The Affair star Ruth Wilson slams Hollywood for treating actresses like idiots – The Sun
SHE has played a mistress, serial killers and now, in her latest role, a psychopathic child kidnapper.
Ruth Wilson — starring in the new BBC1 blockbuster His Dark Materials, which starts tonight — has joked about being “quite evil” in real life.
But nothing makes the Brit actress’s blood boil more than how Hollywood treats women.
Ruth, 37, said: “As an actress, particularly, you’re treated like an idiot. They handle you with kid gloves but they also treat you like a fool.
“When you’re feeling uncomfortable or exploited, they don’t want to listen. They think you’re being a bit ‘difficult’.”
Ruth, who stripped and romped with Dominic West in Sky Atlantic’s The Affair, insists one of the least level playing fields in the world of TV and film are sex scenes — because of what can be shown on screen.
She said: “With sex scenes, perhaps people could have a clearer idea of what is, and what isn’t, expected of them right from the start.”
Ruth, who hates watching herself naked on screen, added: “I have a big concern about how women are treated in the industry generally and how they have to provide the titillation because penises can’t be seen on screen but breasts can.
“It is assumed that women will get their breasts out, and have to get their breasts out, and I balk at that.
“It’s unnecessary and it’s unfair.
“Sex is a thing that happens between two people so I think there is more to be done.”
His Dark Materials — based on the trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman — is BBC1’s pre-Christmas block-buster.
Co-starring James McAvoy, it follows the coming-of-age of two children as they wander through a series of parallel universes.
Ruth plays Marisa Coulter, who is involved in a Church-sanctioned child-kidnapping — a part she felt compelled to play when the character was described as being the “cesspit of moral filth”.
Ruth said: “I’m drawn to people that I don’t really understand.
“I am always looking for complicated female roles. I think if I am intrigued and challenged by them then the audience will be too. It keeps me excited.”
This week Ruth won the best television icon gong at Harper’s Bazaar magazine’s Women Of The Year awards.
On her new role and other extreme characters she has played, she told the mag this week: “My mum and dad are always saying, ‘Ruth, just play someone normal!’ ”
Born in Ashford, Surrey, to Nigel, an investment banker, and Mary, a probation officer, Ruth’s upbringing was idyllic.
She knew she wanted to be an actress and spent hours alone in her room acting out scenes from 1986 Vietnam war movie Platoon.
She said: “I don’t know why I did this but I used to watch quite a lot of inappropriate things that I shouldn’t have watched when I was eight.
“There’s a big classical music moment at the end of Platoon where someone gets shot like 95 times and the guy doesn’t die. I used to lock the doors and just act it out to myself.
“I would play the music, as I had the soundtrack.”
Ruth also played murderer Alice Morgan in BBC hit Luther. Last year she told how she would love to play a Bond villain one day.
One anecdote from her childhood gives a possible glimpse into where she got her irreverence.
Ruth told how she enjoyed playing pranks on Halloween — by dousing kids in cold water. She said: “My family are very cynical and we used to play tricks on the trick or treaters. We got to them first.
“Me and my three brothers pulled a garden hose to the top window of our house so we could spray anyone who called with freezing cold water.
“It was mean. I’m a terrible person. It was just our family.”
Ruth’s big break came in 2006, when she appeared in the BBC mini-series Jane Eyre, but success did not come easy.
Admitting to being uncomfortable in her own skin as a teen, she later struggled with the rejection of the casting process.
Talking about her younger years she says: “I remember being about 14 when I started wearing shorts and heels. I hated the attention I got. I found it overwhelming.”
She deflected unwelcome stares and catcalls by wearing jeans and her brothers’ oversized rugby shirts.
On struggling in her early years as an actress, she once recalled: “One of my first auditions was for Kenneth Branagh for As You Like It. I didn’t get it, obviously.
“You just go for everything. You don’t know how you fit in. You use it as an experience or to try a bit of acting.
“It’s horrible and you get rejected all the time. It’s like doing five, six job interviews a week and getting rejected for everything.
“Your agent will put you up for everything. You learn to have a tough skin.”
Today Ruth is far from a struggling actress. In 2015 she won a Golden Globe for her key role in The Affair, which explores the emotional effects of extramarital relationships. Her co-star Dominic West has told how many of the scenes were “very emotionally taxing” as Ruth’s character, Alison Bailey, tried to self-harm, mourned the death of her child and even attempted to end her life.
He also said the “sexually explicit” show made it demanding and he and Ruth were always asking the writers to justify the sex scenes.
Praising his co-star, Dominic, 50, said: “She’s incredibly good at doing nothing yet showing an awful lot behind the eyes, whereas I’m much more theatrical.
“That really hit me, especially when I saw it on the monitor. I thought, ‘That’s how you act. That’s how you do it’.”
Despite her success, Ruth appears to have never forgotten her roots, crediting her parents for keeping her grounded.
She said of them: “My parents are brilliant and very supportive.
“I go shopping occasionally with my mum and she will be like, ‘I think you need a dress in a slightly bigger size’.”
Ruth, who is believed to be single, has admitted to being a “bit of a loner” and quite “enjoying alone time”.
But she has also said that playing so many complex and often tormented characters has made her question real-life norms — including marriage. The actress explained: “Every time you do a part you have to dig into why these people do these things and empathise with your characters.
“So of course it makes you question if the institution of marriage is still relevant and whether we have such high expectations of what marriage should give you and that is why it often fails.
“We think it should be our sole source of happiness for life, when you have to work at it and be happy in yourself.”
- His Dark Materials begins on BBC1 at 8pm tonight.
His Dark Materials fantasy series based on Philip Pullman’s award-winning trilogy staring James McAvoy and Ruth Wilson
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