Claudie Blakley Q&A

Tell us about Patricia

Patricia is a journalist for a local newspaper. She’s linked to the story through her relationship with Kieron, who is both her colleague and her partner. She’s a tough woman and is definitely ballsy! She’s a good strong dependable friend to people and is in a solid good place in her life

What is her relationship with Kieron like?

They both work for this newspaper and I think they work quite closely together. They’ve become really close friends over the time they’ve worked together. He’s gone through a divorce and I think their relationship has developed and become more intense since that. They’ve become closer because she’s really been there for him and I think he went to hell and back with his divorce and found solace in the bottle. She supported him through that and that’s when their friendship deepened and became more serious.  It feels like a really grown-up relationship. She hasn’t been married before, I think she’s had a few long-term relationships but she has never found the one. Secretly she believes Kieron is the one but because of her nature she is patient and would never push him into moving forward. Their relationship is really good and really fun. She spends most weekends at his flat. She has very strong feelings for him but is treading carefully, she really wants a future with him.

What is her relationship like with Adam, Kieron’s son?

It’s a weird triangle. She doesn’t really know anything about his son as Kieron keeps that side of his life very private. When they do meet it’s by accident. In the past Adam has been very difficult with previous girlfriends and she’s no exception to this. She’s knocked off balance by him because Adam has a very confident, intimidating way with her but she’s not one to show weakness so they subtly square up to each other and agree to keep their meetings secret. She’s unnerved by his sexual interest in her but shrugs it off as a teenage thing. When it comes out in the open that they’ve met the three try to have this dysfunctional relationship with each other where they all try and get on, but whenever she’s left in the flat with Adam he really gets inside her head. The relationship then becomes quite tense and eerie and she becomes afraid of him, which makes things tricky with Kieran. Then everything spirals out of control!

Why do you think Kieron keeps Patricia secret from Adam?

Maybe because he’s been very difficult in the past. He’s a very troubled teenager and he is desperate for his parents to get back together. Kieron really cares about Patricia but he buries his head in the sand and would rather keep it separate until he has to face it. Kieron likes to brush things under the carpet.

What does Patricia think about Kieron’s neighbours?

She thinks they are really odd. Initially she’s slightly amused by them but then when the body is found she’s completely bewildered by their lack of interest and care and then becomes a bit freaked out by their behaviour. She keeps a fair amount of distance from them.

Patricia is really keen to cover Melissa’s story, do you think it resonates with her particularly?

Yes. As a woman finding out that somebody was so lonely and that people forgot about her and that no one was interested enough to find out what happened, I think that really resonates with her. She’s so keen to get to the bottom of it. Also it’s a huge scoop for the newspaper and she’s intrigued and curious as a journalist and can’t really understand why Kieron isn’t as keen as her, she finds that baffling.

What attracted you to the role and What Remains?

When I read it I thought that it was just very fresh and original. I liked the fact that it’s an ensemble piece and very character driven. When I heard who was involved in it and knew what direction they were going in, and that a lot of the actors that they cast were theatre actors, I thought it was brilliant. The characters are so rich and colourful and so I thought it would be very deep character work. Also having Coky at the helm, who I’ve worked with before, because she has such a creative vision and it’s just very exciting watching her work. It was a really intriguing script and really exciting and challenging job.

You’ve done a lot of theatre work and period dramas in the past, how does this compare?

It was almost like doing a play because we filmed from flat to flat so when you did actually start filming it was really intense. You were holed up in this flat for a week doing all your scenes, so it felt like really deep intense work.

There’s much less time in make-up. You spend rather a lot of time in make-up and wigs when you’re doing costume drama, normally two and a half hours sitting in a chair. This was just so quick and it was nice to be in something modern and playing someone you can completely relate to on every level. I love doing period dramas as well but it’s nice to be able to be a modern girl about town and play somebody with a similar attitude and feelings to myself.

What was it like working with the rest of the cast? You obviously had to work closely with Steven Mackintosh?

Steven is just brilliant. He throws himself in and there’s something so raw there and you just get carried along with it. He is effortlessly brilliant and he nails it every time. When you work with someone that good it just raises your own game. I knew a lot of the cast already, such as Indira, Victoria and Russell, so it was really fun working with them.  They laugh very easily so in a couple of the group scenes we laughed a lot, which helps on a set like that where it’s quite dark, behind the scenes there was a lot of laughter!

Do you think what happens to Melissa in What Remains is reflective of society today?

With the internet people keep in touch in a very different way than they used to. She doesn’t have a job so she doesn’t have colleagues who would notice she was missing, she doesn’t have many friends and her family aren’t around anymore. It is quite easy to go unnoticed. Even in a big city there are a lot of people but everyone is doing their own thing and on a mission so people can easily slip through the net. People get wrapped up in their own life and someone like Melissa could have done with someone reaching out to her. This story does make you think about yourself and think you should have a little bit more time for people, especially lonely people, and not always be in too much of a hurry.

What can audiences look forward to about What Remains?

It’s a very dark and psychological character-driven drama. It’s something a little bit different. You think you’re watching a whodunit but it’s the characters and the community that they’re living in that sets it apart. It gently lets you in and the characters open up their doors and let you see inside their existence. Every flat has a story to tell and everything is interwoven. The way it’s shot and looks, and its cast, makes it something a bit special.