We chat to Misfits' leading ladies about series three, love interests and addressing the boy/girl balance on the show
Are you excited to be getting new powers?
Antonia Thomas : Very excited! It’s brilliant; it’s so nice to do something a bit different. That power from the last series was good in terms of dramatic reasons for acting and stuff because it was a nightmare for Alisha, but as a fun element my new power is much better. And I get to use it quite a lot which is cool.
Lauren Socha: I don’t really know. I think [my power is] more funny than serious. I don’t think it’s right that Kelly has something serious either, it’s a bit too out of her league I think...
Congratulations on your BAFTA victory earlier this year by the way.
LS: Oh, thank you darling. Yeah, it’s wicked. I didn’t go in there thinking I was going to win it at all. I was literally sat there thinking, “OK, I’m not going to get it, whatever.” And then they got my name wrong! I just went up, got my award and got my steam on. I’m quite oblivious, I don’t want to sound stupid or anything but I don’t really understand what the BAFTA means. I’ve only been doing this a couple of years so I don’t really know. I heard it’s good to have a BAFTA, so fuck it, I’ve got one.
What can you tell us about the scene you’re filming today?
AT : Zombie cheerleaders. The cheerleaders get bitten and they all go mental and try to kill us. And then we realise we have to kill them all before the infection spreads, so right now we’re beating the cheerleaders over the head and it’s all a bit gruesome and fun. We’re about to get splattered with blood, so that’s good. Always fun.
How has the show changed with Robert Sheehan leaving and Joe Gilgun joining the cast?
AT: It’s been completely different in that they have completely different energies. There was always a worry because Robbie was such a big character and such big boots to fill, he was absolutely brilliant, but Julie Harken has done such a great job in casting Joe, because he’s wicked. He’s really good, and as a person in terms of fitting in with he gang, the first day he got on set it was like he’d never not been part of us, so it’s really, really easy. He’s such a lovely guy and we all get on really well. He’s just part of the family now, so it’s brilliant, yeah.
Are Simon and Alisha still together?
AT: Yeah, last season, by the end of it they were very much in a “serious relationship”. Simon’s thing is the Superhoodie drama, and that thread continues throughout, the trials and tribulations they go through, the sort of things that they face because of that, him being Superhoodie, or not being Superhoodie or whatever.
Do you think Alisha's grown out of her man-eater phase now?
AT: She’s much more settled. She was only like that because she was insecure and it was all she’d need to use her sexuality to be like that and she never had a serious relationship where someone made her feel good about herself and that she didn’t have to flaunt her tits and shag about basically. She’s now in a loving relationship and very happy, so she’s a completely different person really. Over quite a short space of time.
Are you envious of anyone elses' power this year?
LS: Not really, fuck the powers.
AT: Not really, because in terms of Misfits it’s never been about them enjoying their powers. Yeah, they get to buy these powers and they sort of choose them in a way, they chose powers that will be useful to them, but the drama is so focused around them as young people and the relationships between them and all the stuff they have to face, so the power thing is just convenient.
LS: They don’t want them, but unfortunately they end up having them from the start. Ever since we first got the powers we’ve needed them.
AT: We didn’t know that we needed them, but by the end of the second series we only realised when we got rid of them.
LS: Yeah, that we actually needed them straight after we got rid of the fuckers.
How does Seth fit in with the group?
AT: At the beginning of the series he’s very much an outsider, the only interaction we have with him is about the powers, so we’re very wary of him at first, but then he becomes a bit more integrated. He’s another person dealing with the same things that we are, he has a power to, and he’s going through it too.
Does Alisha feel a lot of pressure knowing what's in Simon's future?
AT: There’s a lot of conflict between them about his power, because she doesn’t want him to actually become that person, because she knows that he’ll eventually go back in time and leave her. So it’s this massive thing between them, it’s this inevitable thing that’s happening. She’s kind of fighting for him as a person to stay with her, because they’re in love and she doesn’t want that to happen
The cast is becoming quite boy-heavy, would you like to see another girl join the gang?
LS: I wouldn’t like that, oh god if there was another girl. Because me and her are dead close, I’d be dead jealous I would.
AT: We’re quite used to the dynamic as it is. Although it is quite boy heavy now, it doesn’t really feel like that. Matthew coming in just felt like a normal transition and if another girl came into the storyline I'm sure that would too. But as it is there isn’t one... at the moment.
If there’s one thing you can say that would get people excited about this new series, what would it be?
AT: I have much less sex! But I don’t think people are going to get excited about that. Nazis, they’re going to be exciting. Zombie cheerleaders and Nazis, pretty extreme. Much of the same just bigger and more and all of that. People who like the show won’t be disappointed, it’s definitely cranked up another gear but it’s all in the same vein of borderline acceptability in terms of social commentary. Bigger, better, more.
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The Misfits series three UK airdate is Sunday 30 October.
Check out issue 215 of SFX ( on sale now) for even more on Misfits series three.
