Alexandra Roach has said that filming a role in the new Black Mirror was one of the most challenging jobs of her career and like going to an “acting gym”.
The Welsh actress, 30, appears in forthcoming episode of Charlie Brooker’s award-winning Netflix drama, Black Museum, in which she plays a woman trapped in a coma.
“It was the most challenging part I’ve ever done because of the journey she goes on. Usually it takes six episodes to find a character and I really only had half an hour to pack it in,” she told the Standard.
“It was like going to an acting gym – I’d go through so many emotions in one day.”
Despite only being on screen for less than an hour, Roach said that she had to find something personal and relatable in her character, in order for her to tap into the wide range of emotions.
“Some roles really speak to me as a person. I had to make it personal,” she said. “I held her quite close, I was precious over her. I can see where she was coming from and that was an advantage.”
“I love pressure… I’m weird like that. Because it was only me in a lot of scenes I had to really take my imagination and make it talk to me and my life. I had to go method, and it can be scary.”
Christmas TV highlights 2017 - In pictures
There has been a lot of secrecy around the fourth series of satirical sci-fi series, with plot lines and even full casting kept under wraps.
“I was a big fan of the show when it first aired; it’s the one show I obsess over. I think it really captured the minds of a generation,” she said.
Bristol-based Roach has starred in a number of cult TV hits such as Channel 4’s Utopia and Paul Abott’s No Offence, and has had big-screen roles in Anna Karenina, Testament of Youth and as a young Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
“TV will always be my inspiration. But I love bridging the gap between television and film,” she said.
“I don’t get nervous shooting a scene anymore. In my day-to-day life I get anxious but when the cameras start rolling I’m so relaxed – I go into a kind of trance state.
“I love transforming for a role and I would love to play someone really dark in the future, someone completely opposite to who I am.”
The fourth series of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror lands on Netflix on December 29.
