The Accident: Interview with Sarah Lancashire (Polly Bevan)
Category: InterviewTell us in a nutshell what is The Accident?
A small community in The Valleys in Wales, which is already a very depressed community, are subjected to an atrocious disaster which affects the entire community. It is their struggle to come together, to unify, to find answers, to find a way to give this community a voice and to hopefully find a way to give others a voice too. But throughout all this, interestingly it’s almost a love story that’s playing out within this torn, tattered landscape.
You alluded to a love story but there’s also a really key relationship at the heart of the drama between Iwan and Polly. Tell us a bit about Polly and her relationship with her husband.
We can only suppose that it’s a relationship that is an old relationship, one that probably began when they were at school together no doubt, and from the same place in South Wales. They have a complex relationship. They are slightly elevated within this society because Iwan is a councillor. They have a daughter together but there is definitely a co-dependency within this relationship and a volatility within this relationship. Even though it is hugely fractured and has very, very difficult aspects to it, there is an underlying and abiding love that is visible and hard to understand too.
There’s also the third part of their family, their daughter played by Jade Croot. How was it working with Jade? It’s her first TV role, isn’t it?
She’s quite extraordinary. She’s the real deal. It’s wonderful when you happen across it as an actor, finding a young actor that is literally just starting out and you understand that to them the craft is the most important aspect of the job. It’s a wonderful thing to say. I have absolute admiration for her. I think she’s an extraordinary young actress.
Obviously you starred in Kiri, Jack’s previous four parter for Channel 4. What was it that attracted you to the role of Polly in this drama?
The writing is only ever the attractive thing about a part. And also if all the elements within the writing come together – the character and the structure and the narrative – if they are all there then you become excited. It does excite me because that’s a rare thing. You don’t see that very often. I love Jack’s voice. I love what he’s trying to say. He’s a fearless writer and in this he deliberately questions. That is what’s so interesting about it. He’s not afraid to explore difficult places, particularly in this where the public and the private and the political all collide, and then he’ll focus on it even more, put more pressure on it by putting a media spotlight on it too.
You share some really incredible scenes with Jade, but also with Mark and Joanna Scanlan, who plays Angela. How was it working with them?
Joanna I’d never worked with before but I’ve always admired her. Polly and Angela, they have a wonderful relationship because they’ve been together since they were at school, so they know each other. All their milestones have been done together; their marriages, their children. But this is a very trying event for their relationship and they’re both in very different places, because Angela has lost her daughter. I still have my daughter but I have a very changed daughter and a very changed relationship with my daughter. Their relationship goes through a lot of twists and turns. When situations like this arise this is where fault lines reveal themselves and they can come to the surface and they can be explosive. And Mark, I’ve never worked with Mark, but I’ve long been an admirer of his work. I can’t imagine Iwan being anybody else. I think he’s an extraordinarily gifted actor. I think he’s phenomenal. I don’t use that word lightly but I think he’s phenomenal. I thank God it was him to be honest because some of our scenes were incredibly difficult to do because they are complex and Mark is a complex actor. We enjoyed each other’s company. We enjoyed working on the complex material together, which meant that it was a good match. In sporting terms it was a good game. We had a wonderful time, wonderful.
Had you filmed in Wales before? How was that? What did the location bring to the story that you were trying to tell?
Locations are interesting because they’re often another character within the piece. This location determines how these people are with each other. Certainly this is a depressed location as well because there’s no work. They’ve never really recovered from the closures of the mines and industry moving away from The Valleys. But they’re determined to hang on in there. Who they are, what makes them Welsh within their community, is very apparent. I love that aspect of the piece. I adored working in that area, in Cardiff and The Valleys. It’s a wonderful place to work.
Your Welsh accent: how did you go about perfecting it?
I spent months working on it. I started about November of last year, so I’d done months and months of preparation by the time we got to the readthrough and we started filming. I took recordings of Welsh voices and just listened to those, doing my own research. I didn’t work with a voice coach at all. I have to work at my own speed. It’s just easier for me to absorb at my own speed. That was it really – just recording and listening to people.
Do you try and stay in the accent throughout filming?
You do because you just find a place, a comfortable place. As I say there is no downtime in a filming day anyway. It’s just easier to stay using that accent. You find your level on the set. You find your level with the character and you just stay there.
We touched on Kiri beforehand. There are obviously similarities within Jack’s Channel 4 canon in terms of exploring knotty, complex issues. What would you say the main similarities are between this project and Kiri, and what sets it apart?
I don’t like comparing projects. I find it too difficult because I can’t objectively look at a piece when I’m so subjectively involved it. It’s hard for me to stand back and analyse these things. I just feel very, very grateful and very blessed that this piece came my way. I’m aware of how wonderful it is when a piece comes like this. They’re rare beasts and to have it on my doorstep is a wonderful thing.