Ruth Wilson does her homework

Over our slightly blurry video call, Ruth Wilson wears a deep blue knitted jumper and traces of sun-kissed hair flicked away from her face. Warm, attentive and witty, Wilson laughs readily and greets every question
with careful consideration. It’s exactly the balance of humility and confidence that one might expect from an Olivier-Award- winning actor who grew up in a quiet village in Surrey — a village where she worked her way towards LAMDA, before landing her first role as Jane Eyre in the eponymous 2006 BBC adaptation. Since, Wilson has starred in Luther, The Affair, His Dark Materials, as well as both on stage and the silver screen. Her latest project, Down Cemetery Road, is a new adaptation by Morwenna Banks based on Slow Horses writer Mick Herron’s 2003 book series. In it, Wilson plays Sarah Tucker, an art conservationist looking for a missing girl after an explosion shakes her suburban Oxford life. With the help of private investigator Zoë Boehm (Emma Thompson), the pair unravel a thrilling world of betrayal, violence and government secrets.

Despite having both been in Saving Mr. Banks, Down Cemetery Road marks the first time Thompson and Wilson have actually acted together. In that sense, Ben Whishaw, today’s interviewer, has one up on Thompson. He and Wilson played opposite each other in The Second Woman, a marathon of a play in which the Surrey actor performed the same scene on a loop with a different partner over the course of twenty-four hours. Wearing a loose bun and an artsy graphic tee, Whishaw joins our Zoom call after a night shoot. Surprisingly, he is somewhat anxious. “I never think that the interviewer might be as nervous as I am being interviewed,” he jokes, holding out his hand-written questions. However, his nerves quickly give way to an easy but engaged conversation in which he and Wilson regularly break to compliment each other’s projects. Whether they’re talking about previous roles or shared memories, one thing is clear: they would love to work together again.

Ben Whishaw: First of all, Down Cemetery Road is completely brilliant. I’ve only watched the first two [episodes], but I was totally hooked. How different is the show from the books?

Ruth Wilson: It’s quite weird, because the books were written in 2003, and they needed to be modernised slightly. My character certainly needed a lot of adaptation, because [in the books] she was a bored housewife: she didn’t have a job, she didn’t have any children and was wandering around the streets, bored. I don’t know many people like that anymore. But also the books were much darker. Sarah’s husband in the books is drugging her, and she is someone that has lost her sense of self and confidence.

BW: Had that work already been done or were you involved in those changes?

RW: I got offered the pilot and Morwenna had already made those changes. I definitely questioned the changes, because, to me, [the book] makes Sarah’s motivations a bit more obvious. She’s a person like you or me that suddenly finds themself in a conspiracy thriller. I found the character as I went, which is the first time I’d done that, actually.

BW: What do you mean you found it as you went?

RW: Usually I’m quite clear going into a job. I’ve done my homework and I decide what my arc is. I did go to a woman at Somerset house and she taught me all about art restoration. I practiced cleaning the dirt off an old painting. In this, I felt a little bit unsure because things happen to her, so it was something that was revealing itself to me. Ultimately I thought, Make it as close to me as possible, and it will come out.

“I take the prep and the world very seriously. I obsess over it.”

BW: It’s interesting that you say that you struggled to find her, because I didn’t get that sense at all.

RW: My mum actually said that, too. It wasn’t a voice I had to create. I knew it already. And that left me feeling a little bit untethered.

BW: One of the things I love about watching you is that sense of you being completely in the moment and loving it.

RW: I take the prep and the world very seriously, and I think deeply about everything. I obsess over it. When I’m doing it, there’s a part of me that just goes, Oh, fuck it and embrace the fun.

BW: When you’re watching something like Down Cemetery Road, are you good at piecing together these stories?

RW: I mean I’m in a lot of them. I’ve grown up on it — [shows] like Prime Suspect, Cracker, and Morse or Miss Marple.

BW: They’re delicious, aren’t they?

RW: They’re great. When I do watch, I really indulge in the mystery of it and annoy people next to me who want to keep quiet.

BW: This is a question that I got asked about two weeks ago, and I didn’t really know how to answer — but I don’t really curate a career. Where do you sit on something like that?

RW: I’m a bit the same. People always ask me what play would you love to do. I don’t have a play I’d love to do. You don’t have control over what comes your way, really. Right now I feel like I really need to go back on stage. It’s a coincidence. Sometimes you see something and think, This is interesting.

BW: Are you likely to do more of Down Cemetery Road, Ruth?

RW: If people watch it I’ll have no choice.

Whishaw laughs.

RW: I would love to revisit those characters. I think Emma and I don’t get quite enough time on screen together. We do in the last three episodes, but it’s more of a hint of what’s to come.

BW: Is the idea that, going ahead, you would become a duo that solves things?

RW: I hope that [Sarah] is still a normal pleb. I hope they don’t make her another private investigator. Her recklessness and slight naivety is what I like.

BW: Do you have things you’re working on that you’re looking forward to?

RW: I’ve got three little projects: a play that I’m developing with Kit Williams, a film with Tessa Ross and a TV show that I’m developing. And hopefully something with you, Ben.

BW: Yes, I know, we do really need to work together.