Cover story
NATALIE DORMER AND RORY KINNEAR on Penny Dreadful’s magical new spin-off that sees a shape-shifter hell-bent on destruction in1930s Los Angeles
Natalie Dormer, Nathan Lane and Daniel Zovatto star in Penny Dreadful: City of Angels
FANTASY DRAMA Penny Dreadful: City of Angels
AS SCHEMING MARGAERY TYRELL
in Game of Thrones, Natalie Dormer has plenty of experience of bloodthirsty battles and supernatural forces.
This week, the actor finds herself in another tangled web of deceit and destruction when she plays a shape-shifting demon unleashing chaos in
Sky Atlantic drama Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.
A CITY ON THE EDGE
The new 10-part series is a spin-off from Penny Dreadful, the horror drama featuring a host of famous literary creations – including Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and Dr Jekyll – which ran for three seasons, ending in 2016.
With a cast of completely new characters, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels relocates the action from the dark streets of 19th-century London to the bright lights of Los Angeles in the 1930s, and swaps the Victorian monsters for a world of Mexicanamerican folklore, Nazis, and the rise of religious evangelism.
As the series opens, mysterious demon Magda (Dormer) prophesises that a time is coming when mankind will fight itself into oblivion. In 1938 Los Angeles, it looks like the prophecy is coming true. The city is racked by corruption, members of the Third Reich are pulling sinister strings, and racial prejudice towards Mexican-americans is reaching tipping point as plans are made to build California’s first freeway through their community.
Wearing many disguises, Magda is at the heart of the discord, whispering in ears and encouraging hatred. She targets German paediatrician Peter Craft (Rory Kinnear), who leads the German-american Bund, an organisation campaigning to keep the US isolated from the growing threat of war in Europe.
Meanwhile, detective Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto) and his partner Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane) investigate the murder of a rich evangelist family.
We chatted to Dormer, 38, and Kinnear, 44, to find out more…
WHAT CAN YOU TELL US
ABOUT YOUR CHARACTERS? DORMER Magda has this absolute belief that all people are bad, and it’s up to the characters she messes with to prove otherwise. We explore the premise that good people do bad things.
KINNEAR My character Peter has a troubled home life and his wife is an alcoholic. Then he comes upon a fairly invincible force in the shape of Magda. We don’t know how much strength he has to withstand temptation.
NATALIE, WAS PLAYING MULTIPLE CHARACTERS A MAJOR CHALLENGE? DORMER Yes, it was a physical and mental gymnastics exercise! But it was a joy because I got to play four characters for the price of one. I had fun with voices, accents, costumes, and there was even some dancing and singing.
RORY, YOU PLAYED FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER, AKA THE CREATURE, IN THE ORIGINAL Penny Dreadful. WHAT MADE YOU RETURN? KINNEAR The producers emailed and said: ‘No make-up this time!’ The Creature’s make-up took over three and a half hours. Then they sent me the script and I was sold.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT LA IN THAT ERA?
DORMER I’ve been going to Los Angeles for 16 years but didn’t know anything about the social engineering that went on and how building the freeways decimated communities. I don’t think we’ve seen the Mexicanamerican community in a show like this before. There’s also an interesting parallel between 1938’s evangelical radio and now. It’s the equivalent of social media – this idea of technology creating mass propaganda and swaying hearts and minds.