The Confessions Of Frannie Langton | Interview with Sophie Cookson (Madame Marguerite Benham)

What appealed to you about The Confessions of Frannie Langton?

“I was intrigued because there seemed to be lots of Gothic overtones, which is something I’m always excited by. When I finally read the script I found it to be an incredibly dark, compelling read. There are moments of real brutality, raw emotion, pain and suffering. But all of that is contrasted with moments of pure joy, love and light. I loved the fact that Sara Collins had created this complicated world where no-one is quite who they seem.

“All of the characters are complicated and they often overlap in their desires or wants in places where you might not think. Sometimes it feels like a game of chess. And there are these beautiful moments of love. What it is to be human and in a very dark place, in a shocking, terrible time in our history. Sara brilliantly highlights that even in the worst, darkest places there is still light and hope.”

Who is Madame Marguerite Benham?

“Madame is the wife of George Benham (Stephen Campbell Moore). She was born in France and comes from a bourgeoisie family that had to escape to England when she was a child. So even though she comes from quite a noble background she essentially grew up as a pauper.

“As a woman in Georgian London society so much of her identity is squashed. She is not allowed to be who she wants to be. Even though it might seem like Frannie (Karla-Simone Spence) and Madame have nothing in common, Madame knows what it is to have something taken away from you and to be forced into a set of circumstances that she’s not necessarily comfortable with.

“Her husband George ensures Madame doesn’t escape from the gilded cage he has created for her. It’s horrendous for someone to have so much power over you. A woman at that time was still seen as little more than a possession. Madame is there to serve a physical purpose. She says she married her husband for his money because she had no social standing. While he wanted her for her looks because he needed someone who will present a certain way.

“The greatest shame for Madame is that she is incredibly smart, astute, intellectual, loves studying and would love to be a writer, yet as a woman isn’t allowed to do any of that. She is a trophy wife. But underneath that there is an incredibly exciting, vivid woman. Frannie and Madame spark a creative rush in each other. There’s the lust and the physical attraction. But it’s also a meeting of minds. A very cerebral connection. It gives both of them a lot of energy. The first bit of excitement or true hope or joy that Madame has experienced in a long time.

“Both of these women are trapped and so hungry for more. It’s such a surprise to find it in the place they do. Madame is very used to being shepherded around various dinner parties or other engagements with her husband or going to parties with her husband’s cousin Hephzibah ‘Hep’ Elliot (Jodhi May). So Madame is totally floored when she meets this incredible young woman Frannie on her doorstep.

“Both Madame and Frannie feel trapped with nowhere to run. Frannie is, technically, a free woman in London. But there is no ‘out’ for either of them. They are both trained to stay, to obey, to not break the rules and not cross that line. Also, there is nowhere for them to go and no money available to them to do that.

“Their love is a forbidden love. It breaks so many taboos. They are two women, from different class backgrounds and a different race. Frannie is Madame’s servant, essentially. They are aware of all of that and I think in the beginning that’s possibly what makes it even more exciting. As the relationship then grows that becomes an increasing hindrance to them. Frannie speaks about running away and is much more fanciful. Even though Madame indulges that fantasy, that dream, she is also more aware that it is totally impossible.”

“I was very lucky to have worked with Andrea before when we had also dealt with sensitive material. It’s important with all of these intimate scenes that they drive the narrative forward. There’s an interesting power relationship going on between Madame and Frannie. We made sure there wasn’t one person driving it. That it was a very equal, balanced relationship. In the rest of the story, it’s all about lack of balance. And here we really wanted there to be a real synthesis of bodies and minds. It needed to feel very equal.

“Our intimacy coordinator, Adelaide Waldrop, was brilliant at making sure that everything was telling a story. There is so much to unravel. Even though Frannie is supposed to be Madame’s servant, she would never have dealt with a dress like that before. Tiny little details that create a rich tapestry of what their connection is and what their backgrounds are.”

Is Madame’s French background important to her?

“Madame has not lived in France for a long time but has retained a lot of her French-ness. Sometimes as a way to spite people. It’s often used as a negative in the house that she is French, but she holds on to that because it’s part of her identity that no one else can tamper with. It’s almost out of contempt that she retains her accent.

“She has leant into her French-ness, because it’s a very important part of who she is. Madame thinks she doesn’t want to be like all of these other boring English women! She wants to be more exotic and ruffle feathers, so she can be as French as she likes including when she needs to annoy her husband.

“I’ve never really done a French accent before, but it was about finding a hybrid of this upper-class English accent with a bit of French. We didn’t quite know what it was going to be until we were filming, and I think we came to a nice mélange.”

How does Madame cope with her circumstances?

“It was quite common at this time for people to take laudanum. It’s not necessarily seen as a social habit but something not out of the ordinary. But there is a line that Madame crosses and it becomes something she needs in order to function. She is suffering a lot and there is also a pain in Frannie that she sees that mirrors her own.

“Madame talks to Frannie about the miscarriages she, Madame, has suffered. She is constantly covering up for feeling a failure. As a woman, as a human, she is not able to be who she wants to be in any sense. She misuses alcohol and laudanum because she needs to numb herself. It’s so tragic because she is really hurting.

“Madame was a very harrowing character to have to embody. She is constantly aware of how fragile her existence is in that household. Back then George (Benham) could even threaten to send her away to the asylum. But he needs her to stay married to him. It’s a marriage of keeping up appearances because it would shame both of them if they parted.

