Tallulah Evans on Girl Taken: "There’s upset and devastation, of course, but it’s a lot more intricate than that"

January's barely over and already we have a shoo-in for TV Baddie of the Year.

Take a bow Alfie Allen, Lily’s baby bro who shot to fame as Theon Greyjoy in Game Of Thrones, and now appears in new Paramount+ thriller Girl Taken as Rick Hansen, a sadistic teacher who kidnaps a teenage girl and keeps her as his sex slave.

Emitting serious Josef Fritzl vibes, the object of his twisted desires is Lily Riser, a pupil at his school who’s played with equal aplomb by Tallulah Evans.

The Londoner admits that it’s the toughest role she’s had to play in a career spanning almost 20 years.

“I was just glad that Alfie wasn’t method and didn’t stay in character for the eleven weeks we were shooting,” Tallulah admits. “The first time we were doing a scene together, I noticed his eyes switch and, that was it, he was Rick. It was so subtle, but terrifying, and really drew me into it as well. He’s such a wonderful, intuitive person to work with.”

Alfie Allen in Girl Taken

Was she starstruck meeting Theon Greyjoy?

“I’ve actually not seen Game Of Thrones,” she confesses. “My sister Delphi – who plays Abby my twin in Girl Taken – is absolutely obsessed though, so she probably asked Alfie loads of nerdy questions. I felt bad not being able to join in, but I’m going to watch it because everyone says I have to!

“I did a police procedural, Ellis, in Belfast and all the local crew were incredibly proud that Game Of Thrones was filmed there. Everything’s being shot in Belfast at the moment! Ellis was there at the same time as How To Train Your Dragon – it’s become such a TV and film hotspot.”

How would Tallulah describe Lily, who not only manages to survive the horrific abuse meted out to her, but also makes sure that her captor royally gets his comeuppance.

“I just see her as myself at that age – she’s finishing school, hanging out with her friends and excited for the future,” Evans proffers. “Then, in a split second, Lily finds herself in this horrific situation. She’s very strong, though, and somehow manages to deal with these extremes of emotion.”

Was she able to research the subject?

“I read Natascha Kampusch’s story, Three Thousand And Ninety-Six Days, which she wrote herself and has also been turned into a film,” Tallulah reveals. “It’s so devastating and harrowing, but helped me create my own idea of what may have happened in the five years that Lily was chained up. There’s upset and devastation, of course, but it’s a lot more intricate than that.”

As taut a psychological drama as you’re likely to see all year, Girl Taken was adapted from Holly Overton’s 2016 bestseller, Baby Doll, by Irish writer and musician David Turpin, who’s also penned the upcoming Ancestors series starring Éanna Hardwicke, Rupert Everett and Christina Hendricks.

“I’ve never met David but it was definitely love at first script read,” Evans resumes. “He did episodes one, two and six which are all incredibly powerful. I don’t get many castings for that sort of character who gets to have an emotional journey across a series. As an actor, you continually want to challenge yourself and Girl Taken definitely made me dig deep.”

How does the series compare to the source book?

“Baby Doll is great, but it’s quite different, in that it’s all set in America,” Tallulah explains. “It was helpful to read as a reference point, but the show is very much its own thing. Although now set in an unspecified English town, we actually shot in Vitoria, which is the capital of the Basque region. The cold and wet is TV cold and wet – most of the time it was pretty hot. We went to San Sebastian for the day, which was amazing. The pintxos culture – you have to try it!”

I did and went up two trouser sizes as a result. While Tallulah’s IMDB page takes a fair bit of scrolling through, it’s her sister’s first professional acting job.

“Although we play twins, I’m 25 and Delphi – who’s fantastic in Girl Taken – is 22,” her big sis says. “She’s still at drama school and got a job straight away, the lucky bastard! The first week, there was a little bit of rubbing each other up the wrong way – not on set, but when we got back to the flat – but otherwise it was great having her there. Especially when I was feeling shaky after some of the scenes and needed to get back to the real world.”

Tallulah with her younger sister Delphi

Tallulah did her own training at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama whose alumni also includes Sir Anthony Hopkins, Rob Brydon, Dougray Scott, Trespasses star Tom Cullen and West Belfast’s very own Anthony Boyle.

“The course had to be paused for a bit due to Covid but it was a wonderful three years,” she notes. “One of the friends I made there, Catherine Devlin, is Annie in Blue Lights, which is another brilliant show shot in Belfast. I’m so proud of her.”

The twins’ unravelling mum is played by Jill Halfpenny, who Coronation Street regulars will recognise as the woman who wrecked Martin and Gail Pratt’s marriage, Rebecca Hopkins.

“Jill’s the nicest woman – and so funny, which you need when you’re filming something as dark as Girl Taken,” Tallulah notes. “Whether it’s her soap background I don’t know, but she’s so comfortable on set. If Jill has an opinion, a thought or a change, she always puts it forward in the nicest way possible. That really made an impression on me.

“Another person I learned so much from is Anjelica Huston, who I did The Watcher In The Woods with in 2017. She’s the coolest person with wonderful stories. When I told her I’d been a competitive gymnast, Anjelica showed me her splits which was very impressive. Even now I’m like, ‘How lucky was I to work with a Hollywood legend like that?’”

Asked to tell us more about her sporting endeavours, Tallulah smiles and says, “I used to train four times a week with gymnastics and eight times a week with swimming, but aged 16, I realised I wasn’t going to be either and decided to stop.”

If you haven’t already done the arithmetic, Tallulah made her big screen bow aged just five in Penelope, the 2006 film about a British heiress with a pig’s snout, which also starred Richard E. Grant, Christina Ricci, Reese Witherspoon and James McAvoy.

“I was doing a drama class outside of school with some friends and the lady who was our teacher was also an agent,” Evans resumes. “She put me up for the part and I got it, which was a classic case of beginner’s luck. Being that young, I didn’t realise how big a deal it was and behaved like a complete diva. My costume was so itchy and I threw a right fit about it. How I wasn’t chucked off that film I don’t know!”

Evans followed that up with Son Of Rambow, which is among the greatest independent British movies of the millennia so far.

“I haven’t watched it for a long time, but it’s such a great film,” she agrees. “I was about nine and remember it a lot better than I do Penelope. The other cast and crew may say differently but I’d overcome my diva phase by then and really enjoyed it.

“I was in a very different sort of independent British film recently, Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey 2, which is a sort of horror retelling of the classic story. I was offered that by one of the producers, Scott Chambers, who also plays Christopher Robin. He contacted me through my agent and said, ‘It’s going to be like a group of mates making a film’, which is exactly what it turned out to be. It was a great experience.”

Tallulah Evans in Girl Taken

Along with Girl Taken, Evans can currently be seen in The Forystes, a Victorian period drama which rivals Bridgerton in the glossiness department.

“It did feel very glamorous,” Tallulah concludes. “The sets and costumes were so ornate and beautiful. It was my first time wearing a corset, so that was interesting. I was so embarrassed the first day, because I thought I was going to faint, but I got used to it and it was fine! I’m only in a few episodes, but I’m really glad I got to do it.”

• Girl Taken can be seen now on Paramount+