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When she’s up for a TV role, Lesley Manville doesn’t care which platform the show in question is going out on. “My job is just to go there and deliver a character,” she says, “so whether it’s for the BBC, ITV, Netflix,
it doesn’t really make any difference to me.”
Not that the star whose credits include “Mum,” “Sherwood” and “The Crown” has been on our screens much recently. Instead, she’s just won a Tony award for “Oedipus” on Broadway after winning an Olivier for the same production in the West End and returned to London this spring for “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” at the National Theatre.
That’s why when Variety talks to her at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, she smiles about being president of the fiction jury: “Because I’ve been on stage with two different plays for the last nine months, I have quite literally watched no television until now. All I watched when I was on Broadway was Stephen Colbert’s chat show late at night and all I watched while I was doing ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ is maybe the news when I got in at midnight.”
Speaking ahead of the awards ceremony on Tuesday evening, the actress isn’t at liberty to discuss the jury’s thoughts on this year’s shortlisted series. “Some of them are deeply impressive, but of course it’s all subjective. But as a jury fortunately we were all very much on the same page.”
Her fellow jurors include Scotland’s Kevin McKidd, best known for “Grey’s Anatomy,” the French actress Frédérique Bel, American TV maker Greg Daniels, “Heartstopper” star Yasmin Finney and Korean media strategist Hojin Kwon. “And they’re a very bright, very intelligent group. We deliberated at great length but you can only judge it by your own standards. It’s like when you read a critique about a job you’ve done, it’s one person’s view.”
So does Manville read reviews of films, TV shows and theater that she’s done? “Always, yeah, but if you don’t like me then you don’t like me. I’m not gonna give up.”
And what makes her say yes to acting jobs? “The writing primarily and then all the other ingredients, like who’s going to direct it, who’s going to be in it with me, do I have to go to the North Pole for six months? No, thank you! All of those things come into play, but it starts with the script. Is the part interesting and is it something that maybe is a bit of a new departure for me?”
Of her recent stage work, she says: “As soon as I read ‘Oedipus’ I just thought ‘Nobody’s getting this but me.’” Then with ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ there was the fact that Manville “was in the original production 40 years ago, playing the young girl, so it felt like a fantastic full circle.”
And of her TV work, Manville finds it hard to pick favorites. “But before I knew I was going to be in ‘The Crown’ I loved the show. Then when I was asked to do it, I went back and watched it all again. I thought it was an extraordinary achievement and beautifully made, and it didn’t disappoint when I did it.”
