From director Lenny Abrahamson (Room, Frank) and screenwriter Lucinda Coxon, and adapted from the book of the same name by Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger tells the story of what happens when Dr. Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) is called by the Ayres family to Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked, to attend to a patient. The house and grounds of the vast estate have suffered and are now dilapidated from neglect, which adds to the creep factor, as he begins to wonder if mother (Charlotte Rampling), son (Will Poulter) and daughter (Ruth Wilson) are being haunted by something more supernatural in nature.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actress Ruth Wilson (who plays the very complex Ayres daughter, Caroline) talked about the reaction she had to the script for The Little Stranger, what most excited and most scared her about playing this character, what she enjoyed about collaborating with filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson, her favorite moment with co-star Charlotte Rampling (who plays the Ayres matriarch), working in such an imposing estate, and the ambiguity of the storytelling. She also talked about what it’s been like to play Alice on the BBC TV series Luther, for which her character is expected to return for the upcoming fifth season, in some form, and playing her own grandmother in the mini-series Mrs. Wilson (airing in the U.S. on PBS’ Masterpiece).

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Collider:  This movie creeped me out, in the best way possible. I love stories with this kind of eerie vibe that feels unsettling and lingers. It’s much more fun than being in your face.

RUTH WILSON:  Sure, I agree.

How did you come to this? Was it just a script that came your way?

WILSON:  Yeah, just the usual, where a script comes your way, you read it, and you get enticed by it. It got under my skin, and I couldn’t work it out. It unnerved me. It’s always a great sign, if you have a reaction to a script. That’s usually an indication that you’re interested. And so, I went back and read it again, and didn’t quite understand it, but decided to do the job. I felt the same way as you did. I read the book, as well, and that had exactly the same effect, too. There’s something unnerving and deeply dark about it.

Was that vibe always there, on paper, from the beginning?

WILSON:  Yeah, I think so. You don’t know what’s happening. You don’t know if it’s supernatural. You don’t know if it’s something to do with the doctor. You don’t know anything. There are so many questions, and there are no answers, so your imagination goes wild with what it could be, watching the characters react, in those situations, and what their history is and their vulnerability. When I first read it, you think the family are weirdos. You think they’re these oddballs and they’re all slowly being chipped away by something that they have no control over. That’s really scary. That’s scary, for any of us. To try to escape from that hold is really hard, certainly if it’s something that’s entrenched in the way you live and where you live. To move on is very brave and very hard to do, so it’s about being suffocated.

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Image via Focus Features

What was it that most excited you about playing this character, and what made you most nervous or scared about playing her?

WILSON:  Probably the same thing, really. The physicality of this character, and that I didn’t quite understand her. That is always enticing and scary, in equal measure. I think I liked her because there was something about her striving to free herself from this environment. She doesn’t even know it for awhile. She doesn’t understand that she needs to free herself, or even that she’s being suppressed. It’s through the course of the journey of the film that she understands that, and then escapes it, but not without loss of her whole family. There was something interesting about that. The physicality was also really interesting. That’s a character that I haven’t played before. It was shining a light on aristocracy, in a completely different way. It wasn’t romanticizing them or treating them with nostalgia, as a lot of dramas do. It was these real oddballs. It reminded me of Gray Gardens, but it was also like The Others and Brideshead Revisited. There was something unusual about it. All of those things were challenges because they were outside of my comfort zone, but they were what enticed me.

The director on this, Lenny Abrahamson, was clearly passionate about telling the story because he stuck with this and worked on it for a few years, before going into production on it. What did you enjoy about working and collaborating with him?

WILSON:  Lenny is really collaborative and he’s very organic, on the day, as well. He was discovering it, as we filmed it, and he was open and accepting of that. He didn’t pretend that he knew exactly what was going on, all the time. On the day, we’d try lots of different versions of the same thing, and then it gave him loads of options, in the edit, to shape it how he wanted it, which was a really interesting way of doing it. It meant that nothing was stuck, and he didn’t have definite ideas about it. He chose, in some things, to push the supernatural more, or to push the psychological more. It was really fun for us to do that because you get to play a bit more and discover, and in that discovery, you let go of that strong idea you might have of a character and you just play.

What was it like to work on this with Charlotte Rampling and have her play your mother? Do you have a favorite moment or scene that you got to do with her?

WILSON: It was amazing. I love her work. I am always deeply impressed by her and her career, and her, as a person, so it was amazing to act opposite her. We had this lovely scene in the bed, when she is bed bound. She’s just hurt herself on the glass windows, and I say, “I’m sorry, mother.” At that point, I think Caroline was starting to realize that she had invited something into the house that was infecting the house, in some way, and she felt it was her responsibility. I thought that was a really moving moment. And then, Charlotte says, “What have you got to be sorry for?” I really loved that scene with her. That’s when the two characters connect. This film is so detailed in its relationships, and the mother-daughter relationship between those two is really fraught. Caroline has always thought she was slightly disappointing her mother. She’s not the glamorous daughter her mother would have hoped for, and her mother puts her down and dismisses her, and has much more love and remembrance for the child that died. Caroline has always thought she was way down the list and neglected. So, that was a moment that they connected to each other, and they forgave each other for the antagonism between themselves.

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Image via Focus Features

It seems as though nothing good ever comes from people living in isolation in an old, crumbling manor. How imposing was it to walk into and work in an estate like that?

