Actress Kimberley Nixon’s latest film is Black Death, which also stars Sean Bean and Carice van Houten, but she’s also known for her roles in films like Cherrybomb, Easy Virtue, Wild Child and the BBC drama Cranford. Here she talks to View’s Matthew Turner about bum doubles, Jessica Biel and her favourite scenes in Black Death.

What's the film about and who do you play?
Kimberley Nixon (KN): The film is called Black Death and I play Averill, who is the love interest of Eddie Redmayne's character, Osmund, who is a monk and so obviously there's a conflict there. So there's a kind of very sweet love story woven through this very dark film, which keeps him going, I think.

What attracted you to the part and how did you get involved?
KN: I got involved by reading the script and going for an audition. I went in and Chris [director Christopher Smith] wasn't there, it was just the casting director and she said, 'Do you have any questions?' and I said, 'I don't think so, let's just try it' and I read once and she said 'Okay, thank you!' And that's usually a bad sign, so I left thinking [sighs] ‘Oh. And I really liked that film, as well. C'est la vie.' Then I got a call - apparently Chris had watched the tape and really loved it and really wanted to meet me. I went back in, read once for him and that was it – he just said, 'You've got it.' He just seemed to like me for some reason.

Had he seen your other films?
KN: I'm almost positive that he hadn't. When I got the role and he found out that I was in Cranford, I think his whole sort of mission throughout making Black Death was to make me into the anti-Cranford. He wanted to take away that pure, shiny, bonnet idea of period dramas and make it kind of very visceral and horrible and dirty.

I wondered if he was a big Easy Virtue fan?
KN: Oh, that was really great. That was really good fun. You see my bum in that.

That really is your bum?
KN: It really is my bum. That morning we had to film the can-can scene and Stephan Elliott, the crazy Australian director came in and said, 'Look, we need you to do it – we can maybe get you a double but it would take a very long time and we've only got this space for a little while' and so he was just like, 'If you don't do it, it's going to ruin the whole film and it's your fault.' [laughs] No, he didn't.

I can't believe they pulled the old 'It's going to take a really long time to get a double' routine.
KN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I went, 'Er, yeah, of course' and then we got there and Jessica Biel said to me, 'Oh, you have asked for a closed set?' and I said, 'What's that?' so she sorted it out for me and kind of got rid of 50% of the room that didn't need to be there. But yeah, I was very well looked after.

That's very sweet of her.
KN: Yeah, it was really sweet of her, because I literally did say 'What is a closed set?' But that film was really great and when I watched it, I mean it was hugely embarrassing but it's very funny and sweet and I'm glad it's my bum and not someone else's.

Have you kept in touch with all the people from that film?
KN: Mostly, yeah. Obviously people are working in different parts of the world, but I always see Jessica whenever I head to America – she's really lovely. So that's great and she's so much more experienced in this business. She's really sweet, she kind of gives me pointers. And Katherine Parkinson's lovely – we keep in touch. I've got a lot of brothers and half of them went to see her in The IT Crowd, which she organised for them, because they absolutely love it and she's really sweet like that. And whenever she texts me she always calls me 'Little Sister'.

Do you have any particular rules for choosing scripts or is every one different?
KN: Yeah, every one is different. I mean, sometimes you get given a script and they say, 'Oh, so-and-so is attached' and so you read it with that person in mind. Sometimes you're just given a script and they say, 'Just read it and see what you think.' With Black Death I don't think I knew Sean Bean was attached and I read it and then I was told and it made perfect sense, obviously. I just really loved it – it was very dark and I felt when I was reading it that you could smell it. You know, it was very well described in the script and you could smell just the kind of dead bodies in the air and the filth. So different things really, but I usually go with my instinct and I'm glad I did with this one.

Chris is known as a horror director. Was it a deliberate choice to do something this dark – like you said, the anti-Cranford?
KN: I think so. I think this sort of material was where I'd come from. In drama school we worked with very dark material and I'd always done plays and plays are usually very dark. And so then I graduated and I kind of got Cranford and I got Wild Child and I got Angus, Thongs... and they were really lovely kind of upbeat, sweet parts. And so that's how everyone maybe got to know me, whereas this is more my sort of thing, I think.

Although actually, you are still playing a kind of sweet part in it.
KN: Yes. [laughs] I can't get away from the fact that I look about nine years old and Chris dressed me in white a lot and that kind of thing. But I was talking to him about making her not so pure and sweet like that because I wanted to get away from it but then I had to be a kind of opposite to Carice's part [co-star Carice van Houten] and it couldn't just be a sex thing, a lust thing – he had to love her and that's why he left the monastery. It couldn't just be because he wanted her, so I do understand the choice.

Do you have a favourite scene in the film?
KN: I think my favourite scene to work on was the very first scene in my kind of hut, which actually was longer. My character wasn't as mapped out as the others were and so we literally rehearsed on set, we kind of came up with stuff on set and that was really good. And Eddie was so sweet that you can do that – if you're working with somebody that's not – he was so generous. I know that's a really actor-y thing to say but if somebody's not giving you anything it's difficult to get stuff going, you know what I mean? And we were both very open to whatever Chris suggested we try.

But my favourite scene to watch is the savage attack scene, because Chris let me watch that one. I had an audition around the corner from where they were editing and he said pop by and have a look and that was the first one I saw and I just thought it was brilliant.

Was there anything that was cut out that you really hated to lose?
KN: I think Averill was the character that was most messed around with and played around with. I shot a scene where you see Osmund in the monastery and then you see this girl in the village and you see her steal a piece of bread, because food is very scarce. So she does this kind of quick thing and then a couple of scenes later you see a woman being boarded into a house and begging Averill for help and for food and it's a kind of every dog for himself, you know?

But I think what Chris realised and what I understand is that you might not have liked her for that, even though maybe it's understandable. But in that first few minutes you have to like her, you have to want her to be safe and you have to want her and Osmund to be together – that's the hope in the film, I think.