Charlotte Hope interview: ‘I donât feel like it was a lucky break, I got ‘Game of Thrones‘ because I was good at acting’
Judge for yourself…
The actress whom played  Ramsay Boltonâs love interest Myranda in ‘Game of Thrones’ is now starring alongside Ed Harris in Sam Shepherd’s ‘Buried Child’ in the West End
British actress Charlotte Hope is starring alongside Ed Harris on the West End stage in ‘Buried Child’
She had long discussions about whether she should take on the role of Ramsay Boltonâs love interest Myranda with her agent. âAt the time I was up for another series, which I thought was going to be my big break, but I didnât get that. My agent said to me that there was an opportunity to do Thrones, but it was one scene with a lot of nudity, and I loved the show.â
She wowed the producers and they wrote her character into the next season.
Charlotte Hope
Charlotte Hope is an actress, known for The Theory of Everything (2014), Les Misérables (2012) and Testament of Youth (2014).
Source
âIt was Game of Thrones that changed everything,â says Charlotte Hope. The 26-year-old actress is having a bit of a moment. Sheâs starring opposite Ed Harris on the West End stage in a revival of Sam Shepherdâs Buried Child and is also appearing briefly in both A United Kingdom and Allied at the multiplexes. Her time spent crying and eating cake after failed auditions for three years seem a distant memory.
The bubbly actress makes for a great coffee and cake companion. She has opinions on everything. Especially when it comes to food. Where you can find the best cake, why caramelised carrots are the best, and that her sweet tooth means that when she cooks duck ragu it tastes like tiramisu, according to her screenwriter boyfriend Conrad. The two staples in her life are mayonnaise and icing sugar. She hobnobs with Deliciously Ella and says in her on-set encounter with Brad Pitt that they discussed sushi.
But while much of the small talk is occupied with food, the Oxford graduate is also happy to go more high-brow when necessary, with opinions on the nature of politicians (Trump is on the receiving end of much of her ire), sexism in the film industry (Itâs hard finding roles that arenât the crying victim girl) and why Swedish people seem to have life right. Although sometimes a clarifying, do you really mean that? Is met with a shrug and a ânot exactly.â
![]() |
Hope plays Shelly, the girlfriend of Vince, played by Jeremy Irvine, who brings her back to meet his family in ‘Buried Child’ |
Itâs in these moments she will then add, âThatâs the problem I have, I donât have a filter. Itâs something that Iâm working on.â Actually she has the habit of all the best dinner guests, in putting her stake in the ground and making general and firm points that kick off great discussion. Except that is, when she is in awe of someone.
Take her Buried Child co-star Ed Harris, for instance. They share the same agent, but she is trying to have an air of detachment when sheâs around him. She hasnât spoken to him about any of his performances, because she doesnât want to seem like a fan-girl. âIâm trying to be cool as I want him to be my friend,â chimes Hope. âIâm also intimidated by how cool and brilliant he is. In my life, Iâm not very cool.â
Source
The actress is unnecessarily modest. In an attempt not to be boastful, sheâll call herself âdumbâ until you point out she read French and Spanish at Oxford and even when she talks about tennis, she laments her own poor hand and eye co-ordination. Itâs a ruse that simply doesnât work because as well as being ingratiating her conversation is witty and erudite.
I wonder if sheâs talked to Ed Harris about her turn in Games of Thrones. âHeâd be like, heâs never seen it, thatâs what heâll say.â I protest that itâs hard to believe, given how the show is such a cultural phenomenon, to which she retorts, âHeâs a cultural phenomenon. Heâs been nominated for four Oscars. I think The Truman Show is bigger than Game of Thrones.â Â When I disagree, she adds, âWestworld is trying to be the new Game of Thrones.â
Hope plays Ramsay Boltonâs love interest Myranda in ‘Game of Thrones’ |
When pressed, she is too wily to clarify whether the âtryingâ means she doesnât think itâs as good.
Sam Shepherdâs Buried Child is set in 1970s rural America, a time of recession and political unrest. Harris plays Dodge, who we first discover sitting alone on a ragged couch lamenting the breakdown of his family unit and the economic failure of his farm. Hope plays Shelly, the girlfriend of Dodgeâs grandson, who arrives at the start of act 2 and is the outsider looking in, the moral conscious shining a torch on the malaise in Dodgeâs family.
At first Hope admits it was tough acting against someone she idolised so much: âI felt slightly captivated in what he was doing. His performance was so good.â You wouldnât know it, watching the play, as she morphed into the perfect yin to his yang.
The funny thing, given her chosen profession is that she was not allowed to watch television as a child. Her dad is a barrister who used to be a jockey and she says rather cryptically about her mother, that before her mum became a housewife, âshe worked in some kind of PR. We used to have a lot of CDs of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I think she did that.â The first film she saw at a friendâs sleepover was Titanic and her infatuation with the beautiful Leonardo DiCaprio began.
Hope always knew she wanted to be an actor. And once she started watching films she couldnât stop. She spent time in Paris training at the Ecole Jacques Lecoq theatre school and would pass away her spare time in the cinema. She says, âFrench actors are so much better and cinema is better over there.â She feels this is particularly so in the treatment of actresses, where the parts are more than the girlfriend role. It was particularly hard on Hope at the start of her career, âI look 13, so was always being asked to play the crying girl.â
![]() |
Amy Madigan as Halie and Hope as Shelly in ‘Buried Child’ – a dark, macabre and painfully funny family drama |
So then came Game of Thrones. She had long discussions about whether she should take on the role of Ramsay Boltonâs love interest Myranda with her agent. âAt the time I was up for another series, which I thought was going to be my big break, but I didnât get that. My agent said to me that there was an opportunity to do Thrones, but it was one scene with a lot of nudity, and I loved the show.â
She wowed the producers and they wrote her character into the next season. Itâs when talking about getting this break that she finally veers away from false modesty. âEven that I donât feel like it was a lucky break, I got it because I was good at acting.â And she was persistent. She wouldnât accept the knocks and would get just enough roles to keep her in the game. For three years after university she would supplement her income by working as a waitress and behind bars.
Her perseverance has paid off. Now she is no longer looking up at her fellow co-stars. She has just completed filming The Three Christs of Ypsilanti alongside Richard Gere and Peter Dinklage, who she never crossed paths with on Game of Thrones. Gere plays a psychiatrist treating three women who believe that they are the reincarnation of Christ and Hope plays his assistant. âIt was the first job where I was on the same level. It was crazy that I was a complete unknown getting to act alongside all these great actors. Before that Iâd done a lot of small parts with amazing actors which in itself was really useful.â
On A United Kingdom, she would go to set on her days off, so she could watch David Oyelowo perform: âIâve never seen a moment where he is not truthful.â Felicity Jones is another actor sheâs in awe of. Hope made appearances in two of her films, The Theory of Everything and The Invisible Woman. Â But with the way the pendulum swinging, it wonât be long before young actors are talking about watching Hope for inspiration.
‘Buried Child’ plays at Trafalgar Studios until 18 February
Charlotte Hope in Game of Thrones [S5E5]