INTERVIEW: The Diplomat and Peaky Blinders star Sophie Rundle on how roles get more interesting with age

Sophie Rundle as Laura Simmonds in The Diplomat

Happy Valley, Peaky Blinders, Bodyguard and Gentleman Jack. Not only are they some of the biggest TV shows of the past decade but they have all featured Sophie Rundle in a starring role.

The 34-year-old – whose other TV credits include Scottish-set The Nest and the award-winning TV movie Elizabeth Is Missing – appears to have the Midas touch when it comes to picking acting jobs.

And she is hoping that continues with her new series which begins next week, The Diplomat, a Barcelona-set crime thriller about the work of the British Consul as she tries to protect distressed nationals in the Spanish city.

For Rundle, she believes the roles are continuing to get better the older she becomes – a welcome change from what has become the norm.

“As a woman, you want to represent women in the right way, so you hope the part is well-written, and the older I get the more I’m looking for slightly different things,” she said. “I’m looking for strength and autonomy, because those are the kind of women I see and the type of women I want to play.

“There’s a huge conversation now about the kind of female characters we see on screen and I think appetites for that are changing; we’re much more literate with how we want to represent and see women on screen.

“Also, as a performer, I think it naturally changes as you get older. There’s a natural inclination towards being more grounded and stronger as a person and as a performer.

“I like myself more as an actor and the parts I’m doing the older I become – I don’t know, have actresses ever said that before? Maybe for the first time it’s actually quite a good thing to be getting older as an actress. It feels like it’s getting more interesting. It’s such a cliché that you desperately try to remain young.

“I feel like we’re turning a big, heavy ship, but it feels like everyone is collectively trying to change it. People like Kate Winslet doing Mare Of Easttown and being really vocal about the kind of woman she’s playing and not having to adhere to this absurd stereotype of youth and beauty that are impossible and untenable. I feel we’re seeing much more interesting parts for slightly older women. I hope that’s what we’re doing.

“Some of the women I’ve been lucky enough to work with, like Suranne Jones in Gentleman Jack and Sarah Lancashire in Happy Valley – these are much more interesting parts, so I do feel excited and pleased to be getting older.”

Lydia Leonard, Suranne Jones and Sophie Rundle in Gentleman Jack

Another change in her life she is enjoying is becoming a mum. She and her partner, fellow actor Matt Stokoe – they met when shooting Sky drama Jamestown seven years ago – had a little boy, Henry, in 2021.

“I feel I’ve changed since becoming a mum and I like what I’ve changed to; I feel much more stable and I feel much more strength in myself because I think you just have to find it from somewhere to be able to juggle both of them,” she admitted. “So I like who it’s made me, but I’m still very, very tired! I can’t believe I ever used to complain about being tired after going on a train, going to a hotel room, and then shooting one or two scenes. I didn’t know the meaning of the word!

“It’s much harder when you have a full-time job when filming and another full-time job as a parent and neither is going to give any let up. You get very good at juggling – and I love it.”

Rundle took her baby with her to Barcelona for four months while she filmed The Diplomat and enjoyed being able to combine both roles.

She said: “The world felt like it became a small place during lockdown and then I had a baby at the end of it and everything got really quite small and frightening for a while, so Barcelona offered something extraordinary to me and my family. It was something new and an adventure; it was a really happy time for us. He learned to walk while we were out there. I’m incredibly grateful to the job; it was a beautiful experience for me and my family, and that’s all you can hope for, isn’t it?”

Rundle plays Laura Simmonds who, alongside her colleague and friend Alba Ortiz (Serena Manteghi) mixes the roles of lawyer, counsellor and cop, as their diplomatic skills are stretched to the limit by the stream of surprising and complex cases coming through their doors.

“I think it’s a really smart set-up for a show,” Rundle continued. “I didn’t know much about the job role or that of the British Consulate in a foreign city, but when you learn, you realise it’s a great set-up for a crime show. It presents all sorts of interesting characters and enough of a crime thriller element, but we also see sunny Barcelona, so it’s a clever structure. I spent four months in Barcelona – I thought it was a joke at first but it turned out to be real!

