Eve Myles: ‘You wouldn't believe how many Emily Blunt pictures get sent to me to sign’

Although Eve Myles is best known for gunning down campy aliens with unbridled enthusiasm as Gwen Cooper in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, in reality the Welsh actor is about as kick-ass as a kitten. In her own words, she is ‘very fluffy… very quiet, not very good in social environments and constantly living under a hood of imposter syndrome’.

Why then is she constantly being cast as a woman that is a force to be reckoned with? ‘I don’t know what they see in me,’ she says ‘but I have had very strong feisty women around me all my life, my mother being top of the list … so I can identify with women like that. I wish I was a bit more like that, but I'm the most non confrontational person you'll ever meet, whereas most of the characters I play are the most confident, confrontational women going’.

The new ITV six-part thriller Gone sees her star alongside The Walking Dead’s David Morrissey. ‘He is someone everybody does need to work with, because he’s extraordinary,’ she says. In the show Eve is Detective Annie Cassidy, tasked with investigating David’s character, an impassive headmaster whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. When I mention that I’ve watched the first episode, I’m surprised at how eager she is to know if I liked it.

The actor has, after all, received accolades for not just Torchwood, but for portraying Claire Ripley in Broadchurch, for her role as the Queen’s personal dresser Mrs. Jenkins in the period drama series Victoria and for her moving performance in ITV’s recent re-telling of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, The Hack. Not to mention, she has won two BAFTA Cymru awards for Best Actress: one in 2007, the other in 2018, and was awarded the highly coveted title of Wales’ Sexiest Woman in 2013. When I tell her that I found the first episode of Gone gripping, she graciously thanks me. ‘I think people forget that it’s very nerve wracking for us,’ she explains.

Born in 1978, Eve grew up in Ystradgynlais, Powys, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. In 2000 she graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, after meeting her husband there, before landing her first major role in BBC Wales’s drama series Belonging.

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Eve got her break in 2006 as the lead in Torchwood, a role which was written especially for her by showrunner Russell T Davies after her one-off appearance in Doctor Who. He described her as ‘One of Wales’ best-kept secrets’. Her role in the thriller Keeping Faith orUn Bore Mercher, as it aired in Wales, saw her embrace an iconic yellow raincoat, and her heritage, by learning to speak Welsh. She starred in it alongside her husband Bradley Freegard, with whom she shares three children aged 16, 12 and 4. ‘Sleep’s for losers, Lotte,’ she tells me about parenthood. She is the kindest celebrity I have ever interviewed by a country mile — and the sleepiest.

Your aesthetic hero

Linda Hamilton, the original Sarah Connor, who I got to meet. I based Gwen Cooper on her, actually. I think that she is physically strong, mentally strong — and when she brought that character to the screen [in The Terminator] we had never seen a female like that before. She said that she turned up for the second film and even Arnold Schwarzenegger said: ‘Oh my god: this woman is ripped’. It was shocking and thrilling to see that, and I loved it.

An exhibition that really impressed you

My daughter’s artwork in her school hall.

A book you found inspiring

To Kill a Mockingbird. I think Scout is one of the greatest female characters ever written. I love it so much that I bought it for my daughter for Christmas. She's about to do her A-level in English, and needed to do some extra reading. I said: ‘You have to read this book.’ It’s just such a fantastic story, and incredibly-character driven and vivid. It changed my life, that book, actually. It’s probably why I became an actor, really. I just couldn't believe how the characters just spoke to me and that I completely escaped into that world. It really sort of started my creative juices flowing. I found it an incredible form of escapism, and I identified with Scout as a child — a tomboy climbing trees and getting into trouble. That was me.

The last thing of note that you bought yourself

I've just bought four slow cookers for all the runners on my last job, because it's important they eat well — they've looked after me for four months, you know, bringing me hot tea and hot water bottles when I'm in the mud, and working their arses off. And I thought, well, how can I look after them? What I did buy for myself yesterday was a Pret chicken laksa soup, chilli crisps and a pot of mango. Can’t go wrong. Actually, I’ve also bought myself a new Saul Leiter photography book. He’s my favourite photographer and I buy myself a new photography book after every job finishes. It’s a treat to myself.

A possession you’d never sell

I would never sell my mum’s vase.

Your favourite painting

My favourite painting is by a Scottish artist called Alexander Miller, and it's called A Wee Backy Doon The Brae. It's a little boy on the back of a bike holding onto his dad's donkey coat with his little welly boots kicking out. His dad’s a miner and it's a silhouette of them from the back. I spotted this painting in a gallery in Stratford-upon-Avon when I was at the RSC there, and it reminded me of me and my dad, who was a Scottish man. There were always stories growing up that my father would try to cycle the hill up to our house from our tiny village on his bike with me in a seat at the back, and if he wasn't going fast enough, I would pinch him to go up faster. And so we'd always say that the painting was granddad and me, to our kids. I bought it — it was very expensive for me at the time — and I paid every month for it.

The music you work to

Every character has a different playlist. Music is really important to me. For Keeping Faith, I brought Amy Wadge on board to write music for that, because she was absolutely the right person. Before scenes, during scenes, I would have her in my ears, because it's like the soul of a character to me, music. It brings out different things, unlocks certain things, it's something that really influences me. I've just done Crow Girl now, and that's very much your Agnes Obel. My artist for Gone is London Grammar. They were played on repeat for Annie Cassidy.

The items you collect

Scripts. Oh and I love a teapot. I’m obsessed with tea.

The last podcast you listened to

It's something I really want to get into, actually — I genuinely don't have time — but I know the podcast I want to listen to, and that’s Kathy Burke’s podcast about death [Where There's A Will, There's A Wake].

The person that would play you in a film of your life

Well, you wouldn't believe how many Emily Blunt pictures get sent to me to sign. It’s become a bit of a joke in our house because so many people send Emily's picture to me. So I guess, aesthetically, possibly her — and she is a superb artist. But ultimately, I’ll go with my wonderful co-star Gabrielle Creevy, who I did The Guest with. We've got very similar backgrounds.

A hotel you could go back and back to

The hotel where we got married in Italy. I will never ever tell anybody which one it is.

What you’d take with you to a desert island

My husband.

The thing that gets you up in the morning

The kids. We have a four-year-old who shouts: ‘Team! Team!’ every morning, like we are a basketball team. That gets me up.

The most memorable meal you’ve ever eaten

The fish and chips and bottle of champagne I had to myself after doing the London Marathon. It was absolutely exquisite.

The best present you’ve ever received

A run bath at the end of a hard working day.

Gone will premiere from Sunday 8 March on ITV and ITVX