Metro.co.uk: JBF reflects on playing ‘intense’ Izzie Todd in adaptation of Kate Atkinson novel

written by Ana on 20 April 2022

Jessica Brown Findlay has been interviewed by Metro.co.uk for a small snippet of Life After Life which was out last Friday. We will soon bring you HD screencaps to the gallery, so be sure to check later this week:

Jessica Brown Findlay talks about changing the past in BBC2’s Life After Life and coping with the anticipation of the novel’s fans.

Jessica has a habit of playing the most progressive character in a period drama. We know all about her turn as women’s rights campaigner Lady Sybil Crawley in Downton Abbey and now we have a new name to add to the list: Izzie Todd, a free-wheeling, high-living ‘modern spinster’ who has made post-World War I London her playground and damn what anyone else thinks. She also happens to be the aunt to Ursula Todd (Thomasin McKenzie), who has the strange habit of living her life all over again every time she dies.

Life After Life is high-concept sci-fi with a period drama twist – and a fascinating look at what it means to live your best life. But is Ursula’s life a gift or a curse?

‘If you were consciously repeating parts of your life, that would be torture,’ says Brown Findlay, charming company as she pauses to say please and thank you to those who greet her as she arrives on set for a different job. – ‘Part of the joy of it all – and it doesn’t always end happily – is the unknown. A lot of the reasons why we survive the things that come our way is that we’re not warned about it first, you just have to deal with it as you are living. A lot of the weight that Ursula carries is this feeling that she’s been here before.’

Would Brown Findlay change her past if she had the chance?

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