Elizabeth McGovern is chilly.
Not icy, like her mysterious character Helen in AMC’s new Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe entry, Talamasca: The Secret Order. Like legitimately chilly. That’s because it’s a snowy-cold November afternoon in Manchester, England and the doors of the local watering hole being used for the show’s Porkies Pub keep opening as crew members mill about.
Yet she’s also warmly welcoming during our visit to the set. Bundled up in a long puffy parka in between takes, the Downton Abbey vet was chatty and insightful about her role, which viewers just got a taste of in the two-episode premiere. As one of the top agents at the supernatural CIA tasked with monitoring the witches, vampires and werewolves hiding in plain sight around the world, Helen is clearly at the top of her game. She is also deeply invested in recruiting orphaned genius Guy Anatole (Nicholas Denton) to join this covert agency. Whether that is because he is able to hear peoples’ thoughts or something more personal is what makes Helen so intriguing. She feels maternal, but also malignant. “I think we’ll keep changing our mind about her as we watch the story,” she teases with a laugh. “I hope so anyway.”
David Gennard/AMC
So far, it’s been revealed that Helen has had a hand in almost every aspect of Guy’s life. She arranged for him to be fostered by a loving family (they also allowed the Talamasca access to him throughout the years to “fix” his ability to hear people, which isn’t great), and after that, it was paying for, as Guy says after she admits her curation, “the best public high school in Detroit, a full scholarship to Penn, law degree from NYU…and it was all bulls**t.”
As is, apparently, the story featured in the show’s in-universe version of Interview With the Vampire about Guy’s birth mom being an addict who died when he was nine. Thanks to a fangful cameo by IWTV‘s Daniel Malloy (Eric Bogosian), we learned that he didn’t actually pen the section about her demise in his best seller, “they did.”
So, why all the subterfuge? According to Helen, it’s all to ready Guy for the assignment he’s been recruited for. What that actual mission is won’t become clear until later in the season, but on set that day in Manchester, England, we did get to observe McGovern and Denton film a very informative scene that clears up some confusion. And yes, there may have been some info about “the 752” that Guy heard in Malloy’s head, but they’d feed us to Jasper’s revenants if we went there!
Here, McGovern gives us some intel on Helen’s duality, her sense of duty and what we might expect from her now that Guy has kicked off his mission with a bloody, fatal run-in with a vampire and an ill-fated one-night-stand. And in true Helen style, we’re sure she was holding back some key info.
What Helen has done to Guy is a terrible thing. But having been lingering on the edges of his life for so long, did she grow to care about him over the course of his childhood?
Elizabeth McGovern: I think the thing I find so fascinating about this character is from one scene to the next, you flip back and forth from feeling that you really love and believe her and her motives, and then mistrust her and her motives. You can’t tell from one scene to another if she’s 100% good or not. But I think like everybody, she does intend to be. And I do think that she does care for Guy, but whether or not she’s willing to sacrifice him for her idea of the greater good…
Does she have powers?
She does not personally have powers.
How does she feel about that?
She is fine with that. I don’t think she has any problems with it. I think she knows the situation well enough and people who have a power to know that it is a mixed blessing. I mean, the one power she has is that she does lure Guy into this world. And in some ways, that is the ultimate power.
What is her relationship with the other Talamasca agents?
It’s her life. I don’t think she knows anything beyond this. I think she’s very driven and it’s her entire world.
David Gennard/AMC
So in her time within the agency, I’m imagining she’s probably seen and done some terrible things?
I think the thing about her is, we don’t know. There’s something about her that’s always shrouded in mystery. I think I do sense that there is a lot of hurt along the way, from the past, that she is somehow being driven by. And a loneliness, a lack of connection.
And that is clearly something she shares with Guy. What did you think when they said, “Oh, it’s a spy series set within the supernatural world”?
I didn’t really have any judgment until I read the script. Then, I immediately loved it. And that’s coming from someone who isn’t, by nature, a vampire person. I think it does appeal to vampire people, but I think it appeals outside of that demographic as well. And I think that’s where I find myself. It’s just so wonderful, the way it’s written.
Was it attractive to you also to play a character who was so almost nebulous as far as ethics?
Oh, very much so. I love this character that is so shrouded in history and I love the idea of the fact that you don’t know from one episode to the next whether she’s someone that you put your faith in or not. And I think Guy feels the same.
Do we see them growing closer over the course of this mission she sends him on?
Like some kind of trust? At times, they seem very close because they have very similar backgrounds and they’re in a similar situation. And then at times, I think Guy just really doesn’t trust Helen. He really doesn’t know. He vacillates all over the place. [Laughs]
Talamasca: The Secret Order, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC
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