Five minutes with: Holliday Grainger, star of 'Bonnie & Clyde'

It's never easy bringing an iconic role to life. Just ask Holliday Grainger, the lead actress in the epic TV series 'Bonnie & Clyde'.

'Bonnie & Clyde' - a four-hour, two-night event - follow the story of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, the Depression-era outlaw couple whose criminal exploits have assured them lasting fame for eight decades.

The mini-series retells the fascinating tale of the couple whose crime spree enraptured the American public.  Rumored to have a sixth-sense power to see events before they happened, Barrow was always able to stay one step ahead of the law as they escaped capture time and again. His one blind spot was Parker, who was intent on becoming famous, fed on the alluring media attention and pushed Barrow to commit riskier and more dangerous crimes to generate bigger headlines and make them the most famous criminals of the modern era.

We managed to catch hold of the 25-year-old as she talks about her role in the special two-episode mini-movie:

How does it feel taking on such an iconic role?
HG: It’s kind of scary and exciting.

Do you feel any pressure trying to portray that character?
HG: I was terrified when I first got the part. But I think I put pressure on myself for wanting to do well, because, not just the fact that she’s an iconic figure, but in the script, she is such an amazing character! It was an absolute joy for a young actor to get to play that, and so I put pressure on myself for wanting to do the character justice.

But outside of that, I didn’t really feel the pressure of representing such an iconic figure because I think once I started with my research, I would end up almost forgetting that anyone else is going to watch it! There are so many aspects of Bonnie that could be represented, and everyone is going have their own opinions, so if I’m going to make a choice, I’m going to make it which I feel is more fun to represent and more fun to play…and I guess by focusing on making it fun for me, it takes the pressure away.

Could you name some of the challenges you faced in bringing Bonnie to life?
HG: I think a lot of them are the practical things. I got a sense of the character quite strongly in the script. But of course, then I had to learn the accent; I had a few voice coaches, but there’s also this amazing website called the International Dialects of English Archive, you can focus on specific regions but I could also listen to older women whose accents would have been closest to the period when Bonnie was from. I watched lots of documentaries and films that were set in pre-1950s.

I had to learn to shoot guns and dance ballet and all that kind of partner dancing from that period. I spoke to friends about panic attacks because Bonnie had panic attacks. There’s this massive list of practical things I had to learn before I could even start focusing on the character!

Your character in 'Bonnie & Clyde' is a far cry from your previous characters like in 'The Borgias' and 'Anna Karenina'. How did you prepare for the role of Bonnie Parker?
HG: Well, I feel like some of my previous characters have slightly similar traits, particularly Lucrezia in 'The Borgias' and 'Estella'. They were quite strong minded woman, but also have a degree of aesthetic consciousness about them and quite single-minded in her desires and also the ability to manipulate situations and manipulate men. I think there’s a lot of that in Bonnie too.

But it seemed to be pushed further; she’s a lot more manipulative, selfish and driven than many of the other characters that I’ve played. When I’m on set, and I’m speaking in that accent, and I put on the clothes, I feel like the character sort of “gets comfy”. The way that you move changes when you put on clothes from a certain period and once you start speaking in that accent.

You once mentioned that before you took on the role, it terrified you to bits. Do you still feel that way once filming began?

HG: I was scared when I first got offered because I hadn’t met anyone from the team nor gone in for an audition. I just put myself on tape for the casting directors and I got offered the part. So it scared me that lots of people that I’ve never even met were trusting me to represent this American icon! Then I got out to Louisiana and met people and did some rehearsals and met the director.

Emile was lovely and Bruce the director is so laid back; he always said as long as he believed it [His notes will always be ‘yeah yeah that was good, I believed it’], you can trust him to tell you if you are being realistic or natural or not. I had my first few days on set with Holly Hunter, and we rehearsed one afternoon together just the two of us before we went on set. She knew what the characters were like and the mother-daughter relationship and this idea of symbiosis between them. Then when I got on set, Holly was so generous in the feedback that she was giving me. She really made me feel very secure. It kind of took the nerves out on the first few days and I stopped being terrified and from then on, I started enjoying it!

Catch the repeat of 'Bonnie & Clyde' on 15 February 2014 (Saturday) at 12noon on HISTORY (Astro Channel 555 & 575).