Charlotte Riley
The Town
27 November
Sherlock star Andrew Scott plays Mark Nicholas who returns to his home town for the first time in a decade following a shocking family tragedy. There he initially struggles to reconnect with his family and old friends, including his childhood sweetheart Alice, played by Charlotte Riley. Charlotte tells TV Choice about the drama, that also boasts a mystery element, and co-stars stars Doc Martin’s Martin Clunes, Julia McKenzie, Douglas Hodge, Sam Troughton, Aisling Bea, and Kelly Adams…
What can you tell us about Alice and how we are introduced to her?You’re first introduced to Alice when Mark is trying to just kind of drink his way through what’s happened. He’s gone to the pub and then suddenly you just see her in the background and it’s kind of strange for him because you assume that he hasn’t been back to this town for years; he’s assumed she moved away, but his childhood sweetheart is just suddenly still there and still very much present and part of the town and his memories.
So you just see a tiny glimpse of her out of the corner of his eye so to speak, and then she goes off and he runs after her and she disappears into the night. And then he goes round to her house hammered because she’s the only person he still feels he might have a connection with. She’s now married and has a child, but he doesn’t know this and turns up really drunk to try and talk to her. She’s not really in a place to be taking on his personal problems, but there’s still a spark between them. Of course there is, or there wouldn’t be a drama!
So is she the one that got away?Yes. They were childhood sweethearts and at the age of 18 they just had slightly different ambitions. Where she might not have had the confidence yet to go to university, he went off and just kind of left and didn’t really get back in touch, so it’s kind of a sore spot. What a dick, who’d do that? Of course she’s going to go and get married and have a baby. You left! So he leaves and I think he’s really shocked because he’s left to go to London and pursued his career and he’s not married and hasn’t got a child.
Could you relate to it in anyway? Where are you from originally?
Teeside. I go back there a lot, as my mum and dad still live up there. My sister, my brother and a lot of my best friends are still there and we still go to the same pubs and clubs that we always did. We have a cracking time.
I love Middlesbrough and going back, but doing what I do, you do get a sense that when you’re in London that things are happening and it’s just exciting and useful to be around that energy.
So do you feel out of place when you go home?No, no, not at all because my family and friends are all there, so I feel terribly welcome, but I would find it difficult doing what I do living in Middlesbrough.
Do people think you must have become much more flash and a name-dropper because you’ve moved away?
Certainly not my friends and I just tend to keep myself to myself. My dad said to me when I went to drama school and moved down to London, ‘You come back with any kind of accent and you won’t be coming back in this door!’
I very rarely use my own accent in my work and so certain words slightly change. My dad does tease me a little bit, ‘Ooh – oh you sound posh!’
Have there been any particularly memorable scenes in The Town?
Yes, we had to do a scene in the pub. Oh my God! I had to sing an Adele song, Rolling In The Deep. I mean, awesome, thanks guys! Singing it once was fine, but by the end of it the crew were like, ‘If I never hear Adele again, that’s fine with me!’
How many takes did you have to do?We did it for four hours, so it must have been about 30 altogether. And pretending to do Sambuca shots and singing, by the end of it I was like, ‘Yeah, anyone want to go and get hammered?!’
But that was quite good fun. It can be so trite when you’re having to sing to someone and look them in the eyes, it’s just like, ‘Ergh, hang me!’ But we found a fun way of doing it. I cracked up several times!
Are you a good singer?
I do a bit of singing. I can sing, but obviously it’s a different ball game when you’re doing it as a character. You’ve got to make it sound like just a normal person having a crack at doing a bit of singing. But I really enjoy singing and find it a much more difficult job than acting because you feel completely knackered. I love Forties music and I do a bit of singing with some friends in a harmony, kind of an Andrews Sisters-inspired band, which is great fun. We’re called The Flirtinis. Don’t ask! We sing with a band called The Jive Aces who were on Britain’s Got Talent.
Both you and your fiancé Tom Hardy have worked in America. How have you found Hollywood?
LA is a very specific experience and, in small doses, it can be quite good fun. I don’t think LA is somewhere I’ll ever move, or we’d ever move to because it’s just too far away from Middlesbrough quite frankly! It’s really good fun and loads of lovely people go there, but it’s just not for me really. But you know, it’s grand to go out there and do the work and have fun. It’s funny people think I live there now and I’m like, ‘No’.
Do people assume Tom is over there, too?
Yes, but just because you’re doing Hollywood films, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to live in LA.
Do you struggle to see each other if you’re on different continents?
We have a very strict rule that we see each other every two weeks. We’ve been lucky. The job I just did was very exhausting, so I took a long period of time off to spend time with my family and Tom, and he had some time off before. He’s doing Mad Max now, so we had six months together. We’ve been quite blessed really and we make it work.
Did you see him wearing the scary Bane mask for The Dark Knight Rises because he looks kind of frightening, doesn’t he?
Yes I did. Yeah.
How was that?
It was wicked. It was really cool. It’s interesting living with a person that’s bald and five times the size he normally is. I said to him last night, ‘When am I just going to have a normal boyfriend where you’re not either bald and huge?’ He had a beard for like six months for Mad Max and he’s just shaved it all off. Hurrahhhhh! I was like, ‘Oh my God, you have a face! Amazing! There you are, the person that I fell in love with.’
Are there any plans to work together?
Oh, I’m sure there will be, somewhere along the line when we are like 70. No, I’m joking. Yes, definitely. How could you not want to? We work very well together creatively.
Have you got any projects in mind?
No, not yet. But we will do I’m sure.
Any plans to get married?
Yes, I’m sure it will happen at some point soon.
How do you relax?
Avigail Tlalim, who plays Mark’s sister Jodie in The Town, and I are going to play the ukulele together. She’s a really good player and I’m learning at the moment. I brought my ukulele in and she heard me struggling. I’m not very good at strumming at the moment.
I'm also reading a fabulous book about Picasso and I sometimes like to knit.
ITV1, Wednesday
