Wicky, the crime-scene cleaner is back for a new series in The Cleaner, encountering even stranger people and even messier situations. Some jobs involve more than their fair share of blood, sweat and tears. Armed with chemicals, scrubbing brushes and cleaning rags, Wicky cleans up crime scenes. But being a sociable type, he also likes to chat to whoever he encounters there – victims’ relatives, employers, neighbours and occasionally even the murderers themselves.
Created, starring and written by Greg Davies, the third series of The Cleaner is now streaming on BritBox in Australia, and one of the many stars joining the comedically chaotic fray this year is Rebekah Staton. A staple of British television, having starred in such productions as Doctor Who, Wallander, Raised by Wolves and Moving On, Staton brings her unique sensibility to the role of Vivien Mammot this season, a character that’s sure to stand as one of The Cleaner‘s most memorable.
To coincide with the show’s release in Australia, Peter Gray spoke with Staton about her favourite characteristics of a quite deplorable person, if her theatre background has informed any of techniques, and how it felt to improv opposite the show’s creator.
We’ll say that your character, Vivien, is a fiercely composed woman, even with all the chaos that unfolds around her. What did you find was the key to that icy control, but also allow the cracks to show just enough. How do you find to play that?
Yeah, it’s joy. The reason I took the job, aside from the fact that there’s been some incredible cameos over the seasons, and it doesn’t really stop here, I found out that Harry Peacock was involved, and I’d wanted to work with him for a long time. He really is a bit of a master. So, that’s attractive. And then you read (the character) of Vivien and, as you say, what attracted me was that there’s no redeemable quality whatsoever (laughs). I always try to find something to love in my characters, but actually I found that the reason to love (her) is that there’s no love for anyone. There’s social ambition. There’s drive. I think the characteristics could lend themselves to world leadership at this point. I feel like that’s part of the criteria. Once you give yourself permission to not care about any other individual, there’s a whole new world to play in.
I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to a lot of actors who play villainous characters, or people that aren’t always redeemable, and I imagine so much of the appeal of playing those characters are that you get to be nasty, because that’s not who you are in real life…
Yeah, but also, I’m absolutely a feminist, and I think my politics do affect my choices. I did a show years ago called Raised By Wolves, and that was really a perfect match. The character, Della Garry, the matriarch, she was extremely strong. But what I found the parallel here was that sometimes it’s incredibly interesting when you make a female character a misogynist. Because then we start to have different types of conversations. Even in a comic setting. It’s like, (Vivien) would trample her own daughter? The drive for Vivien, for me, was “Why is everybody letting me down?” She doesn’t let herself down. She doesn’t let anyone down. She’s pristine. She’s the best version of herself. If we turned her forces for good, she could make great change.
You almost have to respect the character in that regard. She knows who she is, she knows what she expects. If you can’t rise to her level, that’s on you.
I think she’d be your best friend right about now.
As a gay man, I feel like I gravitate towards strong women anyway, so yeah we can be bitchy to one another and be the best of friends.
Actually, you’ve connected to something. I connected about the part, which is great line and great chat. And I love drag! I want to push it. We definitely did that with the makeup department. Just so fantastic. There was no “no.” We have lashes. We have the hair. We have the orange. When people ask if we went too far, there was never far enough. How orange can I get? Let’s go! It was such a joy.
Was there a particular line or moment of Vivien’s that was the one where you immediately understood her? Or there was something that you fought to get just right? Something that only you could see?
There was no one ever telling me no. In fact, Greg (Davies) actually asked me, at one point, and this could be taken out of context, but just go with me, Peter, he was like, “It’s too good. It’s too real. It’s too frightening.” It was during the scene where I’m having a go at the guy who’s trying to marry my daughter. I asked him what he wanted me to do, and he said, “Oh, can you just make it a bit funny as well?” Because it had gone to that level where he was worried. But the director and the producers were like, “No, no, no, it’s fake. Keep going. Keep going.” So I just made sure that in the edits they had lots of choices.
There’s a line in there, I mean there were so many fantastic lines, but it was like “Pull your tits up”, and that was the kind of misogyny I’m talking about. But it also spotlights how women have been spoken to for decades. That’s what we took. It was all familiar to ne. I did quite a few little improvs to Wicky (Greg Davies’s character), which was lovely, because the script is very good, and I think you do have to be a bit brave if you’re going to make an offer. But what I was thrilled about was that my improvs stayed in. I was particularly excited by that because I’m not a stand up. I’m an actor. I see what my role is, and I need to make it as easy as possible for Greg to find me a bit of a horror. You’ll notice that I like to push him out of the way. He’s a big guy, but I’m a strong girl. I dismiss him. I don’t make eye contact with him. I don’t give him any status whatsoever. I put as many downs in there as possible. It was really good fun.
I was going to ask about that. You’re working opposite Greg Davies, who’s written the script. Is there any kind of pressure in that you’re delivering lines to the very person that wrote them? He might have an idea of how he wants them to be delivered, so is it something you have to actually dismiss?
I think we’re past that. To me, we’re not Rebekah and Greg at that point. We’re in character. I’m bringing Vivien and he’s bringing Wicky, and that’s what we’re in the ring to do. That’s what we’re paid to do. There are moments where he’ll – and I’m going to throw Greg under the bus here – but he did laugh when the show wasn’t on him. Sorry Greg, but he did. Sometimes he did this cute, kind of daddy thing where he looked like a proud pop. He’d mouth the words with me a little bit, which I found incredibly endearing. I have nothing but support from Greg. When he’s done his job, which he had, and the writing was good, you just have to say the lines, Peter. That’s the truth. And in my view, you say them with as much conviction as possible. And a bit of speed. I think the audience quite like know they’re on a bit of a train here.
As much as the situations here are outlandish, you can always see you’re way into it, because we all know someone like Vivien. Working in comedy, you’ve had experience in so many variations of the genre, do you feel your sense of what’s funny has changed over time? Or do you still go with instinct first?
That’s really interesting. I think the truth is, you are funnier if you expose your truth to the maximum. If you put a mask on an audience, you can feel it, you’ll notice sitting on the sofa thinking, “Well, they’re telling me they’re funny. This is a comedy, but I’m not feeling it.” If someone peels it back, and I’m daring to be that bully and dialing it up, and there could be judgement, but I think that’s good comedy. Good comedy comes really close to the truth.
And in finding that truth, coming from your foundations in theatre, has that background shaped how you enter a character in these heightened situations?
You know, the amazing Deborah Frances-White, “The Guilty Feminist”, one of your home girls, she taught me, back in the day at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), the Keith Johnstone method of improv. Those methods are what I carried through (my) work. The technique is “Yes.” You’ll see it with Harry, there’s a scene at the end (of the episode) which involves some cake. You don’t put the brakes on. You don’t say no. In the script, it just says “They fight.” Well, yes, we just did that shit and saw where it went. I think that’s had a major effect on my comedy. Yeah, I went to RADA. Yeah, I trained in Chekov and Shakespeare. But actually doing that improv work meant that I’ve been a good foil for the comedians I’ve worked with.
And if you could put Vivien as a guest star in any British comedy, what do you think? Who would be her greatest foil?
Ooh, I think she would certainly have an excellent nemesis in Julia Davis in Nighty Night. I think those two would go toe to toe.
The Cleaner Series 3 is now streaming on BritBox Australia.
