Ruth Wilson as Alice Morgan in Luther. Photo copyright of the BBC.
This is the third of five BBC America press interviews with the cast and crew of Luther, the new BBC America six-part psychological crime drama premiering Sunday, October 17th @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST. In this interview, actress Ruth Wilson gives readers a better insight into what makes her character, Alice Morgan, tick.
Ruth Wilson is Alice Morgan, beautiful, extraordinarily intelligent and introduced as a key witness in Detective John Luther's first investigation. Luther, however, quickly discovers she is not as innocent as she seems.
Ruth reveals what is going on in Alice Morgan's brilliant mind. "At the age of 13 she went to university and studied physics, so she left home and engaged with people a lot older than herself at a very young age – so she’s emotionally stunted in that sense. She looks at things from a physicist's point of view, that we are matter, we are just atoms that form. Essentially, we’re all going to die anyway and you're just a body of matter as that tree is, so if you chop down that tree it's the same as killing someone.”
"She doesn’t interact in the same way other people do – she has no empathy, she doesn’t feel things in the same way, so she doesn’t feel the consequences of her actions. She has complete fun in the world that she lives in."
There is an interesting relationship that develops between Alice and Luther – something for which Alice is not quite prepared. "She's always been in control, always been dominant, always felt superior to everyone around her,” Ruth explains. "Then she suddenly meets her match, as does he, in this interview room. There's an energy both intellectually and sexually – it awakens feelings in her and in Luther, but especially in her, because she’s never had these sorts of feelings before. They can't leave each other alone. They seem to interact on a level that no one else can. He's potentially a psychopath. Or he's got those tendencies. So she's trying to woo him across to have fun on the 'dark side'."
Writer Neil Cross has created some fascinating characters and relationships, and Ruth reveals what attracted her most about the project. "What intrigued me about the script was the writing, which was fantastic, and the characters within it – you don't get many female roles which are evil in that sense. I was really intrigued by it, and thought it was a wonderful piece that you could have a lot of fun with."
And, on the general style of the piece, all the cast seem to agree: "The style that Neil writes in is quite heightened – it's not an average cop drama, it's a psychological thriller. It's very cinematic in the way it's written and the way it's shot. I think it's a really unique piece of television. It's a psychological thriller which is edgy, exciting, fun, stylish and unique. You'd be stupid to miss it!"
Alice is extremely intelligent, but doesn't seem to fulfill the traditional geeky stereotype. "There are quite a few ways you could probably play Alice. She's a physicist, so she could be quite geeky – odd in that way – mousy. But I had this idea that she's almost too perfect. She's untouchable, she's someone that you'd see – be struck by, she's very striking – but you'd never see her again. She's almost an apparition. She's also sexy – she toys with men, she toys with other women – she manipulates people."
Alice also seems a world away from Jane Eyre, Ruth's best known role. "I try all the time to do something that's going to take me somewhere else as an actress. The parts I played, both Jane Eyre and Queenie in Small Island, there’s always an emotional drive throughout the story with those characters. It's been quite weird for me to play, because I'm so used to being emotionally driven by being in love with someone, or loss of something, or frightened by someone – suddenly she is this all powerful woman who doesn’t have those feelings."
Research was therefore needed to be able to get to grips with Alice Morgan's world. "I watched lots of films about psychopaths and bought loads. I’m sure the cashier must have thought I was very weird. I also looked online and watched a documentary about psychopaths, which was frightening. It gave me a real insight into psychopaths and sociopaths and how they work and how they feel – they don't feel like we do, they don't have empathy and they don't have remorse."
Some might think playing a psychopath would be a difficult, even distressing, job. Ruth found it quite the opposite. "I've had a lot of fun playing her – I'd come off set and feel sort of gleeful with the scenes I do! They're just completely otherworldly."
As noted above, photo copyright of the BBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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