Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott takes center stage in Knightfall as Ros, a woman who finds herself thrust into a brutal world of violence, danger and deadly betrayal. Not a trained field agent, Ros is suddenly forced into action and must find the courage and determination to survive.
Jeanine stopped by to chat with us about Knightfall.
Today we’re talking about your new film Knightfall where you play Ros; what was it that was different from other characters you’ve played before?
I think that it’s my biggest role to date, so when I read it, I was quite shocked, that I was in it from the beginning to the end, and the heroine of it. I thought there would be a little bit of a twist for me going on, and there wasn’t. It just propelled and went deeper and deeper into my journey, which was a real honour actually when I read it, and to have the scenes that I had with Ian Ogilvy was, for me, was amazing. I’ve done a film with him before; we had a few lines together, nothing major, just coming into a scene at the end of a film, and I’ve always wanted to have a really good role with him, and it really was that part for me. I mean, you’ve seen the film, did you like it first?
I did, I was saying to Jonathan, I think it’s arguably Shogun’s best film.
Great, it has that nostalgic feel as well, old-fashioned, it was really great, and for me, I got to sort of present me more doing action, because I love that, I love the action side of it, so I got to do more fighting in it, which was what I’ve always been wanting to do, so I was thrilled with the role.
Did you have to do any kind of training for the fighting and firearms in the movie?
Not so much. I’ve done firearms training, of course, because I’ve done lots of films with guns, but I’ve also done karate for years, so my martial arts background was something I was dying to show.
I mean, not that I could really show it, because obviously I do get beaten up quite a lot! I’m playing an MI5 agent—I’m a weapons agent, actually—so I have done my basic training with MI5, but I’m not meant to be a skilled martial artist throwing out all these high-flying kicks and everything.
So this was more about grabbing something to protect myself and trying to act in the moment. Hopefully, it showed that I wasn’t just winning all the fights all the time. I just got lucky, really.
Yeah, she’s thrust from a technical MI5 role into a field operation, so there’s the fish out water kind of thing. What did you find most interesting about her journey throughout the film?
Well, I think that she was really integral to that operation, because she was there to initiate the weapons, the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, she knows all about it, she has to know, and really, if it wasn’t for her, it would have really been a failed mission, because they would have just taken it without a key, and they wouldn’t have known the importance of this. So, I know what I’m trying to do, but I wasn’t really expecting what was going to happen, and how everything occurred, and obviously, I don’t want to give too much away to the people who are going to be reading it, but with Hugh coming into it, that was a big shock for me, seeing him at that. The first meeting was all very much a secret operation that was really secret, because it involved my private life as well.
Speaking of your private life, so with Hugh, you have the key scenes with Geoffrey Moore, how would you describe the chemistry between your characters, and what was it like working with him?
Well, I’ve known Geoffrey for years, so he’s a friend, the Moores are a friend, like family friends. I did a film in 2020 with his daughter, actually, playing my daughter in Nemesis, so I’ve sort of worked with Deborah Moore before, and Geoffrey’s great. I mean, look, the chemistry, he doesn’t need it, he just oozes star quality, doesn’t he?
He’s a Moore.
He is, yeah, he just can’t help it, it’s in his blood; he looks like a movie star, he acts like a movie star, he doesn’t even need to open his mouth. He just does everything with a look, so he was fantastic. I thought the chemistry was good, I mean, look, the way it was written, it wasn’t written with as much chemistry as it could have had, but I don’t think that was any of our fault. We added in the two kisses, they weren’t even in the script; there was a point where I grabbed his face and I kissed him at one point when we’re going into the house, that wasn’t scripted, as you can tell by the shock horror of his face, probably (laughs) hopefully he won’t #Metoo me, but no, I’m joking. Then also the one where I’m running from the safe house and I go to him, that was an unscripted kiss as well from him, so we were trying to make it a little bit more, like girlfriend and boyfriend, because it really wasn’t written like that, but we thought it did lend itself to a little bit more passion in there.
You have that great scene with Michael Paré; can you talk about putting that together and just working with him?
Yeah, I mean, that was an awesome; we were both working on another film together, so we created that fight scene in about a 40 minute break that we had on this other movie, so we kind of did it and then thought yeah, we’ll do that. We were shooting it the next night after, in the middle of this movie that we were shooting, so we didn’t really have any breaks. We came straight from a horror set, straight onto this scene where we practiced in the men’s toilets in the rain, in the middle of a marina, which was quite not the glamorous thing that you’d think (laughs). But we did it really well; he fights, he does that in his movies, he’s fantastic, he’s just such a natural actor, and my karate background, I think we nailed it with the moves and stuff, and obviously I’m not meant to be a good fighter in it. I’m only five foot four and all the guys I’m working with, Geoffrey Moore, Michael Paré, the stunt guy who I do my first fight scene with, he’s six foot four, they’re all well over six foot, I mean, probably six three. So, they’re all these big, big guys and once they’ve got the heels on, like the big boots and everything, they go cranking up, they’re cranking themselves up, I’m in little trainers, little plimsoles the whole way through. So I kind of get shorter, they get taller, and so I’m really lifting my arms up at some points, and things are really over my head, and I think it does look like I’m really struggling, because I am. I’m just trying to keep up with them was enough.
