“The kids are going to hate me… for beating up Rex… I think I’m going to be saying sorry a lot in the coming months”
In the new series of Primeval, prehistoric creatures invading the present aside, a rather surprising thing happens. Connor Temple gets a girlfriend. As their eyes meet across a not very crowded section of the sci-fi department of his local DVD store, no-one seems more surprised than he does when the incredibly attractive Caroline quite clearly hits on him. Played by Naomi Bentley, star of Casanova and The Mark of Cain, the mysterious new addition to the series has quite an effect on the young student.
“She really unnerves him” Naomi laughs “she’s very different to him as she is so assured. Caroline is not backwards in coming forwards and wastes no time in inviting herself back to his place. Of course that’s where she meets Abby for the first time and I think it’s fair to say she isn’t as happy to see the new arrival as Connor is! He really cannot believe his luck and is therefore completely unable to see that something just doesn’t add up about her interest in him. ”
While Connor is busy being totally knocked off his feet by the beautiful stranger, Abby is quite clearly less enamoured with Caroline, and the developing relationship creates a lot of tension between the two friends as Naomi goes on to explain.
“Caroline causes tension from their very first encounter. Abby quite simply doesn’t like or trust her. They are two very different characters; Caroline’s very finished, very materialistic and very forceful; all the things Abby is not. There is not much intimacy between Caroline and Connor; it’s a relationship about control and Abby instantly senses that something isn’t right. She can see that Caroline is manipulating Connor. But of course no amount of telling him helps as he just thinks Abby is jealous. Which of course is a part of it.
In series one, Connor quite clearly had feelings for Abby which weren’t really reciprocated as she was interested in Stephen. However, she obviously cares very deeply for him but doesn’t yet realise how much. Caroline’s arrival really shakes things up for Abby as she starts to feel something which can only really be described as jealously. She is genuinely suspicious of Caroline’s motives, but is also confused about her own too I think.”
So this mysterious new character has an agenda which isn’t the same as the team’s; just what is Caroline up to and what exactly are her motives?
“They aren’t necessarily good to be honest. She has been hired to spy on the team and gather as much information as she possibly can about their work. Caroline is very ambitious and is initially blinded by all the power and money. She jumps in feet first and is willing to employ almost any means necessary to achieve her goals.”
As Naomi talks, it’s clear that the team now has another threat to deal with. It seems as though an external and very human presence has taken a new and rather unhealthy interest in the team, their lives and their work. Someone has plans for them, plans that Caroline is clearly a part of, but Naomi isn’t giving too much away about this new twist.
“There is a master plan and Caroline is on someone’s payroll. Someone whose designs on the team aren’t in their best interests I think it’s fair to say. It could be someone we’ve already met, or it could be someone we have yet to see. The team senses that there is a spy in the mix but have no idea who it might be. Obviously this creates a real uncertainty between them all and the finger of suspicion lands on pretty much everybody at one point or another. It will be fun for the viewers to try and work out who the bad guy or girl really is. It’s kind of like Miss Marple, but with monsters. And no knitting.
However, I genuinely don’t believe she is malicious and as certain things are revealed, she realises she is in way over her head and you see that at the end. Had she realised what her employer had planned, she certainly wouldn’t have made the choices she did.”
Like Karl, Naomi has joined an established cast, and she admits to having some first day nerves.
“With something like Primeval it’s so difficult to know what to expect, as it’s such a high-profile show. I could have walked on to a set of absolute divas, but it wasn’t like that at all. Everyone was really lovely.
I’ve worked with Dougie before: I was a regular in Dalziel and Pascoe, and he played a real nasty piece of work who has my character kidnapped, tied up and left to drown in a storm drain. So it was lovely to work with him in such a vastly different role. But everyone was really welcoming. And I loved working with Karl who is one of the funniest guys I’ve met. The scenes I did with him were the most enjoyable but also some of the most difficult as I just couldn’t keep a straight face. He just makes everyone laugh.”
However, it was Hannah and Andrew with whom Naomi worked the most. Given the off-screen relationship between the two, did she find her scenes with Andrew difficult to act out?
“All of my stuff was just with Andrew and Hannah for the first couple of months and I was a little worried because they are together, for me to come in as Connor’s girlfriend was a little intimidating.
So in the scenes where I was supposed to kiss him, all I was thinking was “Oh my God - how am I going to do this with Hannah sitting right over there? She is literally in the scene!” I had to say to her that I just wanted her to know that I wasn’t interested in him, and if there were any problems, then just to talk to me. But Hannah was absolutely lovely and really, really professional. Although she might have tried to hit a me a little too hard in our big fight scene!”
As tensions mount between the two women, it eventually spills over into outright animosity and the mother of all fights. About shooting those action scenes Naomi says:
Both Hannah and I were worried about how the fight would look and how it would be done. There was a concern that it was going to look like a male fantasy of two girls rolling around sweating in bras and pulling each other’s hair, but we managed to avoid all that. I think it is very powerful; we fight like men at one point and I don’t think you see that in many fights with women.
But It was really enjoyable; we got a bit carried away at one point and I got thrown across the room and injured my wrist. I fell on it a little too hard but it’s alright now. It was a lot of fun. We both really went for it.”
From kissing scenes with Andrew, to fight sequences with Hannah it seems that Naomi has had a lot to contend with on set. But the challenges didn’t stop there. Primeval has another group of actors who are integral to the series but whose presence is rather less tangible. Filming the CGI sequences with the creatures is now almost second nature to the cast from the first series, but just how did Naomi find it?
“Lots of the actors from the first series at the time talked about how it took them a while on set to get used to the concept of getting the eye-lines right, and so forth and it was no different to me.
When we had to do something with CGI, we would do the rehearsal and I would be constantly asking the others what they were doing, and where they were looking. I also asked them to show me their reactions because I worried that, if they were being cool and underplaying it, I would be the hammiest actor on the planet, but in the end we all looked like complete lunatics. They were just more used to it than me” she laughs! “They helped me perfect my Primeval face - lots of horror and heavy breathing!
My first creature sequences with were with Rex. Basically I’m beating him around the room with a tennis racket, and throwing plates and glasses at him. That was really difficult because he is supposed to be flying around but of course there isn’t anything to look at. There is no ball on a stick or anything to look at, as I constantly had to move my focus. The special effects guys were yelling “He’s over there!” and there’s me trying to throw glasses at this thing. That was difficult - but it was so humiliating as well, because I was really going for it but to nothing! There were some embarrassing moments but hopefully my blushes were worth it!”
The cast from Series One are going to have their toys coming out at Christmas. If there was going to be a Caroline action figure, would she have a catch phrase, and what would it be?
“Firstly how great would that be! After I beat up Rex, Caroline leans over and her shadow falls over him; and she just says, “Got you, lizard” – which I think is quite cool! She really doesn’t like Rex.”
Given the popularity of Abby’s pet lizard isn’t she just a little concerned about beating up one of the show’s best loved characters?
“Oh god, I know! The kids are going to hate me!! I’ve already apologised on the DVD’s extras for beating up Rex, but I think I’m going to be saying sorry a lot in the coming months. In my defence I’d just like to say that I have to do what the script tells me too. Really I’m not that horrible!”
from Primeval Press