British actress Sophie Rundle was clumsy and shy as a kid. She says she didn't shine at anything until she stumbled on a drama class.
"I remember I was 11 and I'd just joined a big school, and there was a drama club and a play, 'Alice in Wonderland.' And I just got the bug," she says.
"I took part in drama class, and I loved it. I was quite an awkward kid and I just wanted to be seen, I think. This was a way to do it; be seen, but not as myself because I was awkward and didn't really think I had anything to offer ... But there's a defense as soon as you go on stage and you've got a costume on. Nothing can touch you because it's not YOU anymore, it's somebody else. And I just loved it, and it snowballed from there. I didn't ever want to do anything else."
She proved doubly fortunate because instead of grinning as the Cheshire cat or issuing decapitation orders as the Queen of Hearts, Rundle was cast as Alice. "You can see why I was hooked," she giggles.
From then on, she was determined to follow that course. Her dad, a business consultant, and her mom, who works for a company distributing books, were flummoxed by her choice, she says.
"I was sort of headstrong about it. I was very committed, so after a while it made sense to them. I think they're still a little bit baffled."
In spite of juicy roles in series like "Peaky Blinders," "Bodyguard" and "Jamestown," Rundle says she wasn't sure she was right for her latest role in the taut Scottish drama, "The Nest," streaming now on Acorn TV.
Rundle plays a woman who desperately longs to be a mother, but after years of trying, can't conceive and enlists a surrogate. The decision proves cataclysmic in this thriller.
"I thought I was too young for the role," admits Rundle, who's 32. "I was quite cross that I had to go in and read. I thought she was supposed to be older. I thought this was the story of a couple going through fertility treatment and read her as being MUCH older. But I went in and started talking to Nicole Taylor, the writer. She said no, she wanted them to be a younger couple. That was the hook."
The "hook" for Rundle herself came when she was 17 and was felled by a serious ailment.
She won't say what it was, but explains, "I was very ill when I was a teenager for a couple of months. And that really changed my perspective on life.
"You've got to go out and do the things you want to do because life can be very short. I think that changed me. I think you've always got to feel a little like you're in above your head. That was a big thing to go through at a formative age. I think anybody who's been ill, it does make you see things differently, and you grow up quicker. And it makes me very appreciative ... I'm OK now."
The experience escalated her resolve to be an actress.
Even so, she was rejected on her first try at entering one of England's prestigious drama schools.
"I got to the final rounds," she sighs, "and they said, 'Go off and live a little and then come back.' So I came back the next year, and they let me in ... I'm grateful that I didn't (attend when I was younger) because it's such an intense experience. You need to live your life a little bit. I was 20 when I went. I was soooo serious. I didn't want to live a life. I just wanted to be an actress. But I did grow up a little bit."
That 'growing up' involved digs with two friends she'd met at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
"We got this little old rickety house together in the deepest, darkest south London because it was all we could afford," she recalls.
"And I lived with them for seven years, so we went through drama school and several years of our career together. And that was the life I hoped I'd live when I moved to London. And they're still my best friends. We went through heartbreak together, our house got robbed, went on holiday together, we did it all."
Right now Rundle is trying to do it all with several do-it-yourself projects to keep busy during quarantine. She and her fiance, actor Matt Stokoe, planned on marrying, but the virus postponed that, she says.
In the meantime, she's trying to paint a cupboard and is learning to sew quilts. "I'm making loads of quilts. I'm not very good at it, just enthusiastic _ it's not a talent I possess. I just like it," she says.
On all her projects she's optimistic. "I just wade in and think I know how to do it. Then I call my dad and ask him the right way to do it. Matt is good at DIY, but I refuse to let him. To prove a point, I have to do it myself."
MARTHA STEWART STILL KNOWS BEST
How ya gonna keep her down on the farm? Pay her to stay there.
Well, Martha Stewart has never been away. And the do-it-yourselfer is hosting a new show for HGTV called "Martha Knows Best," which will be filmed at her farm in Bedford, New York.
The series premieres July 31, the first episode dealing with herb gardens and container plants. Stewart will welcome many well-known guests to her mini-plantation including Richard Gere, Jay Leno, Zac Posen, Lupita Nyong'o, and for the premiere episode, her ol' buddy Snoop Dogg.
The home economics expert won't be popping cookies out of the oven or whipping up a souffle this time. No, on this go-around she's concentrating on the outdoors: how to build a walkway, how to nurture plant life, how to negotiate a vegetable garden.
CARMICHAEL GOES FROM 'DOWNTON' TO DOWN UNDER
Laura Carmichael has forsaken her stately posture and gossamer gowns of "Downton Abbey" for a maternity outfit and a puzzling mystery in "The Secrets She Keeps," which is streaming on Sundance Now.
Carmichael, you may remember, played the unlucky-in-love sister on "Downton," to great effect. This role takes her to Australia, where her character meets another mother-to-be in a Sydney supermarket. Carmichael plays a woman struggling to make ends meet who pins all her hopes on her unborn child.
Jessica De Gouw ("The Crown") plays the other, much more prosperous woman and already the mother of two. Both of them have secrets that are about to bring them chaos.
Carmichael tells me why she's so devoted to performing.
"It's the process of getting into character I think I find really interesting," she says.
"I don't think I'm a natural entertainer. There are actors I know who everyone should meet just because they're hilarious. I don't think that's me. I think I'm sort of interested in the process behind it and the trickery of getting yourself to believe you're someone else."
PEACOCK PREENS ITS FEATHERS
NBCUniversal has finally seen its streaming site, Peacock, strutting forth among the others. For about $5 a month (with ads) you can catch many of your NBC favorites as well as what they're calling "the best moments." There'll be shorts from Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers as well as "The Office." Guffaws from "Saturday Night Live" will be hauled up from the vaults.
They're featuring live news and sports (such as there is) and what they call cultural events. Popcorn night might include some of the movies they're dredging up like "The Bourne Identity," "Gosford Park," "Fried Green Tomatoes" and "The Chronicles of Riddick." You can also catch new episodes of NBCUniversal's series one week after they've aired on the network like "This is Us" and "The Blacklist," as well as old shows like "The Carol Burnett Show" and "Columbo."
For those who'd like to pony up about $10 a month (no ads) there will be originals like "Brave New World," "The Capture," "Intelligence" and "Psych 2: Lassie Come Home." Coming up will be the "Housewives" from all over the place, "Married with Children, "Cold Case Files" and the ever-popular "Roseanne."
"Psych 2: Lassie Come Home" reunites Dule Hill and James Roday (he's changed his name to James Roday Rodriguez, under which he was born).
One of the best things about Peacock is people will get a chance to see some wonderful shows they might've missed like "American Greed," which airs on CNBC and is narrated by Stacy Keach, "The Affair," which ran on Showtime starring Ruth Wilson and Dominic West, and the terrific Western saga "Yellowstone," starring Kevin Costner, which is streaming now on the Paramount Network.
Costner is one of the executive producers on the marvelous show, and whether his attempts in the past were hits or misses, he has always tried his best to do it right.
"I think the secret of life is moving toward what interests you, not toward what makes you money," he says, "not toward what is your winning formula, but what genuinely interests you. People have always interested me and doing things and building things and building movies. But when that's no longer fun, I think I can move on."
