DIVA caught up with Laura Marcus and Bo Bragason to find out more about this exciting queer story
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGES BY BBC
This interview may contain spoilers.
An investigation into a fire in a quiet town unravels a whole history of dark secrets in the new BBC show The Jetty. Written by Cat Jones, the show stars the likes of Jenna Coleman, Archie Renaux, and Connie Jenkins-Greig. Delving into the past, Detective Manning (Coleman) finds out that she’s a lot closer to the truth than she may have first believed.
Alongside the current mysteries of the present day, the show masterfully takes us back in time to witness the sapphic love story of Caitlin (Laura Marcus) and Amy (Bo Bragason). DIVA spoke to the stars of the new show to find out more.
I absolutely loved the series. Your storyline in particular was really interesting to me as it’s not a storyline we tend to see, especially in crime dramas. When you read the script for the first time, what did you think about your characters and what did you do to get into the mindset of these quite complex, complicated characters?
Laura: The first thing that jumped out to me was definitely the dialogue. Cat has this amazing and magical way of creating [dialogue where] people are hardly saying anything and saying so much. Especially for Caitlin, who is such a soft-spoken person, she can hardly say a word at times and it’s all in what’s going on behind the scenes.
Bo: I was apprehensive at first about auditioning for the role of Amy just because of the nature of the role. But after reading the first episode, straight away I was like “Okay this is a very, very interesting story”. The character of Amy herself is interesting – she’s your typical bad girl stereotype but with a lot of layers and it goes very deep into that.
Something which I think is important for both of the characters is that there are darker elements to both of their stories and their personal experiences of being teenagers. Why is it important that we see this representation?
Bo: I guess it’s just important to touch on these topics because these are real things that happen in real life. Sometimes a teenage storyline is kind of painted as a whimsical, fun time but you know the struggles of growing up and figuring out who you are and your sexuality.
Laura: I think that that age is potentially the hardest ever because you’re like Bambi on ice skates trying to figure out everything that’s going on personally and in your family and in your friendship groups – especially if you’re still trying to figure out who you are. It’s such a difficult age to be.
We don’t see a traditional queer story with Amy and Kitty. It’s quite a complex one and it takes a while for us to really understand whether these feelings are reciprocated or whether it’s one-sided. How did you read that relationship when you were doing your first read?
Laura: It’s a heartbreaking story. I think the messiness of the story – and understanding your sexuality with two people who are both equally trying to do that – is what is so intriguing about this show. It’s not clear and it’s sad and dark at times but I think that’s also reality often.
Bo: And I think it’s good to see such a complex queer relationship because, again Cat is so good at writing these real-life stories, queer relationships just in general aren’t just straightforward – excuse the pun. They are complex. I think the biggest thing [to take away] is that love can develop under any circumstance. These two characters are polar opposites but the thing that brings them together is that mutual connection – that attraction that they have towards each other. I think that people should just continue to make these unique storylines because whether it be a heterosexual relationship or a queer relationship there’s always going to be the flaws and the cracks, but also alongside that are the joys and that romance and that passion that they have for each other.
Bo, talking about Amy for a minute, she’s such an interesting character. What do you hope people take from her character and what did you take away from her?
Bo: I think that the biggest thing that I took away from her is just empathy. I felt sorry for her because she’s a character that on a surface level it would be very easy to judge her. Her morals aren’t necessarily right but at the base of it all she’s a victim. She’s an abused child being taken advantage of by an older man. [Amy] doesn’t have the correct role models in her life.
In the show, we see the ripples of violence – specifically sexual violence – coming into the present day. What do you hope people take from the show?
Bo: There are so many important topics on the show, and I think that some people feel a bit uncomfortable talking about it. But I think it’s something that should definitely be spoken about without any sort of hesitation, without dancing around the topic.
Laura: I completely agree. I think the show at times is really uncomfortable and I think actually we need to sit in that discomfort because it is completely real and all of these things still happen. The show is kind of written in the dawn of the #MeToo movement which is incredibly real and still going on in so many different ways, and so sitting in that discomfort and watching those stories is a good way to learn from our mistakes.
You can watch The Jetty on BBC iPlayer now.
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