As ITV's BAFTA-winning, female-fronted crime TV series Karen Pirie returns for a second chapter, the show's lead Lauren Lyle is celebrating its drop by taking some R&R at a Portuguese surf retreat.
She catches up with GLAMOUR over Zoom, sunkissed and gushing about her “sexy surf instructors”. Lauren is quick to tell me she's in her “Sex and the City era” as a “trending girl”, having recently celebrated her birthday at Ellie's bar in London's Dalston, mere weeks before it hosted Charli XCX's wedding reception and became an iconic venue in its own right, helped along by its £8 martinis.
Her trip away is her attempt at zen, during a very exciting time. Having starred in Outlander and Netflix's Toxic Town alongside Aimee Lou Wood and Jodie Whittaker, Karen Pirie season 2 is the latest in a series of amazing on-screen projects for Lauren. Her character is lifted from the pages of Scottish writer Val McDermid's bestselling book The Distant Echo, and the series is filmed around Scotland, as well as Malta for the second season.
Her documentary, Love In The Wild, sees her try out different types of IRL dating, in the face of app fatigue hitting us all.
Critics have called the series “criminally good”, with Lauren dead centre, bucking the on-screen stereotype of the usually-male detective, generally dealing with the murders of young women. She's not afraid to speak her mind, or bend the rules of an at-times-archaic police institution.
We see Karen grapple with the power dynamics that come with her promotion within the police, and what it means to have a secret relationship with a colleague when you're a woman in power, all while our detective lead investigates an unsolved case of the abduction of a mother and her son.
Lauren sits down with GLAMOUR to discuss combining comedy with her acting craft, the show's portrayal of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and her philosophy when it comes to being called “a bit much” as a woman.
Returning to your character Karen for season 2, what did you want to do with the role this season?
I think I really just wanted to be funny again. I was scared that I couldn't be funny, and I wanted [Karen] to be real. She's quite a reluctant boss. It's that sort of thing of you've always wanted that power, to be in charge. You've got the dream, but then actually, once you get it, what f**k do you do with it, and can you handle it?
I really felt like I was living this parallel life to Karen. You've been told the first series is really good. There's quite a lot of expectation on you. I felt like I was always throwing my own party, I just wanted to have good time.
What do you hope the show says about the police as an institution – there have been so discussion in recent years about discrimination on the basis of gender, race, age…
I think it doesn't shy away from the fact that there's massive problems the fabric of the police force and the way the system has been built. That workplace environment, there aren't enough women around, and therefore they are not treated the same. It's like when I was watching people skating the other day, and I looked at this one man who looked really cool with his helmet on, and then I saw the women, and they all looked a bit stupid with the helmets on. And I thought that's because those helmets have been designed for a man…
I just played a part in The Bombing of Pan Am 103, and my character worked in the police in the 1980s. She had no maternity leave, nothing. So when she had her baby, her mum would drive to the back of the police station, she'd get into the back of the car, breastfeed, get back out, and go back onto her shift.
I think it's cool that we highlight sexism in the workplace, how you're underestimated… The amount of times I feel like I'm really dealing with this in my personal life as well, of the injustice of men getting away with things in every shape and form, just being allowed to navigate the world in a way in which they can do whatever they want. No one will really hold them accountable.
Karen often gets called “maddening” or “rude” – “you're also brilliant, but you are difficult to manage”. She's always reinforced that she's a “bit much”, and I feel that I relate to that. I've always been told I'm a “bit much”. Like “you're fab, you're brilliant, but you're also loud and opinionated”.
It's the “difficult woman” trope… What does it mean to you, bringing a woman that is a “bit much” to the screen?
I think calling a woman that is just a really easy way to shut some women up, and it's a really easy way to make them feel insecure. I'm a wee bit notorious for having an opinion, challenging people on it, and not sitting at a dinner table and just listening to someone say nonsense.
There's such strength in vulnerability. To stand up and say, “that's not fine, and that's not made me feel fine.”
And has playing Karen made you step into that power and speak up more?
The confidence of getting the part, a part where they think I can play someone like that, makes me think, “well, it's in me somewhere to be able to be like that”.
Here at GLAMOUR we are so passionate about asking the question over and over about violence against women and girls (VAWG), which has now been described as an epidemic. What do you think the show does to portray the issues at play here?
Something that I connected with when I first started was that Karen is a woman that knows what it feels like to walk home scared at night. She's of the age, has lived in the world at the time where you understand what that feels like. So she cares so much more about the personal impact of what's happening to these women, and she understands literally the path that they've taken in fear.
We are so conscious of not glamourising the deaths of women, that it's really about us. The team behind the show really want to give full life to these women. It's not just a body. None of them are just bodies or missing people that we don't know anything about.
With season one, we started filming just before Sarah Everard['s murder] happened, and the plotline was almost exactly the same situation. We couldn't believe that a police officer had taken a woman off the street and murdered her.
Let’s talk about our obsession with true crime, seeing as your character becomes the subject of a true crime podcast – why do you think we have a fascination with something so morbid do you think?
I think for women, it's because it could happen to us. It's so closely related to our lives that it's thrilling in a way. It's too close for comfort and something to be aware and alert of. You internalise it a little bit.. I've watched stuff thinking that could happen to me, how do I stop that happening to me? What happens is so unbelievable, but it's true. We are made to believe, and we have to accept stuff that we can't believe. And it's happening all the time.
What makes you feel empowered?
Honestly, being funny. Being able to tear someone down in a room makes me feel very powerful, or completely calling someone out in a funny way, often a guy who thinks he's the funniest guy in the room – when he isn't. I'm quicker. I don't know where I've got it from. I think it's growing up with two brothers and my mum and dad. They're all funny, and we're Scottish and dry. I watch people kind of trip over themselves to try and come back at me. And I can often really give it, which makes me feel powerful.
Girlhood Firsts
First woman whose career you looked up to
Can I give you two? Natalie Portman and Angelina Jolie early in their careers. Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta, but also The Darjeeling Limited. Seeing a Wes Anderson film, I was like, “that's the kind of films I want to do”. Wes Anderson aligned with my personality. And then Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider.
First celebrity crush
Leonardo DiCaprio, specifically Jack Dawson from Titanic.
First summer job
I worked at a cafe for about two minutes, and I was fired because I couldn't carry the coffee my hands shaking. I used to live in New Zealand, and New Zealand coffee is sacred.
First piece of advice you remember getting
I remember my mum and dad telling me to stop working when you're tired. I think as an actor, we're often told it has to be hard work in order to graft and get somewhere. It's quite healthy and helpful to know and learn when to stop. I also remember hearing Jodie Whittaker saying that the hard work doesn't need to just be really hard. It can be enjoyable work as well.
Karen Pirie is available to watch on ITV1 and ITVX.
