Carey Mulligan plays Violet Willett in Agatha Christie Marple: The Sittaford Mystery
‘Violet Willett and her mother come to the hotel for a week, under the guise that mother is going birdwatching. Mother is quite a domineering character, so Violet has turned into quite a mousey, ‘hide-behind-the-glasses’ type of girl.
I wanted to do a Marple because it’s something I’ve never really done before. Also there is the obvious benefit of getting to wear these beautiful clothes and the way the final product looks. The script is just stunning because there are so many back stories. Everyone has their own agenda so there are a million and one things going on in every scene. My favorite is when everything is revealed. Everyone has their own secret – and it’s always fun when you get to expose all of that!
Working with this cast has been brilliant, really brilliant. Whenever I tell friends about it the reaction is always, “Wow!” The cast is all perfect for their parts — they are exactly as they should be. I worked with Matthew Kelly on Bleak House, so I knew him already. Patricia Hodge, who plays my mother, is amazing — she’s really helped me because this is a different style of acting than what I’m used to. It’s not always totally realistic and she’s helped me to get into that.
I’m not sure what the lasting appeal of Agatha Christie’s stories is, really. I just know that when I got this part I had so many friends who said. “Brilliant, I’ll definitely be watching!” and then equally I have elderly relatives who will be watching. I think it just appeals to everyone.’