"The constant internal struggle is so fascinating," says Shalom Brune-Franklin of the conflicted characters she inhabits. Familiar from her turn as a tenacious police officer in the high-octane series Line of Duty, Brune-Franklin had her breakthrough moment in last year’s mystery-thriller The Tourist, in which she impressed viewers with her assured and multifaceted portrayal of a waitress with a dark secret (not to mention her palpable on-screen chemistry with her co-star Jamie Dornan). In every episode, she peeled back more layers from her character, bringing a dynamic presence to the role that reflects her passion for her craft. "Being on set, building something and then getting to see it come to life in the end... I love it all."
Brune-Franklin found her métier during her teenage years. Her family moved from Hertfordshire to Australia when she was 14, and it was while at school in Perth that she had the opportunity to enter a regional competition to perform a monologue at one of the city’s landmark theatres – which she won. "There was just that feeling," she says. "I was making people laugh, I was getting a response, and I ran offstage, locked myself in the toilet for a second and had a little cry, thinking, 'Oh, that was the best.'" She joined the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where teachers quickly spotted her potential, and in her final year she was awarded a scholarship of $17,000. This enabled her to pursue her dream internationally, and she returned to the UK.
Her latest starring role is as Estella in the BBC’s forthcoming six-part adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations. Working on a period drama was a personal challenge she set herself; born to a Mauritian mother and British-Thai father, she had until then felt that such projects were out of her reach ("I never saw anyone like myself in them"). She is appearing opposite Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham, of whom she is endearingly in awe. "I’m not going to be able to get over the fact that we’re just casually talking about how we did a show together," she says, laughing. She was also drawn to the contemporary nature of Steven Knight’s script, which reflects the otherwise inexplicably capricious Estella’s suffering at the hands of Miss Havisham, within the context of domestic abuse and familial trauma. "The book talks about things that are so relevant today and I wanted it to feel current, so that women can tune in now and understand what [the character] is going through." Her Estella is steely, assertive and seductive, but with an underlying complexity that she reveals in moments of tenderness: a forlorn softening of her expression as she listens to her adoptive mother ranting, an encouraging smile as she teaches Pip (played by Fionn Whitehead) to dance.
Next on Brune-Franklin’s agenda is Dune: The Sisterhood, the HBO sci-fi series – another genre she never saw herself in. "I’ve learnt to pay attention to what resonates with me," she says. "I’ve let go of thinking I’m not going to be good at something, because it’s a way of holding myself back." When she found out she had landed the role of Mikaela, an attendant to a fictional royal family who longs for a home planet, she immersed herself in the franchise, studying David Lynch’s 1984 film and the 2021 version starring Timothée Chalamet. "I turned the volume up as high as my TV would allow and watched in complete darkness. It’s overwhelming going into that Dune-iverse, because it’s so big and there’s so much to wrap your head around, but they are masterpieces."
Unsurprisingly, her life is increasingly busy, with filming schedules that take her across the world and a red-carpet presence to maintain, so she has been keen to find herself a bolthole. After five years of ‘couch-surfing’, she recently took out a long-term lease on a flat in north-west London. "It’s given me what I was craving, which is a sense of stability in a career where you have no control. You go here, you do that, you move here and there, and you just have to make it work. It’s a lot of sacrifice, so it’s nice to come back to a place at the end of the day that is your own," she reflects. Half a decade is a long time to be living out of a suitcase, but she gives the impression that she wasn’t expecting her star to continue its ascent in the way it has. "There was a time when I was working multiple jobs, and I thought, 'Gosh, if I can just make a living acting, I’ve succeeded.' In another 10 years, I want my 38-year-old self to say, 'We’re still doing it!'" If her recent performances are anything to go by, that seems like a certainty.
The February issue of Harper's Bazaar UK, starring Shalom Brune-Franklin, Lucy Boynton and Sheila Atim, is out now.
