Now Rachael Stirling became an overnight sensation when she starred as the young lesbian Nan finding her way in Victorian London, in BBC2's adaptation of Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet. Well she's back in Victorian times in her latest project, this time in a play which uncovers the hypocrisy of a society which turns a blind eye to men's immorality, but shuns any woman who steps out of line. In Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, she plays the young American Hester, who deplores such double standards.
[A sound clip of a scene from the play is now played, featuring Rachael as Hester.]
"I don't complain of their punishment. Let all women who have sinned be punished. It is right that they should be punished, but don't let them be the only ones to suffer. If a man and a woman have sinned, let them both go forth into the desert to love or loathe each other there. Let them both be branded. Set a mark, if you wish, on each, but don't punish the one and let the other go free. Don't have one law for men and another for women. You are unjust to women in England. And till you count what is a shame in a woman to be an infamy in a man, you will always be unjust, and Right, that pillar of fire, and Wrong, that pillar of cloud, will be made dim to your eyes, or be not seen at all, or if seen, not regarded."
Rachael, the play never fails to delight and surprise me. It was written in 1893 and still just sounds so modern. What appealed to you about it?
Well, first of all, the humour of it, because it is extraordinarily funny, but it has, at the same time, a very serious message about the inequality of man and woman, and also comments, acutely, upon hypocrisy in Victorian society. And it talks about sin as well, and how Mrs A, Mrs Arbuthnot, the woman with the past, has been made to suffer for twenty years, due to having had an illegitimate child. And she's cast out of Victorian society as a result. There are all these themes that are both relevant today and also hugely relevant to Wilde's own life.
It's interesting that he uses an American to make the commentary on his own society. Your character…
Yes.
Why do you suppose he did that?
He'd been to America on a lecture tour, and I think he'd experienced a much freer society, a less restrictive one. And my character gives this speech about how we are trying to build up a better, truer, purer society than life rests on in England. I think America represented freedom and Hester embodies that freedom. She speaks freely amongst these people. I mean, basically, she is the subject of ridicule for a large portion of it, and I have the mickey taken out of me, mercilessly. And that's by virtue solely of her nationality. But at the same time, she has a very serious and heroic point to make, and in fact she ends up saving the day with Mrs Arbuthnot.
Now, you're working with Samantha Bond, Prunella Scales, Rupert Graves… what does a relative newcomer learn from a cast like that?
Oh, it's fascinating. It's just about… oh, also, because it's so different to telly, which has been my previous experience, where you do all your homework on your own, basically. Thanks to the budgets these days, you have approximately two minutes to rehearse before a scene. And we have four weeks, which in fact wasn't as long as we would've liked to rehearse this. And it's about slowly but deeply delving into the psychology of the character, and about discussion, and about… you know, there are fifteen of us in this cast, of all experiences and all ages, and it's just a wonderful community into which one goes to sit and watch and learn. I watch Sam moving around the stage in a way that I want to learn to do, you know, that kind of freedom. And Rupert, who's wonderful and naughty and flies by the seat of his pants every once in a while when he can't remember a line. He's just genius, you know. And Pru… it's just a wonderful learning zone. And also because you're allowed to take time to really work out the point of that character and where you want her to go.
Now it was Tipping the Velvet, as I said, that shot you to stardom. Why did you take that job?
I took it because of this young girl, because of the character of this young girl, who was so… oh, partly because, I mean, a part like that was not going to come along again in a hurry. And this story! She goes from being an oyster girl, to being a dresser in the theatre, to being… [long pause] a star, to being a prostitute, and then to being a star. It's just, it was the most wonderful story, and it was so funny, and this girl was all about optimism and throwing herself in at the deep end and dealing with these peculiar experiences she found herself going through. It was funny and witty and original.
The tabloids, unsurprisingly, went crazy…
Beserk, yeah.
… absolutely crazy. How much of that had you anticipated?
I anticipated a certain amount. I knew that the dildo was gonna cause a stir. [giggling] That was… I knew that when I was standing there, painted gold, stark naked. I knew that it was not going to go without comment, but I didn't expect The Star to do Page 3 versions of me for a week, or for it to intrude upon something so sacred as the football pages at the back of the tabloids. That was unexpected.
How did your parents react? Mum is Diana Rigg…
Yeah. Ma cried with pride, because she was thrilled by my perf on the telly. I mean, I'd spent a long time taking small parts, watching and learning, and I felt ready by the time Tipping the Velvet came along, to take a big part like that. Technically, because I was at a stage where the technicality of filming wasn't going to get in the way of my performance, which I think you have to get to before you take a big part like that. And Papa was adorable, vaguely shocked, held a magazine up in front of the telly whenever I was naked, which was fairly often… and was more than anything proud. I mean, I just think as a piece of telly, independent as to whether I was in it or not, it was fun to watch for both of them.
Now, as I said, your mum is Diana Rigg, and I know you've tried very hard not to make headway because of that. You don't use her name, for instance. You use your father's name.
No, yeah, well because that's my name. I mean Ma's is her… Rigg is Mama's maiden name, and Stirling's mine. But I, I mean, I'm so proud of Ma, but for years I was very wary of being accused of nepotism or of getting a job not off my own back, and I'm a stubborn little madam, and I just wanted to kind of forge my own way. But now, I feel free enough to spread my arms wide and say "God, we're lucky, and we're in the same profession, and we have this wonderful thing in common!" I now see it as an entirely bonus, rather than a…
But there are mothers and daughters who work in this business, who… you get the sense that the daughters are not terribly happy at comparisons that are made. Do you ever worry that you will be compared with your mum?
Well I think it's hugely unoriginal to compare us, and I don't have the wisdom nor the experience that she has, but I'm thrilled to be talked of in the same sentence, to be honest. Mama is an extraordinary actress from which I can learn an enormous amount. I'm still stubborn, I still go off and do it on my own, and then wait for her to come and see it and give notes, you know. But I think we're so, so lucky. There's nothing to fight, really. It's just an entirely pleasurable situation.
Now, I know you took part in a couple of films whilst you were at university. You could've carried on…
Yeah.
… and given up the degree. But you didn't. Why did you stay on to finish the degree?
I stayed on to finish the degree because I just think it's so important to throw the net a bit wider. To continue to learn, to research, to be curious, to allow yourself to be curious about subjects, about politics, about literature, about history. And I looked at it all through… History of Art was my degree course, and I just wanted… I was hungry to learn as much as I could before I ended up sitting in a caravan reading scripts 24 hours a day.
Your mother never said to you, "Make sure, darling, you have something to fall back on, just in case"?
Of course. Everybody says, "You've got, you know, make sure that you have that", and at the time you think "Uhhhh", but I was having such a good time at university anyway. It wasn't a hard decision to make. And now, of course, I wear it like a banner. I'm so proud that I got myself a degree and that I can prove that I'm not a thick actress.
You were voted the most fanciable actress of the year, apparently, in a BBC internet poll. How did you react to that?
I didn't know until now. How cool! [laughs] I don't know, the most fanciable actress. You just have to get your tits out, basically, and you become the most fanciable actress, as far as I can work out. [laughing]
Rachael Stirling, thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.
