Gayle Rankin on The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie: 'I don’t think we've made as much progress as I'd hope'
The first Scot to enter New York’s legendary Juilliard School, Gayle Rankin has been on a steady track to stardom ever since. With an impressive selection of stage and screen credits behind her, Rankin is making a homecoming of sorts in National Theatre Of Scotland’s adaptation of The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie
'She’s dangerous. She’s also brilliant and charismatic and inspiring. She’s an unmarried, childless kind of renegade. Renegade in her own way, even though she’s quite conservative.’ Paisley-born actor Gayle Rankin is at her home in New York, talking over Zoom, describing one of Scottish literature’s most enigmatic female characters: Miss Jean Brodie. Rankin is returning to her roots to play the lead role in National Theatre Of Scotland’s adaptation of Muriel Spark’s classic novel. ‘Jean is very mysterious. I play a lot of mysterious, complicated women, which I love, and I’m making it as personal as I can.’
You might recognise Rankin as the shy, feral wrestler Sheila in Netflix comedy GLOW. Or the eerie, mystical healer Alys Rivers in House Of The Dragon, HBO Max’s prequel to Game Of Thrones. She also popped up as Queen Victoria in Hollywood’s The Greatest Showman then played a devout Pentecostal mother in TV’s Perry Mason. And she received a Tony nomination for Best Actress In A Musical for her role on Broadway as Sally Bowles in Cabaret.
Rankin is chatting a few days before her 37th birthday. Jean Brodie, who famously describes herself as being ‘in her prime’, was 39 at the start of the book, teaching her special group of ten-year-old girls in 1930s Edinburgh. ‘Jean is trying to figure out her place in the world, you know, carve a path and a future for herself that feels right, and I can relate to that in my own way. I’ve chosen a kind of untraditional life, being an actor. Your body and your mind and your soul are not always necessarily your own, or your own to offer up to other people, or to a child,’ Rankin ponders out loud, curling her feet underneath herself on the couch. ‘I have an amazing partner and a deep, rich personal life but, of course, we’re making decisions, thinking about family plans. As a woman, if you don’t decide to have a child, what is your purpose? Are you purposeless? Asking these questions for myself right now feels helpful in regards to how I’m attacking Jean.’
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie was first published in The New Yorker magazine in 1961, taking up almost the entire issue with its tale of an unorthodox schoolteacher at Marcia Blaine School For Girls. Spark’s novel was published later that year, then a film adaptation starring Maggie Smith followed in 1969. Rankin played a nameless girl in the Lyceum Theatre’s 2003 stage version, starring Siobhan Redmond. She’s back at the Lyceum but this time in the title role. ‘It’s been a minute since I was in Scotland; I’m starved of Scottish chat,’ jokes Rankin who left almost 20 years ago to pursue an acting career in the US. She made the papers as the first Scottish student to win a place at New York’s renowned Juilliard School, aged 17. She returns home once or twice a year to visit family or for work.
Our chat takes place right before Rankin’s three-month stint back in the Motherland, starting with the premiere of The Incomer, which opened this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. Marking her EIFF debut, Rankin played an oddball islander named Isla. And now she’s all set for The Prime Of Jean Brodie which hits Glasgow, Aberdeen and Pitlochry after its Edinburgh outing. Rankin stars alongside Maureen Beattie as the disapproving headmistress Miss MacKay, Brian Ferguson and Dyfan Dwyfor as two sides of a love triangle (Jean’s lover Mr Lowther and her romantic obsession Mr Lloyd), plus Tallulah Greive and Bobby Rainsbury as pupils Monica Douglas and Sandy Stranger.
‘It seems fortuitous,’ states Rankin. ‘I just had the best time making The Incomer, and it feels like a really exciting introduction to me working back in Scotland again. I’ve been working in the UK more and more, but Scotland specifically. It feels like Scotland’s having a bit of a moment.’ The chance to return not just to Scotland but to the stage has huge appeal for Rankin, after working extensively in TV and film. ‘There’s such a freedom to it. You’re going through the whole journey all at once; it’s a treat for an actor. You’re not stopping and starting and getting touched up by hair and make-up. I love to be free. It’s where I feel most comfortable.’
Rankin remembers having an incredible drive from an early age. ‘I just always wanted to be a weird actor. And now I am! I certainly wasn’t pushed by anybody so I only have myself to blame. I didn’t need a Jean Brodie. I was my own Jean Brodie in a way.’ Despite her focus and ambition, and a career that has seen her star opposite Elisabeth Moss and Eddie Redmayne, have portraits taken by photographer Rankin (no relation) and invited to party at the Met Gala, Rankin also admits to being very insecure. ‘I’ve definitely gone much farther than I imagined and I’m so grateful. But I’ve not been able to shirk that self-deprecating side. I think I am just very Scottish in that way. I’m insecure about so many things: the way I look or what I’d have to impart to younger people. It’s endless and really sad. But I think it’s good to share it; that’s a way to dispel it as well because they’re just thoughts.’
Rankin has been channeling those contradictions in preparation for the role of Jean, a process which began through lots of transatlantic video calls with director Vicky Featherstone and writer David Harrower. ‘I think that’s why I’m drawn to this part; there’s a duality inside of me. A really driven, strong part and a much more vulnerable, unsure side. But there’s also a lot of power in vulnerability. I share that with Jean and that’s something I want to bring to the role. There’s a way to expose her vulnerability without defending her or her bad decisions because I do think she’s vulnerable. I think she’s quite open, actually, for being as controlled as she is.’
As for Miss Brodie’s famous group of students, the girls that she calls ‘the crème de la crème’, Rankin looks forward to exploring these female relationships. ‘It’s about teasing that out a bit more, finding out who Jean is and why she has these specific, sometimes manipulative, controlling relationships with the girls.’ Rankin’s accent may slide gently between soft American and west of Scotland these days, but the rolled ‘r’ on ‘girls’ is pure Scottish and very Maggie Smith. ‘I think it’s really interesting for a female teacher to have an intense relationship with a much younger student in a non-romantic sense. It’s rich territory. In terms of gender, I don’t think we have made as much progress as I would hope. I think Jean is attempting progress in her own crazy way.’
After her NTS performance, Rankin will return to America where she has a home in the West Village and another in upstate New York. She recently finished Ashley Wright, an upcoming indie movie with Ed Harris, in which she plays the title role of a homeless mother fighting for custody of her two children. ‘I would like to do some gardening, actually, because I have a beautiful garden in the country. I want to really take some time to consider the child thing. And maybe try to get a job. I’m absolutely addicted to work. I am obsessed with it and love it and distracted by it; I’m clearly running from something. Actually, I don’t think I’m running from something. I think I’m running towards something.’
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Friday 2–Sunday 18 October; Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Wednesday 21–Saturday 24 October; His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, Thursday 29–Saturday 31 October; Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Wednesday 4–Saturday 7 November; main picture: Rankin.