‘Stranger’ calls: Wilson intrigued by supernatural tale set in British manor
NEW YORK — Ruth Wilson is having what’s called a “moment” professionally, what with starring in Friday’s acclaimed supernatural thriller “The Little Stranger” and prompting international internet buzz for her shocking exit from “The Affair.”
This classically trained Brit found career-defining visibility in Showtime’s “Affair” series playing Alison, a neurotic, adulterous wife who was shockingly murdered in this, the fourth season.
The series continues as Wilson, 36, requested an early departure.
“I did ask to leave,” she said in a one-on-one interview at the Crosby Street Hotel.
“It wasn’t about pay parity. It wasn’t about other jobs. But I’m not allowed to talk about it. So there we go,” she added with a smile.
“The Little Stranger,” adapted from Sarah Waters’ novel, is director Lenny Abrahamson’s first feature since his Oscarnominated 2015 “Room.”
Reading the “unusual” script, Wilson felt “unnerved” by it. “At the end I didn’t quite know what was responsible for these bad things happening at the house. It got under my skin.
“This film deals with a lot of different things: class, the effects of war, the repression of British society. We’re renowned for hiding our feelings and not being emotional.
“And this is all about that. How, if you repress something long enough, it’s going to come out in ways you can’t control. In addition to it being a ghost story and supernatural, all the characters are dealing with that.”
Set in a dilapidated British manor house in 1948, “Stranger” reveals how Wilson’s character, Caroline Ayres, lives a barebones existence with her proud mother (Charlotte Rampling), disabled veteran brother Roderick (Will Poulter) and a servant girl.
When Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson), a local doctor whose mother was once their housemaid, ministers to the family, something’s off.
“Carolyn grew up as an aristocrat in a grand house with servants. War happens — and she finds she’s fed back afterwards into this old crumbling way of life.
“She’s trapped and sees Faraday, perhaps, as a way out. But there’s something unnerving about him.
“So that’s what’s interesting, her tussle of being part of this world that’s falling apart.”
As for who’s doing murderous things, “We all had a debate and no one had one version of who they think is responsible for things going on.
“There are things you can’t explain — and Lenny wants to play with whether it’s a real ghost or not.”