Torchwood Week: Eve Myles

It seems like there’s a bit of a reboot of Torchwood this year, with a complete shake-up of the format. By the end of episode 1, it’s quite a different show from the one we’ve seen over the last two seasons. How did you respond to that?

Fantastically! My favourite episodes of previous series were the ones where the stories continued over two or three episodes. The last 26 that we’ve done, we’ve been lucky enough to get one or two that keep the same story, so there’s not a beginning, a middle and an end in one episode and they’re not so rushed.

So this year, instead of having several directors, we’ve had just the fantastic Euros Lyn, who’s amazing. So having one director, having one story and telling it over five hours is a completely different format. But it’s completely changed it for the better. It’s tighter, much more happens — there’s more in these five hours than in the 26 that you’ve seen!

It’s awesome for the characters. And the stories — yes, it is one story, but it diverges and will take you up and down and roundabout. It’s the biggest one we’ve ever done.

Does having a single director make a big difference when you’re acting?

It does. I mean, not taking anything away from the directors we’ve worked with in the past, because obviously they know exactly what’s going on, they’ve done their homework before turning up on set. But having Euros establish it and see it through right to the end takes a lot of weight and a lot of pressure off our shoulders. Because then we just do our job. We don’t have to explain, “Mmm. Episode 3, I was shot in the face, so maybe Episode 8, I’d have a scar”! We don’t have to go through formalities like that.

So it’s really worked for this format, having the one director. He’s been our leader and we’ve been there to do what he wants us to do. It’s his vision and it’s worked fantastically well.

So do you think this is the right format for Torchwood going forward?

Yes I do. That was a quick answer, wasn’t it? As I said, my favourite stories were the ones that went over two or three episodes. Maybe it’s selfish, I don’t know.

Also, the show spun off from Doctor Who, where the format requires a very different story each time. With Torchwood’s single setting in Cardiff, maybe it feels more natural to have the consequences carry over from week to week.

Yeah, I think that’s absolutely right. But I think it’s also a very brave thing to have done with a third series, to change its format and style, to do something completely different with it. Yes it’s going on to a different channel, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to make it any better or any worse. Every year we have to make it better, and it will be better every year. So yes, I think given that fact and us turning up and going, “Look, we’ve got one story to do over five episodes,” that’s the event we wanted to do this year, and that’s the event we’re giving you.

By the end of the first episode, Gwen discovers she’s pregnant. How does that affect her?

I think it highlights her commitment to Torchwood massively. I struggled at first when I read the script and I read that Gwen was expecting a baby. I thought, Christ, every day she’s in danger. At any point, she can die like that [clicks fingers]. Any of us can. Apart from Jack!

But she’s putting herself on the line every single minute of the day when she’s with Torchwood. And the responsibility of becoming a mum — it takes Jack to say, “We’ll figure it out, we always do.” She’s juggled a relationship with Torchwood, she’s juggling a marriage with Torchwood. Why can’t she juggle motherhood?

It kind of makes the character grow a lot more. Especially if we get another series — you’ll see Gwen Cooper saving the world, then going home to feed the baby! It makes her even more human, and yet even more of a wonder woman. She’s just got even more responsibility now, because she’ll be a mum.

And just to let you know that so am I going to be! Method, totally method! I know that we needed a baby for the fourth series, so I thought, “I’d better get it done!”

I’m really looking forward to playing her as Gwen Cooper, the mother, and also the fighter.

When Gwen first discovers she’s pregnant, we can see all sorts of emotions dancing over her eyes.

I’m so glad you said that! The thing with Gwen is, I was struggling as an actress as to where to place this. Is she completely devastated that this has happened? You find out later on how it has happened and how she has fallen pregnant. So it’s a bit of a surprise. That scene where you see me with the detector — I had to think through everything that Gwen would be going through, which is, “I come to work every day and I have to save the world. I have to save people’s lives. I’m pregnant. My God, that’s completely ridiculous. It’s going to get in the way, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I can’t do Torchwood any more. Of course I can do Torchwood.” A million different things are running through her head at that point, and it just takes Jack to say, “We’ll sort it.”

