Clockwise from left: Robin’s
daughter Mary (Alice Englert)
with boyfriend Alexander ‘Puss’
Braun (David Dencik), an East
German with ties to a notorious
brothel; Nicole Kidman as
Mary’s adoptive mother Julia;
Griffin gets steely; girls from
the Silk 41 brothel.
relationships, but in a way that felt so real.
Through all the strangeness she gives us a very
interesting perception of the realities of human
behaviour, giving us a piercing and profound
look at what it is to be human in all of its
strangeness and venality. That was magical to
me, and that’s what I wanted to explore.”
Campion’s involvement also provides the
show with a strong feminine sensibility in the
male dominated thriller genre, from Moss’ deeply
troubled detective through to Holly Hunter’s
androgynous den-mother who attracts the sick
and needy in the first season to new characters
like Christie’s Hilmarson and Nicole Kidman’s
Julia Edwards, the mother of the child that
Griffin put up for adoption.
“I’ve sort of talked about this with Jane
before and I think we actually disagree on it,”explains Moss, recently Emmy nominated for
Outstanding Lead Actress for her brilliant
performance as Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale.
“I actually feel like I’ve got a lot of feminine
energy from male directors and vice versa. I just
think she has her own unique perspective, and
I’m not sure if that’s because she’s a woman or
not. Jane’s an incredibly unique individual, and
that’s why she’s created these worlds that are so
unusual. For me, she is very in tune to people’s
emotions and their feelings, but is that because
she’s a woman? I don’t know. I think she would
say that it does have to do with her being
a woman.” Moss smiles. “I actually think it’s
because she’s a great director.”TOP OF THE LAKE: CHINA GIRL WILL AIR ON FOXTEL’S
BBC FIRST FROM 20 AUGUST AT 8.30PM.