Sian Clifford interview
Sian Clifford talks about taking on the role of Tina in Two Weeks To Live.
So, what drew you to the project?
Well, number one, Maisie Williams. I'm a huge fan of Maisie's work. I think she's an extraordinary actor. It's sort of a measure of the project that she was already attached to it and that she'd been involved for quite a long period throughout its development. That really excited me, and then also the character of Tina was something that really appealed to me. I've never seen a character like that played by a woman on screen before. I'd seen men play those kinds of outdoorsy types. I loved Leave No Trace with Ben Foster and Captain Fantastic with Viggo Mortensen so it was exciting to embody what that might look like.
What's Tina's relationship like with Kim?
It's pretty tempestuous. It's very competitive between them, the dynamic is very fraught. Tina is very protective of her daughter and I think most mothers probably have that instinct. It's very heightened with them though because they've been living in isolation for such a long period of time and it's very easy to get attached to the safety of isolation and being in that bubble, so she's very conflicted by Kim pushing against wanting to remain in that environment. So, despite it being pretty fractious at times, there is a deep connection between them. I think ultimately, Tina would like to pretend that they're best friends rather than being mother and daughter, and so she really struggles to find her place within that dynamic. But it's such an enjoyable one to play.
These characters are certainly not the norm we've historically seen for women, especially the mother-daughter relationship.
Absolutely. That's why it was so fun to do! I think the nature of Kim being raised almost feral out in the woods is very unique and inevitably, if anyone were to grow up in those kinds of circumstances, they wouldn't necessarily align with what's considered normal. And then for Tina, to have stepped away from the 'real-world' in the way that she has and return to such a simple way of life and especially living so closely with Mother Nature, I imagine it would probably make you reevaluate things and also really change your perspective on the world's existing systems and infrastructures.
We definitely see that in Tina, who isn't shy about expressing her disdain for the state of the world! As a unit though, they're obviously completely disconnected from the world as we know it so, inevitably, that creates a lot of conflict when they re-enter it.
Tina does have a somewhat crude sense of humour and penchant for swearing. Was that fun to play?
I actually really pulled back on those moments because I think it's much funnier if it's more restrained with that kind of humour, personally. With Tina, I didn't want it to overtake and I still wanted her to be grounded in truth. The most fun days though were when the four of us: Maisie, Mawaan, Taheen and I, were all on set together. I've recently watched the entire series for the first time and those boys are just off the chain! Maisie and I would be screaming with laughter at the pair of them to-ing and fro-ing - in character and out!
Al Campbell, our wonderful director, was so excited for us all to be working together too and really wanted to celebrate that dynamic and the chemistry between us, so we improvised occasionally. They were the best times on set.
Talk us through the new skills you learned. You wield a crossbow in this!
Haha! Well I'm weirdly amazing at archery. There's a fun fact people don't know about me. But I've never fired a crossbow, not even in this, I just held it. Actually, there are some excellent outtakes of me trying to just place the arrow onto the crossbow. I think we did about 50 takes. They've made it look ridiculously swift and slick in the edit somehow, they are wizards! Although in my defence, any prop, as an actor, is a bit of a nightmare because the only time you get to handle those props, when you're filming at least, is during the very brief rehearsal. You don't have time to get used to it and on set they obviously want you to move fairly quickly.
There were lots of practical things that I had to learn as Tina which brought me great joy because I was terrible at all of them. In my opening scene I am painting, that was pretty hilarious. There was also another moment where I had to throw a glass at a picture on the wall which turns out to have a hole behind it so the glass should just fly through. I can't tell you how many throws it took although whilst there were some absolutely shocking misses, when I was hitting the target the paper wouldn't tear and the glass would boomerang back at my face. I assumed it was because of my appalling technique but on that occasion at least, it turned out they had put up the wrong paper, it wasn't just my incompetence.
Are you up for playing an action hero?
