British actress Faye Marsay had an incredible time filming Ten Pound Poms in Carcoar, New South Wales, describing it as a “magical experience”. The same can’t be said of her character, Annie. Along with a group of other Brits, she sets off for sunny Australia in 1956, hoping for a better life. She soon discovers ‘Oz’ isn’t at all what she expected.
Similiarly, Faye, 36, tells TV WEEK that she has experienced unexpected difficulties in the entertainment industry. For one thing, there have been tense working environments when people on set don’t get along.
Ten Pound Pom will air on Stan.
(Image: Supplied)“Sometimes it goes horribly wrong,” she says.
Famous for her roles in Game of Thrones, Black Mirror and The White Queen, Faye says being a female in the industry also comes with its challenges.
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“It would be hard to find a female in this industry who hasn’t encountered some form of sexism or an incident that is uncomfortable for them,” Faye reveals. “There have been moments [for me], but I’m not the only one.”
While the MeToo movement has increased awareness around inequality in the entertainment industry, Faye believes there’s still a “ways to go” in overcoming it.
Faye was also in Game of Thrones.
(Image: Getty)Another tough part of the job for Faye is the reaction that comes after the launch of a show.
“It’s art, so everyone gets to comment on it and that’s fine, but I find it quite scary when things go out,” she says. “I’m just a human being and it can be quite difficult if Twitter gets a hold of you.”
After Faye appeared as the Waif on Game of Thrones, she was met with online vitriol from some viewers.
“It got quite intense where I had to take a step back,” Faye shares. “It’s kind of scary how some people believe that character is really you.
“I was getting personal attacks on my appearance and I think it’s best not to read it. If you go down that rabbit hole, you’re never going to find anything good.”
In Ten Pound Poms, Annie is married to war veteran Terry (Warren Brown) and has two children. Her character is progressive for the time, getting a job as a shop assistant, which defied the societal norm of being a housewife.
Terry suffers flashbacks of the war throughout the series, highlighting the mental health struggles that veterans faced – another taboo topic of the time.
“I was brought up in a working-class town in the north-east of England and I don’t ever remember conversations about your mental health,” Faye recalls. “We were told to ‘get on with it’, and certainly for that generation [in the ’50s] it was the same.
“We need to recognise that it’s not just our physical health we need to care for, it’s our mental health too.”
