The HBO sci-fi/adventure seriesThe Neversis set in 1890s Victorian London after a supernatural event has mysteriously given certain people, most of whom happen to be women, various unusual abilities. At its core is the friendship between Amalia True (Laura Donnelly), a resourceful widow who never shies away from a fight, and Penance Adair (Ann Skelly), a brilliant inventor whose creations are often far ahead of their time, as the two women attempt to find and protect the gifted from those who wish to annihilate them.
During a virtual junket for the new show, Collider got the opportunity to chat with co-starsNick Frost(who plays criminal overlord Declan Orrun, also known as the Beggar King),RochelleNeil(who plays Annie “Bonfire” Carbey, a woman who can create and manipulate fire) andVinnie Heaven(who plays the charming thief Nimble Jack) about how it’s important to know the full scope of a character, whether the Beggar King has a moral code, the fun in playing a character as mysterious as Nimble, the technical challenges of this show, and the prop that helps Frost embody his character.
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Collider: Rochelle, how much fun is it to get to be the bad-ass bitch of this bunch and have the confidence to back all of that up with such an amazing character?
ROCHELLE NEIL: It’s so much fun to play a character who is just so powerful and so unapologetic. For me, as a human, my instinct is to apologize for myself. It was very freeing to play character and get into that brain space of a woman who can look after herself. She could kill you, in an instant. She doesn’t really have to negotiate. That’s fun and it’s very freeing.
Bonfire Annie seems to relish in what she’s doing.
NEIL: Yeah, I think so. It’s important to have the full scope of the character. She’s not just bad, and she’s not necessarily good. She’s not necessarily playful. She’s not necessarily serious. I like the fact that she’s a fully formed supernatural being. For me, personally, everything I do when I tackle anything on any job, I try to find the joy, even when that’s setting someone alight.
Nick, the Beggar King is clearly a guy who, pardon my language, doesn’t fuck around. As someone who’s willing to slice someone open and rip bits of them out while they’re standing there, is there anything he won’t do?
FROST: It’s only my opinion in this, but I think he’d do anything for the right price. There’s something nice about playing someone who’s that cutthroat.
Does he have a moral code, or does morality not come into play for him?
FROST: There’s a fine line between morality and profit. He’d sell matches to children. But then, he has a family. He has kids. He’s a devoted father. That’s a nice complexity that I like, in terms of, yes, he can kill a man, but then he can go home and be a fantastic father. That’s complicated.
Where did you start with this guy, as far as figuring out how dangerous and menacing to make him? Is there too big, when it comes to a character like him?
FROST: I don’t know. With people like Declan, the knee jerk reaction is to make it big, but he’s not necessarily a fucking lunatic. The most frightening characters are those who keep it bottled up. I don’t know. I guess I’m searching for that Tony Soprano in him – that family man who can shoot someone in a car, and then go home and watch a DVD. There’s something in that, that’s terrifying to watch. I’ve been around men like that, and they’re terrifying to be around. There’s an unpredictability about it, which I think is fantastic, and that’s interesting to watch, as an audience.
Vinnie, I love the introduction that we get to Nimble, who’s a character that makes an impression while still being a complete mystery. What is the fun and getting to introduce a character in that way?
HEAVEN: I think it’s always good to pop up, a bit later on, and be able to steal a moment. You’re guaranteed to have people’s attention, if you’re arriving after everybody else has been established. There’s a lot of fun in doing these sort of interviews, where people wanna know where that character is going or where they belong, and you get to be the person to say all of that is yet to be revealed. Although the first time you see Nimble, it’s under the Beggar King’s instruction. That’s the job that’s being done, but that isn’t what they’re set to do. They’re for hire. There’s no loyalty and there’s the ability to jump between a lot of different groups of people, and therefore, a lot of different causes. It puts them everywhere, all at once.
What did you get to know about Nimble, in the beginning? Were you told much about who the character would be?
HEAVEN: I got rakish thief as a description. It was a little bit of a collaboration between what I would break, as the actor, and therefore what Nimble would become. Even in a discussion between Rochelle and I, about what it means to have that little bit of play between them and what that is.
NEILL: The best thing about this job is that we’ve been able to really put in our input and find things. Vinnie and I have such great chemistry and we get on so well. To be able to find that, and then have the creative ability to turn to your team and say, “We love this. We love this element. Is this reading?” That’s been really cool.
What do you enjoy about their dynamic?
