Welcome back from the dead, Alice Morgan.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you always know that Alice was still alive?
RUTH WILSON:I didn’t think she was actually dead.
Credit: Des Willie/BBCAmerica
And I was like, “No, no, not at all.”
I had an inkling that I was going to get a phone call about coming back.
it’s possible for you to’t kill off a character like that off-screen.
Six years is quite a lot of time in someone’s life, and you change.
So it was kind of funny trying to get back in her skin.
And the character has changed.
Also, Idris and I have changed.
Both our relationship in the show, but also as people we’ve changed.
So that comes out more on the screen this season than I think it has previously.
We can’t help from having fun and improvising around things.
That’s been the real pleasure of the series, working with Idris and that relationship with those characters.
To be able to come back to it is fun.
You never know, I could be back when I’m 50 playing Alice.
[Laughs] I kind of hope not, but you never know with these things.
Alice and John have such a wild and dysfunctional relationship and attraction to each other.
It’s like the odd couple.
That sort of dynamic really hasn’t existed onscreen before, certainly with a female character.
That is what I think is quite interesting.
Was Alice a fun release afterleaving the heaviness ofThe Affairbehind?
It’s such a juicy role and so different from what else you’re doing.
She’s like MacGyver, she gets herself out of anything with like a hair pin.
He’s Batman and I’m like Catwoman or Robin or the Joker.
And it was very nice to play that side of it.
I can enjoy myself and not have to worry about crying in the next scene.
Or the death of my child or something.
It’s much lighter fareeven though I’m killing people.
[Laughs] But I get to wear wigs doing it, so it’s fine!
What brings about her return in season 5?
As she comes back, she’s in need of John.
There’s something there that isn’t working anymore, not like it used to.
So that’s the conflict that takes place.
And you realize, in some ways, Alice is the one becoming more humanized.
Lutherreturns June 2 at 8 p.m.
ET on BBC America.
