\u201cI did have a few moments where I was like, \u2018I\u2019m shouting at David Tennant! This is very surreal!\u2019,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Shouting at David Tennant is just one of numerous examples she gives when asked if she had any \u201cpinch-me\u201d moments during filming. (Others include an \u201cincredibly cool stunt\u201d from episode seven; travelling to South Africa for the first time; and the realisation that Hans Zimmer would be scoring the soundtrack.) \u201cThose moments you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh! What am I doing? I\u2019m living my childhood dream\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While the TV series is inspired by Jules Verne\u2019s 1872 novel, Abigail Fix is a brand new character created for the BBC adaptation (her name is a wink to an original book character, Detective Fix). <\/span>Abigail is also the show\u2019s beating heart from the get-go. Whereas Tennant\u2019s moustachioed, Victorian gentleman Phileas Fogg is lacking in confidence, Abigail has buckets-full \u2013\u00a0a trait that German national Benesch, who studied drama at Guildhall in London, says she shares.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t come from money at all. When I came to London, I got myself into huge amounts of debt just to go to drama school,\u201d she explains. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s narcissism or bravery, but to come to London and audition for drama school where it\u2019s not your mother tongue, and just go there and [be] like, \u2018Yeah, I belong here\u2019. I think that\u2019s a trait that I have, and I\u2019m grateful for it. And I think that\u2019s something Abigail Fix has. She enters a space, and she doesn\u2019t care whether or not she\u2019s supposed to be there. It\u2019s just where she wants to be right now. I think we share that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, Benesch quickly makes a joke about how she doesn\u2019t share <\/span>all<\/span><\/i> of Abigail\u2019s attributes, namely the character\u2019s \u2018daddy issues\u2019, which become more prevalent as the show goes on (\u201cI don\u2019t think I need to prove anything to my dad!\u201d). Abigail is determined to become a serious journalist, even penning the article that first opens Phileas Fogg\u2019s eyes to new possibilities in travel (and ultimately leads him to take on the titular travel wager) \u2013 but she butts heads with her overprotective father, a newspaper editor, who refuses to give her a byline.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Benesch is speaking to RadioTimes.com<\/a> via Zoom, but as in Around the World in 80 Days, her energy fills the screen. Plants overflow every surface in the kitchen visible behind her, and she wears long dangling earrings spelling out \u2018heart\u2019 and \u2018burn\u2019, a word for each ear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Although the upper-middle-class Abigail Fix exudes a kind of \u2018jolly-hockey-sticks\u2019 Englishness, it was in fact Benesch\u2019s German passport that landed her the part.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt had to do with the way it\u2019s financed,\u201d she explains, referring to the show\u2019s German broadcaster ZDF. The series producers were looking for someone German (to please ZDF, she says), but who also spoke with perfect, unaccented RP, and they were quickly referred to Benesch, a newcomer whose biggest English-speaking role to date was as Prince Philip\u2019s sister<\/a> in The Crown<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Benesch won the part of Abigail Fix, but found the prospect of filming equal parts exciting and daunting. \u201cI was nervous. Because it\u2019s the biggest part I\u2019ve ever played; it\u2019s not my mother tongue; and it\u2019s David Tennant,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n Around the World in 80 Days is ideally placed to catapult Benesch into stardom. Not only is it a primetime BBC period drama, starring national treasure Tennant and premiering on Boxing Day (a day many of us spend glued to the telly, weighed down with mince pies), but the show has already been renewed for a second season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The news isn\u2019t a total surprise for Benesch, who recalls the idea of a second season being pitched to her towards the end of filming (at the time, she responded: \u201cYes, 1,000 per cent!\u201d). However, she\u2019s struck by how early the official season two announcement came. \u201cI mean, that\u2019s one hell of a confident announcement,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s very, very exciting,\u201d adding: \u201cI would do pretty much any job with David [Tennant] involved, just because that means I can learn more from him. And obviously, I\u2019m a baby,\u201d she jokes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Benesch (who previously starred in the German neo-noir Babylon Berlin) admits that she initially struggled to get a handle on the light-hearted, eccentric tone of both the show and her character: \u201cOriginally, I approached the character from my comfort zone, which is quite earnest and dramatic.