Even when they’re playing horrible villains, actors aim to understand them. Actress Joanne Froggatt, best known as the earnest maid Anna from “Downton Abbey,” says she tries to reach inside the evildoers she portrays.
“I am constantly fascinated by human behavior, which is probably why I'm an actress,” she says.
“Just constantly fascinated with why people do things, how people get through certain events in their life, why people behave in certain ways, good or bad, what gets them to that point in their life? Is it nature or nurture? I just find that whole unanswerable question absolutely fascinating. Anything with extreme behavior sort of fascinates me.”
The question has intrigued her before in “Liar” and “Angela Black,” and she proves that again in her latest foray with the thriller, “Sherwood,” premiering on BritBox Tuesday. Froggatt admits she plays the “baddie” in this series, which is based on actual events in England following a turbulent miners’ strike. When two ghastly murders occur in this mining community, it shatters the already-disordered district and results in a massive manhunt.
“To play the antagonist is always fun,” says Froggatt. “I don’t think I approach it differently if it’s based around a real subject matter or a sensitive subject matter. I do think there’s a sort of added responsibility to it when tackling a project like this. I don't think it affects how I prepare for the job as an actor, but it certainly has a gravitas that you sort of carry with you that I think is important.”
Kevin Doyle, who played the butler-turned-footman Molesley in “Downton Abbey,” costars. “What intrigues me is not so much who done it but — and I think this show particularly explores — that is WHY. Why it was done? Whenever I'm presented with somebody like a killer, for instance — and I've played a few in the past — I'm always trying to humanize them, to make them understandable to audiences. And so that's what I look for, that's what attracts me to particularly good dramas is to try and identify with — even when terrible things are done. Why have those terrible things been done?”
For costar David Morrissey, who plays the detective chief inspector on the case, it’s also the variety he seeks. “The challenge is what keeps me going, I think. That’s why I’ve never been in a series that goes on for years and years and years. I like playing different characters. You look at ‘The Missing,’ ‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘Blackpool’ (all in which he starred), three totally different shows and asking something different from me. That’s what you're there for: to take the skin off the onion,” he says.
“It’s not working down a coal mine, not doing three jobs to keep my family together, not being a soldier, or on the police force, it’s an absolute privilege when I go to work. Even if it’s scary or frightening, it’s a feeling of being alive. I love it, it’s great!"
The same goes for Lesley Manville, who costars in “Sherwood” and earned an Academy Award nomination for “Phantom Thread.” “What informs my choices and has always done is extremes of characters. Different characters from what I've played before and different ends of the social spectrum which I really enjoy doing,” she says.
“And if you can throw in a corset one week and not a corset the next, then that kind of makes it a little bit more interesting. I'm lucky because of all the work I've done with Mike Leigh, and all the opportunities he gave me throughout my career to play all these really vastly different characters, it's kind of stuck. And it is what gets me up in the morning really. I don’t want to just be a one-trick pony. So although, frankly, you can leave the corsets ... I don’t like wearing them but if somebody pays me enough, I'll put one on.”
James Graham who wrote the series and serves as executive producer on the show was an eyewitness to these mysteries. “I grew up in the community where the two murders that this story is inspired by took place,” he says.
“I think it was remarkable that the overlapping symbolism with the first murder set into place with somebody using a crossbow and then as an outlaw, disappearing into Sherwood Forest. ... And I think narratives and mythology and folklore do feed into this story to expand it, I think, slightly outside the traditional crime drama.”
Western with a twist
The CW’s new western, “Walker: Independence,” is a throwback in two ways. It’s a prequel to the network’s “Walker,” and it’s a return to one of America’s favorite genres, the western.
Westerns fell on hard times during the ‘70s and ‘80s but are experiencing a renaissance. Seamus Kevin Fahey, the showrunner and executive producer of “Independence,” says he was inspired by what he saw as a kid.
“I grew up, my dad loved westerns, so I watched westerns with him. ... I always had ... instead of just ‘Butch Cassidy,’ (it was) ‘McCabe and Mrs. Miller.’ What's the little western that's a little off? And so I always loved them, the popular ones and the obscure ones. ‘One-Eyed Jacks’ I think is one of the best westerns ever made. Not many people talk about it. So I think it always stayed with me. And I think it stayed with a lot of folks, like creators and just people who rewatched (the old) ones. And I don't know why it went dormant.
“Obviously there's ‘Deadwood’ and a gentleman by the name of Taylor Sheridan (who created “Yellowstone,”) who kind of helped the revival.”
Fahey says when he first thought of pitching the idea of a western to the networks, he was sure it wouldn’t go. “’They're never gonna bite. No one's gonna do a western.’ And then a couple shows came out, and just changed the landscape. And ‘The Harder They Fall’ came out and, and kind of just was a big splash... .
“I think it went dormant because no one had figured out, how do we come at it from a different way? ... What haven't we seen before? What are different voices we haven't highlighted, and storylines we haven't seen before? And maybe starting with the expectation, the tropes, and then figuring out ways to subvert it or twist it, or go for the unexpected, or go for something that's a little uncomfortable and being patient with the storytelling to get someplace that we haven't seen.”
“Walker: Independence” premieres on Thursday.
Wildfires ignite new series
Actor-writer Max Thieriot grew up in a small town in northern California and was a witness to the wildfires that swept through the area. Those experiences bring viewers the new “Fire Country,” premiering on CBS Friday.
As creator, star and executive producer of the show, Thieriot says, “I grew up in a town called Occidental. ... My family was staying at a friend's unit above their garage at the time. So I was literally born at home above someone's garage.
“But I grew up in a town of a thousand people in Sonoma County. I didn't realize how interesting life in a small town is until I left and went and worked in these big cities. And it was then that I sort of looked back and thought, ‘Wow, it's such a different way of living.’
“But it's also the comfort that you have and the familiarity you have with everybody and how close this community is. In times of struggle and when everybody needs to come together, they really do, and they all support each other. And I think even people who aren't from a small town can imagine what that's like and have thought about that. And so I think that's why I felt like it was an important and ... core foundation for the show.”
The series is about those people and the folk who fight the fires and accomplish the search-and-rescues, says executive producer Tony Phelan.
“Our firefighters battle wildfires from the Oregon border all the way down to Mexico. They also do water rescue, they do search and rescue. So there's all sorts of stories to tell. ... We've got quite a few mysteries at the center of our town that we're going to have a lot of fun with, and there will be a lot of intrigue sort of unspooling those.”
Showtime invites the vampire in
It’s not even Halloween yet, but another vampire is nipping at the neck.
“Let the Right One In” is a new 10-part series based on the original spooky Swedish film that’s landing on Showtime.
Streaming begins Friday with the cable premiere on Sunday. Demian Bichir (“The Bridge”) stars as the father who will go to all lengths to preserve his daughter, the vampire.
“I think our producers have created this ground where we can have fun doing such a dark show, and I choose to do that because we don't want to take this home,” he says.
“It has been very, very demanding and emotionally too. When I finished shooting this series, I was drained, and I'm sure the rest of my coworkers were.”
Bichir says when he was a boy he felt the pull of acting. “Even though I wanted to play soccer professionally and I tired up until I was 15, it was acting was what I was doing ever since I was a kid. It was a natural thing, a very powerful thing to do and I think it was when I was 17 that I decided I wanted to do this for the rest of my life because I realized that those two hours on stage every day — that was my real truly chance to be free, where I commanded — seriously and fully. It’s a very powerful feeling.”
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