I think all actors are versatile by nature so yeah, given the opportunity I imagine we'd love to play all of the things. We want to play melancholy poets, but we also want to be superheroes. Ideally you want to play characters that have elements of all of those things and again that's another thing that I loved about this project because it doesn't fit cleanly into a genre, which is the stuff I love the most. The stuff that makes people uncomfortable if you try and say it's a comedy. I do think there's a new genre emerging or a new form of comedy maybe that we have to embrace. I think it's a reflection of where we're at in terms of our humanity and in terms of the creative content that we're craving.
Did you do any of your own stunts?
Absolutely not! Haha! But, in all seriousness, generally insurance won't let you. All those people that claim they do their own stunts? Yeah, I'd love to see what that actually means when you're not Tom Cruise. We do as much as we can of course because it's fun, but when it gets to a point where it's just dangerous and you've got to be available for the rest of the shoot, we leave it to the stunt doubles. I can't drive, so they have to help me out there too. Driving used to be one of those things that could lose actors jobs if they couldn't do it, but more often than not now they use low loaders because they realised, unsurprisingly, it's not really safe to drive and act at the same time.
How did shooting this series compare to others you've worked on?
It was intense. I mean like all productions really, there was less time than we inevitably needed so it was really down to the efficiency of the team. Bearing in mind that we spent the same amount of time filming this as we did on Fleabag, but Fleabag of course doesn't have any of the action sequences. So, it was a huge task and, of course, there were times that were challenging but it was a really well run and relaxed set.
When we were shooting at the cabin, one of our main locations, our poor crew had an absolute nightmare getting kit up and down the hill that we were on, especially when it was raining! But everyone stayed so positive and took care of one another. For me personally, Maisie, Mawaan and Taheen was the winning combo that made it all so joyful. Mawaan was just pure gratitude and Taheen was just pure radiant joy, with Maisie and I scoffing snacks, giggling in a corner, grinning at each other about how lucky we got with them. Honestly the combination of those two at five o'clock in the morning with Mawaan reminding us to, "look at the sunrise" and Taheen bouncing off the trees. It was really special.
Was it wonderful to be part of a cast that champions diversity on screen?
Absolutely. It's something I've pushed for in all of my projects for a while now and that I ask about before I come on board to any project. Even before I had any real say on anything. Sometimes even before meeting for a project. It's absolutely essential to create lasting change and make sure people are being represented fairly and given equal opportunities. I hope now maybe that people won't be as afraid to speak up.
It can demand courage to begin to ask those questions or raise issues about scripts of course, but if the creative team isn't open to that, or honestly, on top of it already, then it's not a project I would personally want to be involved with. It can't just be onscreen either though, we need to be calling for diversity at every level of production, in every sector. I've started to see a small shift in the right direction in the last year or so, but we've got a long way to go.
Do you think people might respond more to Tina as a survivalist given the current pandemic that has meant people have had to adapt their own lifestyles?
There are definitely parallels! Initially when it all happened, when it was really difficult to get food, I suppose I did go into a sort of survivalist mode. It wasn't a feeling I'd ever experienced before that's for sure, where you just have to make do. And also where you fear for people's lives. You suddenly become incredibly practical, or I did at least. But I also noticed how that extended beyond myself and into my community, wanting to take care of one another, which was pretty incredible. That's something that I hope we take with us beyond this moment in time, so it may be an aspect of the show that resonates in a different way now, that we could never have anticipated during filming.
But with Tina, though she was also forced into her own isolation, in some ways - and certainly after 17 years - it feels like more of a choice. She really thrives being cut off from the world completely. She doesn't want to interact with anyone because that's her way of keeping Kim safe - but also to herself. Her blind and very naive intention is to keep Kim there forever. She knows that she can't, but she can't comprehend what might come beyond that so she doesn't. And that's why it's so terrifying when that control is completely taken out of her hands and Kim runs away. There's nothing worse for her and even as she desperately tries to let go and give Kim her blessing to be autonomous throughout the series, she can't help but manipulate her, she always an agenda.