111 (the old Central St Martins School of Art in Soho).
Meanwhile, Lewis plays a young man who has a liaison with an older woman. The actor, who played loyal Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films, suggested that Unfaithful could also be seen as a meditation on sex. ‘What does it mean to different people?’ he said.
Lewis said that because his first acting experience involved playing one role: Neville — for a decade — he likes to take on as many characters as possible. Which is why he did Ripper Street for just two seasons; appeared in the last series of the BBC’s brilliant Happy Valley; and enjoyed a few days on a new film, Terminal, with Margot Robbie.
But it’s clear the Harry Potter film cast is still very much a family. Lewis said that after Emma Watson saw Harry Potter And The Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre, she texted him, telling him he must see the play. And so he should.