Miranda Raison is currently starring as Anne in Strangers On A Train at the Gielgud Theatre which officially opens on Tuesday 19th November 2013.
Miranda has enjoyed a varied career spanning film and TV as well as theatre. She is well known for playing Jo Portman in Spooks and Harriet Hammond in Silk. Miranda has recently filmed two movies, After Death and I Am Soldier, which are due to be released next year.
Her theatre credits include: The River (Royal Court), The Physicists (Donmar Warehouse), 66 Books: A Response To Daniel (The Bush Theatre) and Shakespeare’s Globe’s productions of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII.
Miranda’s film credits include: My Week With Marilyn, Heaven And Earth, Match Point, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Susie Q. Her TV credits include: Lewis: Intelligent Design, Vexed, Sinbad, Dirk Gently, Merlin, Death In Paradise, Sugartown, Married Single Other, Plus One, Poirot: Cat Among The Pigeons, Doctor Who, Holby City and Perfect Strangers.
Recently I spoke to Miranda about how she prepared for her role in Strangers On A Train, first night nerves and why theatre is so important to her...
What was it that attracted you to the role and production?
Everything that was in the first email and onwards really! I love the American Fifties time period and anything that looks vaguely Hitchcock and also it’s a fantastic part. It’s a very different part to the role in the film, she plays a much greater part in Guy and Bruno’s lives and she’s a society girl. Patricia Highsmith was ahead of her time. You would usually think that the posh fiancée would be a doormat but she’s a really interesting character and a very clever woman.
Well I had seen the film a few times before but when I got the part I did go back and watch it again and I also read the book. The film is only similar to the play and the book up until the first murder which is about half an hour into it. So after that they go in completely different directions. The characters are also very different but watching the film again was helpful in terms of accent and getting an overall feel for the adaptation we’re doing, in a way the play is quite filmic.
You are working alongside an amazing cast and director. What was the atmosphere like in the rehearsal room? It must have been a very exciting place to be?
It was brilliant and really fun, luckily I think everyone in the cast is quite a joker so there’s quite a jokey atmosphere. Bob (Ackerman, the director) has that brilliant ‘Brooklyn Drawl’ and this really dry sense of humour. I think he sounds like John Malkovich but he disagrees with me [laughs]. It’s been a good ride so far!
What can somebody unfamiliar with Strangers On A Train expect?
Well hopefully it will be a mixture of incredibly unsettling and really fun. Even the darkest moments will be gripping rather than miserable, and it’s a very fast piece. It should make the audience root for different people throughout and take you by surprise. It’s great because it’s not goody versus baddy – even though it is – because sometimes you’re rooting for the baddy, or I do anyway. I feel as if sometimes I want certain people to get away with things and so on. Audiences should leave the theatre going “oh my god, that was exciting and thrilling but also pretty dark!”
Miranda Raison and Laurence Fox
You’ve played many stage roles at prestigious theatres such as the Donmar and the Globe, but Strangers On A Train marks your first big West End show. Is this something you’ve wanted to do for a while?
Oh my god – I rang my mum as soon as I got to my dressing room on the first day! It was just me and all my costumes hanging up with a few things on the wall. I had to ring her and say “Hello, I’m in my dressing room!” and I think quite a lot of people have been in here before me who my mum even saw, not that she’s ancient, but she certainly remembers coming to the Gielgud before it was called the Gielgud. It really does feel ‘proper’.
Do you get first night nerves?
I do! My nerves sort of, in a funny way, affect me to a certain point. But with me, while I certainly have the natural bodily reactions that you have when you’re a bit scared [laughs], at the same time I don’t think it gets in the way of what I’m doing. I sort of just tell myself to ‘man up’ and get on with it. There will always be things during the first preview that happen such as getting your heel stuck or a door slamming on your arse or accidentally changing into the wrong costume... or something. Those things just happen and you have to accept that it’s impossible to get through however many performances we are doing without something going wrong. If you accept that then everything will be fine [laughs]!
You have done a good mix of film, TV and stage work throughout your career. Was that always your intention?
It is very important to me and actually it didn’t always happen. I did lots of theatre and then between 2003 and 2010 I didn’t do a play at all which was a big mistake. I had always done theatre ever since school and then drama school but I got into the telly loop and was told by various people who were looking after me that I didn’t want to risk turning down a telly job to do a play because what if that world dries up and then you can’t get back into the loop again? But that’s not true at all. The first play I did when I came back was Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII at the Globe and they helped to generate more work. People see you doing something else and it gives you a healthier attitude towards everything. I think doing theatre keeps you where you should be.
Miranda Raison and Laurence Fox
Obviously the two are very different, you must relish the rehearsal period when doing theatre?
I love it, I really love it - especially Bob’s way of working which is very much like ‘let’s do it’. A lot of rehearsal processes involve sitting around a table for days and days and days, which I’ll happily do and still enjoy, but when you get into a rehearsal room and the director says “ok, let’s start, stand up and go from the beginning and do it” I like that, I really like that a lot. It helps to use that energy which otherwise could be used in getting nervous or winding yourself up.
Do you get the chance to see much theatre at all?
I go through phases. The last thing I saw was Private Lives here at the Gielgud! It was absolutely brilliant! Goodness me it was good! Did you see it?
Oh yes, I adored it!
So did I! That second act when it was Toby Stephens and Anna Chancellor on the floor was just hilarious, and I wanted to move into her flat! I worked with Toby for four months last year, just before he did the play in Chichester. We were doing a show in Dublin together and I knew it was coming up but there was that extra buzz of having heard about something and then coming to see it in the most perfect theatre! I saw Hamlet here at the Gielgud when I was doing my A Levels, I think I was in lower sixth, with Stephen Dillane in the title role and funnily enough that was the last time I was here before seeing Toby in Private Lives so when you think of a theatre growing up... this is what it looks like!
Finally, you have some very dedicated fans who follow your career very closely. What is it like having that kind of support behind you?
Well it’s a funny one, people are so lovely at stage door and I get some nice letters, but I don’t do Twitter or anything. I often work with people who do use Twitter and get this instant feedback from people and I don’t get that, I have quite a nerdy life really and most of my friends are not actors, they’re mostly people I went to school with or have just known for a long time. I have quite separate lives in a way. Just now I arrived at work and there were some people at the stage door and it was really, really lovely! They are people I’ve met before, last year two of the guys came to see me in The River at the Royal Court. My birthday is in November and they brought me flowers, chocolates, cards and some balloons and it was just so nice!
Interviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)
Strangers On A Train is currently booking at the Gielgud Theatre until 22nd February 2014.
Click here to book tickets (save £18 at selected performances).
Photo Credit 1: Sasha Gusov
Photo Credit 2 & 3: Brinkhoff & Mögenburg
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