A 21st Century Heroine
by Scarlett Russell | The Times, Culture | July, 2017
That Helen McCrory is starring in a new prime-time thriller called Fearless is rather apt. This is a woman no stranger to playing feisty, fiery, even controversial characters.
Her stage roles range from Lady Macbeth, Medea and, most recently, Hester Collyer in Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea, while on film she has played Cherie Blair and Queen Elizabeth I. She’s perhaps most loved as matriarch Polly Gray in the BBc’s Peaky Blinders or Madame Kali in Penny Dreadful.
Her latest role is the lead in new ItV political drama Fearless. She plays the chain-smoking, vodka-swilling, but brilliant solicitor, Emma Banville, who is known for defending some of society’s most abhorred suspects. The plot follows her as she attempts to free a man she believes was wrongly convicted of killing a schoolgirl in east anglia. As she delves deeper into the case, she sees that there is much more to it than she first imagined – and that police and intelligence services around the world will do anything to stop her.
Fortunately, there is nothing fierce about McCrory in person. the 48-year-old actress sits poised and elegant in London’s Soho hotel where she has arrived, right on time, for our interview. It’s midday and so she apologises when, halfway through our chat, a spinach omelette arrives.
“Do you mind?” she asks politely. “I’ve already had a breakfast very early today so I’m having another.” While not intimidating, McCrory certainly knows her mind. Between dainty mouthfuls, she carefully considers questions before answering them in her well-spoken lilt. Sharp and astute, her self-confidence is unwavering and a mark of her successful career playing complex characters.
