From showrunners/writers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, and based on the Marvel comics created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, the Hulu original series Marvel’s Runaways is back for its third and final season, and the Runaways must deal with corrupt parents, powerful aliens and the world’s most nefarious sorceress, all while trying to save each other. The series stars Rhenzy Feliz, Lyrica Okano, Virginia Gardner, Ariela Barer, Gregg Sulkin, Allegra Acosta, Annie Wersching, Ryan Sands, Angel Parker, Ever Carradine, James Marsters, Kevin Wesiman, Brigid Brannagh, James Yaegashi, Brittany Ishibashi and Elizabeth Hurley.
In an interview on set during the shooting of Season 3, actress Elizabeth Hurley talked about taking on Morgan le Fay, exploring the dark realm, having to learn Latin, acting with her hands, the costumes, how this character compares to villains she’s played in the past, and why you really have to be on your game on a TV series.
Question: How much did you know about your character, Morgan le Fay?
ELIZABETH HURLEY: I’d heard about Morgan le Fay, of course, for forever, and I’d seen various manifestations of her. I saw Helen Mirren play her in Excalibur. But the Marvel Morgan le Fay is particular, and she’s special. So, the first thing that I did was Google images of her, and I loved them. I really, really loved how she’d been portrayed in the Marvel comics. And then, I dug into the research, a little bit more. Obviously, it’s blended with fiction, all the way through, but I found out some really good things about her. I liked the fact that she’s almost always portrayed as a megalomaniac, and whenever she crops up somewhere, she usually wants to take over the world. What’s not to love? That seemed to tick every box that I wanted.
What are you getting to do with this role that you’ve never gotten to do before?
HURLEY: I’ve never visited a dark dimension before, really. To be honest, I didn’t really know what a dark dimension was, until this job. Now, I have been educated and I think I understand the dark dimension a bit more. I’ve done more blue screen work, on this show, then I’d done previously, which is a different sensibility, as an actor. It’s hard, actually. It’s quite difficult. And I know there are some movies that are shot almost entirely on blue screen, but for me, I’d only done tiny little bits and pieces, so that was a new thing for me. Trying to educate myself about how the dimensions work, with real life, was something very new for me. It’s always quite nice when there’s something new to think about, and to research and watch. So, all of those elements made it exciting for me.
Is there a good amount of hand acting?
HURLEY: Yes. It’s called tutting, in my case. But it’s not as difficult as learning Latin. I’ve had to learn quite a lot of Latin for this. I had a scene where I had 18 lines of Latin, and I had to chant and tut. That takes awhile to learn.
Which characters do you interact with?
HURLEY: In order to leave the dark dimension and come into this world, Morgan uses one of the Runaways as a conduit. I’m probably not allowed to say which one that is, but I interact with that character quite a lot, until I’m in this world. And then, I get to see all of them and work with all of them.
What does she think of this world?
HURLEY: She wants to take it over and rule it. She wants to bring elements of how she thinks the world should be run into how it is today. Some myths say that she should have ruled a long time ago, but was cast out by Merlin. For us, this is how she fights her way back in to this world. She’s been away for thousands of years, before she emerges in Runaways.
Did you take anything from other portrayals of her?
HURLEY: I didn’t, actually. In Excalibur, she speaks Celtic, and I speak Latin. And there are two types of Latin, I’ve discovered. To be honest, it was more important for me to be influenced by the Marvel portrayal of Morgan le Fay. I just loved the way that she’d been drawn. And the costume lady on this is fantastic. She’d sent me a sketch, and I was very nervous about how it looked. Once you’ve set that dark dimension look, that’s your look, so it was important, but I’m thrilled with it. She did a fantastic job. I’m really, really happy. I think fans of the comic will see what they want to see, in the real life version.
Is it easy to move in?
HURLEY: Yeah, up to a point.
You’ve played a lot of deliciously fun characters, in the past. What is going to surprise fans about this character?
HURLEY: I have played bad, many times. I think she’s probably more bad. The way the devil was portrayed in Bedazzled was that she very rarely showed the real her. Obviously, it was ludicrous. It was a comedy. The interesting thing about that movie was that all of the test audiences wanted him (Brendan Fraser’s character) to end up with me, and we were like, “No, that’s not the point!” She’s seducing him to giving up his soul. She’s not really like that. She really has horns and a dagger. She’s just manifested like that. But nobody ever got that. She was just being charming, nice, vulnerable, seductive and, obviously, evil. There was comedy evil, underneath. Morgan is a lot darker than that, and she shows more of her dark side, as the season progresses. You’ll see a more complex character. And even though she is absolutely convinced that what she’s doing is for the greater good, like all good villains, her actions are questionable, at times.
One of the things this show has done well is take characters that you think are villains and twist it around, so that you can see both sides of them. Do we see a positive side of Morgan le Fay?
HURLEY: I think you do, in some ways. She’s not a black and white villain. She has a little vulnerability and a kindness in her. When she interacts with the kids, she genuinely doesn’t understand why they shouldn’t immediately follow her because she thinks that she’s got all of the answers and will make everything fantastic. She does her utmost to be convincing, and she believes it, totally.
How much freedom are you given, on set?
HURLEY: We shoot really fast. There first television I really did was Gossip Girl, with the same showrunners, and it was quite a shock to the system, after movies, because they shoot so much faster and so much more, every day. And so, there’s showing up set with your sides and feeling around. You really turn up, performance ready and camera ready, and shoot it. So, in some ways, it’s more challenging, as an actor, to really get into that way of working. The preparation is really intense because, if we’re shooting eight pages a day, you can’t possibly learn any lines during the week ‘cause you’re shooting every day. So, the entire weekend, which I found with Gossip Girl, The Royals and now this, is just prepping for the week ahead. You have to be really on your game. And then, there’s Latin and magic and tutting.
Marvel’s Runaways Season 3 is available to stream at Hulu on December 13th.