IN CONVERSATION WITH RUBY ASHBOURNE-SERKIS

interview by JANA LETONJA

Ruby Ashbourne-Serkis is quickly emerging as one of the most compelling young performers working across stage and screen. After earning critical acclaim for her lead performance in Tom Stoppard’s Indian Ink at Hampstead Theatre, and a Critics’ Circle Theatre Award nomination for Best Newcomer, she now returns to the West End in David Hare’s Grace Pervades, starring alongside Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison following its celebrated run at Theatre Royal Bath. At the same time, Ruby is stepping into a major television moment with Apple TV+’s ambitious space-race drama Star City, a companion story to For All Mankind that explores the Soviet side of the race to the moon. With acclaimed theatre work and major screen projects converging, Ruby is entering a defining moment in her career.

You’ve been moving between theatre and screen projects at an exciting pace. Do the two mediums challenge you in different ways?  

I’ve been so fortunate to have bounced between the two recently. I love filming, but I’d wanted to do some proper theatre for ages. It’s where my heart lies, so it’s been heavenly doing both. I think with any role, what we as actors strive for is finding the truth in a character, in a scene, in a story, and that’s part of where the challenges differ with each medium. With theatre, you might be doing a scene between two people that’s tender and intimate, and the challenge comes when you’re trying to be natural and as truthful as possible when in reality you’re having to shout in your scene partner’s face in order for the 1000-person audience to hear. But then one of the glories of theatre is the ability to complete a journey every night, with screen, the majority of the time, you’re living your character’s life out of chronological order and the challenge can be to pinpoint the exact thoughts and feelings your character should be having at any given time so that once a whole piece, it gives the impression that your character has gone on this accumulative journey. 

Your performance in Indian Ink earned you a Critics’ Circle Theatre Award nomination. What did that recognition mean to you? 

I couldn’t help but be really grateful for it. Particularly, The Critics Circle being what it is, a bunch of people who adore theatre and go and see everything there is to see, it felt great to be recognised as part of that community and to be placed amidst other actors whose work I really respect.

Tom Stoppard’s writing is famously intricate. What was it like inhabiting that world as a lead performer? 

I think Indian Ink, generally, is one of Stoppard’s more accessible plays. It’s more emotional than cerebral, and to be honest, Stoppard writes women so excellently that with Flora Crewe I was able to slip into her rhythm and headspace fairly naturally. It helped that she was an unstoppable force of nature, a ray of sunshine and ahead of her time, as it meant I was able to play with the freedom she enjoys as a character. Jonathan Kent’s direction was invaluable, as was Felicity Kendall’s selflessness and brilliance, and the whole experience was truly joyous. 

Grace Pervades is transferring to the West End after its run in Bath. How has the production evolved during that journey? 

It’s been lovely to see it develop as a whole, as well as to watch the cast’s relationship with their individual characters evolve and deepen. There’s an endless amount of research that can be done around the subject matter, which people are still exploring, and it helps keep it all rich and fresh. The show’s definitely tighter as a piece, and David Hare’s made some sharp edits so as to clarify the emotional throughline of it all. 

Working alongside actors like Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison must be an incredible experience. What have you learned from sharing the stage with them? 

It’s a real privilege to be watching them do their thing. It can be easy when you’re in a longer run to start taking shows for granted. You get in a groove and suddenly your days become fuller and the show in the evening is no longer the main event. They are both so diligent. In rehearsal, their interrogation of the text and their research is so thorough, and they give each show their absolute best; I know they don’t take a single one for granted. That also applies to the rest of the company. We’re really lucky to have a cast who, no matter how many lines they’ve got, are totally dedicated to telling the story. It’s both inspiring and reaffirming. 

Theatre demands a certain immediacy and vulnerability. Is that something you particularly enjoy about performing live? 

Absolutely. With theatre, it’s like you’re tied to a rope and hanging over the edge of a cliff. It forces you to be entirely in the moment. You’re responding to so many things at once, both as your character and as yourself, and things could go awry at any moment. It’s a total thrill. Vulnerability-wise, it’s incredibly exposing. Like with any role, you’re baring part of yourself to the outside world, but one of the things I love about theatre is the emotional and energetic exchange that goes on between the actors and the audience. A wonderful teacher in New York once told me that as an actor, part of our job is to feel things that others don’t allow themselves to feel, to bare your soul so others don’t have to. So if by being vulnerable I can make someone laugh or cry or think, I’ll happily go there.

On screen, you’re part of Star City, which explores the Soviet perspective of the space race. What intrigued you most about that concept? 

I’ve always been interested in Soviet history. It was such an extreme society and an extraordinary culture of survival, and the show highlights the lengths the Soviets went to in the space race for the sake of ideology, at tremendous human cost. In a world where authoritarian regimes are terrifyingly present and on the rise, it’s really important to be telling stories that look back to history as tales of caution and remembrance to try and learn from them and move forward. 

The show expands the world of For All Mankind. Did you feel a sense of responsibility stepping into an already beloved universe? 

Obviously we wanted to ensure that the people who adore For All Mankind didn’t feel let down by its counterpart, but fortunately the creative team, predominantly Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, was adamant that Star City was entirely its own thing. Whilst it exists in the same universe, venturing beyond the Iron Curtain meant there was scope for a whole new world and we had the luxury of treating it as something new and separate. 

What kind of character are you playing in Star City, and how does she fit into that historical moment? 

I play a free-spirited creative who has married a cosmonaut for love, giving up everything, and finds, after five desperately lonely years within the confines of Star City, that she needs to break free of it. The characters in the show make up a sort of microcosm of soviet society and for me, Tanya represents Art and the power of it in surviving oppressive regimes. She also represents the every woman, the ordinary soviet woman, the mundane domesticity of marriage, the wife of the cosmonaut, entirely kept in the dark from her husband’s high-security work. She’s a great character, and I adored playing her. 

You also appear in the Peaky Blinders film The Immortal Man as Agnes Shelby. What was it like stepping into such an iconic franchise?

So much fun. My nana absolutely adores Peaky Blinders, she’s totally in love with Tommy Shelby, and so I was most excited for her to see me pop up in there. Also, I got to spend a whole night with a huge warehouse of girls dressed like the We Can Do It! Woman singing happy birthday at me on my actual birthday. It was fab. 

You’re returning for the second season of I, Jack Wright. What excites you about revisiting that character? 

I love that all the characters in the Wright family are totally morally reprehensible and in season one, I really lent into that with Emily Wright. That said, what Chris Lang’s done with the second series is make you empathise with them all in a way we didn’t before, and it’s reminded me that actually to play someone truthfully, I shouldn’t judge them objectively. That’s the audience’s job, and I think previously I’ve been a bit harsh on her. I’m excited to have another opportunity to dig deeper and empathise a bit more. 

With theatre, television, and film all unfolding simultaneously in your career, how do you stay creatively grounded?

I’m so thrilled to be able to be doing all three at the moment, and acting, whilst being my job, I don’t think will ever feel like work. It’s always creatively grounding for me. Equally, we’re now living in a time where we don’t need to be pigeonholed into one creative medium, so recently, I’ve been enjoying writing and directing. I’ve also always loved singing and songwriting. There’s a purity and catharsis to songwriting that’s always been a big way for me to ground and channel creative energy. 

TEAM CREDITS:

photography DAVID REISS
styling ALDENE JOHNSON
hair NAO KAWAKAMI
makeup JUSTINE JENKINS