Luke Evans has opened up on working with Sarah Solemani in ITV's new drama The Party. The duo play husband and wife Martin Gilmour and Lucy Farni in the five-part series.
The Pontypool-born star, who is also an executive producer, came up with the idea to adapt the acclaimed novel by Elizabeth Day for the screen. Showrunner and actress Sarah was later asked by World Productions, the team behind The Pembrokeshire Murders, to adapt Elizabeth's critically acclaimed novel of the same name.
Luke on working with Sarah
Opening up on working with Sarah, Luke said: "The wonderful part of this whole project, of course, is that very soon after she'd written a few episodes, she expressed an interest in playing Lucy.
"I thought it was just absolutely perfect. I thought, 'What a brilliant thing. Now we'll have the writer on set'.
"Any changes we want to make, or any conversations we want to have, there won't be any phones being picked up. We can just literally go, 'Sarah, what do you think of this?'
"That is exactly what happened. It was such a rewarding experience. She's immensely talented in so many different ways, and it was just wonderful to see her just fill this character, and also to build this on-screen relationship together. I loved every day I was on set with Sarah. It was really special."
Sarah's view on Luke
Sarah has also shared what it was like working with Luke on the project. She shared: "It was wonderful. I hadn't worked with him before. I was making a show with David E. Kelley, starring Nicole Kidman, and I asked Nicole about him because they had just done Nine Perfect Strangers together.
"I was really blown away by him in that - it was probably the performance that made me think 'I would love to work with this actor'.
"And so, I asked Nicole about him, and she said he was not only just a brilliant actor, but he was great fun. That counts for a lot.
"When you're jumping into bed with someone on a production and spending a lot of time together, it's important to have a good vibe on set – and he really had that.
"So it was Nicole's recommendation that made me trust that Luke would be excellent - and he was.
"He was very grateful for the scripts and really dedicated to making the best story we could."
The Party continues Tuesday, October 13 at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
