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In The Heart Of The Sea

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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015)

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~ HAPPY 35th BIRTHDAY ~ ph. Ian Phillips-McLaren

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Charlotte voicing “young Una” in BBC Radio 4′s audio play adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s “Stardust” -- available in 2 episodes (for free another 27 days)

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And here’s the magnificent Charlotte Riley playing the role of Kate Middleton, captured here behind the scenes on her last day of filming. | via BBC2 on Twitter

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Bold and fearless.

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Site Update: Close to the Enemy - Episode 5 [19 HQ Tagless Stills]

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Charlotte Riley Interview about Close To The Enemy

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Charlotte Riley in Close to the Enemy | ph. Tara McDonald

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The Evening Standard: Charlotte Riley: ‘People like casting me as posh birds for some reason – it’s the opposite of who I am’

The actress talks brand new BBC drama Close to the Enemy and her low-key life with Tom Hardy

Something about Charlotte Riley seems to perfectly embody the spirit of post-war London. Stephen Poliakoff saw it when he cast her in his latest prestige TV drama, BBC2’s Close to the Enemy, which starts next week. She co-stars alongside Jim Sturgess, Angela Bassett and Alfred Molina as glamorous American divorcee Rachel Lombard.

When British intelligence officer Callum Ferguson (Sturgess) is holed up in a bomb-damaged hotel, tasked with persuading a German scientist to defect, it’s Rachel who arrives just in time to inject some colour, vitality and mystery.

“It’s just such an interesting period, 1946,” says Riley. “There was this insane amount of creativity around. Everyone had been so suppressed and focused on the war effort but then the creativity burst through and that’s kind of what Rachel represents.”

The pivotal roles in Riley’s career have all been period dramas. She played the gracious ex Sarah Hurst in the 2008 film adaptation of Noël Coward’s Easy Virtue, then romantic heroine Catherine Earnshaw in ITV’s Wuthering Heights (it was on the set of this 2009 production that she met her now husband, Oscar-nominated actor Tom Hardy).

In 2014 she joined the 1920s-set Peaky Blinders, as wealthy widow May Carleton, but it’s only in Close to the Enemy that she’s had the chance to inhabit her favourite decade, the 1940s.

“I believe everybody has an era in them, that’s kind of unexplored,” she says. “Maybe it’s something to do with past lives or whatever but there’s something about the music that just does something to me, in a way that other music doesn’t.”

Riley traces her interest back to childhood weekends with her grandparents —“They had an old record player and my grandad played a lot of Glenn Miller and things like that” — but it lived on into adulthood too. After moving to London to study drama she became a regular at Soho’s swing-dancing club nights — “Bit of dress up and dance? Brilliant. I used to love it” — and joined the now “slightly retired” singing group The Flirtinis.

“We sing in the back garden now and again. We had our neighbours up the other night going, ‘What the hell is that?’”

The energy of post-war London comes naturally to Riley but, she says, not the glamour. Though if you’ve seen pictures of her looking resplendent in a black lace gown on this year’s Oscars red carpet, this sounds like false modesty.

“Do you know why I like vintage dresses? Because it’s a dress and a pair of shoes. You can’t really f*** that up.”

So while the role of Rachel Lombard speaks to Riley’s true self in some ways, in other ways it really doesn’t. In the second episode Rachel throws a huge party with extravagant catering and a live jazz band. Riley hates that sort of thing: “I’m shit at throwing parties. I was talking to my sister about it the other day and we both have the same thing. We’re completely stressed out and really regret saying we’re gonna do it.

"Even just planning a Sunday lunch and having some people around, I’m like hyperventilating. I just like an easy life.”

As Rachel, Riley is measured, calm and elegant. In person, she’s more rambunctious, more sweary, and much funnier than you’d ever imagine from the rather proper ladies she often plays on-screen.

“People do like casting me as posh birds for some reason,” she muses in between forkfuls of the Pret salad she’s brought along for lunch. “I don’t know why. It’s like the complete opposite of what I am.”

Her natural accent is two parts X Factor Cheryl to one part Alan Bennett, though in Close to the Enemy she’s got an aristocratic American drawl. For previous roles she’s done every iteration of British RP, plus Glaswegian (“That’s Rab C Nesbitt — I used to watch Rab C Nesbitt”) which she demonstrates. “I never get seen for things that are northern, I don’t know why. I don’t know if people have forgotten that I’m northern?”

Riley asks lots of questions and can also be charmingly loquacious when the conversation moves on to a topic she’s passionate about, such as the genius of Poliakoff (“He’s so energetic, precise and focused, he could do the whole thing himself if he could just multiply himself”), or how to make a decent cup of tea (“Do some people really put the milk in first? What the…?”).

This genial sort of intellectual curiosity also reminds me of interviewing her husband Tom Hardy. It’s pretty hard to imagine anyone else getting a word in around their house. Husband and wife have appeared in the same TV series three times. Do they deliberately look out for projects they can collaborate on? “Erm… no,” she says decisively, before letting out a burst of laughter at the very absurdity of the notion.

“I think it was just coincidence that we’ve worked together to begin with and it was coincidence with the people who hired us as well. Not that we had any scenes together.”

They do discuss work, though. “We bounce ideas off each other. Because, y’know, that’s what you do, isn’t it? It’s just handy to have someone that you can talk to about ideas.”

The couple got engaged in 2010, married in 2014 and, according to press reports, had their first child together in October last year (Hardy already has one son, Louis, from a previous relationship). More than a year later and there’s no mention to be found online of this child’s gender, let alone a name. For such a high-profile couple maintaining that level of privacy is impressive. “Well, we don’t go to nightclubs, so that’s fine,” says Riley. “It’s just… family privacy is really important.

"Our kids are not part of the industry, we are. Why should they have their lives in any way in print or impeded just because of what we do? But, it wasn’t hard. You just don’t say anything about it!”

With marketing to millennials in mind, even major Hollywood studios have now taken to casting films based on the size of an actor’s Instagram following, is she worried that prioritising her private life may impact negatively on her career?

That’s another firm no: “I couldn’t give less of a f***. My privacy is more important to me.”

Happily, the work keeps on coming regardless. Next up she’s appearing alongside Tom Riley (no relation) in ITV’s crime thriller Dark Heart and she’s currently very excited about collaborating with Sarah Solemani, star of Him & Her and Bridget Jones’s Baby, on a feature film script — “I’m completely intimidated by how intelligent she is. I swot up before I go and meet her.”

For now and the foreseeable future Riley will base her career choices on real human connections, shared creative passions and good, old-fashioned enthusiasm:

“I’m happy working with people who don’t cast people because of the size of their f****** Instagram… Sorry, I swear way too much. You’re like ‘F***, I can’t write that down’.”

Close to the Enemy starts on November 10 at 9pm on BBC2

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Charlotte Riley as Rachel Lombard in BBC’s Close to the Enemy

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May

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The beautiful and talented Charlotte Riley agreed to be the patron of Saltburn’s 10th Annual Film Festival. Charlotte recorded a message which was played on May 12, 2016 opening night where her film In The Heart of The Sea opened the festival. Via gazettelive.co.uk

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@Libby_Brodie ~ When Hollywood A-lister Tom Hardy comes to see your show & proves its what’s hot right now (until we close on sat) #wfwfg @St_JamesTheatre

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Introducing Charlotte Riley as MI6 agent Jacquelin Marshall in London Has Fallen (2016)

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Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley at the Audo Piolo Challenge

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‘Do you remember my mother?’ ‘Just.’