BY DINO TAKASHI

Amy Manson is relentless. She never stopped learning outside drama school and the numerous characters she previously held on theater, film and TV. A seasoned actress who’s not new to the fantasy-fiction-drama genre (she had a recurring role as Merida on the fifth season of ABC’s Once Upon a Time), she goes deeper with the roles she plays. She goes beyond just taking on a role and dives to an in-depth background on the why’s of the character she brings to life. This time, she plays Maladie, a misunderstood lead villain in HBO MAX’s The Nevers, a story set during Victorian London with a strong female ensemble with unique superpowers. 

Amy admits that playing Maladie is one of the most complicated roles she has accepted in her acting career to date. Playing a deranged woman that aims to have revenge on her abuser, it wasn’t a nice space to occupy, mentally. With rigorous hours put in to come up with how Maladie looked like, albeit too exhaustive, was necessary to justify the plight of the character. Amy is proud to be a part of a narrative that upholds female empowerment. 

As “The Nevers” kicks off with a wider audience outside the US, Amy shares what she feels being included in a show revolving on a strong women-centric storyline, a glimpse of her life after wrapping up the production of The Nevers and Spencer, an upcoming Princess Diana biopic with Kristen Stewart, her acting process and what she looks forward to post-pandemic world. 

Hi Amy, we are lucky to have seen The Nevers in the US first. How do you feel about being part of a show with a strong and women-centric storyline? 

I feel truly honored to be part of a narrative that holds female empowerment, unity and uniqueness at its beating core. The women of this world become stronger as a united force supporting one another within the confines of this orphanage. I’m so lucky to be working with genuinely lovely and extraordinarily talented women.

How have you been keeping yourself occupied after wrapping up the production and the pandemic world we have been dealing with for over a year now? 

I have a workout practice (that was initially run by The Nevers stunt team at the start of the first lockdown), of leading a group of around eight women through a HIIT class daily. I'm so proud of them all for showing up and challenging themselves. My friends at BOOMCYCLE sent me an indoor spin bike which I have been trying to use daily. It’s a great time for me to step away from the rat race and concentrate on myself for a while. 

I wrapped on a film called Spencer a few months ago which will be out later in the year. 

Did you originally audition for this role and what was the process like? 

I went into Nina Gold’s casting office to audition alongside her assistant and then I got a call back off the back of that audition to meet Joss and Nina for a second round. I did the one scene I was given, and we all had an in-depth chat discussing the character. 

How did you adapt to this role and the transformation you had to go through playing the character? 

I needed to conceive a truthful in-depth background for Maladie; really pinpoint the exact abuse that she went through in order to justify for myself why she was so heavily set on revenge against Dr Hague. Mentally, it wasn’t always a nice space to occupy, but it was a necessary one in order to fully understand her plight. I used a lot of techniques that I learned at drama school to help me understand her thought patterns.

Tell us more about the character you’re playing. What is so special about “Maladie”? Do you think she’s a real villain or she’s just misunderstood? 

Michele Clapton did a wonderful job with my costume for Maladie, as did Chris Blundell with the makeup and hair. We all spent a long time piecing together the reasons behind why Maladie looked the way she did. There was a lot of energy put into the creation of Maladie from the offset. 

I think Maladie is completely misunderstood. She is so unpredictable that I don’t think we ever fully grasp her and that’s why people can’t pin her down. Her train of thought can turn on a sixpence and I think this is why she keeps me, and hopefully audiences, interested. Maladie’s whole plan of revenge against Dr Hague and understanding why she thinks she is ‘the chosen one’, I hope, will be a very slow burner.

As a seasoned actress, what is the difference between this role compared to the other ones you’ve played before? 

Maladie is the most complicated woman I’ve ever had to understand. Her madness is dramatised through her peculiar language; more often than not these psychological symptoms (when you start to unpick her) are the gateway to why she has this steely determination to seek revenge on these doctors who abused her. 

She wants to instill fear in her abusers. She has fun playing these tedious games, treating them like the piece of meat she was made to be.

This is a regular question here at A Book Of, if you were a book what book will you be and why? 

If I were a book, I would be ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac because this book seeps with a nostalgic romanticism about what it means to be alive and have no big life plans but merely to live in the present day to day: being grateful that you are even alive on this planet in the first place. It’s about adventures and human connections along the way. Something we are all aching for in our present circumstances. 

What are you looking forward to in our post-pandemic world? 

I’m looking forward to hugging my friends and family. I’m so grateful for each and every one of them in my life.