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n She reveals that director Steve Barron pointed her towards another British period drama, The Durrells<\/a>, for reference. \u201cHe was like, \u2018That\u2019s the kind of tone we need for the show\u2019,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n Phileas Fogg and Abigail Fix\u2019s nationality is often played up for laughs during the first few episodes. \u201cI think it [the series] looks at that side of Britishness with a lot of humour but warmth,\u201d Benesch says. \u201cThat British ignorance that both of them have; very upper-class, superior, you know, how they effortlessly enter a room and start talking about things they maybe have actually no idea about \u2013 it\u2019s being shown up. It\u2019s being offered. Everyone gets to enjoy how silly they are, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s spiteful. I think it\u2019s really humorous. And still \u2013 maybe there is a little bit of criticism. Yeah.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Benesch\u2019s own experience with some of the \u201csilly\u201d aspects of the British class system informed how her character, Abigail, views Passepartout (Ibrahim Koma), Mr Fogg\u2019s mysterious valet and the third member of the show\u2019s central trio.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think most of the time, she\u2019s generally frustrated because she cannot put him [Passepartout] in a box, he won\u2019t fit,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd that [frustration] I think I have seen as a German living in the UK \u2013 people get a bit confused when they hear me speak to them [and] find out that I\u2019m German\u2026 One of the first things you find out about each other in an English or British context is, \u2018Where are you from? Who do you probably know? What\u2019s your background?\u2019 It happens immediately. And that was quite strange to me. When I first moved here, I had no idea what people were on about. And then there comes a frustration with people when they can\u2019t place you. And I think that\u2019s very much what Abigail experiences with Passepatout, because he doesn\u2019t make sense to [her].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The chemistry between Passepatout and Abigail<\/a> is obvious from the start. Are they the 19th century\u2019s answer to the famous will-they-won\u2019t-they Friends couple, Ross and Rachel? \u201cYes, maybe!\u201d Benesch laughs. \u201cThat\u2019s a good way of putting it\u2026 I think she is attracted to him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Phileas Fogg, an old friend of Abigail\u2019s newspaper editor father, serves as a kind of eccentric, slightly inept uncle or guardian to her over the course of their travels. What was Benesch\u2019s experience like working with national treasure David Tennant? <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo matter what he does, he\u2019s always brilliant. And then on top of that, he\u2019s also such a great number one on the call sheet, because he leads by example, in the best way,\u201d she says. \u201cHe always has a nice word to say to everyone, but it doesn\u2019t make anything about him. Something I\u2019m still to learn.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And where will Benesch be on Boxing Day, when the TV series set to launch her career airs in living rooms across the country? <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI will be here, in the UK,\u201d she says, gesturing to the plant-filled flat behind her. It will be a \u201csmall,\u201d low-key viewing party with her flatmate and flatmate\u2019s family. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to sit down and watch it all together.\u201d A pause. \u201cAnd my cat, obviously, is going to be watching.\u201d<\/span><\/p> Around the World in 80 Days will be released on Boxing Day in the UK on BBC One, and in the US on Sunday 2nd January via PBS. <\/b>Visit our Big RT Interview<\/a> hub for more conversations with the biggest stars in TV and film, or find something to watch with our <\/b>TV Guide<\/b><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n![\""AROUND\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/09\/ATWIED_TC_28_10_20_6511-18ee50c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"ATWIED_TC_28_10_20_6511\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n![\""AROUND\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/09\/ATWIED_TC_15_10_20_4023-d137544.jpg?quality=90&crop=18px%2C554px%2C4443px%2C2960px&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"ATWIED_TC_15_10_20_4023\"\\"\/")
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