HEAVEN: I think they meet their match, and that’s always a fun thing to be an observer of. Bonfire’s power is to throw fire balls and Nimble can produce shields, so they’re the perfect match for each other, in that sense. She’s never gonna be able to kill them.
NEIL: I agree with that.
What’s it like to see how everything comes together with the visual effects?
NEIL: It’s a lot more technical than I anticipated. I went into it quite blind and quite open, thinking that the whole thing would be CGI, but I wear little LEDs, so I can get light on my face. And then, we have to sort out the consistency of the fire, so they know what to do in post, and there is actual fire on set. Whenever I throw a ball, someone or something gets set alight. It’s not as much green screen as you think. It’s very hands-on. I feel like I’m sweating from fire sometimes and it’s hot and there’s a fire brigade outside. It’s been very technical, very hands-on and very immersive, which as an actor, is a dream.
FROST: It makes it nice, as a performer, when you finally watch the show and it’s only at that point that you see what you’ve been doing. When all of the bells and whistles are polished, and you see fire balls flying and people blowing up, it gives an added realism, as a viewer.
NEIL: For me, with the fire, it’s more than I could ever imagine, on the day. What I’m thinking is like a lighter, and what they’re making is bigger than that. I’m like, “Wow, my imagination was so much smaller than this.” It’s amazing.
Vinnie, with your character, do you also have to figure out where to actually physically place yourself?
HEAVEN: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. The moment with the fireball and the shield came down to almost an hour of, “Your hand needs to be here,” and then they’d do a take. And if that wasn’t exactly right, they’d be like, “It really needs to be here.” Rochelle would already have shot her side of things, so it was just me going, “I’m so sorry. I’m trying to get my hand in the right place.” There’s a lot of discipline to it definitely, but they’re always kind about it. The crew are always really patient with you and they’re always on your side, but it’s definitely teaching me that muscle memory is key.
Nick, would you say that in the time we have to get to know your character in these six episodes of this portion of the season, do you think the audience opinion of him will change? Do you think the audience will feel like they know him a bit better?
FROST: I don’t know. Obviously, when they start making these kinds of TV shows, there hope it’s for three, four, or five seasons. We’re not gonna give everything away in four episodes or six episodes, so there’s a lot there, for all the characters. There’s a long way for their journeys to go. This is just the very beginning. In terms of Declan, I’m hoping that if I played him right, even though he’s a horrible murderer, people will also find him sympathetic and funny. That’s the trick for people like Declan. If people can watch a scene and think, “Oh, my God, he’s awful, but I kinda like him,” that’s what I want to happen. That’s what I want the audience to think. I want them to hate him, but also think he’s really cute and vulnerable.
We always hear that actors don’t see their characters as a villain. Does he see himself as the hero of his own story?
FROST: I think he thinks of himself as a bad man, and he loves it. It gives him a bit of swagger. You can see that he’s got his big mate with him and he wears a big chain, and Declan has got a knife. I think he loves the fact that he’s a villain.
Are there aspects of the wardrobe or the props that really help you feel like him, when you walk on set?
FROST: We picked out a really lovely razor, so I have the razor on me, all the time, in my pocket. Whenever my hands are in my pocket, it’s always grasped, as if it can be pulled out and deployed, at any moment. During the costume fittings, we found some really nice, proper Victorian fabric, and so my suits are made from Victorian fabric. There’s a histrionic feel to the fact that I know how Declan’s legs would feel. I’m feeling what he felt.
Rochelle, I also really like the dynamic between your character and Dr. Cousens. What do you like about that interplay?
NEIL: I love that. Zack [Momoh] and I have known each other for years, so we have a lot of natural, fun chemistry, which I think often does translate. There’s a race element between the two of them, just to talk about the elephant. Well, it’s not an elephant. We’re both Black. I was tip-toeing around it and I was like, “Why am I tip-toeing around it?” The characters being in Victorian England is something that we rarely see. Zack and I, just as humans, have discussed this. To show characters who aren’t playing slaves, and we aren’t being saved in any way, feels wonderful and powerful and timely and needed. I do think there is a natural kinship between the two characters. Not that they’re even rare, of the time, because Black people didn’t just exist from the ‘60s onward. We’re just being like what we would have been like in 1899, in Victorian England. Thank you for picking up on that because I find that really special. We’ve only had one scene together, but that felt special.
The Neversairs on Sunday nights on HBO and is available to stream on HBO Max.
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