Welcome to Screen Sisters, a collection of conversations about what it means to be a woman working in television both in front of and behind the camera.
As well as recognising their contribution to the industry, the series will also examine the highs and lows of working in media, how far television has progressed, and how much further it still has to go.
This time around we're talking to Paloma Faith and her Dangerous Liaisons co-stars Alice Englert (the show's lead), Kosar Ali and Game of Thrones' Carice van Houten.
A remake of the 1988 film of the same name (itself adapted from an earlier play, and originally a novel from 1782) and its re-imagined predecessor Cruel Intentions, Dangerous Liaisons the TV series boasts the same, if not racier and more salacious, themes.
Sex, power and revenge are once again the touchstones, explored through femininity, though they are padded by a wider spectrum of the female experience.
In an exclusive interview with Digital Spy, the cast open up about how the show explores female identity. From the unabashed enjoyment of sex and our relationship with porn to infertility, motherhood and postpartum sex scenes, nothing is off the table.
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This show does a really good job of exploring the sexual appetites of the older woman, and your character in particular, she's so vivacious and has a zest for sex.
Paloma: Are you calling me older? [laughs]
Your character, not you! Why do you think that it's really important to see women of an older age enjoying sex, especially in a period drama?
Paloma: Well, speaking of personal experience, I didn't start enjoying sex until I got a bit older. I actually think sex was pretty crap for a long time.
When you become attractive to the male gaze, you're probably not that into it, and they're not very good in bed either.
This is a piece of work written and directed by women, and I think that women know that you've got to have a bit of life experience and a bit of a sort of – sorry to swear – "f**k it" attitude in order to actually enjoy yourself.
I think that's really important. I also just think that... it's funny because in the 17th century, people didn't live that long. They didn't have the advancements of science. So they're not actually that old but they aged quicker and they probably lost their virginities a lot younger, which was probably awful, actually.
So it's interesting. People probably died when they were 50 back then. That was old age. That's really kind of midlife nowadays.
So it's sort of interesting but I think it's really important to know as well, and to acknowledge, that this show is not just about enjoyment. It's also about what sex and power as a theme have.
We watch porn today, and we know that a woman can look like she's having the best time, and she really isn't. That's the reason why a lot of men think that they're good in bed, and they're terrible, because they've watched that, and have gone: "I'm just doing the same thing as that guy."
It's a poor education.
Paloma: Yeah [laughs]. It's interesting. Sex in the show is complex. It shows, you know, enjoyment and pleasure and all of those things. It also shows power.
In Dangerous Liaisons, sex seems to be a commodity. It's traded for security, money and secrets. What does sex mean to each of your characters?
Paloma: I think that she does enjoy it. She's relatively empowered as a person within society. She feels held up by society. She's influential. She's manipulative and people do listen to her and so the fact she's got that confidence probably means that when she's in the bedroom, she's enjoying it with lovers.
I'm very doubtful that she's enjoying it with her husband at all but back then, people married for life, though that didn't mean that they never had another partner again.
So, yeah, that's how I'd view it but I've only had scenes with Nicholas's character so far that have been around me using sex for my own pleasure, and also for my own power over him.
Alice: I think Camille's relationship with sex with Valmont is that there is this kind of vulnerability, because he's also genuinely curious about what she thinks and feels. It's the first time that she's been able to be something other than a spectator in her own sex life.
For her, it's very much like… it's unsafe to be vulnerable. So she does have to kind of put that professionalism back into her life, which I think is completely fair enough, to be honest.
It's really sad, there's so little access to that freedom. I think that's why she's starved for it, and that connection that they have, even though it's so toxic.
Carice: My character has not been in that world for a long time. She's devoted herself to God and I think that part of her is completely asleep, let's say. I wouldn't say "dead" but pretty much asleep. Along the way, you'll see that it gets reignited, obviously. But as we see her [in the beginning] no, it's all about that guy.
But even so by making a choice not to have sex there is still a kind of relationship with sex in the refusal and detachment of it.
Carice: Yes, of course, and I think there's always that tension there. Of course, we're human beings. We are sexual beings. I think there's a lot of suppressed stuff there.
Especially in the marriage that she's in, there's not a very loving relationship, so to speak. She doesn't get much from that side either but she's also welcoming what's coming very much.
What is coming?
Carice: Yeah. What is coming? I can't really tell you much.
What about Victoire?
Kosar: I think because of the world Victoire grows up in, I think she's very fearful of sex and the power that comes with that. I think sex is a very scary thing because it can be so beautiful, but a lot of people can misuse that.
I think she's not interested because she's seen all the different forms it takes, and all the different things it can do to people, and how people can wield that.
So I think for her, it's something that she's just kind of like: "Yeah, I've seen that – not interested. No!"
Before Madame Merteuil dies she charges Camille with 'avenging her sex,' what does that mean to her? How does she go about fulfilling that request?
Alice: I find it really interesting because I think that the moment where she takes this on, it comes out of this deep wound that Madame Merteuil (Lesley Manville), her kind of guide or mentor, [has].
It's this incredibly compelling manifesto that has come out of a really, really painful marriage.
I think that Camille buys into that narrative. I don't know that the narrative of thinking that you can change everything alone, and that you want to be a kind of warhead, is the way you actually effect change that is gentle enough to allow for the vulnerability that true change [needs].
