- Eve? - Yes?
- With as few words as possible, how would you describe
and tease this piece for an audience?
There's something in the well?
[Laughs]
- You are great, man.
That should be on a poster.
- This is why I'm an actor, and I don't work in marketing.
- And I love that you said it with a slight question mark.
"There's something in the well?"
[Laughs]
- "Question mark."
That will be my tagline.
- What about you, Tom?
What's yours?
- Mine would be, "Is there?"
No, mine would be,
"You think you know. You really don't."
- Yeah. "But, you have no idea."
- Eve, I have been dying to know,
how did you prepare for this role?
- Well, as you know, I did a lot of preparation.
[Laughs]
I worked really hard on research.
No, I didn't.
I got cast really late and I didn't have any time
to do much, but try to do an English accent.
- Yeah, you came in really late.
I remember the readthrough, weren't you, like,
learning as you went?
You were like, "Oh my god, episode three is great!"
- No, literally. They cast me, and I was reading the scripts
on the plane.
- What would have happened if you had hated it?
Imagine you'd have got to episode four,
and you're like, "Aw, no, turn the plane around."
- Yeah, no, I would have done it anyway.
Just for (beep) and gigs, you know?
I was excited to be in London.
And I got to work with you,
the opportunity - - That's what I was waiting -
They'll cut everything else out.
[Laughs]
Unlike some of my co-stars, I actually went
in to do a deep dive, and I spent several years -
No, I'm joking.
How did I prepare for this role?
Well, I read the, I read the scripts
and the book, and I had a pretty good idea
of who I thought David might be.
But I think, as you’ll know, like, it’s such a, I think
it was such a piece of reacting in the moment.
There wasn't a huge amount of prep to do,
and I think I, particularly, me and Rob had,
the brilliant Rob Aramayo -
- Yes.
- We had to do a lot of work on our accent work,
which I think really helped.
Mary Howland, our brilliant accent coach,
she talked not only about sound, but placement of sound
and energy, and I think that really helped with that.
But, I think a lot of it was just
to do with, like, rehearsing.
We were so lucky on this, weren't we?
That we got - - Yeah.
- two weeks rehearsal,
before we even turned cameras on, which is so -
I mean, I don't think I've ever had two weeks rehearsal
for a TV drama.
Usually, it tends to be, you know
you can talk things through and stuff.
- OK, so Tom,
our show is very intense.
It features a very intense, disturbed marriage.
How do you think our characters' relationship
differs from our real-life relationship?
[Laughs]
- Well, it's Eve, isn't it?
Yeah. - Yeah.
- Well, Eve - - Nice to meet you.
[Laughs]
- Again, I think, I'm pretty sure it was unintentional,
but because we started shooting the flashback scenes first
in Scotland.
I think it really helped, because we started with that,
it was so fun.
And obviously, that's exactly how they were,
you know, they're these young, you know,
these young kids in love, and then we see them together
many years later, and you go, "How did you get
"from that joyful, happy, carefree, lovely couple
"to that? What's happened?"
That's actually the brilliance
of the drama, and that was really helpful for me
because I could play the, sort of, the later moments
of being, like, horrible to you
and just being really cruel and twisted.
And it really broke my heart because I remember thinking
"God, only a month ago, we were, sort of, sat in Scotland,
"you know, having a Guinness, looking at that lake,
"and just having a good time."
But I think, as well, I like working with everyone
very much,
but I found you very similar in your approach
to the work, like me, which is, we work very hard,
we take it very seriously, but we understand the need
for a release in that.
Otherwise, the whole piece would
just be this heavy-ass cannon ball.
So, I think it really helped, as well, that we could jump
in and out of making fun of each other
until the cameras roll, and then go
and just sort of letting loose.
I found that a very useful balance.
- Yeah.
I loved working with you.
You know I did.
[Laughs]
- You know it.
I think we got along like a house on fire.
Right? - Nice!
