Fingersmith
Low life, high drama
- from 27 March on ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE
Sally Hawkins plays Sue Trinder
When Sally Hawkins first walked onto the set of ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE's Fingersmith, she felt as though she'd stepped straight into the pages of one of her favourite novels.
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"I read Fingersmith a while ago and it's a fantastic book. It races along and Sarah Waters creates this amazing Victorian world.
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"As soon as I walked on set, I was completely in the grip of that time," says the 27-year-old actress.
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Londoner Hawkins relished the chance to play Sue, the young woman whom Rivers draws into his tangled web of deceit.
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"Sue's an innocent but she's also highly streetwise and instinctive.
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"When Rivers and Mrs Sucksby persuade her to pose as Maud's maid in order to encourage her to trust him, she loses that innocence. She discovers that she's really not very good at being bad," says Hawkins.
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On paper, the swindle is simple. But, for Sue, feelings of guilt lurk in the background like pickpockets preparing to pounce.
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"Sue is a free spirit and she finds it hard having to put on an act all of the time and it becomes so much more complicated when she realises how fond she is of Maud.
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"She's in an agonising predicament: she wants to do Mrs Sucksby proud – she's always had this idea that Sue would make their fortune – but she's faced with this beautiful, pure girl who she finds she has feelings for."
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Though Fingersmith is set in the 1860s – and suffused with the kind of sensationalism that thrilled and scandalised Victorian society in equal measure – Hawkins describes it as a modern story.
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"Sue is a modern girl – she's not much different from me or you.
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"Of course, it's exciting to enter this Dickensian world and the costumes are marvellous – my mum's delighted I'm wearing a fancy dress for once! – but it doesn't seem distant and unfamiliar like some period pieces.
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"It's quite modern and the story is a love story, it's a thriller, it's exciting, it's beautiful and it's sad."
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Hawkins recently appeared in Mike Leigh's award-winning film Vera Drake, alongside her Fingersmith co-star Imelda Staunton, and is currently starring in Federico GarcÃa Lorca's The House Of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre.
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She grew up in south-east London, where she developed a passion for performing at a young age.
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"I was always fascinated by the idea of creating different worlds and I was obsessed with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire – I wanted to be Ginger Rogers in a big floaty, feathery dress," she says.
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Instead, Hawkins went on to train at Rada and to discover a new passion – for making people laugh.
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"I love acting but I also love writing, especially comedy. I contributed to Concrete Cow, a Radio 4 sketch show, last year and I loved performing it and hearing people laugh – it's quite exhilarating and thrilling," she says.
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She also recently worked briefly with two comedians who know a lot about that thrill: David Walliams and Matt Lucas, creators of the award-winning ´óÏó´«Ã½ series Little Britain.
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"I was the girlfriend of 'Kenny Craig, stage hypnotist'," she laughs.
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"It was brilliant but I just couldn't keep a straight face. They're so good and they write on the spot.
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"People get so excited when they find out I was it. It's always: 'You were in Little Britain? Sod the Mike Leigh – that's fantastic!'
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"I'm in one scene in Little Britain but that's enough – I am forever a different woman in my brother's eyes."
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Working on Fingersmith, her first major TV role, has fuelled Hawkins' desire to do more on the small screen.
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"It was terrifying in a way because it was so unknown to me, but Imelda, Elaine and Rupert and all of the crew were just wonderful – I made some really good friends and it was a unique experience.
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"That said, they all set me up at the end of filming. They said I had to do one last scene where I come through a door because something had gone wrong.
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"I was such an idiot – I totally fell for it. I came through the door – and there was no one there, just a camera.
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"In my logic I thought, 'There's obviously something I don't know, so I'll just carry on'... but of course they were all round the corner, laughing their heads off and watching me on the monitor!"
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For this Fingersmith fraudster, it was a scam too far: "I'll get my own back! Wait till I see them again..."
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