Ambika Mod has said she originally turned down the role of Emma Morley in the hit upcoming Netflix series One Day.
“I think one of the reasons, when I first got the audition, I turned it down, largely because I just didn't see myself [in that kind of role]” the actress, whose parents are Indian, told the audience at the series premiere at BAFTA Piccadilly.
“I didn't see myself as a romantic lead. I thought that that concept was absolutely absurd, and I think when I dug into that a bit more and dissected it, I realised it was because I don't see women who look like me playing romantic leads.”
One Day, which is due to air on Netflix from February 8, is based on the best-selling book by author David Nicholls. It tells the story of Emma (Mod) and Dexter (played in the show by Leo Woodall): two people who meet by chance on their last night of university and whose relationship is revisited every year on July 15.
Over the course of 20 years, we see them become friends, fall out, grow apart, and try to deal with their feelings for each other – and it was the romance part of it that Mod struggled with.
“It took well into filming for me to actually see myself as Emma, and to see myself as a love interest opposite someone like Leo,” she continued. “I did feel the pressure of what this might mean to young women, and the relevance of Emma especially.
“She was written as a white woman, I assume, and I think there's so much of her identity that [for] women like me – who do feel marginalised, who do feel that they're not seen on television, that they're not represented – actually there's so much of her that we can relate to.”
Both Mod and her co-star, Woodall were picked from relative obscurity: while it was Mod’s star turn as Shruti in BBC drama This Is Going To Hurt that first brought her to the attention of the casting team, Woodall was still filming season two of White Lotus when he auditioned.
“I came into the room for the first time with [director] Molly Manners, and [casting director] Rachel Sheridan, with my Cowabunga tattoo still on my neck,” he joked, referencing his character’s look in White Lotus. “And they thought it was real. So they panicked. And then as the audition continued, it started to come off and so they could maybe breathe a sigh of relief.”
“We were really keen to cast young for the role so that so that the audience buys into these bright young things,” Manners added, “Rather than [casting] a 45-year-old with a fringe.”
That said, they had to make liberal use of ageing bondos, which are “these latex things that make you look just a bit older. I found it actually much easier to talk to them when they just had a few wrinkles.”
The show offered the book’s author David Nicholls a chance to flex his screenwriting muscles, and return to characters he last wrote about more than fifteen years ago – he wrote the series’ penultimate episode.
“Something different happens towards the end of the novel, it's hard to say too much, but I had to invent a lot of stuff and write new scenes and dialogue for Dexter, which I haven't done since 2007 or 2008,” he said.
“It was brilliant to go back and write in their voices, and write knowing who would be playing them... with the characters and the actor’s voices combined. So that was bliss.”
Set across the Eighties, Nineties and Noughties, it was also important to adopt the right kind of aesthetic – from the clothes (such as Eleanor Tomlinson’s character, Sylvie, wearing a pink mohair bolero) to the inclusion of then-trendy new brands like Kettle Chips.
“We leant very hard into the preparation of it and got extremely carried away,” Manners said – something that she says the younger cast members didn’t exactly appreciate. “There was there was one moment, I was sort of squashed in the kitchen set and I was waiting for like the cameras to start rolling or something.
“I just opened the bread bin beside me. I was like. Oh, there's some [Kingsmill] Mighty White in there, and closed it: that will never be seen on camera.” A tiny detail that’s indicative of all the care that has gone into this show.
