The sun is shining in Berlin as I catch up with actress Madeleine Martin to discuss her new series Jana: Marked For Life which has started to air on BBC Four and is also available on BBC iPlayer.
I first discovered Madeleine when I watched the thrilling Breaking Surface, which saw the actress star alongside Moa Gammel as a pair of sisters who go diving when one of them gets stuck under a rock with her oxygen running out. If you haven’t seen it then we strongly recommend it.
Jana: Marked For Life brings these two actresses together once more, but this time, instead of playing nice, they get to be rivals in this series which the actress describes as a lot of fun.
“Yeah, I mean, Moa is one of the best actors in Sweden and I have watched her work since I was a kid. We became super close during the filming of Breaking Surface.”
The pair became close during the filming: “There were a few scenes where they had to share the oxygen and we did that ourselves. So we became really close after that.”
The series is an adaptation of an Emelie Schepp novel, which sees Madeleine’s character get embroiled in a murder mystery that starts to unravel her past.
“I had heard her name and knew about her, but I hadn’t read any of the books. Then, the night before my casting I read the first book. Straight away I found these things about the character,” the actress explains. “Then I was like, okay, I have to get this part.”
As Madeliene now knew how the main character dressed she made sure she wore a similar outfit for the casting; “It was super warm that day in Stockholm and I was sweating my ass off in this suit!”
Fortunately, bearing the heat in her outfit was something that worked out well for her, as she got cast in the lead role. Now with her role secured, was there ever a concern over the pressure she might face playing the character?
“I picked up how she dressed and how she spoke, then the things like the hair and her make-up. It was exciting meeting all the make-up and wardrobe department because they had the same notes as me – things like the red nails for example.”
That was enough for Madeleine to feel like she was on the right track, but then she did want to bring something of her own flavour and agenda to the character.
“One thing we did very early on was to discuss taking out so much of the dialogue; there was so much talking in the book – which is to be expected – yet she is supposed to be mysterious and we don’t know what she is capable of.”
The role required a lot of physicality as we see a side to Jana that perhaps we weren’t expecting. This was not so new to Madeleine as one of her previous roles was in Lea, still to be aired in the UK, where she plays a boxer: “It was a very different kind of fighting. Leah was a boxer in the old traditional boxing sense and Jana does Ju-Jitsu.”
“There is the strangling, how you stand in position, and there is no striking, so that was different. I think I gained some confidence from doing so much on Lea that I could work closely with the photographers because I already knew how they wanted to shoot things and then I became technically more secure and more confident from the fighting.”
The actress goes on to explain how much she loves doing stunts but she is also super clumsy.
“It is surreal that when the cameras are on I can manage, but it was a lot of fun.”
Jana is quite a force of nature and what makes her even more interesting is when you begin to ask yourself whether she is a good person (especially after she beats up an elderly lady). Then there was a very intense fight sequence she had to master.
The series will be something many Nordic Noir fans will enjoy and we are certainly excited.
“I am so happy to see this series get a wider release – it’s in the UK now, Australia, and I believe it is coming to the USA too.”
Before I let the actress go and enjoy the sunshine, I’m interested to know what she has been watching.
“Well, Baby Reindeer right? Like what the hell?! It is so well written and beautifully put together. Then there is this British series called Such Brave Girls – you should really watch it, it is a super funky, fun British dark comedy.”
What about anything from the Nordic countries?
“Oh many – Sick of Myself; that film was so gross I loved it!”
A fantastic choice and also a great plug for the fact we are doing a Nordic Watchlist Virtual Film Club on that film later in the month!
And finally, what is up next for the actress? Our lips are sealed but the brief description we get from the actress has piqued our interest.
“When I finished Jana, I went home, I cried a little bit, and then I went on to do a super twisted Swedish Danish comedy afterwards. I play like a jock in this office and my first scene will remind you of that locker room scene in Crazy Stupid Love with Ryan Gosling – which should give you a bit of an idea of the character I play, only time this roles reversed.”
Jana:Marked For Life is out now on BBC iPlayer and being released weekly on BBC Four.
