{"id":22467,"date":"2022-09-22T17:07:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T15:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1710189"},"modified":"2022-09-22T17:36:12","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T15:36:12","slug":"peaky-blinders-game-star-on-playing-polly-shes-the-heart-to-me","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/peaky-blinders-game-star-on-playing-polly-shes-the-heart-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Peaky Blinders game star on playing Polly: \u201cShe\u2019s the heart, to me\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Rob Leane\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 22 September 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Creating the VR game Peaky Blinders: The King\u2019s Ransom<\/a> presented one major problem for the British developers from Maze Theory.<\/p>\n

The tragic passing of Helen McCrory, who played matriarch Polly Gray in the beloved Birmingham-based TV sensation, left the game with a hole in its heart.<\/p>\n

The King\u2019s Ransom was always meant to explore the \u201cmissing years<\/a>\u201d between the fourth and fifth seasons of the show, a time when Polly was very much on the scene.<\/p>\n

Producer Russ Harding told us last year<\/a>: \u201cPolly does appear in the game. She is in the game. But rather than mimicking Helen, we\u2019re working with an actress to take on Polly and build around her legacy of that character.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now RadioTimes.com<\/a> has had a chance to chat with that actress, Ruth Gibson, who has faced the unenviable task of stepping into McCrory\u2019s shoes to take on the role of Polly in the game.<\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Ruth Gibson, who takes on the role of Polly in Peaky Blinders: The King\u2019s Ransom.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a big fan of Helen\u2019s,\u201d Gibson tells us over a video call. Noting that her path into the acting industry first took her to theatre work, Gibson says that she\u2019s \u201cbeen in the West End simultaneously\u201d with McCrory at various points in her career.<\/p>\n

As well as appearing in live-action roles (you might recognise Gibson from the likes of Call the Midwife<\/a>), Gibson has worked in video games and other forms of voice acting many times over the years, including roles in The Witcher 2 and James Bond 007: Blood Stone. When Gibson first heard about the upcoming Peaky Blinders game, McCrory was still with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe audition came through via my agent,\u201d Gibson recalls, \u201cand originally it was for the motion capture for Polly, because Helen at that point was contracted to do the voice work. And I was obviously immediately excited because I love working in motion capture.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also, as probably most people in the world are now, I\u2019m a huge fan of the show. And so to be able to kind of step into it in this way, I thought was really, really exciting. So I first did the audition for that. And then I was offered the job to do the physicality for Polly, but Helen at that point was still doing the voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was watching back episodes of Peaky Blinders, you know, just to kind of absorb myself in Helen\u2019s work, to try and encompass that physicality that she has \u2013 and she has such a strong physicality she brought to the role \u2013 I was actually watching her in Peaky Blinders when I saw the news that she had so sadly passed away. And so it\u2019s such a shock.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Helen McCrory as Polly Gray in Peaky Blinders season five<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Gibson remembers being unsure what would happen to the project at that point. She tells us: \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what was happening. I think Maze Theory hadn\u2019t decided what would happen. It was a big shock with all of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I did say to my agent that I wanted to step back from the project because it felt\u2026 I wasn\u2019t friends with Helen, but I\u2019ve met her a few times \u2013 as I say, I\u2019d followed her career \u2013 and it just felt very uncomfortable for me\u2026 that sort of, literally, stepping into a dead woman\u2019s shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Gibson recalls it: \u201cThen a bit of time passed, and we had some conversations with the producers at Maze Theory about what they wanted to do to honour Helen, and to really create a legacy of the character in Polly that she has created, which I thought was a really wonderful way of looking at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeaky Blinders, and especially the point where King\u2019s Ransom is, without Polly is losing something. And I think maintaining the character of Polly is more of a testament to the work and the brilliance that Helen created. And actually keeping her in there, I agree that it was an important thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo then I went back and auditioned again, for the full capture, including the voice, but with a slight shift in this instance. We wanted to have the essence of Polly \u2013 and I think because Helen has created such a multi-layered, multifaceted character, finding that depth of her, finding the truth of what she has created \u2013 as opposed to doing a mimic of Helen\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I really, really hope, when people watch the game, that they will feel that we\u2019ve found a truth to Polly as a character as a legacy for Helen, but we\u2019re not trying in any way to recreate her. In the bits that I\u2019ve seen, I think hopefully we\u2019ve achieved that.\u201d<\/p>

We ask Gibson what it is about McCrory\u2019s performance that makes Polly such a memorable character.<\/p>\n

As Gibson puts it: \u201cI think, initially when she first came in, we had these really strong male characters. You know, we\u2019ve got Tommy, we\u2019ve got Arthur, we\u2019ve got this legacy of the First World War hanging over it, which is very much rooted in a sort of shell shock in those male journeys, in that male experience of the world at that point, and that kind of hard man, and those gangs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think to suddenly have this really strong matriarch hit the scene, to come in, she just created a sort of whirlwind, because the other female characters up to that point \u2013 again, well drawn, but to some extent are there in relation to their relationship to the men, to the male characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when Polly comes in, she breaks that, and I think she\u2019s just a breath of fresh air. I love the strength she has. I love the power she has. But, and I think this is absolutely testament to Helen\u2019s performance, she has a vulnerability, and a real softness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd those moments, those parental moments, whether it\u2019s with her children, whether it\u2019s with other characters\u2026 she for us, as the audience, bridges the gap between that strength that is necessary, and the softness, and I hope that the player will find this as well.\u201d<\/p>\n