This month saw the release of Gwen, a starring vehicle for London stage star Eleanor Worthington-Cox, and a film from director William McGregor, who has worked on series like The Misfits, Poldark, and the upcoming His Dark Materials. The film centers on the titular young woman, played by Worthington-Cox, who is fighting against a society that rejects her and a family life that is falling apart, as her mother is struck by illness and her father is gone. Worthington-Cox, who previously was best known for playing Matilda on the stage, is certainly a little darker than her fans are likely used to in this one.
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The actress joined ComicBook.com to talk about the film, saying that she was excited and proud to work on such a deep character — a rarity for a girl her age.
“It’s really refreshing to be a part of something that you can’t put into a single box,” Worthington-Cox told ComicBook.com. “It’s not a specific genre. We’ve managed to take so many elements from different things — especially because Will, who wrote and directed it, has all these parts of filmmaking that he loved so much that he threw together a made into very specific and oddly beautiful film because it doesn’t conform to any stereotype. It doesn’t feel like it’s been done before simply because it’s so different to any specific kind of genre film. So yeah, it was really refreshing to be a part of.”
Of course, with her stage background, it is interesting that what is arguably her biggest role yet comes in a movie that is full of quiet moments and non-verbal acting.
“I would definitely say it was a challenge,” Worthington-Cox admitted. “I think that that was the thing that drew me to the role in the first place. I adore being given anything that’s going to challenge me or push me. And I think it will be lazy not to feel as if every role you take, you’re pushing yourself and bettering yourself. And I guess if you’ve been given something as peaceful as Gwen and you know, there’s barely any dialogue in the film, it is a very quiet, still piece for the majority of the film. And you know, I think that the majority of that is actually rely heavily upon script and words to tell the story.”
She said that she relished that challenge, though, and enjoyed the fact that McGregor seemed to have unwavering faith in her from the get-go.
“When somebody gives you a script and says, ‘I need you to tell me this story, but I need you to do it with your eyes, and with the way you move, and with showing me your innermost thoughts, but you can’t speak about this, this isn’t something you can talk about’ — that’s such a challenge,” Worthington-Cox explained. “And it absolutely pushed me to my limit and I adored every single second of it because you know, what an opportunity to be given something like that and to be, you know. Especially for a young woman, you don’t find roles like these. You know, everything is so, you know… I feel like a lot of the time an audience can be spoon fed with information. Whereas with something like Gwen, when you’re told exactly what’s happening but through somebody’s body language or their eyes or the context behind the story, you know that’s something quite special.”
So — how to make that transition we alluded to earlier? Ignoring the fact that she has done a number of other jobs in between, how does one transition from Matilda to Gwen?
Worthington-Cox explained, “Going from a character like Matilda when I was nine years old — who was this strong, brave, intelligent child — to playing somebody as I got older who is equally a strong, brave, but very vulnerable and frightened young woman who is experiencing much more adult issues in a very different time period…she was having to keep her family together in the face of a patriarchal hierarchical community who are constantly trying to bring them down and keeping their farm up and running and trying to even sell their wares at market. That’s almost impossible when the entire town is against you.”
Gwen is available on digital video on demand services now.
