You’re currently playing Katherine in the BBC1 Period drama The Paradise – for anyone who hasn’t seen it can you tell us a little bit about the drama?
It’s set in a department store – the first department store that was set up in England in the North Easy. So, it’s a very new concept – it’s set in 1870. The people in this town have never experienced shopping in this way before.
Before it was kind of more out of necessity that you would shop. It’s tapping into, more so, women’s desires and trying to get them to indulge than men. It’s very loosely based on Emile Zola’s The Ladies Paradise and it’s just really interesting because all the business models that are still around today like marketing, advertising and PR – it all existed back then too. And it was the first time when a store would be cluttered with stuff in order to tempt women to buy things that they didn’t need but that they wanted.
The character I play, Katherine, she isn’t yet married, but she should be by now because of the age that she is. And it’s not for a lack of offers, she’s a bit of a rebel and she won’t conform to what she’s supposed to. She sets her sights on Moray who is the owner of The Paradise, and she’s attracted to his ambition. She’s used to getting what she wants, she’s quite spoilt and she’s very manipulative, she’s very clever and cunning and she’ll do everything she can in order to snag him! (laughs)
Part of the appeal is that it’s kind of a bit cat and mouse and so yeah it was a really fun project to work on.
Is that what attracted you to playing this part?
Yes I just loved the character. She’s so different to really anything that I’ve done before. I was delighted to be given the opportunity to play her because as an actress you know what you’re capable of. And you’re kind of at the mercy of other people to give you that opportunity to show that you can do it and thankfully I got the chance to play her, and I really enjoyed it.
And you’ve played so many different roles in a number of TV series and movies – what is it that you look for in a role before you say yes?
Oh I don’t know! Because I’m ever-evolving and changing, my life is changing and I’m at different phases in my life. I mean, maybe certain roles that I was attracted to in the past – if they came up today that attraction wouldn’t be there. So, it’s a very current thing and it’s subjective to what’s happening at that time in your life as to why you’re attracted to something.
I never want to play the same role twice. I just love exploring different mindsets and different characters and looking at the psychology of how their mind works – I just get fascinated by all of that. I think I tend to get attracted to dark characters – I have a fascination with the dark side!
You’ve recently finished filming The Loft, a psychological thriller, alongside Wentowrth Miller, Eric Stonestreet and Karl Urban – what was that experience like?
I watched the original and the amazing thing about this remake is that a lot of the time there will be an American remake of a foreign film and then it never keeps the essence as to what made it so brilliant – it kind of gets lost in translation.
The great thing about this project is that they kept what made it brilliant, which is the director. For him, it was second time round directing. You know, first time round you can’t get a better storyboard than actually doing the film then doing it again.
I love the original and I have a feeling, because I haven’t seen the final product that the American version is going to be even better because of all the experience he has from before.
I think for me the main draw was to work with the director. I would have loved to have had more to do in it because I really admire him and respect him, and I’d love to work with him again. So, it was a great experience.
I got to go to New Orleans as well and some of it was shot in Belgium as well, all the interior stuff, but I was only needed for New Orleans. And that was a great experience because I’d never been and honestly it’s the best place to go as a tourist. The music, the food, there’s so many attractions. We were there with my daughter, so there’s an insectarium, a zoo, an aquarium, a big IMAX – we were there for a month and we never got bored. The personal experience was brilliant and the professional experience was great as well.
Do you ever get starstruck – and who is the most famous person you’ve ever met?
Ooh, well that’s subjective isn’t it? I’ve met some pretty famous people and worked with some pretty famous people. I got to work with Kathryn Bigelow after she had just won the Oscar so that was pretty amazing. She’s an incredible person – she’s such a brilliant role model for women because she always, every day, even though filming hours are ungodly, she would always be on set and look impeccable, beautiful woman.
I can’t believe the age that she is because she doesn’t look it. And she’s had no work done; she looks after herself physically with how she eats – that what it seemed to me. And then she’s just an amazing director – she commands this huge crew, because it was a big production that I worked on – and she just does it with such grace and authority, and skill, and talent. And it just makes you go ‘wow’. I don’t really have role models, there are people that I admire, and she would certainly be one of those.
I was lucky that in the generation I grew up in there weren’t all those kind of tabloidy magazines. Nowadays I think about my daughter and when she gets to an age where they’ll have like a faux pas double-spread of celebrities and you’ll have one with sweat marks and one with a rim of coke around their nose, and you go ‘How can you put that on the same page? What kind of message is that giving young girls?!’ It’s just frightening the strong message that gets sent out and it makes you think ‘actually, there are really classy, intelligent, successful, and strong women out there’ – I’d rather my daughter be seeing and exposed to them rather than the person who sort of has their five minutes.
I mean it’s not going to change and then it’s your job as the parent to try and teach, because I don’t believe in censorship – well to a certain point obviously – there’s guidelines to protect their minds. But if she is exposed to even shows on TV that carry subliminal messages, it’ll be my job to step in and say ‘well that’s not really life’ and teach her that it’s not just black and white, there are grey areas, but to still let her have fun and be a child.
Finally, what’s coming up for you in 2013?
Well, The Paradise has been commissioned again so we just have to wait and see exactly what happens with that in terms of storylines. There are a couple of things on the bubble as always. At the moment I can’t really do anything until I pop out my own production (laughs).
It’s a really nice time actually because normally I’ve got a million and one scripts in my hand. It’s really nice to actually just be domesticated. To eat, sleep and cook, and knit and play with my daughter and try and get the house in order. So I’m really enjoying this time and really relishing in it because it’s the calm before the storm.
After this birth it’ll take me another few years to kind of socialise again or want to socialise – you know you just don’t want to leave them but you still have to try and keep the balance of life and do what’s right for your mental state so that you’re the best parent and person you can be.
Elaine Cassidy stars in The Paradise on BBC1 at 9pm on Tuesdays
FemaleFirst @FemaleFirst_UK
Shabana Adam @Shabs_A
Tagged in BBC TV Parenting Parenting Advice Parenting Style