And that, I find really beautiful to play, because you see that. You see that she becomes incredibly weaponised and articulate and strong, and that that strength means nothing in terms of true happiness. But it's also beautiful. I think it's so hard to really navigate this life when there are so many different [obstacles] and different stories about how to do it.
You have to be able to make mistakes. You also have to be able to fail. It's just not a world that allows for that.
Her friendship and her relationship with Victoire gets extremely distorted and skewed because she's so obsessed with trying to win at a game that she thinks will then allow them to exist in a different way that she actually doesn't see what's right in front of her.
I found that really heartbreaking and beautiful to play. It was so nice to be in it with [Kosar].
Kosar, what does femininity mean to Victoire?
Kosar: Ooh, that's a really good question. I think for Victoire, like you said, she's very separate in that sense from the world. Femininity to her? Hmmm. I'm going to think about that one. Sorry if that means I'm silent.
What about the power?
Kosar: I was going to say – I think that's her power, if that makes sense? She has a really strong individuality within that and with innocence. I guess partly because she's still young. So I think, yeah, this power.
How does she kind of wield that power at this moment?
Kosar: It's a good question. I think she's finding that power. She doesn't quite wield it yet. I think she's finding how to do that and I think she does throughout the show, and towards the ending. But I think her wielding that power is by trusting herself, and trusting her instincts, and trusting her individuality, and kind of loving herself. I think it comes from self-love.
She goes through a very complex journey, and a lot of emotions and feelings.
The character Jacqueline comes across as cold and maybe a bit distant, but I feel like there are many layers to her. Who is Jacqueline? How does the way she presents herself to the world conflict with who she is deep down?
Carice: I think that she presents a distant, aloof sort of vibe. She is very clearly not into the party life, and I think she's, basically, depressed when we meet her. She is also walking around with a big secret that's underneath everything she does.
She has a good relationship with children. She's very warm with children. I mean, it's beautiful to see her with small kids, because all of a sudden, you have this sense of her warmth but other than that, we don't see much of that in the beginning.
Also, she has a relationship to her own feelings of motherhood, because she's not able to have children. So there's a big portion of grief there as well.
How does Jacqueline's infertility shape her as a person?
Carice: Well, I don't want to spoil too much…
Tell us your secrets.
Carice: It's definitely linked to the biggest thing that is driving her as a human being, I think.
Still, to this day, there are women who are defined by whether they're mothers. The whole motherhood issue is something that really attracted me to this character. There's so much that's still taboo around that in general.
But, yes, the fact that in those days, you know, not being able to extend your family name and all that stuff – it puts a huge pressure on her, I think, and made her very insecure. Then she devoted herself to God, and tried to get solace from that.
Is she hoping for a miracle from God? Is she looking to faith for answers? What is her journey through God about, really?
Carice: This is something that I think is a bit spoiler-y. I think she's also trying to – how do you call it? Redeem herself? Does that make sense?
There is a secret that she walks around with that she has to… She's looking for redemption, I guess, for that, in the church.
Paloma, though obviously there are many aspects to femininity, motherhood is probably one of the most 'feminine' points in many women's lives. Did that resonate with you during shooting?
Paloma: I think [so], yeah. I think that what happens in life – you know, in the construct of this kind of society that's all geared towards male success – is that we are told to be silent about our maternity.
The transition of our bodies and pregnancy; the transition of our being when we become mothers; the responsibility but then [to] still appear attractive. It was like a corset in that, that's what would have happened in that era.
I think women were generally locked away during maternity at that time when the corsets— they wouldn't have been walking around with a bump. They would probably have been kept indoors until they were able to put a corset back on, and squeeze back in.
That's interesting. It is affecting. It does make you think and I think it added to the gravity of the work that we were doing with it. Like revisiting history – you know, when you visit history from the perspective of the underdog, whether it be a gender or race-related thing, and you're revisiting it from a different angle. I think it did add to my character.
You've previously discussed what it was like to do sex scenes postpartum. You spoke about breastmilk squirting and worrying about that. How did you manage to get through those scenes?
Paloma: I think like most things in my life that are completely insane and absurd, I just use humour to get through them. So we had quite a laugh when we were doing intimacy scenes.
I was just breaking ice the whole time. That's how I get through everything.
Paloma, your character is very different in the way she operates to the other ladies of the same circle. They waste time plotting and scheming but she just acts quickly. What makes her so different from her peers?
Paloma: I think that she's got a confidence that she's allowed because already she's quite established in that society, and she's found her safety net.
I keep likening her to a TikTok influencer of today. She's so kind of empowered by all her followers, and she's empowered by all her influence, and she's sort of got this inflated confidence where she's not really looking at other areas of life like an influencer – where you're like: "But what about this? What about that? Don't you worry about these things?"
Consequence out the window.
Paloma: Yeah. She's just basically really empowered by all of that stuff: But as we know, as a voyeur, and as an onlooker, and maybe with a bit more life experience, those things are fragile.
I think there are lessons that eventually she needs to learn, that that confidence is a fragile thing. It's a Faberge egg.
New episodes of Dangerous Liaisons are available to stream every Sunday on STARZ in the US and Lionsgate+ in the UK.
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TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
