Kate Phillips
The sought-after star talks plum roles, period dramas and Peaky Blinders
“It’s amazing to have the words of someone else in your mouth and be able to speak these clever, funny, witty lines in a way you couldn’t in day-to-day life. Actors say they feel safe and happy when they play a character. It’s something I feel, too.”
Kate Phillips is fresh off the set of Miss Scarlet And The Duke, a new British crime drama with a headstrong and determined young woman at the helm. Kate plays Eliza, a quick and curious detective who, in a man’s world, battles to solve crime in Victorian London.
“I adore Eliza,” says Kate. “She’s no superhero and is constantly getting it wrong, but she surprises people with her brilliance. She’s amazing and I get to play her every day. That’s the biggest joy of the job, really.”
Kate’s success, however, has been no surprise. At 25, the British actress was named one of 2014’s Screen Stars of Tomorrow alongside Rocketman’s Taron Egerton and Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson – and she has lived up to expectations.
Fresh out of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Kate bagged the role of Jane Seymour – Henry Vlll’s third wife – in the BBC2 adaptation of Hilary Mantell’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel Wolf Hall.
With Claire Foy and Damian Lewis, the series saw Thomas Cromwell, played by Mark Rylance, rise from blacksmith’s son to Henry’s chief minister amid the power struggles of
the Tudor Court – and the king’s unfortunate wives.
The six-part drama led Kate to the heights of Hollywood and back with roles in The Aftermath, with Keira Knightley, The Crown and The Alienist, War & Peace and the show everyone is talking about, Peaky Blinders.
“It’s a bit feast and famine in a job like this and I’ve been really spoilt,” admits Kate, now 30. “I’ve seen the level of detail and thought that goes into creating these worlds. It is incredible. Every brushstroke is considered. It’s really kind of magical.”
This year alone she is filming A+E Network’s Miss Scarlet and a Netflix show, The English Game, about the origins of football. She will also appear in the Downton Abbey film and invite us back to Birmingham to catch up with Tommy Shelby and his gang in Peaky Blinders. For those yet to watch the
BBC drama, it follows a gangster family in the aftermath of the First World War. Fresh from the battlefield, Tommy and his crew make dirty money and control the city through fear. But as their power grows, enemies surface.
Kate is best known for her role as the show’s God-fearing Linda Shelby, wife of the ringleader’s unpredictable brother, Arthur, who tries to guide him on to a more righteous path. “Fans always recognise me as Linda, well, the actress that looks like Linda,” she laughs. “It happened when I nipped out to a café in full Miss Scarlet costume. They don’t like Linda too much. They’ll say, ‘Oh I know who you are. I hate you.’”
At the end of season four Tommy becomes a crooked MP, while Arthur fakes his death and gets the chance of a new start with Linda and their son, Billy. But Small Heath is too tempting and, broken down by her family, Linda works as a bookie, drinking, swearing and snorting cocaine.
“Linda is forever changing,” says Kate. “I’m never quite sure what she’s going to do or how she will react. Now she has to change her game plan. She must effect change from within and that means getting hold of – and undermining – Tommy, who has the most power.
“It’s what drives Linda that I find most interesting. She’s got a darker side,” she adds. “She fell in love with
“It’s a bit feast and famine in a job like this, and I’ve been really spoilt”
a man and her instinct was to save him. Now she’s left not knowing what to do.”
Kate has now swapped her Brummie glad rags for a fancy frock to play Princess Mary, daughter of King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) in the movie Downton Abbey. The Royal family pays a visit to the castle and causes quite a stir among the
Crawley family and their staff.
“I shot Downton and Peaky Blinders almost simultaneously in the autumn of last year. They’re set in the same time [the 1920s] but they’re very different worlds,” she says. “I play plain Princess Mary in the English countryside and Linda Shelby in the heart of Birmingham,”
Already a fan of Downton Abbey, the actress brushed up on her history and had a lesson in etiquette for the part. “The Royal family believed that they were a service to their country. They were not glamorous people,” she says. “I learnt how to stand and behave properly at dinner. The way you hold yourself completely changes your energy.”
