For Piper, who plays Charleston’s close friend Patsy, she relied heavily on Beresford’s script for her prep, as well as information she gleaned from those who actually knew Patsy, and Charleston.
“I’ve spoken to a few members of the family, their friends, and then I sort of cherry-picked things from people I’d known in the beginning of my career, the louder figures in our industry,” she said. “And then I did my own interpretation and just had a good time. It’s a very moving story, but I had a lot of fun playing that part. She’s a really joyful character to play, I enjoyed the comedy. And I understand that a lot of her jokes are coming from a place of despair.”
Beresford, who has known Scott for 25 years, said he didn’t initially think of his longtime friend for the role, but should have.
“The story of Ian, and Ian’s Hamlet [performance] is legendary in the British theater,” he said. “So many people said it was the greatest Hamlet they’d ever seen, and that it had this incredible quality. So I knew about the story, and then it was brought to me actually as an idea by a producer who said, ‘What about writing about Ian Charleston, and what about Andrew playing Ian Charleston?’ And then I just thought, ‘Well, why didn’t I have that idea myself five years ago?’ So yeah, that’s really how it happened, and I started to research it, the details of the story were so incredible, and so moving.”
