Q&A with Lydia West who plays Eddie

What appealed to you about the role of Eddie?

First and foremost, it was the writing. I found it very real. I lived in a part of London where it was all set and based, and I felt a real familiarity with the characters — I felt like I just knew these girls and I knew these friendships. I was coming into my thirties at the time, and just navigating female friendship through loss and heartbreak and coming back together, and finding your tribe — I could really relate to that. And they're people that you wouldn't necessarily put together in a friendship, but they just work.

I'm also passionate about the subject matter. I thought it was a really interesting depiction of the use of anti-psychotic drugs and dealing with a mental illness, that I personally hadn't seen depicted on screen in this way. It's relevant and essential to show what it's like to live with a mental illness, in a way that it isn't in mainstream popular culture.

What was different about coming into series two?

I already knew the character, so going into the first read-through I didn't feel the same level of nervousness as I did with series one, where you're asking yourself who is this person, what is she going to be like? It felt really familiar and really nice going back into that. It was so long in anticipation — we wanted to do it sooner than it happened. And it's weird because you have two years apart from something and you're suddenly like, okay, where are we in this world? But it was really exciting. It felt like coming home.

The show has been praised for the way it depicts bipolar disorder. Do you feel it's helped open up that conversation?

I think so, I hope so. Sometimes it gets lost that it is a show about that but really the friendship is just so strong that the mental illness element actually plays in the background. But a lot of the arc of series one is actually about Maggie being on lithium and having lithium poisoning, and how that affected their relationship and all of Maggie's decision making. Series two finds Maggie in a much more stable place — she's found the right medication that works for her. So at some point it does just become about their friendship and navigating their present life, by avoiding what happened in the last year.

It feels very true to the experience of mental health — the ebbs and the flows. And I love being part of something where it's normal to have a discussion about bipolar disorder and anti-psychotic drugs. These are the kinds of conversations I have with my friends and people I know, so it just feels really cool.

The chemistry between you and Nicola is so central to the show. How did you build that sense of history between Maggie and Eddie?

In series one, we spent a lot of time getting to know each other, just hanging out in each other's lives, and that really helped. But also the scripts did a lot of the work — they're very punchy, the jokes land in a very specific way, they finish each other's sentences. The foundation was already there on the page.

We were actually attached to the project about a year before it was commissioned. Camilla sent me the script during lockdown, and then we had a read of episode one in the production office. After that, Camilla basically said she was going to write the following episodes based on the way we spoke and the way we were in the room together — she hadn't written any of the other episodes yet. So by the time we got to the full read-through, Nicola and I had known about the project for about a year and a half, which made everything so much easier. You could feel that she'd used my intonation, the way I speak — it was written for us, and that made a massive difference.

Leading into series two, we've obviously known each other for much longer now, and it just feels really easy. She's like a real, true friend at this point. So it was very easy to play.

Did you ever improvise, or did you stick to the script?

We stuck to the scripts completely. There were some scenes where Camilla would change things as she heard them out loud — she'd edit on the spot when a joke landed differently than expected. But she's very protective of her writing, and we honoured that because we think she's amazing and she knows exactly what she's doing. There wasn't much improv, but we were very encouraged to go fast, just back and forth, and we naturally did that anyway. I think it's all in the writing, honestly. I don't want to take anything away from Nicola and I, but it was just really easy to play those scenes.

The show captures something very specific about millennial friendships — that moment in your thirties when everyone starts splintering off in different directions. What do you think Big Mood gets right about that?

I think what it gets right is that it's honest about that period of figuring out what you believe in and what your values are. Eddie comes into series two just wanting to be healed, loved and seen, and completely avoid her grief by abandoning Maggie — and she does it in a way that's almost like joining a cult, but really she's just trying to figure out what means something to her and how to heal, she is very vulnerable. A lot of people go through that in their thirties — losing a layer of what you once thought was your identity, letting it go and shape-shifting into something new.

And we see that with Maggie too. But what the show does really well is sit in the grey area — it's not black and white. When you have love, you can evolve and change, but there's still this grounding, this rooting, that remains. That's their friendship for Eddie. She wants to shed the old skin, but she can't quite leave it behind, because the love is still there. You can know that someone might not be the best thing for you in a given moment, but you can't let them go because you have history and you want to support them. And we're not polarising Maggie as a toxic person — she has her flaws, but they work, and there's real love there on a deeper level. The show just feels very real.

What surprised you most about Eddie this series?

Her wardrobe, honestly! She's come into this whole new persona and she has the perfect wardrobe to go with it — still really cool, but somehow hippie chic as well. That surprised me.

What do you hope audiences will most enjoy about Big Mood series two?

I hope they feel seen and heard again, and that they root for the friendship. I hope they feel close to Maggie and Eddie, because to me it really is a love story — their friendship is a love story. And I hope they feel that.