Actress Tamsin GreIg talks to The Inside Reel about tone, subtext, notes and performance in regards to her new comedy series: “The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin” on Apple TV+.
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00:00 [music playing]
00:03 [music playing]
00:06 [music playing]
00:09 [music playing]
00:12 [music playing]
00:13 [screaming]
00:14 [music playing]
00:17 [screaming]
00:18 [music playing]
00:21 Going to be famous.
00:23 Dick Turpin!
00:24 Dick Turpin.
00:25 Dick Turpin.
00:26 Dick Turpin.
00:27 Dick Turpin.
00:29 I want this dick in my hands as soon as possible.
00:32 [laughs]
00:33 That sounds weird.
00:34 Yeah, that did sound a bit weird.
00:35 Sorry.
00:36 [music playing]
00:39 Tone in any piece is so important.
00:42 And it's interesting because your character
00:44 plays all different sides of tone,
00:46 whether it be sort of the fun, the comedy, the heart,
00:49 the dramatic, the dread.
00:51 Could you talk about seeing those different facets of her
00:54 and sort of finding the right sort of notes
00:56 in order to do that?
00:57 I think that I have a kind of am I bored filter.
01:01 So if I'm playing a character and it's the same note,
01:04 you know, I don't think I'd do well in an orchestra
01:06 playing the bassoon.
01:07 Do you know what I mean?
01:08 Because you're playing--
01:09 Yeah, I get you.
01:10 [humming]
01:11 Do you know what I mean?
01:12 So I have quite a low boredom threshold for tone for myself.
01:17 So I think that I'm constantly trying
01:19 to surprise myself about what is also possible,
01:24 but also surprising.
01:26 [music playing]
01:27 [screaming]
01:30 You've probably heard of him.
01:31 Dick Turpin, new leader of the Essex gang.
01:33 Highwayman murder and rob.
01:35 You're not a highwayman, Dick.
01:36 I've got this.
01:37 We strike on three.
01:39 One, two--
01:40 We'll get the next one.
01:44 Now, do you have to understand within this context
01:47 of the Turpin universe, the motivations of the character?
01:49 Because she has so many different motivations
01:51 for her daughter, for her life, for her business.
01:55 You know, and I love how, like, I think
01:57 there's one scene in, like, a boarding room
02:00 where you switch the notes mid-scene, which
02:04 is really neat to do.
02:05 Could you sort of talk about that?
02:06 Is that about knowing what the other actor is doing,
02:09 in that case, like Ellie, or playing to different things?
02:12 Can you sort of talk about that process, if you don't mind?
02:16 I think that the element of surprise
02:22 has great traction and currency within a show like this.
02:26 Comedy is really about deception.
02:28 It's about sleight of hand and leading an audience
02:31 down a particular track, and then they're surprised
02:34 where they find themselves.
02:36 But you're trying to do that without giving it away.
02:39 So it's often about contradiction.
02:41 So you can do all of that work on your own as a performer.
02:44 You're reading a script and learning it
02:45 and seeing what's possible within the script that you have
02:48 and the character notes that you have for yourself.
02:51 But then you're in the company of other brilliant performers.
02:55 And that, then, it's the interplay between the two things.
02:58 And then you get surprised and inspired and sidetracked
03:02 and tripped over by other performers,
03:04 and that's when the magic happens.
03:06 Now, it appears that one of our coaches,
03:09 full of stolen gold, was...
03:12 stolen.
03:13 That's not supposed to happen now, is it?
03:16 This is unacceptable.
03:18 Which of you cretinous pillocks allowed this to happen?
03:20 Well, you did.
03:22 What? Really?
03:24 The robbery occurred in Hempstead,
03:26 which I believe is your turf.
03:28 But there's also different scenes
03:30 where it's as much as what's said between the lines,
03:32 which is true in drama as well,
03:34 but, like, I think you're walking with Noel at one point as Dick,
03:38 and you can see her being sort of not immune to his flirting
03:42 but still knowing what he's doing
03:44 and still having her own angle.
03:46 Can you talk about finding sort of that white element,
03:49 that white noise between the lines
03:51 that, you know, gives so much to a performance?
03:53 And I was telling Noel about this as well,
03:55 because he does it with Dick as well.
03:57 Yeah, it's really wonderful to have that...
04:02 be given that freedom to play between the words.
04:06 You know, it's like a musician playing between the notes.
04:10 You know, that...
04:12 Like the breath between each communication.
04:18 You know, that's where you reside as a performer,
04:21 as an individual, that you're bringing something unique.
04:24 And it's how you inhabit that space,
04:27 which is really thrilling, to be given that space,
04:31 and then to see what comes back when you give that.
04:36 There were certain gestures that I would use with him,
04:39 because she's a child who's pretending to be flirtatious.
04:42 I don't think she really knows what it means to be flirtatious,
04:45 but she's sort of pretending it,
04:47 and he finds it attractive but excruciating.
04:52 And, you know, that's delightful to play with as well.
04:56 So, yeah, it's very inventive in the moment.
05:00 Jonathan, the Syndicate had you appointed Thief-Taker
05:03 to secure safe passage for our smuggled cargo, remember?
05:06 If you're not up to the task, perhaps you need replacing.
05:14 So, you have 24 hours to find the gold, and there's responsible.
05:18 Otherwise...
05:20 The aspect of vernacular, because the thing is,
05:24 is that the one thing about the show is that it exists in modern language
05:27 and in antiquity, and yet some of the slang sort of plays in between.
05:31 Can you talk about sort of the pentameter almost of that,
05:34 and how that timing has to be correct in order for this to work as well?
05:40 Yeah, I think, again, it's the clash of anachronism.
05:44 You know, that you have a historical...
05:46 We don't know how people spoke in that time,
05:48 and, you know, it's mostly invented, but we do know how people speak now.
05:52 But when you clash those two elements together,
05:55 then you've got... There are firecracker moments.
05:57 So, you couldn't do it probably in a drama,
06:02 or it would feel elbowed in,
06:05 but you can probably do it in something where there's a wilder element to it,
06:11 and that's really pleasing, really pleasurable.
06:15 Yeah.
06:16 There's only one man brainless enough to steal from the syndicate.
06:20 Thank you, Dick. I don't know what we'd do without you.
06:24 (SCREAMING)
06:26 (SCREAMING)
06:28 (SCREAMING)
06:30 (SCREAMING)
06:32 ♪♪