This script has been lightly edited for clarity

 

Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob, and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.

Outside, the late summer English countryside teems with life and verdant landscapes. Inside, a conflicted Sophia stares out the window from within the bright and expansive Western House. Her mind dances between the excitement of her newfound love with Tom, and the hopeless impossibility of a future together. And as if not being with the one she loves isn’t enough, Sophia’s family is arranging for her to be married to a man she could never love. 

 

CLIP

Aunt Western: Sophia? Your cheeks flushed and your bosom heaving…

Sophia: I’m sure my bosom has never heaved in its life, Aunt!

Aunt Western: I do most sincerely approve of your heart’s choice, by the

way.

Sophia: My heart’s choice can never be Mister Blifil.

Aunt Western: I will never let you disgrace your poor dead father’s name by

attaching yourself to a bastard.

 

Although raised in a respectable, wealthy household, Tom can’t seem to escape his humble origins as a foundling. His love is pure, but his actions are often interpreted as those of a scoundrel. Tom and Sophia want only to be together, and that fuels their families to keep the star-crossed lovers even further apart. 

 

CLIP

Bridget: May we not give the boy another chance? 

Allworthy: Oh, we have forgiven you often enough, Tom Jones. If you have one ounce of the honor I used to think I saw in you, you will never bother poor Miss Western again. For my part, I loved you Tom, and now I never want to see you, or hear from you again. For as long as I shall live.

 

The next morning, Sophia learns of Tom’s departure from Paradise Hall. Her future bleak without Tom, Sophia and her lady’s maid and companion Honour, set off under the cover of night to escape her fate and pursue her heart’s true desire. 

 

CLIP

Sophia: Honour, where are you? Who’s there? Oh, Black George, don’t creep up on people.

Black George: I beg your pardon Miss. Tom’s heading for London.

Sophia: Oh! I see. Thank you. So are we as it happens.

 

Actor Sophie Wilde joins us to discuss the roots of Tom and Sophia’s love, and her character’s active role in pursuing the life she wants and the man she loves, against the wishes of almost everyone around her. 

 

Jace Lacob: And this week we are joined by Tom Jones star Sophie Wilde. Welcome.

Sophie Wilde: Hi.

Jace Lacob: I’m wondering, just sort of looking broadly, how familiar were you with the story of Tom Jones, the foundling that is, and not the Welsh singer, before you signed onto the role of Sophia Western?

Sophie Wilde: I think I’d heard of it from high school and studying English at school. But I’d never read it and I hadn’t seen the ‘60s film version of it. So, I was pretty fresh when they proposed the project to me.

Jace Lacob: And then you went, I assume, and read that 1,000-page novel for background.

Sophie Wilde: Yeah, I totally did that.

Jace Lacob: We’re speaking after the second episode of Tom Jones has been broadcast. And I’m just curious, what is your take at this point on the character of Sophia? What do you see as being her primary motivation for these first two episodes?

Sophie Wilde: The show is very much like a coming-of-age story. And so, I think in these earlier episodes, Sophia is very much this kind of naive girl in a way, and trying to figure out her place in society. And by the end of episode two, we really see her take that kind of first step of autonomy in her journey by removing herself from her family and being like, I refuse to get married. I’m going to kind of pursue what I want to pursue in life. And so I think we’re starting to see her kind of come into herself and come into her strength at this point.

Jace Lacob: You’re using the word pursue, which I love, because one thing that I love about Sophia, is that she isn’t a passive participant in this story, but she’s a really active one who drives the story forward. And she is pursuing, as you say, what she wants, what she desires. Is it refreshing that a period drama offers a woman, particularly a woman of color, such a dynamic and active role within the narrative?

Sophie Wilde: Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think that’s what’s kind of amazing about our adaptation in that sense, is that we’ve really given Sophia more of a journey, more autonomy in her story, which I think definitely differs maybe from the book or from previous adaptations. And I think it is really exciting that there’s been this kind of push towards giving women a voice, giving women power in this storytelling world.

Jace Lacob: And it is literally her voice. I mean, the fact that she has the first line of the very first episode begins with her voice centering I think, the story on Sophia and her perspective, her desire for ‘her’ and I’m using that in air quotes here, ‘her’ Tom Jones. Were you surprised then when you read the scripts that this Tom Jones would make such a powerful statement about Sophia’s agency from the outset, from that first line of dialogue?

