Girl Taken, an accomplished show based on Hollie Overton’s novel Baby Doll, is an essential watch — but not an easy one. It tells the story of twins Lily and Abby (played by real-life London sisters Tallulah and Delphi Evans), who are on the verge of leaving school when Lily is abducted by her English teacher (a chilling Alfie Allen). Held in the basement of his “writing retreat” in the woods for a very long time, Lily has to draw upon all her mental and physical reserves to survive and escape — a harrowing experience powerfully delivered in a breakthrough performance by Tallulah.
“I was reading this book to prep called 3,096 Days by Natascha Kampusch about her similar real-life experience,” says Tallulah. “It’s her account of what she can remember from the moment she was taken and the abuse. How she was compartmentalising everything and tried to befriend him [her kidnapper] to get to a point where she could attempt to escape. And how she dealt with it afterwards.”
She adds: “Victims of these crimes are often questioned about why they didn’t escape sooner. But there’s a lot more going on than people sometimes assume. There’s running away, but it’s a mental cage as well.”
The filming was helped immeasurably by getting on with Allen — “he’s so lovely, it made it easier” — and having her sister on set (who is also searingly brilliant).
“I’m the older sister at 25 and Delphi’s 23, so when we auditioned I gravitated to Lily, just with her being more outgoing and confident within her social group.”
Working with a sibling was not without its trepidations — “we definitely had our sister moments in the first week” — but largely it was a gift: “It did alleviate some of the sadness and stress, it was nice to finish the day and go for dinner together or just chill.”
The sisters have acting in the blood; their mother, Elizabeth, is a stage and screen actor. Tallulah started young, with a role in Son of Rambow aged seven, before graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Delphi was still at drama school when Girl Taken came up and their younger sister, Gigi, is a singer. You sense there’s a lot more to come from the Evanses, with Tallulah in particular now making the transition to serious adult actor.
“It’s rare to have a character who goes through so much across a long period of time,” she says of Lily. “Being able to represent that journey is very exciting. I’m interested in anything that can connect with someone. Whether it’s shock or happiness, as long as it evokes some sort of emotion.”
As for who to emulate, that’s easy: “I did a film with Anjelica Huston, The Watcher in the Woods, and she was just so cool — she can still do the splits!”
Girl Taken is on Paramount + now
