Penny Dreadful Archives - Helen McCrory

Compelling, seductive horror: have you been watching Penny Dreadful?

On May 19, 2015May 19, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

The Introduction of Helen McCrory as a Bewitching Villain

by Gareth McLean |May 19, 2015 | The Guardian

The first series of Penny Dreadful was a bloody mess. No surprise there, you might say. What else is a spooky, sensational Victoriana drama about a possibly-possessed medium, an Quartermain-ish adventurer, an American gun-for-hire who’s secretly a werewolf, and Dr Frankenstein and his many monsters going to be? Throw in a legion of vampires pursuing and being pursued by our heroes – it alternated between chasing and being chased, a bit like the end credits of The Benny Hill Show – and it’s not exactly a recipe for Downton Abbey.

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Penny Dreadful: Helen McCrory on Playing Season 2’s Seductive Big Bad

On May 13, 2015April 14, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

“Evelyn Poole is not a rasping Troglodyte that comes up from the cellar. She has a voice thick with seduction and promise and temptation.”

Christina Radish | May 13, 2015 |Collider

From acclaimed writer John Logan, the Showtime horror drama Penny Dreadful is back. As Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) and Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) form a deeper bond, the group, including Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton), Dr. Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) and Sembene (Danny Sapani), must unite to banish the evil forces that threaten to destroy them.During this exclusive interview with Collider, actress Helen McCrory (who has returned as Evelyn Poole, aka Madame Kali, the seductive spiritualist that will pose a unique threat this season) talked about how much she was told about the character when she signed on, what a great collaborator John Logan is, what fans can expect from her motives, the fascinating research she got to do, just how much darker this season will get, and that this is the most eclectic cast she’s ever worked with. Be aware that there are some spoilers.

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‘Penny Dreadful’s’ Helen McCrory talks hunting the hunters in new season

On April 30, 2015May 19, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Taking a Bath in a Tub of Blood

by Rob Lowman | April 30, 2015 | LA Daily News

In a promo for Season 2 of Showtime’s “Penny Dreadful,” Helen McCrory is shown reclining in a bathtub filled with blood, eerily singing a variation of an old English folk ballad known as “The Unquiet Grave.”

“That was at 6 o’clock in the morning in a bright studio, and it wasn’t my finest hour,” says the actress, “but apparently a cracked voice is what they wanted.”

She then jokingly adds that she floated in the tub, “So I must be a witch.”

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Helen McCrory: ‘I’ve successfully repressed everything I don’t want people to know about me’

On April 25, 2015April 30, 2021 By helenistic No Comments

Inside the Head of… Helen McCrory

by Emma Cox | April 25, 2015 | Event Magazine

She grew up a ‘feral, compulsive liar’… perfect training for an actress. She’s at her most relaxed either asleep backstage during the interval or talking to strangers – which is why husband Damian Lewis has to remind her: ‘You’re not the Queen!’

What is your earliest memory?

Walking along a path near our home in Cameroon with my mum and my brother and my labrador Jasper. I am looking down at my knees, which were very dark at the time because they were covered in dust. I lived in Africa until I was six or seven, in Cameroon and Tanzania. It was absolutely beautiful, a great place to grow up.

What sort of child were you?

A feral, compulsive liar. Every country we went to, I would make up these fantastical stories about who I was and what my parents did, and just pray to God that my father’s posting would come around quickly before I was rumbled in the playground. I would say things like, ‘My father works for the Queen,’ which was based in truth as he worked for the Foreign Office, but I was just such a liar. I suppose in the end it was good practice for being an actress.

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