Sophie Wilde: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve grown up watching a lot of period pieces. I was obsessed with them as a kid. And it definitely felt refreshing to see that. And, I don’t know if I had anticipated that auditioning because I don’t think I got the scripts until after I got the role.

And so it was really interesting to me and I was like, wow, we’re kind of taking maybe a slightly more modern take and a modern spin on this story. But I think that that is something that’s really interesting and that we should be doing in these times.

Jace Lacob: It’s that sense of ownership from the start, you know, “…my Tom Jones”, that does make this statement that this might be the story of Tom Jones, but it’s also the story of Sophia Western. And I think that is such a sort of groundbreaking thing in a period drama to have a woman of color be the one with agency here telling this story, pushing the story forward. When you did delve into reading those scripts, was that something that sparked an interest in you that you sort of said, well, I’m glad I signed onto this, this is something different?

Sophie Wilde: Yeah, definitely. And there’s a lot of kind of period adaptations going around now, and some of them where people of color operate in that world, and race isn’t really discussed. Whereas ours really, I think, sits within reality and, we’re discussing race and it’s there at the forefront of it.

And so as you say, to have a woman of color in a very real period piece who is taking autonomy and taking charge of her journey and the narrative is really interesting and I think I felt very inspired by that. And felt very inspired generally by the fact that they were willing to kind of cast a person of color in that role.

Jace Lacob: There is such a palpable chemistry between you and Solly McLeod who plays Tom. I’m thinking of that dining room scene in particular. What was the process like during rehearsals of fine tuning that relationship? It’s so full of longing, but there’s also such a purity and innocence to it, which is a really fine line to walk I think, as an actor.

Sophie Wilde: I think I kind of just lucked out. Solly is such a beautiful person, and an incredible actor, a very giving and generous actor. And we didn’t have a chemistry read. It was just kind of very lucky that we got along so well. But in rehearsals, we just spent a lot of time together really. We were in Belfast, all of us were quite isolated from our families and Solly and I were there the whole time, so we just spent a lot of time hanging out and getting to know each other as people, which I think kind of helped the process of being Tom and Sophia in a way.

Jace Lacob: Sophia might have money and freedom now. And I love the detail that she would employ Honour because as a woman of color, she’s the only lady’s maid that would know how to style Sophia’s hair. Do details like that allow Tom Jones to get at what Sophia’s lived-in experience might have been like?

Sophie Wilde: Oh, that’s such a good question. I mean, you would hope so. Surely it would be quite clear that she’s having to kind of navigate the world in different ways to maybe other people that Tom is engaged with in society. And so you’d hope that that would be a marker of her experience.

But I do think it is kind of that dining room scene where she’s like, yeah, I was born on a plantation in Jamaica. He doesn’t quite get it though in that scene. It’s only until she kind of boldly states it that he really understands in a way.

Jace Lacob: I want to talk about Honour because she is played by the Great Pearl Mackie.

Sophie Wilde: Pearl Mackie!

Jace Lacob: Pearl Mackie, whom I adore. How would you describe Sophia’s and Honour’s playfully combative, dynamic and what was Pearl like as a scene partner on this?

Sophie Wilde: They have such an interesting relationship where it is combative, as you say, but there’s so much love. And I think Honour is very much like an older sister and like a kind of mentor and she’s wiser and has a much deeper understanding of how society works. Sophia is very sheltered in a lot of ways. But I think that’s where the conflict comes, because Honour is, like, I know how this world works. But Sophia ultimately has the status and the power in that dynamic that she fights against that, and she thinks she knows how the world works. And so it kind of turns into these little bites and they’re bickering, but ultimately there’s a lot of love there.

Jace Lacob: That’s lovely. Sophia has this great line to Honour about hunting.

 

CLIP

Sophia: I can’t bear it. I feel sorry for the fox. I feel sorry for the horses. I just can’t see the point of chasing things that don’t want to be caught.

 

Jace Lacob: Does she see that upon reaching 18, she might also be something that will be chased, a pursuit, whether she wants it or not?

Sophie Wilde: Yeah, definitely. And I think that’s very much part of the driving force of episode two, I think. After she realizes that she doesn’t have the autonomy to choose who she wants to marry, and she’s kind of forced into this marriage with Blifil, I think she really realizes that, oh, she doesn’t have as much power as she thought she had.

And I think she always thought she had this very loving relationship with her grandfather, which she does, but I think it’s also a shock to her when he’s very forcefully like, no, you will marry this person.