A fan of the show, Kate was welcomed into the Downton family with open arms when she joined the likes of Dame Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville and Michelle Dockery on set at Highclere Castle. “Downton gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling,” says Kate. “It felt surreal that I would be a little part of that world. On the first day of filming I walked across the lawns and toward the iconic castle. It was a proper pinch-me moment.”
Looking at her CV, it would be reasonable to assume Kate has an affinity for a period drama. But this is not the case, she insists. It is all a complete coincidence.
“I’ve gone where the work is,” she says. “The most contemporary drama I’ve done, The Crown, was set in 1952. I’m forever in these worlds that don’t look like our own. They’re all period costume dramas, from Tudor to the Napoleonic era. While they’re not modern, every project had a different challenge.”
Kate appeared in the first season of The Crown as Venetia Scott, a plucky young secretary who worked for Winston Churchill (John Lithgow) in Downing Street. One of the few fictional characters in the drama, Venetia fell victim to the Great
Smog that plagued London in December 1952.
“I’d like to give a big shout out to John Lithgow,” says Kate, animatedly. “He is, among the many wonderful people I’ve worked with, the fab human beings, one of the kindest and most generous men I know. I adore him. Watching him embody Churchill was really special.”
Then, of course, there’s Claire Foy, who plays the Queen in the Netflix series. In her first TV role, Kate was able to watch the actress at work as the infamous Anne Boleyn.
“I was very lucky to star in Wolf Hall. It was a nice way into the industry,” she reflects. “I spent a lot of time in the background, sewing, as a lady in waiting. Just observing Claire was a real joy. She puts so much fun and energy into her work while also being professional and brilliant. It really taught me a lot about the kind of actress I wanted to be.”
The audition for Wolf Hall was Kate’s first. Taken on during her third year of drama school, the budding actress dressed the part (or so she thought) and printed out the script for every single episode – just in case. She smiles, “Looking back, I think I was very overdressed. But I was beyond nervous. If Peter [Kosminsky, the director] hadn’t given me that chance, I don’t know what I’d be doing now.”
On Kate’s first day on the set, the director announced to the cast and crew she had got the part, immediately putting her at ease.
“Peter recognises the nerves and anxiety that you experience in those first couple of days on set,” Kate
“I look at the range of women I’ve been able to play and feel very fortunate”
says. “It was a really generous gesture. In that particular scene my character was very nervous, so that helped a lot.”
Before Wolf Hall hit the small screen, however, Kate got her first taste of theatre at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.
Set in Massachusetts’ God-fearing Salem of the 1690s, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, sees a group of teenage girls on trial for witchcraft. Kate played the villainous Abigail, who had an affair with a local man.
Driven by desire and a lust for power, she lied and manipulated the townspeople to gloss over her adultery and punish innocent women for a more terrible sin.
“The Crucible is the one and only play I’ve ever done,” the actress reveals. “While Linda is God-fearing, she and Abigail are totally different. The psychology of the play is amazing. I really enjoy playing these frenzied characters. It’s safe to go into a crazy world while knowing you are not hurting anyone.
“I’d 100 per cent love to do more theatre. When I left drama school I thought that would be the path I’d take. A rehearsal room is where I feel most comfortable.”
So from Jane Seymour to Linda Shelby, Kate has played some incredible women from factual and fictional history and she hopes there will be more to come.
“I look at the range of women that I’ve been able to play and I feel very fortunate. They’ve all had something to say,” she explains. “If I’m honest, my favourite is Eliza Scarlet. Every character brings out a different version of her, including the Duke, her personal and professional involvement with him. That’s been so fun to navigate.”
Following the premiere of Downton Abbey next month, Kate will be taking a well-earned rest.
“My boyfriend and I have never done a proper relaxing, can’t-doanything kind of holiday. I think it’s going to have to be a beach in Greece for watersports, seaside walks and lying in the sun. If that’s possible in October,” she adds.
Peaky Blinders starts tonight at 9pm on BBC1. Downton Abbey is in cinemas from September 13.