Stan Original Series Ten Pound Poms follows the stories of Brits in the 1950s who make the life-changing journey to Australia. For UK actress Faye Marsay, her character Annie Roberts bares more resemblance than one would think.
Speaking on the Mediaweek and Chattr podcast, The Entertainment Hotline, Marsay — who hails from Middlesbrough in the UK — revealed that she took inspiration from her grandparents.
“The character sort of reminded me of two of my grandparents,” she said. “So it was quite easy to imagine. The Northern 1950s, my grandparents were obviously growing up at that time so I had a lot of ideas of how even just the physicality of this character could be played.”
Faye Marsay and Warren Brown. Stan
Marsay’s great grandfather was a Prisoner of War (POW) in Italy and his wife was alive until she was about 18 or 19.
“He [Marsay’s great grandfather] was captured in Dunkirk,” she said. “So, I was around sort of war heroes as a little girl. Not that they ever really talked about it. I mean, he did talk about it, but not in any kind of great detail. You could see that my granddad was, I suppose the word is damaged by what he saw, and my grandma, his wife was so strong. Those women at that time had to be strong because the men were away fighting… they had to be strong to keep the family going.”
Faye Marsay liked Annie Roberts’ “spirit”
The Game of Thrones alum also admitted that she was drawn to Annie because of her “spirit”.
“I just liked her. I liked her spirit. I liked that she was more progressive than one might think of a 1950s housewife, certainly when they get to Australia and what they encounter.”
During the first episode of the Stan Original, Annie sees an Indigenous woman be shunned to the back of the line in a dress shop and goes to give the shopkeeper a piece of her mind; however, in a wild turn of events, she ends up getting a job there, lying about her husband been killed in the war.
“As the season goes on, you’ll see more of that behaviour from Annie,” she said. “In the first two episodes, she’s kind of finding herself, and she’s kind of trying to work it out. But as the season goes on, she becomes very, very, very strong because she has to for certain things that go on which you will see. My grandma’s kind of contributed to that.”
Faye Marsay and Cheree Cassidy. Stan
A more unknown aspect of this time was the fact that immigrants from the UK were treated poorly by Australians, including seperate bathrooms on work sites, which her on-screen husband Terry Roberts (Warren Brown) experiences.
“They’ve just been in a World War,” she said. “So trust, and the kind of welcoming side of the human race, probably at that time was kind of quite low.”
Faye Marsay and the cast spent five months in Sydney
Ten Pound Poms was filmed in Sydney, a place Marsay called home for five months. And while she’s keen to get back to our shores (here’s hoping for a second season) there’s one thing she doesn’t miss. The wildlife.
“I felt very at home, even though it was so far away from home,” she said. “I would move there in a heartbeat… But one thing I would say about Australia is, I’d never been to a country where there are so many animals that if they bite you you might die.
“There was an incident actually on set where a brown snake had made it’s way where I was just wondering in my costume shoes with open ankles. Did that editor and all of a sudden our location guy comes running out with a bucket and it’s a baby brown snake, which are horrible!”
Stephen Curry, Faye Marsay and the cast. Stan
Faye Marsay calls her career “lucky”
As for her rich career which also includes an acting credit in Black Mirror and Star Wars series Andor, Marsay says there’s been a lot of “luck” involved.
“I think there’s a lot of luck involved I think being in the right place at the right time,” she said. “I work really hard, don’t get me wrong. I’m not doing myself a disservice. But I do think there’s a massive element of luck and I think these things came at the right time.
“I come from a kind of a world where self belief and kind of putting yourself out there is not the done thing. I come from a very kind of humble, don’t brag, don’t get above your station kind of world so it’s very uncomfortable for me. There’s a real side of me that definitely has imposter syndrome and catastrophise about if I will I ever work again. I think possibly because of that I don’t take things lightly and I try hard and maybe that’s why I’ve done so well.”
Stan Original Series Ten Pound Poms is streaming now on Stan.