 

MIDROLL

 

Jace Lacob: She meets Tom Jones again and she doesn’t recognize him, though he knows her. And when he says his name, it’s as though almost like this spell has been cast on Sophia. Is it love, if not at first sight, then maybe at second for Sophia? What does she make of this man who had been her friend as a boy?

Sophie Wilde: Oh, I don’t know. I feel like it’s kind of, is it love at second sight? In a way. I think she’s instantly sort of besotted by him. But I think it’s his acts of generosity that really grab her. Obviously she sees him and he’s this gorgeous, young man, that I think is exciting and probably an experience that she hasn’t really had before. But then I think it is the fact that he’s there and he’s wanting to help Black George and he is this kind of kind and generous soul that really draws her in.

Jace Lacob: It’s Honour of course, who calls it.

 

CLIP

Honour: Lost your heart. Didn’t even know it was in danger. [laughs]

 

Jace Lacob: Because she sees all and is never afraid to say anything outright. I love it. Before the hunt at Western House, Sophia finds herself the object of attention which her grandfather brushes off as them admiring her beauty. Sophia herself is sort of unnerved by the whispers. What does she make of the attention and of her grandfather’s rather oblivious response to it?

Sophie Wilde: I guess it kind of ties into this questioning of her place in society and the kind of naivety starting to dissolve a little bit. Also, you know, she’s come from Bath where again, she’s been even more sheltered being with her aunt in Bath. And so I think it’s coming back to this place that she knows is home, but suddenly people are very aware of her and looking at her. And I think she’s starting to realize, well, obviously this ties into my mixed race heritage. But, you know, it still hasn’t necessarily clicked and it’s almost, maybe she’s in a bit of denial about it. But I think there’s the kind of initial inklings of where do I fit in, I don’t fit in, are kind of coming into play here.

Jace Lacob: The scenes between Sophia and Tom in episode one feel really vital and important. It’s not even a flirtation between them, but you can feel that it’s something much deeper and more powerful, like in the apple and handkerchief scene. How did the blocking for you and Solly help to establish both the boundaries and desire between Sophia and Tom?

Sophie Wilde: Georgia, our director, is incredible and she really gave us the freedom to kind of play as much as we wanted and not be super confined to hitting marks and stuff and oscillate between closeness and distance. And I think that was something very important, yeah, playing between those two oppositions in the space. And I guess that creates attraction and that creates chemistry as well.

And we had a choreographer come on because we had quite a lot of dancing in there. And I think even from that process of learning choreography together and kind of working with a movement director helped infuse all of our acting in a way, in terms of physicality and blocking.

Jace Lacob: That entire sequence I think is just amazing because of that tension. There’s this inherent tension, it’s just a beautiful sequence. Sophia’s Aunt Diana Western played rather deliciously by Shirley Henderson, arrives during the croquet scene between Sophia and Tom. How would you describe Aunt Western’s influence over Sophia?

Sophie Wilde: There is so much love, and there’s so much tension between them. And I think Aunt Western actually wants the best for Sophia at the end. And I think she’s slightly more clued on than Squire Western. And so she, in a lot of ways, tries to impose these traditional structures of society and of being a woman on Sophia. But it’s actually with the intention of trying to give her the best in life. And it comes out of love, but I think to Sophia, it seems combative in a way.

Jace Lacob: It’s Aunt Western, of course, who pushes the match between Sophia and the odious Blifil. What does Sofia make of Blifil as a man and as a match?

Sophie Wilde: She’s kind of repulsed by him. I don’t know, like, you know, when you just get the ick? I feel like he gives her the ick. He’s kind of the polar opposite of Tom in a way. And I think because she feels so much love and affection and feels the kindness radiate off Tom, she almost senses the opposite of that in Blifil.

Jace Lacob: It’s interesting that you talk about Aunt Western saying that her desire for Sophia is safety rather than love.

 

CLIP

Sophia: Don’t you want me to be happy?

Aunt Western: I want you to be rich and safe.

 

Jace Lacob: Does Sophia then see herself as being trapped by the very wealth that enabled her to be free?

Sophie Wilde: I don’t know if it’s trapped necessarily, maybe a little bit, but I think she’s very aware of the privilege that it’s warranted her in life and the fact that because of that wealth, that’s where she is in society. That’s how she’s come to England and been here. Maybe there’s a little bit of feeling trapped. But I think she kind of understands its necessity in the confines of that kind of period society.

