SIXTY SECONDS
THE SANDITON ACTRESS, 27, ON HER HORROR FILM WITH A DEEPER MEANING AND HOW JANE AUSTEN CHANGED HER LIFE
Tell us about your new film, The Power. There are lots of blackouts and your character gets possessed…
It’s a ghost story set in a hospital in the East End in the early 1970s. It’s about institutional abuse and women being silenced. At the beginning of the ’70s there was this moment when misogyny was so rife in a tangible, creepy way – like the Jimmy Savile stuff. The hospital was the perfect setting to explore this subject. Then exploring female rage – I filmed it when I was 25 and I realised I was addressing a rage through the character I didn’t know I had, a rage I’d suppressed for women as a collective and for my individual experiences too.
Do you mean sexism you’ve experienced?
Yes, just those micro-experiences that clump together and layer up. Like when the janitor touches my character Val in the elevator, and things like catcalling and being put down. I think it’s fair to say most women have had experiences of being shut down in the workplace or among friends.
Have you noticed a change since the #MeToo movement?
Yes and no. I worked with an intimacy coordinator for the first time on this job, which was really profound. I’d never had that level of care and planning going into scenes that require nudity, sex or whatever. Plus it was a very female-dominant cast and crew.
Are you scared very easily?
I am and I’m not – it depends on the subject. Gratuitous horror turns me off but I am interested in it now I understand what goes into the arcs of horrors. But I am quite jumpy. The directors would say we want a jump here or a scream there, and there were a few scenes where it was pitch black and the fear was genuine because of the atmosphere and being in Val’s headspace.
You filmed it in an abandoned psychiatric hospital. Did that help set the mood?
It really did. It informed my performance and affected me emotionally and psychologically, just thinking and feeling about the people that were there. There was a definite taste of the past.
I’ve never had that level of care and planning going into scenes that require nudity and sex
It’s a long way from your Jane Austen series Sanditon, isn’t it?
Yeah! And I think there were two weeks between finishing Sanditon and then starting with The Power. It was such a drop into a completely different space.
Sanditon was your first lead role. Did playing protagonist Charlotte change your life?
Of course. To step into the shoes of a Jane Austen heroine and have the script written by Andrew Davies, who’s a legend… an amazing family was created, working in beautiful locations. It’s about a girl having a new experience and that was a parallel with my life. It taught me so much and I had a wonderful time.
It ended on a cliffhanger, which left a lot of viewers frustrated. Will there be more?
I know, I know! Of course I’d love to, it was such an amazing time, but we’ve just got wait and see. It’s in the hands of the broadcaster.
What is it about a period drama that you love?
The escapism and also exploring different stories that haven’t been told. I like to research about women in that time period to get a flavour of what was going on – and obviously the costumes are very appealing too.
Isn’t your mum a costume designer?
She worked in the costume department in the 1980s, and has always had a love of costume and an appreciation for detail. My mum’s passions are how characters can be created with small details which make a huge difference. So whenever I go on a job, I like to collaborate with the costume department to form a character.
How has Covid affected what you were going to do?
I worked at the end of last year on the film Mrs Harris Goes To Paris and I’m working on a western in Spain at the moment. But obviously our industry shut down and it’s heartbreaking. I found lockdown awful. I thought I was never going to work again.
Do you get star-struck?
It’s exciting to meet and work with people you admire. I always learn from people on jobs and learnt the most from Canadian actress Megan Follows in Reign, my first big job, when I played her daughter. She and Craig Parker took me under their wing and I’ll always thank them for that. I hadn’t been to drama school but had done little pieces like an episode of Casualty and adverts and music videos. Then I got that audition and it completely changed my life.
What are your ambitions?
Definitely to work with women and on more diverse sets. Some actors talk about directing and I am interested in film-making but maybe in 20 years.
The Power is available now to stream on shudder.com