Lady in the Take

Downton’s Jessica Brown Findlay talks dancing and dangling.

Tell us about Lorelei and her relationship with Igor? She’s obviously in the same circus as the hunchback who becomes Igor. They’re very good friends. Neither of them really fit in, so they have each other. They’re quite odd and brilliant.

What was it like working with Dan and James?

Really, really good fun. It’s been a fun dynamic to do because Lorelei’s the one sitting there rolling her eyes at the banter between the two of them. And that’s been really fun, that dynamic, and playing about with that, and the comedy within. You’ve got really high drama met with the speed and rhythm of comedy. We’d all get involved and discuss things and play around. Paul [ McGuigan] always allows fun for play, which is essential in the story.

What’s the standout moment from the shoot so far?

We’ve had some really great stuff with creatures that have been made and move in a way I’ve only ever seen around DVD extras – so that’s been fun! We had a dance scene we worked on for a week. It felt like a real party. That was great because you could just muck about!

You had to learn to trapeze...

Yeah. There’s a four-and-a-half-minute trapeze routine, a static trapeze, and then I’ve been learning swing trapeze as well. So I’ve been training for about four months [ at The Circus

Space in Hoxton, London] for that. I had no upper body strength so I couldn’t pull myself up the rope, but now I can climb all the way to the top – it’s 33ft up!

Is it something you’ll keep up?

I’m definitely going to keep it up. But there are some skills – like silks – which are very popular, but weren’t invented until 30 years ago. I’ll start learning silks instead... with slightly less bruises!