“The story ha endured this long because it works, and the characters work,” said Steven Knight, writer and executive producer of the new six-part series adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, a coproduction between FX and BBC. The story has been a part of pop culture for over 150 years, and through the new series, Steven highlights how the human condition has stayed very much the same in the intervening years. “When Dickens was writing, he wasn't able to write about certain things because you just couldn't write about those things at the time. They were considered to be not territory for fiction. And I wonder what Dickens would do if he had the liberty to write about the realities of what London was really like. I mean, he alludes to it in all of his novels, but he can never actually go all the way into those dark places. So that's what I tried to do. And also, I'm attracted to the way Dickens writes because it's episodic and it's meant to be episodic. And if he were around at the moment, I'm sure he'd be writing movies and streaming television because he has this rhythm to the work where there are these cliff hangers and things keep happening. And then you have to follow it on. And he does it so beautifully.”
(Pari Dukovic/FX)
The saga is centered around Pip, an orphan who from humble beginnings who is offered the chance to become a gentleman, getting caught in a complicated web. “The thing that resonated for me with Pip was this thing of being a young man, being 18, and feeling like you need to do everything on your own,” actor Fionn Whitehead shared about how he connected with the character. “You have to sort of forge this path and not ask for help, and not need help. And kind of repress a lot of stuff, a lot of emotions and everything else, and just power on and keep going. That it's a form of weakness to not be able to do that, I think that is a universally relatable thing for a lot of young men.” With so many screen adaptations of Great Expectations, Fionn made a choice that would help his portrayal stand out. “One thing I was quite keen on just trying to make sure that his background came through throughout the whole piece rather than it dropping the minute that he gets to London, which I think is an easy thing to do, to sort of switch from one place to another. But for me, it felt more important to have the sort of refined gentleman speak and that way of behaving to be more of an act that he is putting on when he's in London. And almost trying to convince himself that he is, and actually that he can't really change who he is.”
(Pari Dukovic/FX)
Actress Shalom Brune-Franklin was first introduced to the Dickens text and the character of Estella when she was in school, never imagining that she would one day step into the role of Pip’s greatest crush. “There were clues in the script to me to show that she was somebody who was really hurting inside,” Shalom said of the character, who was raised to be cruel to men by Miss Havisham, her adopted mother and Pip’s gateway to jumping classes. “She was somebody who was incredibly confused, had been led down a very specific path, and wanted to escape from that. I come back to the fact that when you're raised a certain way, you always revert back to those things that you've been taught how to behave in order to navigate your way through situations. And so I think Miss Havisham has taught her that the colder you are and the less vulnerable you are, you'll always have the upper hand in life. I think that's how she goes through the world. But, at the same time, it's those moments when nobody else is around, how she allows herself to feel exactly how she's feeling inside, which is just very, very confused.”
(Pari Dukovic/FX)
Playing the source of all that confusion is Olivia Colman in the coveted role of Miss Havisham, although she needed some convincing to take the part. “I was terrified 'cause when my mate Gillian [Anderson] had played it… when someone compares you to your friend… it's scary,” Olivia shared, praising Gillian Anderson’s performance in a 2011 adaptation for BBC and PBS Masterpiece. One of Dickens’ most famous literary characters, Miss Havisham is beloved for her goals of inflicting cruelty to all men as a result of her own experience being stood up at the alter, eternally wearing her tattered wedding dress. And speaking of dress, Olivia’s portrayal was aided by costume designer Verity Hawkes and hair and makeup designer Niamh Morrison. “I've always said good hair, makeup and costume, that's three quarters of your job already done before you leave the van. But Verity, she was my big help because she said ‘I don't see her as dusty, I see her as rotting from the inside.’ And so I thought ‘Oh my god, that's it. That's great.’ So the costume, it's a shame you never get to see it really clearly in broad daylight, but it literally looks like mold is growing up it and you can see her heart is rotting, and I love that. Rather than dusty, she was dark and rotten. From Verity, that's where I got my main character.”
(Pari Dukovic/FX)
“What Jaggers does is represent London,” Ashley Thomas said of his character, a lawyer and businessman who acts as Pip’s guide to the seedy underbelly of the upper class. “Jaggers is London personified in this version of the story… Ultimately he's human, right? So he cares and he's had his own journey as well. In the same way that London and big cities can be these cold places that people go to to search and seek their dreams, you can still in these big cities meet people with kind hearts that love. And there are moments of beauty and people who care. So I think Jaggers has that cold exterior, but if you search, he has those moments.”
Whether you’re coming to this new adaptation with prior knowledge of the story, or are experiencing it for the first time, Steven Knight does offer a few surprises in his interpretation of the material. “When you're writing an adaptation you have to walk a tightrope, and I think I've walked that tightrope in a way that does justice to the spirit of the story while at the same time reflecting perhaps the way things have changed since then,” he hinted. But to find out what’s been changed, you’ll have to tune in.
FX’s Great Expectations premieres Sunday, March 26th, exclusively on Hulu with a double-episode premiere, followed by weekly releases.