WILSON: It was amazing because you have everything there, and it gives you so much that you don’t have to act. The history of it is already there. It was built in 17-something, so it’s full of history and energy already, so you just have to stand in it. You feel slightly oppressed and awkward, but there’s also a bit of grandeur. What was great about the story is what that house would have been. It was falling apart, but in its heyday, it would have been the center of glamour and warmth and parties. That’s exactly what you want to get across – that this used to be where everything happened, when people were living at the best of their times and with all the money and wealth, and then suddenly, it was empty. It felt haunted, for that reason. I love working locations because it gives you so much for free.

The storytelling in this is very ambiguous, as far as blurring that line between reality and the supernatural, so what do you hope audiences take from it? Do you hope it leaves them wondering, or do you hope they draw their own conclusions about it?

WILSON:  I think it’s a combination of both. The combination of the deep psychological oppression, what that can do to you, and what energy that can create, and if you live with those demons or that denial, and how it can manifest and have violent means if you suppress stuff long enough or don’t deal with your problems. I hope that people come out going, “Is it a ghost story, or is it really about something deeper than that?” I think that it’s a drama, essentially. It’s a psychological drama about people and about how they deal with the situations that they’re in, so I hope that people come out caring about these characters and thinking of how they could have lived their life, or what other choices they could have made, and not just about the supernatural.

I have to tell you that Luther is one of my favorite TV series, but as much as I love Idris Elba, Alice is one of my favorite characters, ever. When you took on that role, could you ever have imagined how people would react to her and the response that you would get for playing that character?

WILSON:  No. When I read the script, I thought, “I’ve never read anything like this.” She read like a female Hannibal Lecter, and I thought that I could have so much fun with it, but it was one of those jobs that I didn’t take straight away. I thought, “I just don’t know,” but then, it came back to me. It was one of those ones that didn’t find someone, so it came back to me and I got a second chance to say yes to it, and I did. I’d been thinking about it, ever since I said no to it. I kept thinking that it would be really fun to do, and that I’d wished I’d said yes to it. So, when it came back, I thought, “Okay, this is fate. I’ve got to do it.” But I never, in a million years, would have expected it to have the effect that it did. None of us did. I think it’s a combination of me and Idris because the chemistry between us is really good.

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Image via BBC America

That character is just so unique and interesting, and (show creator) Neil [Cross] really loved writing her, and we had fun with her. You don’t see a psychopath that’s a women, who really enjoys what they’re doing, very often. You’ve got endless male characters like that. For me, it was really freeing. Usually, I play characters that are burdened by morality, and burdened by right and wrong, and are struggling. This character wasn’t that, and it was really freeing. I don’t think I quite understood that when I took it on. It’s only as we’ve done season after season that you realize actually that she’s quite a rare beast, and it’s joyful. I do enjoy playing her. She’s a lot of fun. I love going back to her. I think the audience likes it when people are having fun playing. I think they get a sense of that, on the screen.

After not being able to do it for Season 4, was it fun to be able to return for this upcoming season?

WILSON:  Well, I don’t know what you know. You’ll have to wait and see.

I’m just happy that Alice and you are back on Luther, in whatever capacity it ultimately turns out to be. I also think it’s very cool that you’re telling the story of your own family with Mrs. Wilson, where you’re playing your own grandmother. At what point did you realize that your family had a story that would make a compelling series, and that you would want to be a part of telling that story?

WILSON:  It was probably about 10 years ago, that we found out the whole story, and then it was one of those stories that you just keep telling to people, and they keep telling you that it’s a great drama, and that you should make it into a drama, and then you end up making into a drama. It happened over a process of about 10 years, from the moment we heard about all this. I did have questions about whether I should play her, but I never really doubted it. For me, that was a way of protecting her. There were moments, during the film, where I wished I hadn’t because it was it was the hardest thing I’ve done, definitely. I felt quite exposed. But I’m really glad that I could honor my grandmother, in that way, honor her story, honor my grandfather, honor all of the women involved, and for those siblings that are still alive – the oldest is now 97, and he’s desperate for it to come out. He’s really happy that it’s been quite a quick process. Hopefully, they’ll be really happy with it. I think they will be.

When you do something like that, do you have to just think about it as a character and forget that it’s your family, or do you always think about the fact that it’s your family?

WILSON:  Well, it was hard to forget in this, because I had to give birth to my dad. I had a lot of moments where I would come out of character and think, “This is so bizarre! If I have to go to a therapist for years , it’s going to be interesting.” No, I did have to stop doing that. I think the first scenes were really hard because every time I went to do a take, they’d have the clapperboard and it had “Mrs. Wilson” written on it, so I was reminded of what I was doing. I’d just have to block out those things, as I was finding the character, but it was amazing. By getting inside of my grandmother, I was able to really understand her life and her journey, and to really appreciate what we never knew. We never knew any of this stuff. She didn’t tell us. She kept what she had to live with a secret. By doing this job, I cam to really appreciate and understand the difficulties she had and the life she had to lead. It was a profound experience, in that way. I feel very privileged to be able to do it.

After doing something like that, where do you go from there? How do you decide on what the next project is, after you do a project that is such an important part of your life?

WILSON:  I don’t know. I did Hedda Gabler last year, which was one of the most amazing theatrical experiences in my career, so far. You have those, and then you just have to keep challenging yourself to go in a different direction. You always try to find things that you haven’t done before, and things that scare you. You just have to keep following that, or maybe just have a massive break for 10 years. Maybe I’ll disappear. No. I think you just go where the challenge is and try something else.

Have you thought about doing a light comedy next?

WILSON:  They don’t come my way often. I’ll have to have my manager sort that out for me.

The Little Stranger is out in theaters on August 31st.

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Image via Focus Features
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