00:00Thank you both so much for taking time out of a very busy schedule.
00:03How does it feel to be here and have it out there in the world?
00:06Oh, wow.
00:07I'm giddy.
00:08I'm so excited.
00:10It's really a dream come true for me.
00:12It's been a long-ish process, you know, as developments are,
00:16from a book to a script to a TV show, but we did it and we're here.
00:20I'm so proud of it and it's just like our little babies.
00:25Totally.
00:26I'm so proud of it and honestly, this would not have happened without Luke.
00:29I know.
00:30Like, you kept faith with this project at moments when I was losing it
00:35and that has meant so much to me.
00:38Not least, your staggering performance as Martin Gilmore in The Party.
00:42He's amazing and the whole show is fantastic.
00:46And I can say that because I...
00:48You wrote it.
00:49I was going to say the opposite.
00:51I was very hands-off.
00:52I wrote the book and then I was like, please, Sarah Soleimani
00:55and the entire incredibly talented team, cast and crew have at it.
01:00I really want to see the new creative iteration that you bring to the screen
01:04and I could not be happier with it.
01:06Did you feel that you could resonate with Martin personally?
01:10Yeah.
01:11Yeah.
01:12I mean, obviously my personal life hasn't worked out the same as Martin's did.
01:16Thank God.
01:16You haven't killed any friends.
01:17I haven't killed anybody.
01:18It's true.
01:19There is parts of him, and especially his early life, that sort of societal pressure
01:26to conform and to adapt and to fit in and to be almost, like you said, a chameleon.
01:35It is.
01:35He is a chameleon.
01:36He's also a survivor and he adapts and he watches and he augments himself to fit in.
01:45Tell us a little bit about your character.
01:48Yeah, so I play Serena Fitzmaurice, who is married to Ben Fitzmaurice,
01:54and we meet them.
01:54She's throwing this, they're throwing a party for his 40th birthday party.
01:59And in the course of that and the course of the show, we move back in time
02:03and find out these various secrets that various characters have and things start to unravel.
02:09But she's amazing.
02:10She's, it was not the sort of part that I've been offered before.
02:13She's incredibly confident, incredibly confident, bright.
02:18She's the symbol of sort of status, wealth, fertility.
02:22She's just that type of woman.
02:24And your character, Lady Catherine, is quite a formidable one, isn't she?
02:28You wouldn't want to mess with her.
02:29I don't know.
02:31I feel really sorry for her, of course, because she has quite a limited life of enormous privilege.
02:39Just, you know, very, very entitled.
02:45But cut off in many ways because of that.
02:49And for you, of course, you're part of it in every way possible.
02:53Did you ever think, I'm taking on too much here, starring and outwriting it, producing?
02:59It's a lot.
03:00It is a lot.
03:01But I think when you really care about what you're trying to say,
03:06or when you really care about the characters and you care about the story,
03:10you don't notice it.
03:12You're just committed to making sure it's as good as you can.
03:16Did you always see yourself as playing Lucy in this show?
03:20I related to her, you know, I think all creative people feel like an outsider.
03:25She does love Martin, but she kind of can't stand his friends.
03:29What was it about this project that made you want to be a part of it?
03:33The writing's fantastic.
03:35And all the main characters really pull you in.
03:40You've got family.
03:41You've got entitlement, which begs a lot of questions.
03:47You've got secrets.
03:49And all against this backdrop of an incredible party.
03:55I think the class thing was very compelling for me.
03:58So when I had the opportunity to make a TV show that looked at that,
04:04but also looked at a personal story about a man with a secret and with shame,
04:12and realising he can't keep a lie anymore.
04:14He has to be his authentic self.
04:16I really do think that there is an underlying theme
04:19that is deeply important for every single human being on the planet,
04:22which is about what it truly means to belong.
04:25And we can only truly belong if we accept ourselves first.
04:28And I think that's the journey this show takes you on.
