![Detective Robin Griffin [ELISABETH MOSS], Miranda Hilmarson (GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE)](https://hips.hearstapps.com/digitalspyuk.cdnds.net/17/28/1499779749-elisabeth-moss-gwendoline-chrisitie.jpg "Elisabeth Moss and Gwendoline Christie in Top of the Lake 2: China Girl")
Game of Thrones and Star Wars' Gwendoline Christie joins the cast of Top of the Lake: China Girl as junior police officer Miranda Hilmarson, an unlikely sidekick to Elisabeth Moss's dynamic Detective Robyn Griffin.
The anticipated sequel to the critically-acclaimed BBC2 series created by Jane Campion returns four years after its explosive finale, and follows Robyn's investigation in Sydney after a body of a girl in a suitcase washes up on Bondi Beach.
A huge fan of the haunting first series – and admitting to watching it four times – Christie said she initially got in touch with Campion to congratulate her on the show, before the filmmaker got back in touch to offer a role written especially for her.
"I contacted Jane to express how much I loved the first season, because we have a friend in common," Christie told Digital Spy.
"She sent me back a very sweet letter and then about four months later, she contacted me again and said, 'I've written a part for you in the new series, I hope you'll do it'.
"I still had to audition, to do a three-hour audition. Then you've truly earned it."
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Campion hadn't watched Game of Thrones but was immediately seduced by Christie after she watched clips of her in the series on YouTube. And she was also excited by the foot-tall height difference between Moss and Christie.
"I did't know Gwendoline and then I YouTubed it and thought, 'How exciting'," the Oscar-winning director told us. "And I really thought Elisabeth Moss at 5ft 3 and Gwendoline at 6ft 3 could be interesting..."
Robin and Miranda's intriguing relationship is part of the foundation of the show, with Christie describing it as "passionate, unsettling and tumultuous".
And according to viewers and critics at Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened in May, their dynamic is comical at times, too – although Christie says that wasn't intentional.
"It was the opportunity to explore a very intense and passionate relationship with another woman that operates in a multitude of ways," she continued. "Ways that are potentially not ideal. That can be conflicted. Complex, disturbing, unsettling. And tumultuous.
"It was only at the screening that I realised certainly that the more entertaining aspect of Miranda [was enjoyed], because I have never played it for laughs. Which is wonderful and a bit disturbing."
Moss added that it's their differences that also make them so compelling to watch, and what draws them together.
"They are these opposites in a way. The exterior of Miranda is sensitive and open, and the inside is strong and intelligent and fiercer," the Handmaid's Tale star told us.
"Whereas Robyn is the opposite. She wants to be fierce and tough and be considered that but really she's very soft and vulnerable and sensitive on the inside. They do connect over what they have in common."
Nicole Kidman, David Dencik and Alice Englert also join the cast of Top of the Lake: China Girl, which begins on July 27 on BBC Two.
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Naomi Gordon is news writer mainly covering entertainment news with a focus on celebrity interviews and television.
