Eve Myles reveals biggest challenge playing her “infuriating” character in BBC thriller The Guest

Myles and Creevy spoke with Radio Times about their complex characters, with Myles revealing the challenge of playing a character who holds so many secrets.

"It is wonderful to get all scripts in one go, all locked in, all ready to go, that is great," Myles said. "Sometimes, especially with a thriller, it can be a little bit detrimental, because you subconsciously are playing what you know happens.

"So I find the trick to that, and the key to that, is to play against all of those instincts, and to play against any subtext whatsoever, and just try and stick to what's on the page.

"And then when it comes into close ups and things like that, then there's all sorts of things that you can do and you can work, and I can share with you what I am not sharing with my co-star, that works in a thriller format. So those are all just kind of ways and means of trying to keep what's going on under cover and underground. And keep the swan effect above water happening."

She continued: "But she is so infuriating, Fran. You never know who you're gonna get. There's two or three Frans, you never know who you're dealing with at any time. If she doesn't like what she's hearing, then a child would come out."

Myles then referenced Creevey's character Ria's description of Fran. "Ria says, ‘She’s like a teenager’. And then she's got all these different kind of facets and masks, and so to be able to play with that, but anchor it in this real, hyper realistic world that we've set up is challenging, and that's exactly what it should be."

"It shouldn't be easy. It shouldn't feel easy because if it feels easy it means I’m too much like Fran!" Myles added, laughing.

Creevy then spoke about playing Ria, and how she approached the character who is, at least on the surface, more of an open book to the audience.

"She is complicated, but she's also very vulnerable," Creevy said. "How I saw it was that she rediscovered herself. Meeting Fran has made her think, you know, 'I can be this way, or am I that way? Or how do I think, and how do I dress?' You know, all these different things.

"So I think that's what made it interesting for me. And I guess approaching it, I can do my prep and do all that kind of stuff, but for me, it's about being on set with Eve, and what does Eve bring to the scene that I can then also bring to the scene. And that can sometimes change when you think about your own character and how they respond in a situation.

"My idea of how Ria might respond in a situation is changed by Eve on the day. So it was about discovering it more so on set, and that's really exciting."

The Guest will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Monday 1st September at 9pm.

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