Jace Lacob: Sophia’s grandfather sends Tom to convince her to marry Blifil, and he still has Sophia’s handkerchief, and he says,

 

CLIP

Tom: But now there’s the two of us. You and me and the world before us. And I cannot live in it without you.

Sophia: Nor I without you.

 

Jace Lacob: And they kiss very gently for the first time. What was it like filming this particular scene with its sort of tenderness and innocence?

Sophie Wilde: Mm. I remember Georgia being like, you need to be more innocent. You’re too knowing in this scene. She was like, I know you know how to kiss someone. But you have to remember that this is Sophia’s first kiss. And I feel like that was a note I got a lot was like, you need to be more youthful and get that girlish energy out. And I think that’s very much at play in there. At least from Sophia’s part, there is this naivety, but there is this longing. But yeah, it was a beautiful, beautiful scene to shoot. I love that whole scene, that whole sequence.

And when Squire Western and Blifil and Aunt Western come in, I just remember Solly and I cracking up because they are so funny and they just came in with so much rage that we just could not stop laughing. But yeah, it’s a beautiful sequence.

Jace Lacob: I love that. So Tom is thrown out of Paradise Hall. Sophia chooses to leave Western House to head to London and her other aunts rather than go through with her wedding. This is like an act of, of her regaining agency. She’s not going to marry this man that has been an arranged marriage for her, but she’s actually going to be active, she’s leaving. Whether she really knows what she’s doing and where she’s heading is another question. But, she at least is being active and refusing to sort of just go along with this plan.

Sophie Wilde: Yeah. And I love that she asked Honour like, are you going to come with me? And Honour’s like, “No.” But then as soon as she hears that they’re going to London, she’s like, I am all in. Again, it’s just like one of the great parts about their dynamic.

Jace Lacob: What she discovers is that the world is an imperfect place. And London is not what she really imagined. She, and Honour, attract the wrong kind of attention. She says, “…another world, another England, and not a friendly one.” And that’s before the horror of the sounds from next door at the inn, which humiliate her. Does Sophia instantly regret her course of action here?

Sophie Wilde: I think there’s definitely doubts. I think that’s when the doubt starts to seep in. But you know, as you say, she’s stubborn. She is very stubborn. And I think she has a bit of her grandfather’s stubbornness in that way where she’s like, well even if this isn’t the right decision, I’m just going to follow it through. But I think it’s those first moments of doubt and you know, did I make a mistake? Was this the right idea?

Jace Lacob: When she learns that Tom was next door with Mrs. Waters, what does she make of this news? And does it shift her perception of Tom as a person and as the object of her love?

Sophie Wilde: Yeah. I think it’s, it’s obviously like a gut wrenching moment where she’s like, oh, is this the person that I thought I knew? But I think, you know, it’s like there’s this nagging thing where she’s constantly exposed to Tom’s faults, but she can’t shake off the fact that somewhere inside her, she still loves him and still believes in him.

Jace Lacob: In many ways, while this is the story of Tom Jones, it is the story of the two of them sort of maturing and accepting who they are and who each other is without too many spoilers. She decides to stay in London. She finds her Aunt Harriet only to be confronted by Harriet’s husband Fitzpatrick.

 

CLIP

Harriet: Your grandfather is a very great villain, to be sure.

Sophia: Oh Aunt Harriet, really he is not. Just on this one question…

Harriet: The question of a woman’s freedom and happiness.

Sophia: He can’t understand that I only want to marry for love, as you did.

Fitzpatrick: Harriet!

Sophia: Is that your husband come home? I so long to meet him.

Harriet: You can stay tonight but after that I think it’s best if you—

Fitzpatrick: Harriet!

Harriet: I will send word to your aunt, Lady Bellaston. You can stay with her. My life is not as you imagine it. Sophia, don’t be like me. Don’t think love is enough.

 

Jace Lacob: Does Harriet and Fitzpatrick’s marriage make Sophia wonder about the nature of love?

Sophie Wilde: Yeah, I think so. I imagine that Harriet had always been this kind of idealized person in her life—the one who ran off and married for love, and lives this beautiful, incredible life. And I think that’s why she goes to Harriet when she too has to figure out what she wants to do in regard to love, and does she want to marry for love, which I think at this time is her goal.

And so I think it is quite a shock when she comes in and suddenly, it’s not what she thought it was. And it’s not as pretty and as idealized as she thought it was. And so I think it is this, again, her becoming more aware of the world and the nature of life and how it’s not as pretty and as safe as she’d been led to believe it was.