'Cause of the story.
[Laughs]
- No, but we did, we got along really well,
and I personally, I know other people are different,
Rob Aramayo would be different,
but I like to get to know the people that I work with.
I like to feel comfortable.
The best work I do is when I'm relaxed.
- I can't wait to see that, by the way.
[Laughs]
- Nice.
- Aye.
- So, I just enjoyed it.
I mean, I just think, we had so much fun.
I think the more intense the subject matter is,
the darker it is, it helps to keep it light
in between takes, so I thought we got along really well,
and that definitely helped play
a very convincing, disturbed relationship.
And I was so sad the day you left.
Remember, I cried.
- You did cry.
- When you sang me Whitney Houston's
"I Will Always Love You."
- Yeah.
- No, but I did think, though, because we were all kind of, like
young and, sort of, you know, like, really excited
about doing the show, and wanted to get it right,
I thought we all had a good sort of back and forth
with each other about - - Yeah.
- helping each other out when we needed it.
- Were there any moments that you were, like, confused
or like, or anything like that?
Or did you kind of make sense of the story
pretty much from day one?
- I was not confused, actually, with the story at all.
For some reason, I really understood Adele
and who she was and what her motives were.
I was more excited by the challenge of, you know,
of sort of, like, playing with reality
and playing with the storyline,
and the audience, you know, thinking they're being led down
one path and then they're actually being led down another.
I've never been able to do that before,
so it was more enjoyable rather than, you know, confusing.
I never really felt lost.
- Yeah, I was kind of the same.
There were moments when I thought,
"Why the hell is he doing this?"
So actually, whenever I'm sort of met with those,
and this piece was, like, full of them,
I'm going, "I just don't understand."
You got two paths, anyone would think, "Go down that path."
But, you have to make sense of the fact that he doesn't
go down that path and takes the sort of bizarre route.
But, I do think it was so well thought through.
I think Steve Lightfoot's adaptation was so great
that any twists, any turns that made me feel like,
"Wait, I just don't understand this."
Once you actually look closely at what's happening
in the scene, I think it all works.
So, even though it's kind of out there, narratively,
quite a lot of it, I don't think there's ever a moment
where an audience will think, "That's, nah."
You know what I mean?
- Yeah, totally.
- What from this experience, Eve, will you carry
forward into your next and for years to come?
- I think, don't overthink it.
I think Adele just went down some weird
path, and I just sort of followed her, like, you know,
and I didn't have any time to overthink my choices.
So maybe, just like, work less. [Laughs]
- That was great.
- Yeah, what did you think the answer was going to be?
Working with Tom Bateman and working less.
- Sure, like, often, it's the same thing.
But like, that's a really good answer.
Also, I just love the idea of,
"What did you learn from that really tough experience?"
Just don't do any work, man.
[Laughs] - Don't do it.
- I don't know if I have the balls to do it every time,
but it was a good learning lesson.
- I think it worked for you, man. - Thank you.
- That was great.
I think, now that you've said it, I think
I don't want to just steal your -
Mine is, obviously, do no work and copy everyone else.
But I think, it kind of reminded me sometimes of doing,
like, when I've done Shakespeare plays on stage.
The stakes are so sort of bizarre and out there,
and quite often, you've got these sort
of supernatural elements, which our piece has in it.
And to kind of trust in the world
and know that the audience will go with it.
Because I know, myself, as an audience member,
I will watch some crazy-ass stuff
and you buy it, if it's done well.
And I think it's just sort of committing to it,
even if you think, "But, this is mental that,
"you know, there's this, sort of, other plane
"and we're, you know, communicating with it."
It's crazy, that sounded nuts.
But, if you think, well, it's only nuts if you flag it up.
But, if you think, if you just buy it, sell it, like -
I suppose just act well.
- Yeah, and commit.
Commit to the role. - I suppose commit to it
and believe in what you're doing would be the real lesson.