FROM Spooks to Unforgotten, Last Tango In Halifax to Collateral, actress Nicola Walker is never less than convincing.
But the very different, glammed-up look she has as high-powered divorce lawyer Hannah in BBC1 drama The Split was out of her comfort zone, clothes-wise at least.
“Because of her job and because she’s at the high-end, there’s an expectation from her clients in the way she presents herself,” said Nicola.
“It’s a real departure for me. I don’t possess any of those clothes in my wardrobe.
“I made an astonishing discovery that when I’m put in high heels, I have an ability – and it’s a real skill – to clip the back of my heels and send a beautiful shoe flying into the air.
“There are so many outtakes of the director shouting. ‘Cut! Her shoe’s come off again…’ You’d see it flying over the heads of the crew.
“It took me three weeks to master it.”
Nicola was surprised how little information there was about what is, by necessity, a closed, private world.
She was, however, fortunate enough to be given a chance to speak to a family lawyer who did exactly this kind of work.
But it’s not a job Nicola reckons would be for her.
“I doubt I would make it in that world,” she admits. “I think I’d get too emotionally involved, and then you’re no use to anybody.
“It is an intimate relationship between a divorce lawyer and their client.
“You find out everything about them and their marriage.
“That can become a very blurred line, but you are not being paid to be their friend or therapist, and your first duty is always to the court.
“I think I’d probably find that really difficult.”
The Split, BBC1, Tue, 9pm.
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