Killing Eves Fiona Shaw Is Devilishly Good at Playing God
As Emmy nominations approach, Vanity Fairs HWD team is diving deep into how some of this seasons gre..
As Emmy nominations approach, Vanity Fairs HWD team is diving deep into how some of this seasons greatest scenes and characters came together. You can read more of these close looks here.
Carolyn Martens, Killing Eve
Carolyn is a role model: whip-smart, powerful, immaculately dressed, and, on occasion, blisteringly funny. As the head of MI6s Russia desk in the Phoebe Waller-Bridge created Killing Eve, Carolyn (played brilliantly by Fiona Shaw) tends to be several steps ahead of everyone else—including special agent Eve (Sandra Oh), who slowly realizes that Carolyn tends to give her just a spoonful of truth at a time. Plot twists on this show often hinge on the characters sneaky revelations; Carolyn tends to run a variety of simultaneous strategic plots, manipulating her employees as she sees fit in order to achieve some sort of greater good.
“There may be four other Killing Eves going on whenever she leaves the scene,” Shaw said of her character in a recent interview. “Shes not preoccupied with that plot only. Shes got other things shes got to do…. Shes like a Greek god: both very powerful, and entirely volatile.”
How Carolyn Came to Life
Carolyn would have sounded a lot different if Shaw had had her way. When the venerated theater actor and County Cork native first received a script for the show, she thought it might be nice to make her character Irish as well.
“There was that moment where you could flesh [the character] in any direction,” Shaw said. “And the wonderful Harry Bradbeer, the director, said, Absolutely not.”
Instead, the role was modeled after a very specific strain of academic—an elitist who studied at either Cambridge or Oxford. (Shaw herself is classically trained, having studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.) Carolyn could have no eccentricities or quirks—she is deeply matter-of-fact and, because of her high rank at an incredibly dangerous job, always keeps things close to the chest. As Shaw began molding the character, she quickly learned that Carolyn “is nearly always withholding something,” a key detail that changed her approach—prompting her performance to be quieter, and more careful.
“Withholding is actually where I spend a lot of the energy,” she said. “With Carolyn, Ive discovered that maybe its not whats on the page that matters, but what isnt.”
In order to more realistically play an MI6 leader, Shaw observed how real employees dress at the secret intelligence service, realizing that the higher up someone was, the more ordinary they looked. On Killing Eve, though, the wardrobe is often treated like a secondary character. While the assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) is the best and most sensationally dressed character, Carolyn is a close second, often donning sleek, expensive-looking coats and silky blouses. Before she even says anything, it is clear that this woman lives a life full of inaccessible luxury.
So, why does Carolyn go against the MI6 grain in this way? Well, as the show goes on, it becomes clear that Carolyn has other sources of revenue beyond the intelligence agency, which impacts how she dresses. Beyond aesthetics, the wardrobe also connotes certain things about how she moves through the world. Shaw, for example, made the decision for Carolyn to stop carrying handbags, because she wants the character to literally be unencumbered. “She doesnt carry any great detail; its all in her head,” Shaw said. “She doesnt carry huge files.”
Because of her matter-of-fact nature, Carolyn also happens to be the shows best source of deadpan humor. Shes wry and quick, delivering bizarre one-liners (“I once saw a rat drink from a can of Coke…both hands”) with ease. In the season two premiere, Eve comes to meet Carolyn near a playground, only to find her boss sitting and chatting amiably with a little boy named Oliver. When the little boy is later whisked away by an older man, Eve freaks out.
“Its probably his father, Eve,” Carolyn says, nonplussed. Eve is surprised: “Isnt he with you?” she asks. “Ive never seen him before in my life,“ Carolyn responds. Its a perfect Carolyn moment—impassive and blunt, but also incredibly funny.
For Shaw, Carolyns comedic moments are just another chance to plumb the characters psyche. “You never get to know—you the viewer—whether I know its funny or whether I dont know its funny,” she said. “Thats whats exciting. Does Carolyn know shes funny, or does she not?”
Since the shows debut, Shaw—who recently won a best-supporting actress BAFTA for her performance—has found that people stop her on the street quite often to discuss her inscrutable character, as well as the endless mystery that fuels the shows plot.
“God, the world comes up to me about Carolyn. Im amazed!” she said. “People stop bicycles and stop cars to talk to me about Carolyn. People are very intrigued…theres something about Killing Eve overall that has got the scent of peoples hunting sense going, hasnt it? Because people are hunting the solution all the time.”
