Sky Atlantic’s first original drama series Hit & Miss stars Chloë Sevigny as Mia – a contract killer with a big secret: she’s a transgender woman.
Train. Kill. Receive payment. Repeat. This has been the routine for Mia ever since she was taken under the wing of Eddie, a long-standing resident of the criminal underworld, and transformed into a sharp-shooting assassin. Fate, however, ensures things don’t stay the same for long, and the arrival of a bombshell-laden letter from her ex, Wendy, changes Mia’s life forever.
Created by Paul Abbott (Shameless), the series begins at 10pm tonight on Sky Atlantic.
What is Mia’s story?
“Mia grew up as a boy in a travelling community. She was abused by her brother and her father, but she escaped when she was quite young and lived with a woman, Wendy, for a couple of years.
“She grew up gay and very feminine and always knowing something was wrong, or different, about her and so eventually she decided to transition to a woman. She ended her relationship with Wendy, ran away and totally isolated herself and ended up getting in trouble with a guy. Basically she killed him.
“That’s what brought her to the attention of Eddie, who recruited her to become a hit woman. When we meet her that’s her job. She totally isolates herself from the world and lives on her own. But then she finds out about this family that she inherits courtesy of Wendy and the discovery totally transforms her. She unearths her maternal instincts and she wants to protect and help them. Until she brings her work into the family: as much as they transform her and help bring her out of her shell.”
What were your first thoughts when you read the script?
“The writing of the piece was amazing; everybody who read it was just shocked at how well it was written, the tone, the sphere of it. In terms of the subject matter it sounds a lot more ‘out there’ when you try to explain it. I hear myself describing it and people go, ‘Oh!’ They probably think it’s going to be this kind of poppy, weird, campy thing, but the way we filmed it was much more lyrical, moodier and more realistic. I think people will be surprised by that.
“I think that when people hear about it and are curious and start watching, by the end of the first half they’ll say, ‘Oh, this is really poetic’, you know? Not just some girl running around with a gun. It’s more like a love story between Mia and her son Ryan – a son who she doesn’t even know about initially. She inherits this family, these misfit kids who just have no-one to take care of them and she has to come into the role as the care-taker. That changes her completely.”
Why did you want to take the role?
“I was thinking about the story overall, the transformation this character goes through and just what an opportunity it was, and what a challenge. I haven’t had a lead role ever in my career and I’ve been working in the business for 18 years so it was a great opportunity to really try to do something I’d never done before: prove myself not only to me but to others.
“English television is renowned for its quality – coming from America you see all this great English drama. So I thought why not?”
What sort of research did you do for the role?
“They gave me a lot of information to do with the medical side of transgender and then I met with some transgendered women who I spoke to at length. They were very open and generous with their time and stories. Then I read tons of autobiographies about boys who had done this, and girls who’d gone the other way as well.
“Of course Mia’s not just transgender – she’s also sociopathic and many other things that are really complicated. So I read a book, this really funny book by a hit man, which was like a ‘how to’. It was very helpful!”
How did you choose to play her?
“I wanted to play her more exaggerated: most transgender women that you see, because they ‘learn’ feminism, all their gestures are very over-exaggerated. So I had a meeting with Sean, the writer and Hettie, the director, in the first block, about how she was going to move. They wanted me to play her really solid and feminine but not ultra-feminine.
“I kind of modelled her a bit on Amanda Lear, or April Ashley because they are so convincing and so beautiful as women. Especially April Ashley: I read her book, and you would never know that she is trans.”
Are transgender issues an important part of the show for you?
“I think that the transgender issue is something that has to be addressed; I feel that they have a really tough time out there. There is a lot of television depicting gay and lesbian characters in movies and on television but there’s not so much about trans people and I feel like they are really misunderstood. This goes a little way to address that – it gives you a little peek into some of this world.”
How was the shoot?
“On set it was great: I loved the work, I loved being at work, I loved the crew, the cast… everything was awesome. That was when I discovered that my dry sense of humour was similar to a lot of the northern crew. At least I think it was. You might have to check with them.
“But the downtime was hard, I’ll admit it – being alone up there was hard. The flip side was I loved going up on the moors. Not when we were shooting but just going for walks and stuff; it’s very beautiful up there.”
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Watch a video interview with Chloë Sevigny…