I.a challenging time for her business, actor Sian Clifford seems to be ashamed of how sad she has been. In 2020, the 38-year-old starred from west London in an ITV drama Quiz – the story of the “cough” scandal Who wants to be a millionaire – and Kim’s mother (Maisie Williams) who survived Two weeks to live on Sky. In July, she won the Bafta TV for a woman in comedy for her performance as Claire, the upside-down sister in Phoebe Waller-Bridge Fleabag. Clifford has already fired several projects for 2021 including Good love, a transgender film play written by Lorien Haynes about two friends coming to terms with death, in which she appears alongside Nikesh Patel.
Good love it has been described as “not a theater, or a film”. What is it?
I use the word “plilm”. It’s not a play or a movie but a movie. Maybe there’s a better word out there; I am open to offers. But it is a complete hybrid. We didn’t make a movie in a theater. We put a film in a studio. But the play is pretty amazing. It examines the levels of grief, but is not linear. My character has lost her best friend, and Nikesh’s character has lost his partner. It’s devastating, but so funny. It is also an experiment in which I willingly participated to keep people engaged in the arts during this time.
You’ve known Patel for a while, which was a real plus Waller-Bridge included Fleabag. Is it harder to work with a friend?
It depends on a friend but in my experience he is certainly very happy. And with Phoebe that goes: we will work together forever. We never talked about how we play those sisters, so because we are already sisters. We are not really Claire and Fleabag’s dynamic, but we are connected. It just runs really deep. With Nikesh on Good love, we did not have much time. And the connection between Adam and Cat in the play is the axis on which everything else rotates. And I felt, in order to be able to do this playing justice in our time, I had to work with someone where you can get that for free.
The Bafta awards were presented on Zoom this year, and it seemed like you were really hard to win. People often say that they did not prepare a speech, but was that true in your case?
I’ll never forget that feeling when that was announced, and I almost plugged into my laptop’s camera. I had not prepared anything. And there was a shock 30 seconds before because suddenly I was sitting in someone’s garden with terrible wifi and Zoom organizers were screaming at me and Phoebe [who was at the same location, and up for the same award, but the organisers wanted them to have different backgrounds on Zoom] to get into a different room. It was very Fleabag at that point, I must say.
Did you wonder Fleabag was there such a beating?
The first one I thought would do well, but I also knew it was new and weird, and people might not like that. So the answer to that was pretty awful. But when I read the script for the second series and it was on, take my French, great fucking excuse at the end of program three, and that’s where the priest breaks the fourth wall [speaks directly to the audience], I was just thinking: “Oh, OK. So you’re literally trying to change television. ”
Some celebrities have been very curious in their love Fleabag. Were there unexpected meetings behind that?
Oh, yes, of course, making the awards round in America. The American Film Institute awards made an exception and were recognized Fleabag, and that was basically where we met Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt is literally fan-girling over Phoebe without a doubt the most amazing thing I will ever see in my life. I just shook her hand. Ah, to shake people’s hands. Thank God the coronavirus hadn’t arrived then, that would have scratched that meeting. But we laughed for the rest of the day, it was so silly.
What culture did you enjoy during the lock?
Television is where the magic is right now. I had the largest number I can destroy you, which is a visual poem, and then of course, Ordinary people. I don’t think I’ve ever been in so much pain watching anything. It was the other good thing I had The last dance. I had no relationship with basketball before I watched it, nothing. Now I feel like I’m an expert. But I liked it, I think I watched it in one day.
That’s amazing!
Thank you very much. I am a real binge watcher. I watched it all This Country. I speak series one to three, in one day. Yes, I did.
Early in the lock, you talked about having a “daily dance party”. Have you kept that going?
That’s a lifelong thing. If you feel non – stop, or if you feel low, or if you feel disconnected or even if you feel happy – no matter how you feel. I love dancing no matter what the weather. It’s really, really powerful to allow yourself to create subtle, subtle shapes that you don’t normally have maybe you’re trying to get a good idea of someone on the dance floor. And really lets the music move you.
You described your relationship with Waller-Bridge as “ongoing”. Is there anything in particular you are talking about?
There are a lot of things that we talk about but what I look forward to around the world is that we get to work together again. Yes, there is no doubt in my mind that this will be a magical reunion. And us son both are well built about something in particular, but I can’t tell you more than that.
Good Grief is available from February 15th, tickets from £ 39