{"id":28110,"date":"2021-07-01T21:29:31","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T21:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=28110"},"modified":"2021-07-01T21:29:31","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T21:29:31","slug":"cush-jumbo-beast-must-die","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/cush-jumbo-beast-must-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Cush Jumbo On Revenge Thriller \u2018The Beast Must Die\u2019 and Leaving \u2018The Good Fight\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cush
Cush Jumbo in The Beast Must Die<\/i> (Photo: Gareth Gatrell\/AMC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cush Jumbo is ready to get uncomfortable. No, we don\u2019t mean putting on \u201chard pants<\/a>\u201d again after a year of working from home<\/a>. The 35-year-old English actor is leaving behind her best known role\u2014to US audiences anyway\u2014as Luca Quinn on Paramount+\u2019s The Good Fight<\/em>, to pursue projects that will challenge her in the UK.<\/p>\n

One of those projects is The Beast Must Die<\/em>, which premieres stateside on AMC+<\/a> July 5, before airing on AMC beginning July 12. In the grim, suspenseful drama (based on a 1939 novel by none other than Daniel Day-Lewis\u2019s father), Jumbo plays Frances, a mother whose young son was killed in a hit-and-run on the Isle of Wight. When the local police fail to find the driver responsible for her son\u2019s death, Frances sets out to find him herself. Her quest for revenge leads her to the wealthy, dysfunctional Rattery family\u2014and their domineering patriarch George (Jared Harris).<\/p>\n

Ahead of the series premiere, Jumbo got on Zoom with GRAZIA from her home in London where she\u2019d just recently wrapped her final scenes for The Good Fight<\/em>. We chatted about Frances\u2019s desperation, learning to sail and, of course, Luca Quinn.<\/p>\n

Was there a moment when you felt most in tune Frances? When you really felt most connected to who she is? <\/strong>
\nWhat I was always hanging onto with Frances was this idea of her being a teacher. Before you get into the epic mess of, like, revenge!<\/em> She\u2014actually quite in common with George\u2014is very good at reading people, because she\u2019s a very good teacher. She\u2019s good at looking around a room and working out how she needs to interact with each child, and how she can help one advance or pull one back. And I guess adults are just grown-up kids. Also, because of that, she always had this strong moral sense. So, even when she was manipulating people, I wasn\u2019t ever coming from a point of thinking, Frances is manipulative. <\/em>It was always: Frances is struggling with the right thing to do. <\/em>Because deep inside her, she knows everything she\u2019s doing is wrong.<\/p>\n

Also, I did a month\u2019s sailing tutoring, because I had to sail that yacht kind of by myself for a lot of takes and not kill any of the other actors. And I weirdly wasn\u2019t expecting to find so much of her within those lessons and learning about sailing. But it tells you a lot about a person that enjoys that. They enjoy being outdoors and somehow being able to use what they\u2019re feeling from the wind and what they\u2019re feeling from the sea to operate this [boat]. Someone that\u2019s quite in contact with their feelings and what\u2019s around them. So, weirdly, I finished those lessons, I started filming and I felt like, Ah, I think I know who this is<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I think the first image we see of Frances, she\u2019s addressing the audience and telling us she\u2019s going to kill someone. In that moment, I think we\u2019re certain she means it. But as the series goes on, I wonder, are we supposed to question whether she can really go through with it? <\/strong>
\nSo, one of the things I really loved about [series creator Gaby Chiappe\u2019s] script, is that [Frances] was a very ordinary person put in an awful situation, but had nothing to lose, because she\u2019d lost her husband and she didn\u2019t have many close friends. And so, that frame of mind and that grief was driving her to do extraordinary things. I really hate watching stuff where very normal people suddenly are, like, really good <\/em>at stabbing other people! I liked that it was like the tide: I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. Oh, no, I\u2019m losing it. I\u2019m losing it. I can\u2019t do this. Why am I here? No, I\u2019m angry! I can do it!<\/em> And maybe through her eyes that would be exciting because you actually don\u2019t know if she\u2019s gonna be able to do it. Is she gonna break before she gets there? Does she even have the right person? Is she going off on a tangent that\u2019s not gonna make her feel any better? So, I think it\u2019s good if you\u2019re not sure if she can pull it off.<\/p>\n

What does she think killing the person responsible for her son\u2019s death will do for her? Does she expect it to bring her peace? Satisfaction? <\/strong>
\nShe\u2019s a person who has always followed process as a teacher. She\u2019s never had any interaction with the police before in a serious way. And this one interaction that she has with the justice system changes something in her that\u2019s about: you do everything right and you get f**ked anyway. And something breaks in her mind. Something changes. She has this well of overwhelming grief that she\u2019s already been living with. She\u2019s hanging on to the fact that the process of the investigation and the answers are gonna release her from that. And then she\u2019s told that nothing\u2019s going to happen. I think in that frame of mind, all she is zoned in on is getting to the end goal. I don\u2019t think she knows how she\u2019s gonna do it, if she\u2019ll be able to do it, if she\u2019ll find the right person. But it\u2019s the only thing getting her out of bed in the morning. I think she thinks she\u2019ll be released. The question is: Does revenge release you? Does revenge get you justice? Does it feel as good as you think it\u2019s gonna feel? Or, ultimately, are you just trapping yourself in another box?<\/p>\n

