Louise Brealey is the queen of the longing look. As Molly Hooper in BBC1’s Sherlock (not so much a series now as a phenomenon, thanks to its huge international success), the actress has perfected a similar expression to the one that appears on the faces of women across the world whenever Benedict Cumberbatch’s sexy otter face and swishy coat arrive on screen.
So if dominatrix Irene Adler was the show’s femme fatale, pathologist Molly is its everywoman. “On a basic level, women can relate to Molly if they fancy Benedict Cumberbatch. She’s them,” says Brealey. “He is unobtainable: both as Sherlock and Benedict. A double-whammy. But Molly makes a twat out of herself not because she’s stupid but because she loves him.”
In one particularly brutal scene, Sherlock accidentally humiliates Molly at their Christmas party by assuming she has dressed up and bought a present for a new boyfriend, only to discover her efforts were for him. Only the steel-hearted wouldn’t have been moved by Brealey’s crumpled face. “Most people I know have been in love with someone who doesn’t love them back. It feels f***ing horrible. It aches and it aches, and what can you do? It’s not a stretch to play something like that, because I’ve been there.”
But in the series two finale, Molly was elevated from lovelorn sidekick to heroine, after she helped Sherlock to fake his own death. “The first text I received at the end of the episode said, ‘Thank you for saving Sherlock!’ Molly’s so overlooked by everyone but in the end she’s the one he can turn to.”
Cumberbatch, she says, is “absolutely committed as an actor. There’s never a moment when he’s not Sherlock. And as a person, he is a delight.”
READ MORE: http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/sherlocks-molly-the-original-cumberbitch-8293476.html
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