Anna Friel says ‘nakedness doesn’t get to her’ after four-hour nude filming on Marcella
ACTRESS Anna Friel has spoken candidly about going nude for her role in the new Scandi-esque drama Marcella, admitting that she has no qualms about disrobing in front of the camera.
Marcella starts later this month on ITV
The 39-year-old British actress plays the eponymous lead and former police detective Marcella Backland in the ITV series and the opening scene sees her character in a confused state as she lies naked in her bath.
Reflecting on filming the sequence, the Manchester-born described it as “a bold opening scene”.
“At this stage of my career, of my life, I’m 39-years-old, the nakedness doesn’t really get to me and I know they’re not allowed to show certain things anyway. It’s better just not to be self-conscious and coy. I find that really off-putting when I see actresses do that,” she said.
Anna continued: “I was in the bath for about four hours. Obviously I got out from time to time, otherwise I’d be a wrinkly old prune.”
Anna is one of the country's best-loved TV actresses
The show is sure to be a hit
ITV Rebrand in a Nutshell
I’m 39-years-old, the nakedness doesn’t really get to me
“The funniest bit was at the end when they said, ‘That’s a wrap.’ They dropped all the curtains and I just found myself in a big studio going, ‘Freezing. All right guys? Closed set? Yeah?’
“There I am sitting naked in a bath in the middle of all these people. So I stayed calm and collected and went, ‘OK, let’s put those curtains back up, shall we?’ I’m open but not that open,” she added.
Marcella has been penned by Hans Rosenfeldt, the man behind The Bridge, and is the first original London-set Nordic Noir to grace British screens.
The eight-part series follows Marcella’s return to the Metropolitan Police’s murder squad, following the breakdown of her marriage and her growing isolation from her two children.
The show will see the police officer revisiting a serial killer case from 2005 after a series of copycat murders start.
Marcella has yet to receive an airdate
It looks set to be another nationwide smash
Anna revealed that nearly everyone is in the show is a potential suspect and asked producers not to tell her the identity of the killer until the very end.
“Marcella wouldn’t know anyway. And, of course, it might be her! None of us knew how this would end until we got those final scripts. Each and every single one of us could end up as a victim, witness or suspect,” she explained.
The ITV series has a stellar cast which features Downton Abbey’s Laura Carmichael as Maddy Stevenson, Nicholas Pinnock as the detective's ex-husband, Coronation Street's Ian Puleston-Davies, Nina Sosanya from Last Tango in Halifax, The Office star Patrick Baladi, and Harry Lloyd from Game of Thrones.
Marcella starts on ITV in April.