In Alfonso Cuarón’s Golden Globe-nominated Apple TV+ limited series Disclaimer, Leila George expertly navigates her portrayal of a younger Catherine Ravenscroft (the character in the later timeline played by Cate Blanchett). When we first see George’s Catherine she’s a vivacious mother of a young son who cheats on her husband with Louis Partridge’s character Jonathan, while on a trip Italy. But as the story progresses you find out her relationship with Jonathan wasn’t as it initially seemed.
“She’s so different from who I am,” George told Yahoo Canada about particularly portraying the version of Catherine we see in earlier episodes. “I’m much more shy and quicker to kind of coil in on myself than I am to enter a room and express like, ‘Look at me, look at me!’ And so it’s fun when you get to play that. I felt on fire playing Catherine.”
Watch Disclaimer on Apple TV+ for free from Jan. 3 to Jan. 5, then it’s $12.99/month
Disclaimer marks the first time Oscar-winning filmmaker Cuarón has ventured into the series space. George said it was “a breath of fresh air” to work with Cuarón on Disclaimer.
“It feels like you’re almost on this very well-funded indie movie, because he’s just as excited as I imagine he was when he first started,” George said. “The passion that he has, it’s contagious, and his level of talent, and everyone that he employs in every department is at the top of their game. It’s great because it pushes you to give your 100 per cent every day.”
Spoilers for Disclaimer, including the finale, included beyond this point
In the flashback moments when we initially see George’s Catherine, her story is told through the eyes of Jonathan’s mother Nancy (Lesley Manville), who blamed Catherine for her son’s drowning death in Italy. As the perspective shifts away from Nancy’s interpretation of event, we see that Jonathan raped Catherine in Italy.
In terms of preparing for those more difficult scenes, while George shared that she makes notes and analyzes each scene in the script before filming, she also feels like it’s best if she blocks everything out, aside from what she’s shooting on a particular day.
“There’s something really exciting and raw that happens if you’ve blocked it out of your mind until you’re going to do it,” George said. “I find those more difficult scenes kind of therapeutic. You’re working on it for the whole day, or for 2, 3, 4, 5 days, we shot each of those bedroom scenes and by the end of it, I feel like I’ve worked on every trauma in my life.”
“I think more importantly, when doing that stuff, it’s just really important that everyone around takes immense care in being sensitive to the matters, and that’s what everyone did. We all knew what we were there to do and the number one priority is making sure you get it right, so that viewers feel like they’ve seen something true and real.”
Apple TV+
Watch Disclaimer on Apple TV+ for free from Jan. 3 to Jan. 5, then it’s $12.99/month
George went on to stress that she felt the set of Disclaimer was a particularly comfortable space to film those more intimate scenes, with everyone having “the utmost care and respect,” and working with intimacy coordinator Samantha Murray.
“Everything is pre-planned and that’s so important, because just a hand in the wrong place and someone could get hurt,” George said. “I think beyond that, it’s just about feeling comfortable and everyone is very, very serious in those moments.”
“Everyone is taking it very seriously when you’re filming those hardest scenes. Sometimes on set you’re joking around and having fun and you’re tired, and so it keeps you awake to have camaraderie with people in the crew. But definitely when you get to doing stuff like that, the atmosphere changes. Everyone’s very respectful. Everyone’s very sensitive. You don’t know who in the room has experienced something like this, or how close to home it is for anyone, and so it’s really important to have the utmost care and respect when shooting that stuff. And that was definitely my experience on this job.”
