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This article contains spoilers forThe Regimeepisode five, All Ye Faithful.
But she never finds him.
Agnes is always in a rush, literally until the very end.
I came to it because Kate and I were shootingLeeand she mentioned she was about to do this.
She thought I would be good for the part.
Stephen Frears was attached, and I have always wanted to work with Stephen.
Initially, Agnes might have lived in the palace before, or her family may have launch the place.
We landed at her being the representative of the proletariat, the long-suffering worker.
When did you learn Agnes was going to die?Six months before we started shooting.
We all knew the whole story at the beginning.
Kate is so brilliant as Elena and it was hysterically funny filming.
That was one of the really surprising things as we got into it: how weighted it was.
That led to a lot of hilarity on set because the situations were so impossible and ridiculous.
If I think about that time, I think about Agnes pushing things in and out of doors.
Theres a lot we dont know about Agnes.
I had quite a long stretch of time before playing Agnes to really let her settle in.
As we were shootingLee, Kate and I talked about the relationship between Elena and Agnes and their backstory.
The tufts of it were just growing back.
She requested that Agnes keep her hair short.
One of the horribly tragic things, unfortunately, is poor old Agness trajectory.
Her death is so sudden.Its so abrupt, you almost dont know its happened.
Theyre making huge decisions for people whose lives they have no relationship to.
When was it like to shoot that scene where the coup is happening?
When an emergency happens, youre propelled instantly to that fight-or-flight zone, which involves clarity of thinking.
You become hypervigilant in the most useful ways, as were supposed to in those moments.
The only thing she was engaged in was Oscars safety.
And then life ended.
And thats the tragedy.
There was no moment of epiphany.
Was there ever a version of this that went differently, where she didnt die?I dont know.
Ive actually not asked Will that.
Why do you think Agnes is so loyal to Elena?
Whereas the reality with Agnes is that if she tries to leave, she will be shot.
She doesnt really have a choice.She doesnt havechoices.
Theyre close to the enemy.
There are no options because Agnes has to stay alive to try and preserve Oscars wellness.
Were she to rebel, that would probably end her life.
And then Oscar would have no one.
This is just the lesser of two evils at this point.
You have to forget how bad it was, or theres no way forward.
And she is one of those pawns.
I havent spoken to Kate about this, but Im sure Elena will miss Agnes as things move on.
Im sure she will miss her sorely and deeply.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
