David Gargiulo __ Tell me about your journey; how did you get into acting?

Lydia West __ I trained as a dancer from a young age. In my dance school, we studied music and drama. Then, I went to a secondary school for performing arts. So I was always an active child and teenager in the arts, but I never really focused on acting and always wanted to be a dancer. Later, when I went to university to study business, I started looking for a creative outlet. I was very unhappy with my job and wanted to get creative again. So, I joined a theater company in my early twenties. From there, acting became almost therapy: being able to express myself, get into character, and be someone else. Then it spiraled from there: I got representation, went to Identity School of Acting - an adult drama school in London - I booked my first job, and it just kept going.

DG __ It certainly did! You starred in some of my favorite shows, such as Years and Years and It's a Sin. We'll talk about them soon, but it's an outstanding career so far! 

LW __ Aww, thank you [laughs]

DG __ You act in the new Steven Moffat Netflix series Inside Man, which streams globally on October 31. What is the series about?

LW __ It's a thriller that follows an English vicar from a small suburban English village, a math tutor, a convicted murderer on death row, and an investigative journalist. I play the investigative journalist, accompanied by David Tennant, Dolly Wells, and Stanley Tucci. It's a murder mystery, and the tagline is: everyone's a murderer; you just need to meet the right person. So it's about very ordinary people getting themselves into extraordinary situations and then just making wrong decisions after wrong decisions. And it shows you how ordinary people can be caught in the firing line of murder and crime.

DG __ Wow. Okay. I hope I will never be in that situation.

LW __ I know. It's scary to think! [laughs]

DG __ So, how did you come into the role of Beth Davenport [the investigative journalist]?

LW __ I worked with Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue, and Hartswood Films on Dracula several years earlier. And I always wanted to work with them again, so when the role came up, I just read the first episode, and after reading it, I wanted to be involved. I knew Dolly Wells and Stanley Tucci were attached to this project. I worked with Dolly before on Dracula and the team at Hartswood, so it felt really familiar. So I jumped at the opportunity when it came into my inbox.

DG __ Oh yeah, I also watched Dracula. I have watched everything you did! [laughs]. It was on Netflix, if I am not mistaken, right?

LW __ Yes, it was on BBC and Netflix.

DG __ The show Inside Man is quite chilling; the characters are put into difficult situations and make morally questionable decisions. What do you think and feel about your character Beth?

LW __ As you mentioned, they make morally questionable decisions. But I think it's representative of humankind's conditioning: you can't just be all one thing and none of the other. So there are people that have done bad things but are good. It's this idea of moral compass and atonement. Beth likes to think that she has a high moral compass and is above certain people, especially Stanley's character, who is a convicted murderer on death row. But she also gets into a moral dilemma where she has to choose between her friend and selling a story to the press about our interest in murderers, which is currently very much a thing with true crime and murder mysteries series and documentaries. Beth is very ambitious, sweet, hard-working, and suffers no fools. She does get the run around a bit from Stanley's character, but she knows he's playing her, but she's also playing him. So I feel there are all these moral questions for every character to deal with.

DG __ Talking about your character, Beth, she forms an intricate relationship with Jefferson Grief, The Death Row Detective, played by Stanley Tucci. A relationship built on disgust yet admiration. How were you able to reconcile these contrasting feelings? How did you prepare for the role?

LW __ Similarly to Dracula, Steven Moffat writes such complicated characters, and it goes back to what I said earlier about the humanness of people having not all one thing and then nothing of the other. In the writing, it’s evident that Beth is disgusted but intrigued by him, so she asks further questions. In the dialogue, there is this intention to find out more but also share how disgusted she is with him. So much of it was in the writing, like being able to have both play out in a scene. The director Paul McGuigan is so good at his craft, so we played many of the scenes with Stanley in one take. Many of them are long scenes, up to 10 pages, that's a couple of minutes of dialogue, and we played them all in one take, almost like a play. It was enough preparation for me to be able to listen and respond to Stanley and not be cut off and have to do it again. Just be able to get through it all and show that journey. So most of my prep was getting to know the characters from the script and having fun with Stanley, and seeing where it went.

DG __ The way you worked with Stanley leads straight into my next question: you find yourself in great company in the show. How was working with your co-stars?

LW __ It was amazing! I think Stanley is so phenomenal as an actor and also as a person. He's everything I want to be as an actor. He's an outstanding team leader: very positive and kind to everyone: the cast and the crew. He's very generous in his acting. The same applies to David Tennant, Dolly Wells, and Lindsey Marshall. I think what Hartswood does so well is they cast people before actors. These are all fantastic household-name actors, but they're genuinely nice people, so working with them is a treat.

DG __ Are there any funny or memorable moments that happened on set you’d like to share?

LW __ The most memorable moment would be a Friday night after a filming wrap-up. Stanley would make martinis in his trailer in craft cups, which are like coffee cups, because we didn't have any glassware. [laughs] I didn't know about Stanley's mixology persona. So I just thought: “oh, this is a nice thing.” Then I discovered he was like a legend for making cocktails. Arwel Jones, our set designer, built a bar in Hartswood for Stanley to make his martinis. [laughs] That was definitively memorable.

