6 Questions for Miss Scarlet and The Duke’s Kate Phillips
Exactly what might have happened during Eliza and William’s dinner dates in between Miss Scarlet and The Duke Seasons 1 and 2? We may never know, but in an interview with MASTERPIECE, star Kate Phillips speculates, and shares insights on the will-they/won’t-they relationship, new Season 2 characters, challenges ahead for her character, and more.
In Episode 1, we learned that Eliza and William had been dining together as their friendship was becoming more romantic. What do you imagine might have happened at those dinners?
I’d like to think there’s a lot of humor and reminiscing of their friendship, lots of tentatively discussing future plans, but skirting around any sort of romantic promises. I feel like whilst Eliza’s incredibly ballsy and she’ll always say what she thinks, she’s got a bit of a way to go in terms of her emotional vulnerability. I think she’s emotionally intelligent, but very caged in many ways, and I’m sure that during those dinners, she would’ve shut down any conversation in regard to where their relationship would be going in a romantic sense. But that little touch you see in Episode 1—I wonder if that’s perhaps not the first time that their hands have grazed? Maybe as they’re leaving dinner one evening, there’s a little graze between hands or something quite tender like that, that has kept the light between them in between Seasons 1 and 2.
Do you enjoy it more when Eliza and William are working together, or when they’re in competition with each other? Which is more fun for you?
I think both are fun, and I think the reason why you need to have both is in order for one not to get too tiresome. If they were constantly fighting, I think it would become quite exhausting. But I really like how the show ebbs and flows with their friendship and their bickering. I really enjoy the kind of silly, naughty, taunting bickering, perhaps a little bit more than the moments where they’re really torn apart, partly just because those are very fun scenes to play. Stuart’s a really good actor to play off, and it’s great when there’s a little twinkle in one another’s eyes. It’s fun to play off that energy.
A special quality about their friendship is that it endures a lot. They both have the ability to really get under one another’s skin; they resent one another’s perceived privilege and access; and they’ve pulled back from a potential romance. So how is it that their friendship manages to stay so strong?
Well, I think there are two things. I think that they challenge each other in a way that, in the moment, causes a lot of drama, and pain, and hurt. But I think a lot of the things that they say to one another are kind of based in truth, and sometimes they both need to hear those things. And I think that’s why we’ve seen some really lovely growth, actually, in both characters over the course of Season 1, into Season 2, and hopefully Season 3. A lot of that is because they’re growing together and they don’t enable one another, which I think is quite interesting. It’s quite good for a modern couple as well.
But also, I think, at the heart of their friendship is that they’re both orphans. And William is the only person left (besides Ivy, of course) in Eliza’s life that knew her father. I think that connection really keeps you together. William himself is an orphan. Eliza didn’t know his parents, but in a way, Eliza’s father was a father figure for him. And I think, however rocky it gets for them, they’ll always settle back into this place of needing one another, because at the end of the day, they’re sort of family. So that’s a beautiful, deep relationship they’ve got there.
In Season 2, we have a couple of new characters, Hattie Parker and Patrick Nash, who see Eliza in the same light that we, the audience, do. Hattie thinks that Eliza’s the greatest thing in the world, and wants to be friends with her. And Nash really recognizes her full talent and potential. So why are these the characters that she seems to respect or trust the least?
I actually think that the interesting thing about the Hattie relationship is that Eliza’s certainly quite skeptical to start off with, but I believe that, in the way she did with Rupert in Season 1, she really takes Hattie under her wing and defends her against Mrs. Parker. And interestingly enough, whilst Eliza’s so headstrong in terms of how she would navigate the world as a woman, she’s really learning from Hattie that that’s not necessarily everyone else’s journey too, which is one of the reasons why I think Hattie’s character (and the way Jessie Cave plays it), is just so brilliant, and so necessary. I think it’s important to be reminded that this is right for Eliza, but it’s not the way for everyone. So in a way, actually, I think Hattie offers an opportunity for Eliza to grow, as well.
I think ultimately, the issue with Nash is that she just doesn’t respect him as a person. So whilst he seems to respect her, she doesn’t like the way he goes about his business, and she’ll never engage with those kinds of tactics. Although it’s funny, because one of her issues with him is that he engages in blackmail, which of course she does do sometimes, but in her own way—because the way she does it, it’s fine. [Laughs] But I really enjoy his character, the way he really stands for his beliefs. And I think he really does deeply, deeply believe in her, and wants to champion her. So how she manages or navigates his encouragement and championing of her is really interesting, because she just rejects him outright again and again and again.
How does she feel about detective-in-training Oliver Fitzroy, who’s like an adorable puppy, with a mad crush on her, but who she can easily manipulate to get what she needs?
My main feeling about Fitzroy is that she has a real soft spot for him. I really enjoy working with Evan [McCabe] in scenes because his admiration is just delightful. I think Eliza ultimately finds it really amusing, and really enjoys it, and just leaves the managing of Fitzroy entirely down to William so she can just feed off his energy and enjoy it.
If Season 1 was about Eliza getting on her feet and getting started as a detective, is Season 2 about coming into herself as a detective, and figuring out who she’s going to be?
I think Season 1 is very much about establishing herself, and as an audience you really understand that by the end, she believes that she’s got what it takes, and she’s got the skills and the instincts. Season 2 is really about whether she can survive. She knows that she’s got what it takes, but she’s really up against it. She’s really put to the test, particularly when characters like Patrick Nash come on the scene. You can really see the competition, not just as a woman working in a world that doesn’t support her, but actually with the industry itself being very competitive. And can she survive?
