The actress sheds her clothes in Labyrinth, the forthcoming Channel 4 adaptation of Kate Mosse's bestselling novel. She said she was inspired by strong women and that playing Alaïs, a 13th century healer, had been liberating and had helped her to perform to her best when it came to returning to Downton to film her final scenes. Brown-Findlay, whose character died after giving birth in the last series of Downton, left the hit ITV show because she did not want to fall into her "comfort zone". However, she admitted that she had been "naive" to agree to a topless scene in the 2011 film Albatross and said she had not known at the time that she could say no. The actress, who has just filmed Winter's Tale opposite Will Smith and Russell Crowe, said her ambition was to write while owning 'a little tea and sandwich shop'. "Hollywood is not for me. I love acting, but I also love London," she said.
Joining Brown-Findlay for the two-part adaptation of Kate Mosse's best-selling novel- which is coming to Channel 4 this weekend- are a host of famous faces including acting veteran John Hurt, Merlin's Katie McGrath, The Paradise's Emun Elliott, Harry Potter's Tom Felton, Vanessa Kirby, Sebastian Stan and John Lynch. Set in France during both 1209 and 2005, the tale interweaves the stories of two women, Alais (Brown Findlay) and Alice (Kirby). In the present day, archeologist Alice uncovers two shattered skeltons and a labyrinth-engraved ring in a long-undisturbed cave while 800 years ago in medieval France young herbalist Alais is entrusted with hiding the secrets contained within three sacred books. Labyrinth was adapted by Adrian Hodges, co-creator of ITV's Primeval and the screenwriter for My Week with Marilyn.
Just as Brown-Findlay shows little patience for the demands of Hollywood, co-star Vanessa Kirby reveals she decided to become an actor after seeing her namesake Vanessa Redgrave on stage. She was 12 when she saw Corin and Redgrave in Trevor Nunn’s production of The Cherry Orchard at the National Theatre. And there’s the audition for the Bristol Old Vic when she was 17; she was turned down, mainly for being too young. So then there was the six months in Africa and four months in Asia (she studied conflict resolution at Stellenbosch University) followed by an English degree at Exeter University, where she performed in as many plays as she could. Then there were a couple of chance meetings and some fantastic luck, an award and another couple of nominations, some very good reviews and, well, here we are.
You might have already seen her as Estella, adopted daughter of the icy-hearted Miss Havisham played by Gillian Anderson, in a recent TV adaptation of Great Expectations. Or maybe you clocked her in The Hour with Dominic West and Romola Garai. Prior to that you would have caught her mainly on stage in London or in Bolton, as she cut her teeth on Miller, Ibsen and Shakespeare, picking up awards and fine reviews with every production. But it doesn’t matter if you have never seen her before in your life, as it seems Kirby’s star is on a steep upwards trajectory, and with a slew of projects on the go, it won’t be long before you see her everywhere. There is a Ridley Scott-produced TV adaptation of Kate Mosse’s novel, the impending Labyrinth, and then a small part in The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman alongside Shia LaBeouf and a role in Richard Curtis’s new film, About Time. There are other film projects about which she’s been sworn to secrecy and an already planned return to the stage in Marlowe’s Edward II at the end of the year.
"I sometimes get a bit embarrassed when I tell people I’m an actor," she says. "The perception of the job has changed a lot." She says that she’s been viewing flats and estate agents first ask her if she’s got a guarantor – everyone knows that it’s a tough industry to crack, it seems – and then ask her what she’s been in. When she tells them about some stage roles they commiserate with her – it’s only the commercial stuff that they’re impressed by. For Kirby, though, it’s not nearly so clear cut. "On screen you have to worry about what you look like," she says. "You’ve got ten people doing your hair and make-up right before you go for a take, just to remind you that you’ve got a dodgy eye so they need to make it look a bit bigger. Then when you see it," she shakes her head. "No one sees themselves like that – from that many angles, that close up, wearing different clothes that you wouldn’t usually wear, your hair all weird. You don’t look how you think you look. It’s not the same as looking in a mirror. For a while I cared and I was all tense and nervous but you know what I’m not a model, I’m not ever going to be a model, I don’t look like a model and do you know what I don’t give a fuck."
The irony, of course, is that Kirby is very pretty. And tall. And slim. Still, that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t mean it when she says that she wants to be a character actress. And by that she means "someone who plays real people who at some point in their career tries to move someone in the same way that people have moved me. If that happens then I don’t have to worry about who thinks I’m pretty and who thinks I’m ugly. I’m trying to care less and less. But it is hard." She says she’s philosophical about rejection too, although there can’t have been very much of that in her career so far.
"Well, there are a lot of things that you don’t get," she says. "But now that I’m feeling more relaxed and comfortable I think I can get the jobs that I want. And when I don’t I always lose out to people who have more profile. My mum always tells me about reading an interview with Carey Mulligan who always used to lose out to Emily Blunt.' She smiles. "I’ve only been working for the last three years. It feels like a lifetime to me but in relative terms it’s nothing. I honestly feel like the luckiest person in the world.'
Labyrinth is on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 March at 9:00pm on Channel 4.
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