I think you should though, a fight scene should look desperate, and it was, and that comes off on screen, because if it looks like you’re dancing and it looks overly choreographed, then it takes the realism out of it. When I was speaking to Geoffrey about this last week, he said he liked that it was a more gritty, grounded approach. It’s not all vodka martinis and fancy cars. This has a more down and dirty aspect; did that appeal to you about it?
Yeah, I mean, it really does, because the thing is, look, if a guy who’s, even if they’re the same height as me, they’re going to win in a fight, men are stronger than women. I know we try to think that we’re really, really strong, and look, I’ve fought Kumite, and I’ve done all of that stuff, but if I was fighting against a man, I think I’d lose, of course I would lose. It doesn’t matter how skilled I am, and I think, fighting against my own, I stand a good chance, but against a man, you’re just not going to win. I think women, you just have to grab whatever we can see, we grab, and we take the opportunity, so, grabbing the knives, grabbing anything that you could find in desperation. Yes, we will pick up something and smash it over someone’s head, and, I think, yes, it’s very natural to do that, and I was glad that it was written like that. I didn’t want to start making it so stylized, and unrealistic like that, because the whole movie kind of isn’t. It is a grab-and-run type movie, isn’t it?
Yeah, also, to be fair, I probably would get beaten up by girls (laughs). If Knightfall were to become a franchise, would you be interested in returning to the character of Ros?
Oh my God, yes, of course I would, I love Ros, I mean, look, who wouldn’t want a dad like Ian Ogilvy, oh my God, he’s just, I mean, it was almost a shock when he was my dad, because I thought he would be my love interest. I mean, I’m 55, I know he’s like 80, but, I mean, when I played Billy Murray’s wife in Nemesis, he was, I think, 78, and I was 46 at the time, so, it really doesn’t matter when it’s that way around, does it? I was sort of shocked, like, oh my God, my dad, really? he’s going to play my dad, oh my God because he’s another one oozing this quality where the screen loves him, and he’s brilliant, isn’t he? He’s so good, he does all of our stunts in the movie, so when he’s 80 and he’s rolling around the floor and being tied up on a chair and that type of stuff, he’s just great, but then he’s huffing and puffing. When he looks under the bed for the crossbow and stuff, he really is huffing and puffing, because he was knackered, bless him (laughs). He’s 80, but he does look great.
Oh, he does, he’s brilliant, he’s still got that amazing voice, just smooth as silk, he could just narrate my life (laughs).
He seems to get better every year, doesn’t he?
I know, he does. Final question then, how would you like the film to resonate with audiences?
Well, I want people to think that it’s an old-fashioned movie that you can watch on a Sunday afternoon when it’s rainy or just curl up with, even with your teenage kids or anybody. There’s nothing in it that’s that bad anymore, there’s worse things, there’s not so much, bad swearing or anything. I think the swearing is where it’s meant to be, not just willy-nilly thrown around, so I think it’s a really nice family movie that’s kind of gentle for the time. It’s a nostalgia overload; it just reminds me of all those movies that I love, Commando and that working together and the goodie wins at the end. It’s kind of a nice feeling at the end as well. That ending is so lovely, it really made me cry actually, even when I watched it back, I was so emotional when I watched it. I just remember how we felt, we make these movies quick, they’re like 10 days, so you get really into it. It’s all happening and when I was sitting on the steps with Ian, it was really, really emotive, because I thought, he’s thinking that I don’t want to see him for another seven years, because, I hadn’t seen him for seven years after my mother had passed away. In my mind, I had thought that, I mean, I am going to see you next weekend. I have plans now and I just thought it was so sweet, really sweet and in this day and age where everything’s so much more violent and everything.
And cynical, yeah…
It is, it’s quite gentle, isn’t it? So I quite like that fact.
Yeah, it’s nice, because there’s very rarely sincerity anymore in modern movies, it’s all that Deadpool type humour, where there’s like a quip rather than a heartfelt moment. I like that this just felt like real people.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, and when I put myself to think that I was kind of really thinking about the last scene and how we would play it. We were told, first of all, to play it a bit more jokey and stuff, and then I just thought, no, I’m just going to kind of just bow my head and let it just be almost that big sigh of why we did it, but I don’t think I was that elated at that point until I came back down the stairs to go. I think I just wanted that difference in because obviously we were still waiting, Julian was in the hospital, got the call, he’s okay, so it was the way we played it I thought was really, really touching in the end, and I’m so glad we ended it like that. They actually cut the end end, which was a shame because I love driving and I love cars. I was driving my own BMW—a really old 3 Series hardtop convertible, about 18 years old—and at the end I did a great big wheel spin to drive off. I was thinking, “Oh, I did it! Excellent!” and they were like, “Right, okay.” Then, when I saw the finished film, I realized they’d cut it. I just thought, “Oh… that’s a shame.”
You need to do a director’s cut then just to put that back in it (laughs).
(laughs) Oh definitely.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat, it’s been great to finally speak with you.
Thank you, yes, after all these years.
Yes, indeed, yeah, and we’ll chat here again for the next project.
Please do, please do. All right, thanks so much.