Posted in: TV | Tagged: Murder Most Puzzling, The Puzzle Lady

The Puzzle Lady Star Charlotte Hope on Phyllis Logan, Comedy & More

Charlotte Hope (Bury Me When I'm Dead) discussed her latest murder-mystery, The Puzzle Lady, Phyllis Logan, embracing comedy, and much more.

There's no question most actors are always embracing new challenges to see how far they can take their roles and in some cases, break out of their perceived typecast reputation is the case of cast members Adam Best (Waking the Dead), who tends to lean on playing villainous brutes, and Charlotte Hope (Allied, The Theory of Everything, The Nun), who tends to lean on more dramatic roles. In their latest murder-mystery/cozy crime series, The Puzzle Lady (aka Murder Most Puzzling, which follows Bakerbury's most famous resident, Cora Felton (Phyllis Logan), aka "The Puzzle Lady," who the local police recruits to help solve a girl's murder. But the eccentric Cora isn't who she claims to be: she's the fraudulent front-woman for her long-suffering niece Sherry (Hope), a puzzle genius who came to town to escape her abusive ex-husband. Hope spoke to Bleeding Cool about working with the legendary Logan, creator/showrunner Dominique Moloney, and flexing her comedic chops and improv skills.

The Puzzle Lady Star Charlotte Hope on Learning from Phyllis Logan and Embracing More Comedy

What intrigued you about The Puzzle Lady?

A bunch of stuff. First, working with Phyllis, she's such an amazing actress, and the opportunity to get to work with her every day for three months felt like I was getting a masterclass in acting, which I did. Also, I was really drawn to doing something light and comedic. I've spent a lot of time doing some pretty heavy material, and a lot of like, "Yeah, just quite a lot of trauma in my acting," and not having to cry was like a real gift. I don't think I cry. I mean, I like, teared once in the whole show, but I mostly got to go to work every day, laugh, and it was very good for my soul and for my mother's anxieties.

Were you already familiar with the Parnell Hall works? What do you like about working with Dominique Moloney as a creative?

Yeah, I hadn't read the books before. I read them when I got cast, and I thought they were really fun. Dominique's a brilliant writer, and she brought a lot of like a lot of chemistry, well, a lot of charm between my and Phyllis' characters, and it came out of Dominique's writing. I thought it was really fun and charming. Even on the page, there was so much of that relationship already there. I remember like reading it when I first got cast and being like, "Oh wow! I can already see a lot of the charm and the fun in the relationship even on the page, and then Phyllis and I got to kind of play around on top of that."

What was it like working with Phyllis? Did you already have some initial first impressions of her? Did you pick up anything right away? Or is anything perhaps she might have taught you subtly, or maybe not so subtly?

I had really high expectations going into it, and they were completely met and surpassed. She's a phenomenally talented actress. I remember one day we were rushing, and we had to get this one emotional beat, and she just did it in one take, and it was flawless, but she's also a gorgeous person. I'm so grateful that I got to hang out with her because she's really funny, so honestly, I couldn't have been more fortunate getting to work with her. She's so amazing.

Was there anything about working in this murder-mystery type genre of The Puzzle Lady that allowed you to do things you wouldn't normally do as an actor?

I guess the getting to do the comedy. Our director, Tom [Dalton], is an amazing director, but he also had a lot of trust in us as a cast. He let us ad-lib. There's one scene in it where I'm drunk getting into the car, which is kind of like almost entirely improvised, and getting that level of trust and freedom from a director was amazing, but also really fun because I hadn't done much that kind of comedy before. It felt really free, and I loved doing it.

Is there like a genre you hope to get into, do more of, or something you haven't explored yet that you want to do in the future?

Yeah, I'd love to do more comedy. I really had such a good time doing it, and it's nice not to have to cry, so more of that I think would really make me very happy.

The Puzzle Lady, which also stars Alastair Brammer, Nick Danan, Jack Weise, Richard Croxton, Simon Haines, Amber Mendez-Martin, Conor Sánchez, and Yasmin Seky, PBS Masterpiece on Prime Video, PBS Passport, and local PBS listings.

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