“I’d passed through the city before but not in any meaningful way and now it’s one of my favourite places. It’s a really big part of the show and its appeal. We all need escapism at this time of year, so it’s nice to be whisked away there for an hour.

“I met my real-life counterpart during filming. He came to set one day and was amused we were making a TV show about his job, but he did admit what he does is fascinating as meets all sorts of people and gets to live in Barcelona.”

Sophie Rundle fronts the cast of The Diplomat

Speaking Spanish did not come easy for Rundle, but she says she gave it her best.

“I really did try,” she smiled. “I didn’t want to be one of those people who turn up somewhere and only speak English. I was doing my Duolingo and I thought I was ready, but they speak so fast out there and they also speak Catalan, so I was pretty dreadful.

“I was mortified to be the philistine that I am to only speak English, because over there they speak Catalan, Spanish, English and other languages. We had an international cast who speak countless languages and I have so much respect for them. I’m still working on it – and my character speaks good Spanish. I was really nervous when I had to deliver the lines in Spanish, especially in front of all the crew, but they told me, ‘Good work, babe!’”

Born in High Wycombe in 1988, Rundle graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2011, although she had already made her film debut four years earlier opposite Warwick Davis in the horror-comedy Small Town Folk. She hit the ground running after graduation, with early roles coming in the Titanic mini-series, Mick Newell’s film version of Great Expectations, Bletchley Circle, Matt LeBlanc comedy Episodes, and as a guest star in two episodes of Shetland.

The biggest role to come along in those early days – and the part which has stayed with her the longest – was Ada Shelby in Peaky Blinders.

“I loved playing Ada and it was so much fun to be a part of that world,” Rundle said. “It became more and more fun as the series went on. It was one of the first jobs I got out of drama school and by the last series I had just had my son, so it covered an enormously important part of my life. It’s rare in this industry to have a constant like that but Peakys was always there; that North Star we always came back to. It’s a beautiful thing to have been a part of that time.”

While not quite as sunny as Barcelona, Rundle says she is always trying to get work in Glasgow because she loves the city so much. She filmed Shetland, Elizabeth Is Missing and acclaimed mini-series The Nest there.

“The people are so nice and it’s a really cool city – it’s got real character to it. We had a great time on The Nest. Martin’s such a lad, so cool, and Mirren Mack is a superstar. That was her first job out of drama school and we scooped her up. And then there was that incredible house we filmed in. There was a little seal bobbing up and down in the water watching us film, and between takes we’d all be watching for it. We had a great time and couldn’t believe our luck.”

Acknowledging the successes she has enjoyed so far, Rundle says she tries to pick interesting characters but whether a show works or not always comes down to the audience’s reaction.

“I don’t know if you can predict a show’s success,” she added. “It can have all of the component parts of something brilliant but it depends on people’s appetites and when it hits and how it hits. You can hope and think it’s good but I don’t know if we ever know. The audience is king, and they either like it or they don’t.

“I’ve been lucky. I do feel like I’m at the casino and I’m rolling the dice and saying, ‘Wow!’ and wondering how long it will go on.”

Clooney’s notable direction

Martin Compston, Sophie Rundle and Mirren Mack in The Nest

It was while she was in Scotland filming The Nest that Sophie Rundle earned the chance to be directed by Hollywood legend George Clooney.

She was part of the Oscar-winner’s Netflix film, The Midnight Sky, despite feeling like she had messed up in the audition.

“I remember being in the trailer after we’d finished our day of filming on The Nest and telling our costume designer, Lesley, that I was going into a Zoom meeting with George Clooney,” Rundle explained.

“I got very nervous and ended up doing a Scottish accent, and I can’t do a Scottish accent, so I’m amazed he gave me the job!

“It was an extraordinary thing to be directed by someone so famous. I think he must know how strange it is for people and he was so kindly and welcoming; a really good director.

“At one point he gave me a note, which he said Paul Newman had given to him. I thought, ‘Oh my God’. In the scene, he said he wanted me to go to say something and then decide not to say it. He explained Paul had given him that trick and it gives your character a secret.

“I think Paul Newman had a lot of screen presence because he was Paul Newman and not because of that note, but I tried it anyway!”

The Diplomat, Alibi, starts Feb 28, 9pm