‘I lost a lot of sleep over my character’, says Killing Eve’s spy chief Shaw
Fiona Shaw has said she “lost a lot of sleep” over her Killing Eve role and doubted whether the character could hold the audience’s “imagination”.
The 61-year-old actress plays enigmatic MI6 chief Carolyn Martens in the BBC America spy thriller, which is returning for a third series.
Shaw said she was initially “terrified” by the part because she worried the show’s creator Phoebe Waller-bridge had written a character that was too “unknowable”.
She told Radio Times: “In the beginning [when Killing Eve started in 2018] you just wanted to believe [Waller-bridge] and follow her.
“I was terrified of the piece. I wasn’t sure whether it was funny or not funny. And, of course, it’s both funny and not funny.
“I lost a lot of sleep over her. I wasn’t sure that allowing
Carolyn to be so unknowable would hold in the audience’s imagination. “But it more than holds. People want to be chasing her down the rabbit holes of her mind.
“Normally, I play somebody who holds the moral argument. And there’s something about Killing Eve where nobody holds the moral argument.
“There’s a ruthlessness to the power of those people.
“And of course, it plays a brilliant trick, which is that the characters are charming.
“And they’re charming because they’re full of wit and you’re left slightly hooked on them, because you just don’t know where they’re going next.
“They have all the charm of virtuous people, so they lead you up the garden path, and then sometimes they’re not.
“It’s like juggling: There’s always a ball in the air. And you don’t know where it’s going to land.” Among the show’s new cast members is Game Of Thrones star Gemma Whelan, who debuts as Carolyn’s wayward daughter Geraldine.
Shaw said: “Gemma is utterly superb. But, oh my God, Carolyn and Geraldine have a terrible relationship – really terrible – and I can only say what a pleasure it was to film those scenes with her.” New episodes of the spy thriller were available from yesterday on the iplayer in the UK.