INTERVJU / INTERVIEW
KIM CATTRALL, ACTRESS Just like my heroines, I live the way I want Many people think that powerful women are happy. However, as the years go by, I realise that they are primarily condemned to loneliness
SAMANTHA JONES TRANS- PORTS BACK TO 1920. No, it’s not some ‘time machine’ spin- off version of the show Sex and the City, we know that Kim Cat- trall gave a definitive final “no!” to that. But her famous character has somehow found her way into the past, in the series The Witness for the Prosecution, based on one of the most intriguing stories of the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, which airs on channel Epic Drama on 28 th and 29 th January. It was ac- tually thanks to this project that ac- tress Kim Cattrall, who was nom- inated for as many as five Emmy Awards for her role in the series that marked an epoch, got a chance to check whether women like Sa- mantha really existed in the early 20 th century. And as she reveals in this exclusive interview for Elevate – she has no regrets. - Thanks to this series, I discov- ered that strong women like Saman- tha had also existed a hundred years ago, and that, just like my charac- ter in Sex and the City, they were equally misunderstood and unac- cepted, and also somewhat scary for the male world. Many people think that powerful women are happy. However, as the years have gone by, and as I’ve actually dealt most- ly with powerful women through- out my career, I’ve come to realise that they are primarily condemned to loneliness. Who is the femme fatale from the early 20 th century that you’ve conjured up for us in the series The Wit- ness for the Prosecution? - Emily French is a modern fem- inist who enjoys fun, parties and
drinking. I believe that, to an ex- tent, Samantha was my best recom- mendation for this series [laughs]. Emily was far ahead of her time. Thanks to her wealth, which she acquired even before the demise of her millionaire husband, which made her London’s most desira- ble widow, she was one of the first women to have the right to vote. She never tried to satisfy the ex- pectations of high society, of which she was a member, and unlike most of her “lady colleagues”, instead of rich, boring old men, she always warmed more to handsome, young- er guys. Chance would have it that one of them, Leonard Vole, played by Billy Howle in the series, became her “favourite”. She went so far as to make him the heir to her entire fortune in her will. And, fancy that, it was then that she was murdered. The story this series is based on is considered one of Agatha Christie’s most controversial works. Did that impact on your deci- sion to accept this role? - I accepted the offer, first and foremost, because I adored the 1957 film, which starred Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton, and which won a bunch of Oscars at the time. However, it differs from this series because our screenwrit- er, Sarah Phelps, stuck to Agatha’s original idea, which was for the kill- er to ultimately get away with the crime. It was actually this fact that was crucial in me accepting the role in the series, because this story of Agatha’s is also known for that very precedent that the criminal “got away with it” and managed to outdo the law. I was also drawn to
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