Chanel Creswell about Vardy and Rooney: “Colin is now a completely different woman – she’s not joking”

“If it scares you, do it!” Chanel Cresswell says. The actress tells me why she took on the role of Colin Rooney on Channel 4. Vardy vs. Rooney: Legal Dramabring to our screens the so-called “Vagata Christie” lawsuit.

If you haven’t been to a desert island in the past three years, you know the crux of the story: after Rooney (wife of former footballer Wayne Rooney) blamed Rebecca Vardy after she started her own “investigation” on her personal Instagram account . (wife of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy) to leak stories about her The sun. Rooney’s infamous October 2019 social media post, which is remembered like no other, ended with four world-changing words: “This is…… Rebecca Vardy’s account.

Rooney’s post and the many jokes that followed were just the beginning. Vardy always denied Rooney’s accusations, and she eventually sued her for damages, alleging that Rooney had defamed her. This culminated in a dramatic defamation court case, with Rooney’s legal team attempting to prove Vardy’s involvement in spreading the stories.

During the trial, we saw women enter and leave the courtroom with their husbands in tow, carrying bags that cost more than the down payment on the apartment. We’ve heard great stories about phones falling mysteriously into the North Sea. WhatsApp messages between Vardy and her agent were read aloud, pulling back the veil on the filthy tabloid world and painting a damning portrait of her character. In the end, Vardy came out of the process even worse than before. Not only did she lose her case, but she also had to pay the legal bill, which was reported to be around £3 million.

The Channel 4 court drama, in which Creswell starred alongside Natalia Tena and Michael Sheen, focuses on the trial itself, and viewers are hoping the full backstory of Vardy’s (and Rooney’s catching them) agency sales turns into a hit soap opera. like drama, it might not be a show for her. (Though no doubt something similar is in development somewhere.) However, it includes plenty of scandalous moments from the trial that people may have missed due to the avalanche of media coverage, and offers a more detailed look at the saga after the dust has settled. As Rooney, Cresswell spends most of her screen time in a quiet rage, armed with the same sense of justice that led the real Rooney to victory in court.

At 15, Creswell hit the media herself when she starred in the 2006 film Shane Meadows. This is England. She reprized the role of Kelly Jenkins for three subsequent television series in 2010, 2011 and 2015, all aired on Channel 4. As a teenager, she said she had little interest in being a “celebrity”. However, the role gave her “a head start in acting” and prepared her for the rest of the roles she played. Most recently, she appeared on ITV. gulf and those from BBC One sherwood. After applying false eyelashes, Rooney’s next project will be the Guy Ritchie series, the sequel gentlemenstreamed worldwide on Netflix.

Surprisingly, Creswell says she didn’t follow Wagata Christie at the time. Pretty much everything she learned about it was how to prepare for a role.

“When I saw the court documents, I was surprised how the media took it and turned it into their own beast,” she says.

Part of what drew her to this particular project was that while it’s a story about two women in an infamous feud, she finds sympathy for both sides in it – even Vardy, who many see as the villain in the story.

“We didn’t want to go into details, and as a viewer you feel compassion,” she says. “I think the show does a very good job of leveling the playing field for these women. I could tell from the script that this was not a one-sided hate campaign.”

With Vardy, we see how the brutal social media trolls that began when she was well into her pregnancy took her life.

“Perhaps it was one of the greatest tragedies,” says Cresswell. “I don’t understand how people can have this in them, take their laptops or phones and do this!” And while most of us can’t imagine an own goal becoming so public and expensive, there is a connection to the moment when Vardy, as a witness, realizes that taking this case to trial was a huge mistake.

Creswell tells me that she’s starting to enjoy the roles she chooses. She jokes that she usually plays women with their hair and makeup while going through difficult and traumatic circumstances. In this sense, the impeccable Colleen seems to be the starting point. But there is also darkness in this role. We see how navigating the celebrity world, where even the smallest private spaces are attacked and exploited for profit, makes them suspicious.

“It must be very suffocating and makes you pretty paranoid,” she says. “Thinking that your friends and family could betray you at any moment is why she was so determined to get to the bottom of it.”

To prepare for the role (and Rooney’s very characteristic Scouse accent), Creswell watched interviews with her as well as past episodes. Real Women Colin – a 2008 TV show in which Rooney tried to hire “real” women for cosmetic campaigns. She also looked ROONEY, an Amazon documentary about the life and career of her husband Wayne. In the documentary, he details his struggles with alcoholism and his well-documented infidelity.

Watching the couple back to back, Creswell was amazed at how much Rooney had changed over time. “Looking at Colin in the past, I thought that this is the same Colin that everyone knows. She still has a naivety to her, and she’s probably getting a little attention and accepting it. But over time, Creswell believes she was forced to build new barriers. “She definitely got tougher, and I think there was also a feeling in that process that she proved she was a completely different woman now. She won’t fool anyone!”

Channel 4’s take on Vardy vs. Rooney may not be the camp performance some were hoping for. But it raises important questions about the process of turning someone into a villain.

“I think one of the biggest things about this story was how much hate the tabloids can ignite,” Creswell says. But through the process that Vardy himself sought, he also touches on how shame can be used to gain money, power and influence in today’s world.

Creswell believes it also asks viewers the question, “When you’re watching, you really have to sit back and ask yourself, why do you care so much? How did this story get so big? For me, that’s the most interesting part.”