Indira Varma Q&A

Tell us about Elaine Markham…

I think personality wise she is a very strong, charming, sharp, funny and creative woman. She’s a graphic designer, Elaine and Peggy have their own company. She comes across as an alpha female but I actually think that underneath it all she’s deeply insecure and lonely. Therefore when she has a girlfriend she’s so frightened of losing her that she starts to manipulate and control and becomes a bully.

How would you describe her relationship with Peggy?

I think its co-dependent. It’s deeply unhealthy. Victoria and I talked a lot about ‘why’ they were together because when you read the script they are so nasty and mean to each other. We talked about what we thought their relationship was when they first got together, why they were attracted to each other. And why they were still hanging in there now.

We wondered whether Peggy may have not been comfortably ‘out’ and Elaine being confident, fun and sexually at ease would have empowered Peggy making her feel wanted and loved. I think Elaine is the centre of attention at parties, you want to hang out with her. Initially Peggy probably found it very exciting, they were an amazing team. Everything was going really well with their company, their love life. All very glamorous and trendy.

But after a while, Elaine sees Peggy gaining more confidence and maybe frets that she might lose her. She doesnt want to share Peggy so starts to stifle her.This makes Peggy feel as though she wants to escape and ultimately closes down emotionally. That makes Elaine get much more controlling and nasty.

Did you have rehearsal time with Victoria Hamilton?

Victoria and I had worked with each other before: we did Twelfth Night together in the theatre.  She was Viola and I was Olivia so I've already played being in love with her, although it was a totally different relationship!

We live near each other so we were able to meet up and talk about our characters. It was discussion more than anything and because we knew each other it meant that it was really easy to discuss and we were totally on the same page and backed each other up and helped each other out.

Did you have any input in to Elaine’s look?

Yes, it was really great actually because the more I thought about why Elaine was such a bitch - because nobody’s that much of a bitch really - the more I thought there must be a reason and something that she’s covering up. I thought she had a hard exterior but was totally messed up inside and frightened and lonely. I don’t know why that is, the drama doesn’t go in to that.

I imagined she might protect herself with a very cool hard image. when you first meet someone like that you think they are so confident. They’ve got trendy hair or bright red lipstick or are showing their bra, it’s contrived as an image in a way. I chatted to Sue Wyburgh, who does the make-up, and she was well up for it. I went on Pinterest to look at trendy and sexy lesbians and saw all these brilliant rockabilly styles, that i imagined a graphic designer might be in to.A  KD Lang look. So we chopped my hair off and we styled it and had fake ‘his and hers’ tattoos done on our necks.

With the clothes, EdGibbon was really open to making it quite a sharp look, but also I really fancied having some bright orange high-tops and to look a little bit like a boxer. Elaine cant quite stand tall and upright, she had to protect her chest from being hit, so a boxer’s stance. That’s what I was trying to achieve.

What was it like having your haircut?

It was great fun! It’s quite rare to have the chance to play something that’s so far removed from yourself and I found that exciting. You always draw on yourself and what you know and who you are but it was really liberating to enter into someone else’s psyche, and attempt to make her as real as possible. Human.

It helped having a different look, chopping my hair off moved me away from me. It was definitely Elaine.

How would you describe her relationship with Melissa?

Elaine just uses people I think. If she wants something from somebody she’s nice as pie and she knows how to charm people. But the minute you cross her, as a defence mechanism, she just battens down the hatches and she’ll tear you apart. She looks for chinks in people’s armour and bulldozes people; before they can intimidate her she’s going to intimidate them, even with Len.

Melissa’s obviously much more vulnerable as a character anyway so Elaine immediately sees someone that’s possibly a bit insecure and lonely so immediately knows how to use her, she’s horrible. Once Melissa tries to be strong, she tears her down.

Even with Len, when Len comes to the door she’s unfazed. They are two equally strong people having a stand-off.

You filmed all the scenes in your flat over a week, how was that?

We actually shot it pretty much in order in the flat. We initially shot all the exteriors and bits on location and then once we were in our flat suddenly all the juicy stuff – our main storylines was filmed. You shoot so fast that there’s not time to hang around so you have to be up to speed, but because you’re in every single day and every minute of every day, you’re on a roll. It’s fun and you feel comfortable so you can play around and try things out.

Was working with Coky quite organic?

I loved working with Coky. It was great to have a woman director, there aren’t enough around. She was so direct and open, and really up for us being bold and brave and brazen. I found playing the role of Elaine, who is so on the front-foot and challenging and quite outrageous, quite freeing.  Coky encouraged me to go even further.

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

I wish it wasn’t but I think that for people who live in big cities, in my experience, we don’t have that sense of community that you have in a village. Some people complain that that means everyone knows your business but actually, in a city you don’t even know who your neighbours are. Why is that? I think it’s because we’re afraid of what we dont know.Also in big cities people are always on the move. It's more transient. People don't put down roots. So make less effort.

There’s too much flux and so people don’t want to commit in case they get heartbroken, they haven’t got the courage to connect with people in case it’s somebody scary or in case they get rejected. Everyone’s very defensive and I think that’s really sad.

A big city like London can be really isolating and I know I feel that sometimes. Older people certainly feel it, they don’t even need to be in a big city. On the tube no one looks at each other, no one talks to each other, in small villages people make small talk and you can have amazing chats with people.

I’ve got friends that live in Madrid and they live in a block of flats where there’s a central quadrant and they all know each other and look after each other’s children. My friend says that if one day you’re not in the mood to see people you just tell them. They are much more direct. In Britain we’ve all become too scared to say:  “I want to be on my own for a bit.” We're scared to be direct. I do think it’s important to chat to people and say “hello”. I’m sure the world would be a nicer place!  Say “thank you" on the bus and “good morning.”

What can audiences look forward to with What Remains?

Everyone has a motive which makes it really exciting. Your allegiances will be shifting from one person to another as you discover someone’s not as nice as you thought they were. When I was reading it, at the end of every episode I thought I knew who it was and it was always someone different. Hopefully it will be exciting and will make people think: “I’m going to say hello to more people from now on.”