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HBO:
Tell us about your initial reaction to script.
Samantha Morton:
When my agent presented me with the possibility of playing Myra Hindley, I initially said no. I was busy and I didn't want to read the script. I'd heard that it was quite salacious. I'd heard they were doing a drama, and it was about the murders committed by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, and I have to say I thought: boring.
Also, I thought, why? You know, why do this, just leave it alone. This is still very raw for a lot of people. How can you make a drama about that and be respectful to the families of the victims? Some things you just think shouldn't be touched. My agent then corrected me and said, 'Samantha, it isn't about the murders. This is a film about Lord Longford.'
HBO:
How did that change your thinking on the project?
Samantha Morton:
When I realized it was about Lord Longford, and how incredible he was… I thought about the responsibility I had as an artist, a performer, and should she and her crimes be glamorized? And I thought, 'OK, we're not really talking about her here. She hasn't got a voice, in regards to why I [as Myra Hindley] committed my crimes, how I committed my crimes, I am sorry or I am not sorry.' It doesn't touch on any of that. It is purely about Lord Longford and his meetings with her, and his interpretation of her.
HBO:
What was your approach to Myra Hindley?
Samantha Morton:
I decided to tackle the character the way I would tackle any character -- not mimicry, not finding or speaking to people who knew Myra Hindley. I just had to approach it as a character. So that's what I did.
HBO:
What challenges did you face?
Samantha Morton:
The challenges for playing such a character initially were the simple ones -- do I like her? Could I play someone whose crimes I find so abhorrent? How am I going to play someone I don't understand?
And also, this character goes from twenty-four to fifty-eight. You know, you meet her here, she's twenty-four, then she's thirty-two, then she's forty-two... How are we going to turn me into a believable...Myra?
It sounds very silly, but sometimes with acting you work from the inside out, sometimes you work from the outside in, and with Myra I worked from the outside in. Kind of, I have this hair, and then we changed my eye color, and then my voice changed, and then my posture changed, and so kind of developed this physicality first.
And then with the help of [writer] Peter Morgan, and the help of Tom Hooper who directed this, we tackled each moment, and thought about the why's and what she wanted.
I still have difficulty, major difficulty...I do not understand this character. But do we ever truly understand ourselves ever? We don't walk around self-analyzing. And so I try to give myself an easier time with the accepting of her, and I just try to, to play her, play this character in a respectful manner, and just play her instinctively, and scene by scene.
HBO:
Is there a thrill to playing Myra?
Samantha Morton:
I think the joy for this type of part for an actor is the complexity of playing somebody who is in denial of their crime, initially, and in defiance of authority. Believing she's above all authority, believing that she, through faith and religion, has been exonerated from her crimes and forgiven in the eyes of God.
At a much later part in her life, in 1987, she received a letter from Pauline Reed's mother, God bless her.
And the letter was, 'please, please, before I die, will you tell me where my daughter is buried?' And it happened to be the only letter from any of the victim's families that Myra had ever received. So she, in prison for over twenty-five years, received this letter. Whether we believe her or not, Myra said that she was moved so much by this letter that she decided to confess her crimes fully to the police and show them where the bodies were buried. And Myra stated, quote unquote, if I'd have received that letter twenty years ago, I think it would have affected me enough to open up, you know, to, to say what happened.
HBO:
Do you believe her?
Samantha Morton:
Whether we believe that or not is not up to us, it's not what the film is about. But it is so, so polar, her denial and her acceptance of her crimes, they're shocking to us. When she finally says yes, I did do this, I'm going to confess to all the murders, I did what I did. Then she had, I believe, some peace, the first peace she ever had. Some people might say she should never have peace, but if you're lying to yourself for so long, and denying…she blamed Ian Brady for a very long time.
HBO:
How so?
Samantha Morton:
She blamed his influence on her and the fact that she fell in love and that she was nineteen.
HBO:
You mentioned the incredible Lord Longford, talk a bit about him, and what he was fighting for?
Samantha Morton:
He was extraordinary, because of who he was, his background. In 1966, someone from the aristocracy and a member of parliament spending most of their time visiting prisoners of all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life--I just find him remarkable, his legacy, you know, remarkable.
There is something to be said for the fact that she was the longest serving lifer who had never been given a parole hearing. There have been cases, and are cases even today, when people commit crimes that are so outrageous, serve their time, and are eligible for parole, because that is the law.
Whether we like it or not, it's the law. So, if the law is the law, why then should a woman be denied the law, the same law that has imprisoned her, why should she be denied that law because of public opinion?
There was the strong public opinion about Myra Hindley, that she should never, ever be released.
I think if that's the case, maybe twenty-five years into her sentence, the Prime Minister, Secretary of State, her solicitors, prison officers, should have sat down and said, 'OK, guys, she is never going to come out, we can't let her out for her own safety and for the public,' and make that decision.
The crime I think that they committed was constantly allowing her to think that she was eligible for parole, because the law states she was. If they were never going to give it to her, they should have just said, 'listen, you're never coming out, mate, you know, you did what you did, this is your crime, this is your punishment for your crime, and see you later. Bye-bye.' Lock the door, throw away the key. They didn't.
I think the film raises quite interesting questions to do with how we determine punishment, and what an interesting man Lord Longford was for raising those questions.
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