In this new series, Ives undergoes counselling with an alienist psychotherapist, and later appears in a padded cell with tears streaming down her face, hissing ominously at her doctors: “You think you know evil?” How does Vanessa wind up like that? “She feels as if she has been abandoned by God, she has lost her lover, her faith and her family and she feels cursed. You have no life outside, so the show better be good.”Ĭlearly, Green thinks Penny Dreadful is good she revels in playing a character in psychic meltdown. As she puts it, with a chuckle: “It’s as if you sign away your life to the devil. This is the third year Green has spent living in Ireland for five and a half months playing Vanessa Ives. I make jokes and play with the crew before we approach” – she growls comically – “the darkness. It’s fun for me to do, even if the results are scary. Is it contagious? Do she think it’s psychically risky to play such a deranged character, particularly when channelling the voice of someone who endured exorcism? “On the contrary.