Jace Lacob: I should note that I am speaking to you today from Australia, which is home for you.

Sophie Wilde: Yes.

Jace Lacob: You are not English, but your accent as Sophia is so entirely top-notch that I think it’s quite easy to be fooled into thinking you’re a British actor. Is it true that you perfected an English accent by watching Michaela Coel?

Sophie Wilde: So I was doing a show, I was doing a BBC show, and I had the most incredible dialect coach, and she always said that what’s great is to watch other actors from that dialect and just copy—listen, repeat, listen, repeat. And so for the particular dialect I was trying to do in that show, we were like, Michaela Coel is the person. So kind of, yeah, partially I’d say.

Jace Lacob: You’ve been acting since you were five years old. What drove your desire to act professionally? Where did that come from?

Sophie Wilde: My grandparents had always been patrons of the arts. They went to the theater a lot. They went to dance productions and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. And so they would take me and expose me to a lot of the arts from a very young age.

So I think I kind of grew this passion for it from there. But I used to have this box set with VHS tapes of Audrey Hepburn films. And I watched Roman Holiday, and I was like, I want to do that and I want to be Audrey Hepburn.

Jace Lacob: That’s amazing. Your big acting break came with the Australian mystery drama Eden, where you played musician Scout Lewis, who returns home after time in Manhattan and discovers the place she left wasn’t what she remembered. Returning to Australia after time in Britain, did home feel that way to you as well?

Sophie Wilde: Yeah, I think there’s something always strange about coming home after going away for work. And I think a lot of it’s like, you go and you make these really intimate families and you work so closely with a group of people for four, six months, and then you come home. I think it’s always going to be a strange experience.

And I think, at least for me, I’ve grown so much as a person from every job I’ve done that sometimes it feels weird coming home because you’re like, oh, do I need to revert to that older person that I used to be when I was in Sydney? Or, where do I fit in? I’ve grown so much. It’s a weird thing, a weird experience.

Jace Lacob: In a short time, you completed a string of projects, including Talk To Me, Tom Jones, You Don’t Know Me, The Portable Door with Miranda Otto. The world is your oyster, Sophie. Is there an actor whose career you’d most like to emulate?

Sophie Wilde: You know what, I love Robert Patterson because I think he’s had such an interesting career. I love that he did Twilight and he did the ‘big’ kind of thing and then has gone into a lot of interesting independent films and really kind of weird roles. And that interests me. I like off-kilter things and I like weird things. And so I think he’s had a really interesting career. I think he picks interesting filmmakers and characters.

Jace Lacob: It’s difficult to look at you on screen and think this is someone who has imposter syndrome, but you’ve been candid about your experiences with imposter syndrome. How did you, or maybe how do you struggle to overcome those feelings?

Sophie Wilde: I think it’s been an absolute journey. It’s probably something I’m still figuring out. I feel like the more and more I work, the less apparent it becomes in a way, but that’s also not always true. I feel like imposter syndrome is the curse of the actor in a way. I think it’s something that you just kind of have to get used to and try to fight against, but maybe also embrace. At the end of the day, I don’t if anyone ever really knows what they’re doing. And that’s kind of the beauty of it.

Jace Lacob: Words of wisdom. I mean, fake it till you make it, right?

Sophie Wilde: Fake it till you make it. That’s what they said at drama school. They kept saying that and I was like, why are you telling me this? And it’s honestly really true.

Jace Lacob: It’s really true for everyone in the world. We’re all just kind of winging it. What is next for you?

Sophie Wilde: What is next? It’s a big year for things coming out, it feels. It feels like everything that I’ve shot over the last two years comes out this year, which is surreal. Then I think I’ll be doing some things later in the year, which I can’t talk about now, but will slowly be revealed.

Jace Lacob: Exciting. Sophie Wilde, thank you so, so very much.

Sophie Wilde: Thank you. It’s been an absolute pleasure.

 

Next time, Sophia and Honour settle into life in London under the watch of the diabolical Lady Bellaston. 

 

CLIP

Honour: I don’t like you, Mister Jones, and I don’t mind telling you so. But we are fallen among thieves, Sir, and I don’t know where else to turn.

Tom: Well anything I can do to help…

Honour: That Lady Bellaston is no better than she should be.

Tom: I’m sure that’s not true.

 

 

Actor Pearl Mackie joins us to discuss how Honour keeps a level head while being the voice of reason for her lovesick companion Sophia.