Finally focused
The Luminaries star Eve Hewson reveals how she ventured into acting because she found it hard to concentrate at school. Sarah Nealon reports.
Alack of focus on schoolwork inadvertently led The Luminaries’ Eve Hewson down the acting route.
The Irish actress, the daughter of U2 singer Bono and his wife Ali Hewson, plays Anna, an immigrant turned prostitute in the drama set on New Zealand’s West Coast.
She told TV Guide how a tutor piqued her interest in the profession.
“I was acting as a child in drama groups,” says Hewson. “I had a school tutor who my parents hired to teach me how to do my homework, and focus and pay attention, because I was not the best student at the time. I was about 13.
“She was actually a film-maker and she tutored on the side.
“She kind of bonded with me through film and taught me all about film-making. We ended up making a few films together when I was a teenager just as a fun school film project. And that is sort of what led me into acting professionally.”
Hewson, 28, spent six months in New Zealand working on The Luminaries, the television adaption of Eleanor Catton’s Man Booker-prize winning novel.
Hewson’s character Anna arrives in New Zealand via boat from Britain. However, things take a bad turn when her purse is stolen and she is taken in by a scheming fortune teller.
“The general idea was that she’s running from something,” says Hewson.
“This is her one chance at a new life. In my head she’s escaping a dark situation and wants to become someone new.
“I think at that time New Zealand promised a whole new life for people. She wanted a clean slate.”
The Luminaries is set in the 1860s when many people went to the South Island’s West Coast hoping to make a fortune from
gold.
Other actors in the show include Himesh Patel (EastEnders) and Eva Green (Penny Dreadful) plus New Zealanders Erik Thomson (800 Words) and Marton Csokas (Shortland Street). To prepare for her role as one of the show’s central characters, Hewson read Catton’s book but also worked closely with The Luminaries director Claire McCarthy before filming. “Claire and I had intense rehearsals before the show,” says Hewson. “I went there three weeks before and we went through every single scene and every single episode and really mapped out who she (Anna) was and where she was coming from – every step of the way. “It was a lot of work for six months. It was pretty intense but I think it worked out.” Hewson says she wanted the part of Anna in The Luminaries because it was “a fantastic role”. “There is so much to do for an actor – especially as a woman,” she says. “You rarely get to be the lead and you rarely get to do all the things that we do in the show.” However, there was one aspect of the job which was challenging – the costume that the role required. “Everybody had a rough time because we were shooting in the middle of summer in New Zealand,” she says.
“But I had a corset and a crinoline. A crinoline weighs at least 5lbs. It’s that wired skirt that goes underneath and makes that shape. So the crinoline tugs on the corset which all pulls down.
“We were shooting on a farm for a lot of it and especially the jail cell which was just like a tarp.
“It was basically ... just think of it like a sauna. (You are in) a black dress chained with your foot to the jail cell all day. I think we were there for like five weeks.
“That was probably the worst and I just sweated through the entire thing all day long. It was soaking wet and it reeked of BO. In all of those scenes I’m sweating profusely.”
This was Hewson’s first visit to New Zealand.
“I loved it,” she says. “I didn’t see much of it to be fair. We did most of our work in the studio so I saw the car park. Everybody else got to go and travel around. I didn’t. But we did have some fun. We went to the beach one day.”
Hewson, whose acting CV includes the television drama The Knick and films such as Enough Said and Robin Hood, lives in the US but did this interview from her native Ireland.
“I live in New York but I am in Dublin with my family trying to stay away from New York for the time being,” she says.
“I think I’m a little safer here. I’m lucky that I had somewhere to go.”
“I think at that time New Zealand promised a whole new life for people.” – Eve Hewson