“There is probably regret on both sides about their marriage. In a different situation they might have found common ground. But they are so stuck in their position in society. They are both very intelligent people but the way they are trapped within that society makes it impossible to bridge that gap. He will always choose to see her as his intellectual inferior because it suits his purpose.

“There is something bubbling underneath with both of them. Whenever you see them together there should be this question of what is going to happen between them now? Stephen (Campbell Moore) is so brilliant at bringing such subtlety and nuance to a character that would be easy to paint as almost the villain of the piece. But it’s much more complex and layered than that.”

How would you describe Madame and Laddie Lightning’s (Patrick Martins) relationship?

“It’s complicated! This story is the result of years of research by Sara Collins. I love how she is giving a voice to characters who would otherwise not have been heard. Definitely captive slaves and most likely former slaves did not have the luxury of being able to give their testimony about what happened to them. Sara has wonderfully brought to life these silenced, almost erased characters whom we need desperately need to hear and pay attention to.”

What about Madame’s relationship with her husband’s cousin Hephzibah ‘Hep’ Elliot (Jodhi May)?

“The question of what has happened in the past between Madame and ‘Hep’ was a big topic of conversation on set. We never get the answer. It’s up to the audience to make up their own minds. But I know what I think.

Madame is an incredibly charismatic, magnetic person so she ends up having these intense alliances with various people. She is bored, craves excitement and is constantly searching for something new. But that, sadly, means people are often left in her wake. I don’t think it’s out of malice. Madame is just hungry for more.

“It’s so exciting as an actress to play a character like Madame. Everyone in the story has a different version of who she is. I do see Madame as some kind of shapeshifter. It depends on her mood, on how much laudanum she has taken and where she is in terms of her addiction.

“She experiences these incredible highs. They are brilliant moments to play of recklessness and wild behaviour. But then there’s the other part of her that is cold and reserved and might seem withdrawn and almost calculated at times. Working out where to pitch that and who she is to each character is a brilliant Tetris-like game to play. I think that is relatable. We portray different versions of ourselves to different people.”

Until relatively recently history was as written and told by men. Women’s history has often been lost because it was never written down and recorded?

It’s shocking. That’s why it’s so brilliant to have Sara writing this book and script. It’s a different angle of history which we’ve sadly not heard or seen enough of.

At the heart of the story is what it means to be human and what happens when society decides to dehumanise those seen as inferior, be that due to race or sex or both. This story is a kaleidoscope of human existence and at times it is deeply painful to see what we as sentient beings are capable of doing to each other.

What does Madame look like?

“When I first met the costume designer Nigel Egerton I had such a clear idea about what I wanted Madame to look like. She can’t be a wallflower in any way. You have to see her and know she is different. The first time you meet her in the book, Madame is wearing a very outlandish outfit.

“We went for these really dark, rich colours as opposed to the Georgian style of wearing pale colours. You see her and instantly think, ‘What’s going on with her?’ So it was a lot of fun to wear these sumptuous materials and be someone like no-one else on the street.”

What was it like working with Karla-Simone Spence as Frannie?

“Karla-Simone has such a joyous, infectious energy which is very helpful when you’re filming bleak scenes. There needed to be a real rapport between Madame and Frannie and we had the ultimate privilege as an actor of rehearsing before we shot anything.

We did lots of dance rehearsals and there’s a moment at the end of episode one where they waltz around the kitchen and generally experimented. So it wasn’t just turning up on set on day one and saying, ‘Hi, nice to meet you.’ We were very lucky that we got to explore lots of avenues before then.

“When you’re doing a period piece there’s a tendency for it all to be quite held and rigid with a lack of movement, but it needs to feel embodied and lived in, particularly for Madame. I didn’t want her to seem like any other high-class woman. I wanted her to have more of an unexpected energy and the same goes for Frannie. She is not from that place so she needed to have a physicality. It also helped when we did come to film those more intimate scenes that we had done so many exercises with each other. We just wanted to have that familiarity.

“It was a great cast. Such a variety of people to play startlingly different characters. I adored working with Patrick Martins as Laddie. He’s relatively fresh out of drama school and has so much presence and weight to him. We actually had very few scenes together so it was important that they really meant something.”

What did director Andrea Harkin bring to the production?

“Andrea is not afraid of anything. She is willing to mine the moments that are dark and uncomfortable. In a script like this you cannot shy away from anything. It touches on so many things and she has a real sensitivity. Andrea is a brilliant storyteller and very trusting. She lets you experiment and play. She doesn’t turn up on set with a fully formed idea of what she wants it to be. She allows you to explore. It’s almost like a child-like curiosity. She wants to know what’s going to happen.”

How do you reflect back on working on The Confessions of Frannie Langton’?

“It was great fun to be around such talented, creative people. But it was definitely a very challenging job. To bring Madame to life with all of the contradictions she has within her. I find it hard to separate myself from the work that is going on at the time. We actually started off with a lot of the very dark scenes when what Madame is going through and the state of mind she is in is just so terrible and finding light within the darkness.

“It’s hard not to wear them quite heavily so you do have to put a line under that day and not take it home. You can’t do your best work if you’re constantly looking at what happened to you the scene or day before.”

Latest Interviews

News Highlights