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Few actors have had a career as eclectic as Sheridan Smith, but she’s gearing up for the most radically different role she’s ever played.
The Gavin & Stacey star, 44, is currently preparing for the new ITV drama Two Birds, where she stars as a troubled police officer in Australia.
Smith is already on a strict eating plan and has signed up for a £2,350 bootcamp programme to play Constable Izzie Cronwell, who flees the UK for a new life Down Under after the death of her husband.
At a screening for her surprisingly charming new thriller The Cage attended by Metro, Smith spoke about the biggest gamble of her career, pointing to her next ambitious project, which is filming in the Outback.
‘I’m not very good at gambling, but the job I’m doing next is the most different to me,’ she said.
‘I’ve got to do gun training, combat training, and learn to ride a motorbike, which I’ve fallen off twice already, in Australia. That might be a gamble.’
But it will never be a bigger gamble than that of her character in The Cage, Leanne – a desperate single mum who sees an opportunity to swipe piles of cash from the casino she works at to support her kids and her grandma, who is deteriorating with dementia.
Leanne discovers she’s not the only staff member sneakily squeezing the casino for all it’s worth.
This is England’s Michael Socha stars as Matty, who is in an equally precarious financial situation. When his debts pile up, he finds himself unwillingly having to shift a stack of cocaine to make ends meet – which quickly turns into disaster.
Written by Tony Schumacher, the Liverpudlian talent behind the Bafta-winning police drama The Responder, The Cage is a fast-paced thriller packed with adrenaline and drama.
Comparisons to Netflix’s drug heist series Ozark are inevitable and flattering, but if anything, The Cage has much more heart.
‘The tone of the show was something we thought about a lot, actually,’ said Michael. ‘The main thing that comes through with Tony’s writing is the heart and the warmth. We didn’t want to make it gritty, we didn’t want to make it dark, we wanted to make it warm.
‘There are two sides to Tony’s writing that are both amazing. One is the realism; you believe in the characters, you believe in the world, but then at the same time, he’s able to heighten that reality into something a little bit more escapist.’
Sheridan agreed: ‘What Tony does amazingly is that he just writes amazing characters. On the page, straight away they’re flawed, they’re complicated, they’re funny, but there’s sad moments too.
‘Tony’s writing is fun to play as an actor because that’s what life is, we’re all – especially me – flawed. He’s just a genius [to be able to] do the heavy stuff and then make it funny, and pull the rug from [under] the viewer.’
The Cage launches Sunday at 9pm on BBC One.
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