‘Penny Dreadful’: Eva Green, Timothy Dalton Shed Light On Characters, Crazy Scenes

Since its first episode, Showtime’s Penny Dreadful has been beloved by both fans and critics. The show has successfully combined the creepy tales of Frankenstein and his monster, Dracula and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Not surprisingly, this combining of storylines can be a little bit confusing, especially for people who are joining the series in the middle. Two of the stars of the show recently shed some light on their characters and a couple of scenes that have made Penny Dreadful as popular as it has been so early on.

Eva Green, who plays Vanessa Ives, recently talked to Buzzfeed about her character’s motivating factors and humanity. Green plays the character, who is an original creation for the show, as plenty enigmatic.

Sunday’s most recent episode shed some light on the backstory of Ives but there is still plenty of info to find out. Green said she’s not allowed to talk too much about the secrets of her character in Penny Dreadful for fear of backlash from her director.

“I don’t know what to say, my god. I mean, she still has that kind of force inside her, and she’s trying to kind of tame it, let’s say, but sometimes it pops out. It’s always kind of interesting to play with it.”

The force she’s talking about is a demon that had possessed her at one time and the aftereffects of that possession are not yet known.

How all the evil in the show has been brought together in Penny Dreadful isn’t known yet either, but co-star Timothy Dalton has a theory. In the most recent episode, it was shown that Dalton’s character — Sir Malcolm — had an affair with Vanessa’s mother.

During an interview with The Wrap, Dalton talked about this penultimate scene and the way the show went about unveiling it. He also said the sex between the two played a part in what’s unfolded since that interlude.

“It’s part of it. But part is the operative word. There’s more. Of course you’ve got to understand Vanessa’s part. She has an affair out of spite, out of revenge, out of jealousy. It is those actions that set Mina off.”

Dalton also talked about the fact that Penny Dreadful show runners shot the scene two different ways. Dalton says one scene was shot where Sir Malcolm sees Vanessa watching him and her mother and they “lock eyes.”

The version that aired on June 8 has Dalton’s character unaware he was seen. By doing it this way, even the actors in Penny Dreadful weren’t sure which way the show was going to go.