DG __ Switching gears, going from funny back to serious. Abuse toward women is a theme of the series, starting from the uncomfortable scene on the tube when Beth meets Janice Fife, played by Dolly Wells, to the brutal imprisonment of Janice by Harry Watling, played by David Tennant. What do you think about the state of women in the western world and in general around the globe?

LW __ I think this show perfectly depicts the idea of toxic masculinity. In the initial opening scene, Beth is being stood over by a passenger. Unfortunately, many women in my generation and above will relate to this idea of feeling threatened and uncomfortable by a male presence, who can come across as aggressive or intimidating. It's so relevant to depict that on screen, and I think the show does it well. It’s significant at this moment because of the MeToo movement. The series is a nod to the MeToo movement and women collectively standing up for other women. It’s not just women, it’s people; everyone has to do it and has a voice. I hope that as we continue to grow with this awareness, women continue to speak up and say what they stand up for and be given equal opportunities. It's an honor to be involved in a show with such an important central theme.

DG __ I also read that abuse towards women got worse during the pandemic because of the confinement and the stressful situation the pandemic put us in.

LW __ Exactly. Violence and abuse during the pandemic got a lot worse. It is an ongoing issue that needs to be discussed and represented on screen. Because the more aware we are of it, the more we see it, and then hopefully, change can happen.

DG __ Absolutely right; moving from one minority group to another. You previously starred as the caring and kind soul Jill Baxter in the British critically acclaimed drama It’s a Sin which focuses on another underrepresented and oppressed group, the LGBTQ+. How did starring in It’s a Sin help you prepare for the role of Beth?

LW __ Being in It’s a Sin felt like being part of an ensemble piece where everyone's voice is important, everyone's voice is valid, and every actor and crew member is valued. I think being on the set of It’s a Sin taught me something to take with me in my career, which is: I want to make sets safe, welcoming, and inclusive because, as a leader, you are not a number on the call sheet or the actor with the most scenes. You're there to lead an ensemble and a representative of the cast. Now that's what I do on every job: I like to lead as I like to be led with a positive attitude and kindness.

DG __ At the beginning of our interview, I mentioned that one of my favorite shows is Years and Years. It felt so dystopian yet eerily plausible, tricking my mind between fiction and reality. Russell T Davies disturbingly predicted down to the year the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and the global inflationary pressures that are happening right now. Thankfully some other unsettling predictions did not come to pass (yet) [laughs]. If you had to guess, what forecasts from the series do you expect could happen and why?

LW __ Even some of the things I didn't believe would happen ended up happening. So now I don't think any of it is too far from home. Russell predicted monkey flu, and then we had the coronavirus pandemic. Then transhumanism; my character in Years and Years became transhuman and integrated with technology. I think it will happen within the next 20 years, but I hope it's not as advanced as it was in the show, aka humans fully integrating with technology, which happened to my character at the end. I hope it never happens that you'll be able to have microchips implanted into your fingers and brain so that you can answer the phone and quickly run calculations. But I think it will happen.

DG __ Sounds terrifying.

LW __ I know, I know.

DG __ Next year, you are coming out in the American comedy It’s All Coming Back to Me with Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Celine Dion. What can you tell us about it?

LW __ It's a comedy; it's a love story. It's like a nineties romcom feel-good with Celine Dion; thus, it has incredible songs. It's hilarious and a modern take on a story you might be familiar with, SMS für Dich (SMS for You). It's a real feel-good, happy romantic human tale with a fantastic cast. It's good fun!

DG __ It’ll definitely do very well in the theaters.

LW __ Hopefully!

DG __ I think this is your first movie in the US market, right? All your past work was either British or Canadian, correct?

LW __ I did the Pentaverate, which is an American slash Canadian show. It’s All Coming Back to Me is my very first all-American film. We filmed it in 2020 in lockdown. So it's been a couple of years. It was just after It’s a Sin, so I'm looking forward to seeing it, but I feel like so much has changed personally and professionally for me since then. Like anything you film, years pass, and you hope the result is as you remember it. I'm really excited to see it.

DG __ Do you have any additional projects in the pipeline that we can look forward to?

LW __ Yes, I do. I have some things confirmed for next year, which I'm not yet allowed to discuss. I'm also doing some other modes of acting, so to speak. I plan to venture away from television and do something else, but it's all in discussion now. Hopefully, I can disclose more within the next couple of months. But I'm excited to tell more stories. I love working with up-and-coming writers, creatives, directors, and a range of minorities. I love working as a minority performer and working on untold stories that haven't been given the air time or opportunity to be told. That's what I want to be involved in and champion. That's what I'm looking forward to doing.

DG __ For my last question, what message would you like to give your fans?

LW __ Thank you for the support, and I hope that in my career, I can tell stories that people can relate to. I hope everyone can feel seen and heard by what I put out.

     Photography William Ferchichi, Stylist Kayleigh Swan (CeaEves Agency), Hair Jennie Roberts (Frank Agency - using Curlsmith Hair Care), Makeup Naoko Scintu (The Wall Group London - using Nars), Nails Nicole With, Photo Assistant Stephen Young, Fashion Assistant Daisy Holland, Post Production Oleg Agafontsev, Talent Lydia West (Premier Comms, London)