OK! LOOKS FORWARD TO THE RETURN OF Peaky Blinders AS WE CHAT TO THREE OF THE HIT SHOW’S STARS, HELEN MCCRORY, SOPHIE RUNDLE AND NATASHA O’KEEFFE
AHEAD OF THE NEW SERIES, HELEN MCCRORY TALKS TO OK!’S ANNABEL ZAMMIT ABOUT THE HIT SHOW, MOTHERHOOD AND LIFE WITH DAMIAN LEWIS
Rarely has a TV show quite captured the public’s imagination like Peaky Blinders. Created by Steven Knight, the BBC drama – which is about to kick off its fifth series – has themed bars named in its honour, a clothing line in collaboration with a flat cap-wearing David Beckham, and even a Peaky Blinders festival has recently been announced!
Helen Mccrory plays the criminal gang’s matriarch Polly Gray – known as Aunt Pol – and the actress, who turns 51 this week, is quick to tell OK! that it’s the best series yet. ‘I’m saying that as I haven’t seen it,’ jokes Helen. Joking is something Helen does a lot of and you find yourself laughing heartily in her company, as she’s quick-witted and intelligent in equal measure.
The actress, who received an OBE in 2017 for her services to drama, has been married to fellow actor Damian Lewis, 48, for 12 years. The couple fell in love when they starred in the 2003 production of Five Gold Rings at London’s Almeida Theatre, and married four years later. They live in London and share daughter Manon, 12, and son, Gulliver 11.
Here Helen talks sex scenes, being closest to Cillian Murphy on set and the legacy she wants to leave for her children…
Is it nice to be back playing a baddie? It’s much more fun playing the baddie, but she’s not all bad.
Being part of a razor-wielding gang obviously isn’t UN work, but within that she’s all heart really. Tommy Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy, is surrounded by a growing number of women in the show. Does the interaction between the women change this series? Yes, you start seeing the women around the men in the Peaky Blinders begin to draw parameters. There are also some wonderful scenes where Tommy’s son is telling Tommy the way it is and, as any parent knows, no child thinks their parent is cool, even when their father’s Tommy Shelby. He’s just an irritating dad. As you get older, you do think about the legacy you’re going to leave behind and who you’re going to be for your children. It’s very different from before you have children, as they look at you and if you’re behaving like a pr**k it becomes a bit more serious, as the likelihood is your son’s going to be a pr **k too.
Do you worry about your own legacy and the impact on your kids?
Definitely. Seven years ago I started a pop-up in Deptford [south London] and in Queen’s Crescent [north London] on a council estate where we do free childcare from 10-6pm every day for the Sir Hubert von Herkomer Arts Foundation. We do arts – Banksy sent down some graffiti artists to do graffiti – and Stormzy is with them this week doing music. We also take arts into schools which have no arts.
Do your children think you and Damian are cool?
No, of course not! Just like I didn’t think my parents were cool. Even Liv Tyler didn’t think her dad [Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler] was cool when she was 17!
You said one of the joys of doing Motherfatherson was being able to pop home in the evening. Peaky Blinders is filmed in Birmingham – is it difficult being away from home?
I request that I don’t work Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays, so I have long weekends. The advantage of having children in your eighties [laughs] is that you’re established enough to be able to see them.
Who are you closest to on set?
My best friend is probably Cillian. He’s the guy I mainly hang out with and chat to. Most of the time I’m asking him about music. He’s the one in the makeup truck who’ll come in and put Radio 6 on. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of very cool bands and I love music – I’ve recently come back from Latitude Festival, so we tend to chat about music or the usual; trying to keep the kids off the streets [laughs].
Lots of cigarettes are smoked on the show. Do you have any idea how many? Cillian worked out that in the average series he smokes 1,000 herbal cigarettes! You can’t smoke tobacco on set, so you have to smoke herbal, even if you’re outdoors. They taste disgusting and you get an instant splitting headache. As an ex-smoker, I’d prefer to smoke a nicotine cigarette, which obviously I adore, but I’m not allowed. If my children are reading this, Mummy never smokes!
In what ways are you like Polly?
I’m very protective of my children, and I get terrible hangovers like Polly too!
New actors like The Hunger Games actor Sam Claflin star in this series. Does it change the dynamic?
It does, but because we’ve all been doing it for so long, it’s a bit like who’s invited to the family barbecue on Sunday – you still have the same old faces and then the new person comes along. Sam’s superb – I know him from old. I’ve done screen testing with him, as all I play is women who have sex with much younger men and he’s much younger, so obviously I’ve done a screen test where I’ve had sex with him – twice, actually, for two different films! ok!
‘AS YOU GET OLDER, YOU DO THINK ABOUT THE LEGACY YOU’RE GOING TO LEAVE BEHIND’