\"Cush
Cush Jumbo and Jared Harris in The Beast Must Die<\/i> (Photo: Gareth Gatrell\/AMC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In her quest for revenge, Frances becomes enmeshed with this wealthy white family, who she believes are connected with her son\u2019s death. How clearly does she see these people? She\u2019s an outsider, but she\u2019s also kind of single-minded, and maybe her perspective is clouded by her grief. <\/strong>
\nShe says particularly of George that she sees him clearly. But yes, of course, the whole family. You mentioned that they\u2019re a wealthy white family. Gabby changed the original character from a man to a woman, but I know that she hadn\u2019t thought through what I looked like. There are a lot of things that Joy, George\u2019s sister played by Geraldine James, says that could as easily niggle any teacher from a working-class background. Here in the UK, we still have quite a strong class system. But they niggle in an even more awful and interesting way when you say them to somebody of color who\u2019s working class. I think with George in particular, when [Frances] says that, about him and about the family\u2026 What George does is poisoning his son and poisoning his sister-in-law, and has poisoned his wife. But on the surface, George is very charming and that\u2019s why he\u2019s successful. But Frances is the sort of person who\u2014she can work these things out straight away. And that\u2019s why I think George eventually becomes one of the only people that\u2019s able to see through Frances<\/em>. Because they\u2019re similar. He can see her too.<\/p>\n

She begins to help them in some ways, and I found myself wondering: Is she good for these people? I mean, she\u2019s not like Mary Poppins coming in to fix their lives, but you know, whatever her motives, is she in some ways helping Lena and Phil?<\/strong>
\nI think that\u2019s some of the beauty of the story, right? And one of the things that makes her an interesting character to play. Watching somebody with no empathy\u2019s not interesting. I think that\u2019s what makes it difficult for [Frances]. Her relationship with Lena is not fake. It\u2019s a way into the family, but when they have fun together, they really have fun together. And when [Frances] says that [Lena] can do better in life, she really means it. And when she teaches Phil something, it\u2019s not bullsh*t. The tragedy of it is that in another time, another place, her and Lena might have been friends and she might have been Phil\u2019s summer tutor.<\/p>\n

Something that I\u2019ve been really interested in talking to actors about recently is how they approach projects that depict police work and policing. Obviously, here in the US we\u2019re having a long overdue debate<\/a> about policing<\/a>, and it has filtered into how TV shows and films depict policing<\/a> and how that shapes the public\u2019s perception of cops. Of course, The Beast Must Die<\/em> is about a lot of things, but it also depicts police work. So, I wanted to ask, if you don\u2019t mind sharing, whether you as an actor and as a Black woman think about these kinds of project differently now. Are there certain criteria that a project about policing has to meet in order for you to sign on? <\/strong>
\nI moved into a different phase of being able to choose my work more carefully a few years ago, and my criteria for those pieces of work kind of encompassed quite a lot of things. But I don\u2019t think it ever changed from thinking about how my character in particular would be viewed by a little girl like me. I watched so much television growing up and it is impactful on you. For The Beast Must Die<\/em> in particular, it\u2019s very interesting and I hope it can translate to the US, because with the police force that they\u2019re describing\u2014by the way, the police force on the Isle of Wight are lovely. But what it\u2019s really depicting is this small-town idea of kind of letting things go, \u2019cause everyone knows everyone, everyone\u2019s in everyone\u2019s pockets. A kind of corruption that\u2019s more on the small-town level, which means that things kind of stagnate. I think that\u2019s something that people in the UK can identify with in many cities. And it\u2019s something that we are currently looking at ourselves in the same way that the US is looking at race.<\/p>\n

In this story, you can feel your mind flicking at the beginning. Like, Why are the police being corrupt? Is it to do with what she looks like? Is it to do with the fact that she\u2019s not loaded? Why are they not interested in this case? <\/em>As time goes on you realize that that might be a subconscious element, but that\u2019s not really what it\u2019s about. It\u2019s about everybody being in everybody\u2019s pocket.<\/p>\n

\"Cush
Cush Jumbo in The Good Fight<\/i> (Photo: Patrick Harbron\/CBS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gaby Chiappe is developing a follow-up series focused on Billy Howle\u2019s character Nigel Strangeways. Do you expect Frances to return? <\/strong>
\nI would say that\u2019s unlikely.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to just quickly talk about The Good Fight<\/em>. I love Luca Quinn so much. Tell me about your decision to leave the show\u2014I\u2019m literally devastated. <\/strong>
\nI\u2019m really sorry. I\u2019ve been fielding letters and DMs about this. Apparently, I\u2019ve broken a lot of people\u2019s hearts\u2014more than I did when I was single, which is a bit disappointing. Yes, I absolutely loved that show, and it was a huge learning curve for me. I spent five years living in New York. But I just felt like Luca had done everything that she could do and the only thing holding me there was that I loved the crew and I loved the creative team. But that is not enough to keep you creatively satisfied. And so, it was just time to move on. I missed the UK. I missed being onstage. And I\u2019ve never played a character for that long. So, sometimes you have to be brave and take a leap to push yourself further to get better. Because I want to get better and I want to learn more and I wanna be doing this when I\u2019m, like, 105. So, you can\u2019t just stay comfortable. 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