hi how are you today very well you congratulations on joining the split i love this tv show um and
you're a brand new character i was wondering if we could uh describe your character a little bit
to start us off yeah um i i'm a massive well i'm a massive fan of Abi morgan first and foremost
um bizarrely i i just recently moved house and i was unpacking a box and it was full of some old
journals from drama school kind of days and um i flicked open a page and one of my like goals
was to work with abby morgan i don't think i actually told her that and i was like dick
that's amazing yeah that was really cool um and um so yes i was fortunate enough to to join this
final season um extraordinary talented bunch of people pleasure to be around them all the best
downtime banter i've ever had on a set because they're all just so bright and
brilliant and creative and i remember one day there was a piano in them in the room
in our kind of like holding room steve mangan on the piano all of us singing around the piano
pulls up the chords on his phone and off we are like ebony and ivory
yeah just just wonderful to be around such interesting and interested people
um yeah everything you would hope for when you're collaborating on a on a show like that
oh so good so so your character is a child psychologist how is it getting into that role
um i think as an actress i've always come from
that kind of um direction as in what who is this person what are they feeling what are they
thinking what's their background like it's it's putting the a person together like a jigsaw puzzle
um because i guess we are all a product of our past our childhood and so and now
i'm also a mother i think there's a natural um interest in in that stuff anyway like please
let me talk about laura um so i've i've always actually just as a person showing an interest in
in that world my next-door neighbors um are both child psychologists um so that was a good resource
i have also used a psychotherapist myself over the years and so i had a session with him and and
and interviewed him in a sense um just to pick his brain um about tools and um
different schools of thought um and um
there are a gazillion different ways his character i guess could have been played but for me it was
that first and foremost she deeply deeply cares about people especially children
um and um and that is her that's her mo i guess in that way and and um the reason why
she does what she does and and i think what's lovely about her is that because of the job she
does she's done her own homework so she's not harboring or holding any of her own baggage
which is interesting throwing a character like that in the dynamic of this female
family this very and and um which is enlightening insightful but also jarring for them i think at
times because she just says it how it is which can come across too direct at times
can come across possibly even insensitive at times and yet that is not her intention
and what's so interesting is that i feel like she says what everyone knows but won't won't admit to
yeah sounds fascinating uh character and it'll be interesting to see how she fits in with other
characters who are you kind of like dodged a subject so how does her effect ripple on um the
other characters in the show i think by the end of it when we get to um episode six i feel like
her words are being repeated back at her i feel like she comes you know at the very beginning you
know what what she says her analysis her her you could say her method her her ideal for life her
ideal for relationships ends up being mirrored back at her by other characters i think they um
they weren't ready to say or admit any of those things at the start and yet by the end
they never say she's right or she was right or i don't think they do anyway um
and from not what i remember but but they definitely end up acknowledging that um
there was there was stuff that was not admitted or there was stuff that was um
being ignored or they weren't ready for whatever reason to to truly to truly let go of or look at
um yeah and also you've got those three brilliant i won't say child actors but
the character of livy isn't really a child anymore um and you throw that dynamic on set
and it changes everything about you you're not you're not dealing with 40 year old problems
anymore you're not dealing with a marriage breakup or infidelity or or secrets and lies
you're dealing with three young human beings and um it changes everything absolutely so
it's like researching into your character in child psychology opens your eyes to how
kids react and including your own and and does it make you look at them in a new perspective
um i think for whatever reason i think i've always like i said you've been interested and aware
of that stuff like um um maybe from my my own childhood stuff and i've always been fascinated
of that nature nurture thing um and um so i have i have that daily awareness from the second i became
a mother i think um and um it's just yeah it's just amplified i think going going to work in a
way that maybe it wasn't before when i wasn't a mother i don't yeah i don't know but um but also
all of us on set i think our parents um stephen nicola fiona and about like we're we were all
we all get it yeah absolutely i can't wait to see what you do with this character i also can't wait
for you to join because this is such a one like we talked about Abi morgan before wonderfully written
and female-led kind of production and show what was it like joining this kind of like forefront of
female writers productions directors incredible um and a and a a marker of how far we've come
and if i'm honest at first i was really nervous about playing this role
because it almost felt like she was unlikable in the sense that everyone's rooting for
hannah and nathan like who wouldn't be you know they're glorious actors then they're glorious
characters that are on screen and you care for them so deeply um and so i was a little bit um
tentative about playing this role um but um
i can't say too much
there's anything interesting it's like oh she can't really talk much about her role but
yeah yeah no i i i was tentative but it was interesting because both abby and nicola on
different occasions said to me if this role was male you wouldn't hesitate saying these
things you wouldn't hesitate being so direct you wouldn't hesitate being so
not righteous but um but just open and honest i was like you're absolutely right why am i worried
about it being unlikable if it came out of a man's mouth no one would see it was unlikable exactly
yeah that's what i put my big girl trousers on and went to work
oh amazing well i can't wait to see uh season three and your new character and it's been an
absolute pleasure to talk with you today i've been a huge fan your gypsy rose lee was just impeccable
so oh thank you so it's been a pleasure and good luck with the series oh thank you sarah thank you
i think you'll enjoy it ladies and gentlemen you're watching
hey you guys hey you guys how are you guys is that from the goonies nice