- How are you doing Gillian?
- I'm good, thanks.
How are you doing?
- Very well. Thank you.
- I'm gonna begin, I mean, one of the things I love
about The Crown
and one of the many things
I love about it,
is how it kind of chooses relatively
small moments and builds kind of whole episodes on it.
It's a kind of understated program
despite entering into such a kind of overstated world.
I'm assuming you're a big fan of the series already.
And how great is that to go into a project
when the tones are established
and you know that,
you know it's good.
So there's that kind of,
there's no element of doubt in your mind.
It's gonna come across well.
You kind of know
it's a special TV show.
- Yeah, I mean that's true.
But as an individual,
that a little bit of a pressure,
I guess to come across
as well as everybody else has come across.
'Cause that could certainly happen where,
you know, it's the first time that
there's been a bad performance! (laughs)
Very, very honored to be a part of it.
I have been a fan for a long time
and it was really wonderful to work with everyone.
But you're right.
It is nice to know that there's an established tone
and that there is success
and that you're stepping into something
that has a degree of safety in it, I guess.
- And I mean, one of the things we've Thatcher,
which many people found hard
to relate to with her
was that she seemed to almost lack empathy,
at least on the surface,
at least in what the public saw of her.
And I just,
I guess for the regular person,
it can be quite hard to connect to someone like that.
But in this instance it was your job
to find that connection.
I wondered if it was a challenge for you.
And also if you look at her decisions
and politics in a different way
now you've put them in body tone.
You've you've got into her head.
- Well, I think one of the most important things
that I find in playing a real life character
is to kind of put aside my beliefs
about them or preconceptions
or opinions about policies etc
So it's really,
you know, jumping in and learning who this person was,
what the motivations were
that led her to make the decisions
that she made based on how she grew up
and her relationship with her parents
and et cetera.
So I really focused on that and the series,
you know, really focuses on her as a career woman,
as a parent, and delves less into her politics,
more into her relationship with The Queen.
And certainly the show itself
is all through the lens of The Crown.
So this isn't a biopic about Thatcher and her politics,
it's you know,
it's a series about The Crown
and how the different prime ministers
who come through have an impact
on The Queen and their relationship with The Queen.
- Was there anything that you kind of really wanted
to ask her during this process,
any kind of burning questions
that you felt would have really helped you
get into her head?
- Yeah I mean, certainly,
you know, there are many that I've been asked actually
by journalists that I'd love to be able
to actually, you know,
answer them truthfully based on being able to go there.
you know, what do you think about that?
but I don't know,
you know, because all of the audiences,
for instance they're not recorded,
they're not spoken about
it is, you know,
creative license and so there are certainly
things that transpired between The Queen and Mrs Thatcher
and also, you know,
different reactions that she had
or didn't have through the decade that she was in power.
That one might want to say,
you know, what was really behind that decision,
or did you have any idea of the impact that
that was going to have.
And are you still okay with that impact?
You know, yeah,
So I guess yes,
I would have had a long list of questions
(mumbles)
- I was doing an impersonation
of Michael Kane and I realized
I wasn't doing an impersonation
of Michael Kane I was doing an impersonation
of Steve Coogan doing an impersonation
of Michael Kane
(laughs) (mumbles)
and I realized it because
when people portray people,
they almost have to go slightly
into the realm of characachure
'cause they emphasize their kind of sensibilities.
And they're kind of foibles and stuff.
I was wondering when playing Thatcher,
did you draw on,
you know, the likes of
Meryl Streep's
performance as well
Or was it very much just on the woman herself,
or did you use other kind of portrayals of Thatcher
to help you craft your performance?
- I've always been afraid of watching
anybody else's stuff before I play somebody,
because I'm afraid of,
you know, as you say,
copying them or stealing elements
of what they did with their voice
or what they did with their mannerisms.
So it's been a long time since I've seen any other,
versions of that journal.
So yes, as you say,
it's easy to get into character caricature and parody.
And that was something that
is one of the biggest challenges.
I think for somebody who's been parodied so much as Thatcher
you think of all the puppets and et cetera.
And so I think the bigger challenge was to keep her
or to make her human you know,
and not to mimic or yeah,
or parody too much.
And I think that's probably one of the biggest challenges
- You do a fantastic job of it.
So thanks for your time today much appreciated
cheers. Take care.
Bye Bye.
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