"When I read the scripts I really liked them; they were incredibly humorous and funny and witty and very daring. It was a really pleasant surprise to read something that was quite risky," the actor reveals during a break from rehearsalsNan, the film�s feisty heroine (played by Rachael Stirling), first encounters Florence while working the streets as a rent boy, following her betrayal by Kitty and Walter. Nan keeps her forays into the Victorian sexual underworld secret from her respectable neighbour but, though she detects something mysterious about Florence � a sense of deep feelings being held in check � she believes that she has sunk too low to be her friend. They do not meet again until Nan, ejected from Diana�s home, tracks Florence down, desperate for help. "Florence is quite independent and spirited and there�s a certain depth to her that�s very intriguing," says May. "Out of the three characters, she�s probably the most apparently straight, so it�s quite interesting the way she�s seduced by Nan."
"Unless you want to do stuff that�s going to send you to sleep as an actor, then you have to be prepared to do things that are challenging, basically," she laughs. "To be perfectly honest, at the end of the day, doing a love scene is not the most terrifying thing that an actor has to do � I can think of much more terrifying things! You just have to get on with it."The scenes between Florence and Nan are more of an emotional journey. It�s not about how weird their sexual relationship is, which is what it�s about with Diana, who is obviously quite bizarre! Whereas with Florence and Nan it�s much more of a straightforward love story." "What makes it unusual is that it�s about a subculture and people who are on the margins of society. It�s not conventional in any way and the women�s aspirations and lives aren�t conventional in any way. Their characters are refreshingly different; they don�t conform to any �costume drama� types. And the territory is very different and quite original," she smiles. |