When you found out yourself, did you go through a similar feeling?

Well, if I said I didn’t I’d be completely lying. I’ve wanted to do this for such a long time and job after job kept coming up. I just decided, right, if I put this off any more, I’m going to be sixty-five going, “Right, I’m ready now.” And I thought, I’m not going to do that. And I’ve met some fantastic people who have done that very thing, and I thought no, that’s not happening to me.

So we decided this year was going to be the year. And we’ve been blessed, we’ve been very lucky for it to have happened quite quickly. We’re over the moon.

You weren’t put off by the fact that in Series 2’s Something Borrowed you were pregnant with an alien?

Crossed my mind, massively! It was quite funny, actually. When we had a scan — we’re talking Eve now, not Gwen — my partner was there, my mum was there. We were looking at the scan and my Mum leaned over and said, “Nope. Not a Nostrovite!”

How was the dynamic on set without Naoko Mori and Burn Gorman?

Inevitably we were going to miss them. We lost two awesome characters, but more importantly we lost two great friends. But that’s the nature of the job, and the nature of Torchwood. They had amazing stories to go out on, forever legends in the world of Torchwood. They are a huge symbol this year — life is short when you work for Torchwood, and anyone can go. For them to have left highlights just how dangerous it is for Gwen and Ianto.

So how long do you think you’ll stay in Torchwood?

They’ve booked me until I’m 94. Gwen’s going to be running around with her Zimmer frame, with Baby Gwen doing all the action stuff!

I hope that when I do go out, I go out really well, doing something Gwen would do. Probably something very humane and soemthing very ordinary that has huge consequences.

It seems a much more vulnerable Torchwood this year.

It’s great. The more challenges Torchwood has to face, the funnier it gets. You put a challenge in front of them, and they have no choice but to overcome that obstacle. The way they overcome some of those obstacles this year is very funny, very cheeky, they break the law. They do what they have to do to do their job. Whatever it takes. Because the consequence is saving mankind.

Talking of the humour, the level of humour just in the first episode does seem to be a contrast from the latter episodes of Season 2.

Yes, well, there was such a heavy ending last year with everybody in mourning. With the first episode, there’s so much danger, and so much exposition for the rest of the series. Everybody knows who Jack is now, everybody knows who Gwen and Ianto are. You’ve just got to chuck the humour at the audience so that it balances out the horror of what’s to come.

Of all the guest stars appearing in this series, who were you most looking forward to working with?

I think that had to be Paul Copley [who plays Clem]. I’ve adored him in previous TV dramas but I’d gone to see him in King Lear at Shakespeare’s Globe and he was just fantastic. I’ve always admired him, always thought he was wonderful — and always thought he was very underused.

And I have to say that in this series, he’s just amazing. I don’t know how many times I forgot my lines because I was just watching him. He’s brilliant.

There are scenes in the first episode with just you and him. His performance is incredibly technical, with lots of physical and verbal tics.

When you start with a character like that written down on paper, everyone will make their own decisions. And every decision that he made was spot on. It was amazing. That scene ran over about four and a half pages. It was absolutely massive. But the writing was so good. The storyline between Gwen and Clem was a very kind of thin line. I never wanted to come across as patronising or belittling, or treating him like a patient in a mental institution. I hate seeing someone who’s half the age of somebody else on screen being patronising. It drives me insane.

At the end of the day, Gwen is there to get information. She’s got to do it in any way she can, and she does that by being human, by using humour and by sharing. That’s a skill she’s always had: she’s able to make people open up by making them feel comfortable.

So those scenes were a balancing act between being the listener, being the social worker, but then having to go back and save the world!

She’s very very clever, Gwen. She was a fantastic policewoman. She’s very skilled, highly trained. That’s what Jack needed and that’s what Gwen does. She does it really well. Much better than I would! I’d be useless!

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