As is customary for actors auditioning to play people in love, Paapa Essiedu and Siobhán Cullen underwent a chemistry test. But the scene was not a flirty meet-cute or a moment of intimate tenderness. Instead, says Essiedu, “It was this big and long, quite horrible argument – and that’s how they wanted to see how well we got on.”
Seeing the two of them fight would serve as an apt litmus test for Babies, the new BBC drama in which Essiedu, 35, and Cullen, 36, play a couple whose relationship is rocked by a series of crushing miscarriages. “It’s a good scene because not only are they arguing but they’re doing a whole lot of work to try not to hurt each other,” says Cullen. “That’s how couples argue, right? You land the punches, but there’s also a way of couching it because of the love that’s there.”
