Yes, a hundred is enough, she laughs.
I dont have any rehearsals with the men, I dont meet them before, she explains.
They get given a scene to learn and Wilson learns the same scene.
Makeup & hair designer attends to ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ star Felix Kammerer; Ruth Wilson in ‘The Second Woman’Netflix/Courtesy of the Young Vic: Photography by Pip
Then theyll come on and its the first time I would have met them.
I inquire as to whether theyll be washed.
She nods in the affirmative.
Ruth Wilson. Courtesy The Young Vic/Portrait by Pip
That is exciting to me.
Like, I wont know how each of these men is going to react.
Those things will erode.
Her face brightens, so I think Im quite fascinated.
Itll be a study of power dynamics between genders.
The show focuses on just one scene with Virginia.
Wilson hopes to explore the idea of you becoming the character and vice versa.
I ask what kind of breaks will be in place.
Every two hours Ill get a 15-minute break, she responds.
It would all be about this 15 minutes.
What do I do in that time?
Do I go outside and get some fresh air?
Do I go to the toilet?
Its produced in association with Wilsons Lady Lazarus production company.
The shows world premiere was in Australia pre-pandemic.
Wilson enjoys returning to the stage and has won two Olivier awards for roles inAnna ChristieandA Streetcar Named Desire .
There are, as we know, a lot of demands for content and its exhausting, she says.
Honestly, you should, she urges.
I could enter stage left as bloke number 62, I jest.
Mud, Glorious Mud!
I get dragged through it a lot, I say by way of explanation.
By my Keeshond and Shiba Inu dogs, I quickly add.
Yes, Merker agrees.
I also have a dog and I know exactly what youre talking about.
Her canine is a cockapoo.
The difference though is that for the film you cant use the mud that is real.
I think of rats and bugs and, well, you know.
A black, of course.
Is it thick or thin slop youll be needing to plaster over the faces of the exhausted soldiers?
There was a touch of the real stuff with particles of greyish mud from the Dead Sea.
Its like a powder.
Its clean and we mixed it with other elements.
We had our palette.
I think the makeup helped our actors understand what a nightmare the fighting was, she says.
Her favorite on set was Felix Kammerer who plays Paul, the young man we follow.
I had to make him look tired, injured all kinds of expressions, all kinds of mud.
The elephant-skin caked mud when his full face is covered, Merker says.
Extra care had to be taken because the battlefield scenes were shot first.
She and her team ensured the cast had hot showers and hot towels after long days in the trenches.
We shot in Singapore and Malaysia.
The humidity over there, wow, she exclaims.
