Hayes, 30, arrives from high profile ITV1 drama Mr Selfridge where she is currently starring as East End girl Kitty, a deeply ambitious Edwardian shop girl. "I’ve done a lot of period stuff in theatre but never on TV and it’s amazing the elaborate detail they go into," she says. "It’s strange but as soon as you put on that costume and get strapped into that corset, something happens to you. For one thing you realise it’s quite uncomfortable to sit down. So you have to stand up a lot and there’s no running off to the toilet. But it puts you in the mood of your character." For Hayes, Lilyhammer will mark a return to the darker contemporary drama that originally made her name; such as Sirens, Shameless and that eye-popping appearance in Misfits. "I really loved playing Maxine," she says of her role as Sgt Fox in Channel 4's prematurely cancelled comedy drama Sirens. "It was interesting to play a police officer and I think she had a lot more stories to tell. But you can never tell how things are going to turn out."
It's the reason she was so surprised at the reaction to her much discussed sex scene with Robert Sheehan in an early episode of Misfits. "You’ve gained a certain type of following on the internet," she reveals. "At the beginning, I wasn’t quite sure what I had to do. It was a pretty full-on sex scene and needed a particular type of bravery to do that. But you can’t take any notice of the kind of ‘sexy actress’ lists you get on the internet. All that stuff is pretty sad. I hope I’m a versatile actress; it’s not good to be cast as one thing." Which leads us on to her new role as a "bloodthirsty female sheriff" on the new season of Lilyhammer. "I’d love to tell people about it but I’ve been sworn to secrecy and my agent would kill me," she smiles. "I don’t want to hex it."
What we do know is that Lilyhammer was a hit when it premiered in Norway in January 2012, drawing record numbers for NRK1, and it was the first original series to launch on Netflix when it bowed via the streaming service in the U.S., Canada and Latin America in February. Season 2 sees van Zandt’s mob fixer Frank Tagliano still in witness protection and juggling fatherhood with running his criminal operation. Also added to the mix this season are a group of English soccer hooligans and a bank robbery that threatens to reveal Frank’s identity. Lilyhammer was developed by Rubicon TV with Red Arrow on international sales. Showrunners are Eilif Skodvin and Anne Bjornstad; producer is Anders Tangen. Lasse Halberg exec produces with van Zandt. Shooting on Season 2 runs through April when van Zandt goes back on tour with Springsteen.
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