‘I can act only because I can’t pretend’
Julia Llewellyn Smith catches up with Andrea Riseborough as she stars in Netflix’s nightmarish series ‘Black Mirror’
Andrea Riseborough is huddled on a sofa in a Soho hotel, dressed in joggers, a Superman T-shirt, and a voluminous light-pink coat: “It makes me feel like my mum,” she explains. She is pleasant, but clearly tired after a late night at the British Independent Film Awards, where she was nominated for her role as Svetlana, Stalin’s daughter, in Armando Iannucci’s satire The Death of Stalin.
Her weariness could also have something to do with the subject of our conversation. “The past six weeks have been very difficult,” she says in her soft, Geordie accent. “It was tough for [all the Harvey Weinstein revelations] to come out at once. Kind of unbearable, like having 10 slices of sickly cake shoved down your throat.”
Riseborough first came to the fore on British TV in dramas such as Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley, in which she played the young PM. Now living in LA, these days she mixes home-grown fare such as Channel 4’s sex abuse drama National Treasure with Hollywood films – this autumn has seen her receiving accolades both for The Death of Stalin and Oscar contender Battle of the Sexes, in which she plays tennis legend Billie Jean King’s hairdresser lover. And she finishes the year off with a starring role in the latest series of Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker’s nightmarish sci-fi anthology.
When the Weinstein scandal broke, she told one paper she had had to deal with “sexual in appropriacy almost every week” in her career. “But the positive is that anger is a great catalyst for change,” says Riseborough, 36, now. “I’ve already noticed differences. I really feel I can ask for equal pay now on the phone – I’ve always asked, but it’s fallen on deaf ears.
Riseborough has long decried Hollywood sexism, complaining about how she’s been variously ordered to reshoot a scene wearing bodyshaping Spanx, use breast pads, and had scenes reshot from behind using a body double. She became so disillusioned (she described 2013’s Oblivion, in which she appeared opposite Tom Cruise, as “the worst film I’ve ever done”), that after making the Oscarwinning Birdman in 2014, in which she played Michael Keaton’s girlfriend, she took an 18-month break from acting.
Why the change of heart? “I had to appear in other people’s work in order to fund my own film,” she explains. “Some jobs were wonderful; some arduous. I’ve just made a film in a more balanced environment, and once you’ve had a taste of that it’s difficult to go back.” Riseborough is referring to Nancy, the first film from her production company, Mother Sucker, in which she stars as a woman convinced she was kidnapped as a child; it will debut at next year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film was made with an almost entirely female cast and crew, the culmination of a long-held dream. “It was extraordinary to be surrounded by so many women,” she says. “It certainly felt the opposite of what I usually feel on set, which is a little alienated, a little disfranchised.”
Riseborough has long been looking to widen the range of female roles – she’s currently developing an allfemale version of Hamlet. When she was sent the original screenplay of her Black Mirror episode, “Crocodile”, it was with a view to casting her as a supporting character. “The lead was initially a man,” she says, “but I really identified with that character, so I asked if they’d rewrite it as a woman, and they did.”
This character, Mia, undergoes a traumatic journey after a past deed threatens to be exposed. What part of her did Riseborough identify with? “The terror she feels that everything that she’s worked for is going to disintegrate,” she replies. “It was the human quality in her that I saw inside of myself – any bad decisions that I’ve made have come from fear.”
Riseborough grew up in Newcastle (earlier this month she upset the city by describing it as “the armpit of England”, but she appears not to hear me when I ask if she was joking or not), the daughter of a car dealer and a secretary. She dropped out of her private school during A-levels, claiming boredom, and worked in a Chinese restaurant, until winning a place at Rada, where her peers included Tom Hiddleston, and then joining the RSC.
One of her earliest breaks came when she starred in W.E, Madonna’s film about Edward VIII’S abdication crisis, in which she played the king’s lover, Wallis Simpson. Critics savaged the film but declared her its only saving grace. “I really, really enjoyed that, working with Madonna – I’d work with her again at the drop of a hat,” she says.
There’s a palpably high-minded quality to Riseborough, who pleasantly but firmly shuts down any conversational angles she considers too flippant. I ask her about appearing on the red carpet the previous night. “I felt deeply inadequate there,” she says. “Because I’m a human being and because the day that it’s normal for someone to be pointing cameras at you is probably the day when you cease to be a human being, to have any connection to reality.” Can’t she “act” the part of a Hollywood star for the duration? She shakes her head, firmly. “The only reason I think I have any mettle as an actor is because I can’t act, I can’t pretend. I’m a crap liar.”
She’s still in touch with old school friends, but moved to Los Angeles nearly a decade ago “because I have depression and suffer from SAD [seasonal affective disorder],” she explains. “Normally, I’m always shooting in dark places – I enjoy being part of dark work and the environment often reflects that, so it’s nice to go home and know it’s going to be sunny.”
She notes approvingly that depression is increasingly discussed in the UK – while also pointing out the stigma you face for it within the acting
‘I really, really enjoyed working with Madonna – I’d work with her again at the drop of a hat’
profession. “It’s one of those things you’re still penalised for because they might raise your insurance, so there’s some prejudice.”
It might seem strange that such an intense character thrives in superficial Tinseltown, but she says it’s a good fit. “Older Brits still have this idea of LA from 50 years ago, as if it’s stuck in jelly, but actually there’s a huge community of really diverse people,” she counteracts.
Still, the city maintains some old-school traditions, not least awards season, when actresses are judged just as much on their red-carpet looks as their acting ability. Riseborough has often attended ceremonies in Marchesa, the label of Weinstein’s now-estranged wife, Georgina Chapman. Was she under duress to do so, as has been alleged in the case of other actresses? She says not. “It was because I had a good relationship with Georgina then.”
This time round, awards season is set to be a more sobering affair – last week, it was revealed that many leading actresses would be wearing black to the Golden Globes in protest at sexual harassment. And while she typically doesn’t enjoy such showbiz parading, Riseborough is excited by what’s to come. “It will feel totally different. It will be exciting for women all over the world to watch this year.”
Black Mirror series 4 launches on Netflix
on Dec 29