Ann Dowd and Essie Davis chat Lambs of God and women’s stories

Given the number of scary characters she’s played, you’d think people would be afraid of approaching Ann Dowd.

I was sitting in Ann Dowd’s trailer and it was toasty, the reverse cycle aircon filling the small space with warm air.

Thank god, because outside it was about six degrees and since the sun went down over the Blue Mountains about 90 minutes earlier, it had felt much, much colder. All the wool insoles and thick socks in the world weren’t enough to stem the cold seeping through the wet mud underfoot into my boots, enveloping my feet.

Dowd was in town filming Lambs of God, a Foxtel production which starts airing this Sunday. It’s a gothic thriller about three cloistered nuns who have been living in isolation on an island monastery when a priest turns up, brimming with arrogance and patriarchal malintent.

It’s the perfect show for winter, if you’re rugged up inside under a blanket with the heat blasting, but know that the chilly atmosphere you see on screen is genuine.

That day, the production was shooting exterior scenes on a private property about 45 minutes west of Leura, where they’ve created a dome structure with a Mother Mary stature nestled inside — the moss and vine-covered fake stones look like it’s been here forever, instead of a couple of weeks.

Jessica Barden, Essie Davis, Ann Dowd and Sam Reid in a scene from the TV series Lambs of God. Supplied by Foxtel.

The dome is supposed to recall a womb, and those earthy, female touches are evident everywhere, including the ever-present lambs that have been wrangled for the show.

Nearby, plastic tubes pumped out fog, adding to the chill in the air — or at least giving the impression of it. Everyone on the crew had donned down parkers and beanies, and assistants were liberally passing around hand and toe warmers.

But later, inside Dowd’s trailer, where we’re chatting as she takes all the pins out of her wig, it’s practically balmy.

Dowd, a veteran screen actor with over 30 years of credits, has recently had a career renaissance, but mostly for playing terrifying women. There’s Aunt Lydia, the stern disciplinarian in The Handmaid’s Tale; Joan, a malevolent presence in Hereditary; and cult leader Patti in The Leftovers.

It’s a collection of roles that might give someone pause about approaching her for a chat, but people still do, even if they don’t realise they’re doing it.

Dowds started to tell of a recent encounter in a Sydney bookshop when she handed back to young female shop assistant some books she’d changed her mind on.

“She started to giggle a little bit,” she said. “So then when I went up to her to pay for the things I was getting, the other girl says to me, ‘my friend said you look a lot like the woman who plays Lydia, have you ever heard of The Handmaid’s Tale?’

“I said to them, ‘I have’. She said back, ‘Have you ever seen it?’

“’Well, I am actually in it’. And they went pale and then red. It was hysterical and sweet. It’s so lovely.”

Essie Davis, Ann Dowd and Jessica Barden in a scene from the TV series Lambs of God. Picture: Mark Rogers

Dowd is as warm and softly-spoken as Aunt Lydia is cold and menacing. Unlike the characters she plays, she immediately puts you at ease. But she’s attracted to these fictional women, including Lambs of God’s Margarita, who are very different from herself.

“These women are challenging and complicated — loners to a degree. They don’t quite fit into the main flow of life. I find that very interesting.

“What keeps them going? What gives them meaning? What prevents them from feeling that they can’t fit in? Patti on The Leftovers, and Lydia and Margarita, none of them have children. They chose other lives. The same with Joan in Hereditary and BJ in American Animals.

“What are they wanting in their lives? What are they afraid of? I find them intriguing because they tell their own story, no one is telling it for them, you know?”

One of the themes of Lambs of God is the clash between female worship and the patriarchal hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

Earlier on set, in between takes, Dowd had talked about her mother’s Catholic faith and what she has learnt throughout the production process in terms of the repressed narratives of the faith — the stories that tend to belong to women.

“The notion of devotion to god and being grateful for one’s life, I grew up with that,” she later explained in her trailer. “I have not always embraced the church as such because — I love men, I think men are great — but the church should not be a male-dominated institution.

“I was never particularly tempted to take that seriously. It seemed like people make rules up and the fact that there are not women on the altar in full capacity just seems to me to be the proof. God would not exclude women from the table.

Ann Dowd in a scene from Season 3 of The Handmaid's Tale.

“I had beautiful influences, but those things never made sense to me. I had the freedom to let it go when I got older. It’s absolutely absurd that it’s still the case. What is this charade we’re all participating in?”

Those are not words that would come from Aunt Lydia, but they would very much come from Margarita, and from Dowd.

Dowd signed up for Lambs of God, despite the distance from home, because she was intrigued by people’s stories that they don’t work through.

“Margarita has a fear that dominates her to some degree, and it’s kept her prisoner, And in this story, she is forced to actually square off with that fear and in doing so, is able to release it.”

Throughout our chat, there are peals of laughter coming from the other side of the thin wall that separates Dowd’s quarters from Australian star Essie Davis.

Davis, who’s best known for her roles in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mystery, The Babadook and The Slap, plays one of the other two nuns, Sister Iphigenia, the pseudo-leader of the trio.

She was approached for the role when Dowd was already cast.

“The script was so unusual, and it was such a beautiful and unpredictable role,” Davis said. “Ann was already attached and I was like, ‘I would like to do that too’.

“I think (screenwriter) Sarah Lambert and (author) Marele Day have created a world full of dilemma that you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Australian actress Essie Davis, starring in Game of Thrones.

For Davis, like Dowd, Lambs of God is also about claiming your own story.

“You have to tell your own story in order to move on, in order to really know yourself and live a good life. You have to face it and not just run away from it.”

Earlier in the day, as Davis, Dowd, Jessica Barden and Sam Reid were filming their scenes, under the tutelage of director Jeffrey Walker (Ali’s Wedding), we watched on from the sidelines, trying to not stand on the real vegetables including kale and cabbage the production had planted for the nun’s garden.

When the rain started to come in, portable tents came out to shield the equipment, but filming continued. Between takes, an assistant would wrap Davis up in a scarf. Underneath the woolly dresses they were costumed in, the actors were all wearing thermals.

For someone as high in-demand as Davis, a little cold is nothing.

Lambs of God was the first in a line of projects Davis was working on back-to-back. Right after production wrapped up, she immediately went on to The True History of the Kelly Gang, directed by her husband Justin Kurzel (Snowtown, Macbeth), followed by Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears and then Babyteeth.

“There’s a lot of work happening right now for me, and they’re vastly different. But they’re all made in Australia by Australians and they’re all amazing stories and will appeal to different people’s tastes.

Davis in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.

“But also, anyone with good taste will like them all!”

She admitted that she’s taken jobs in the past because “it’s a job and you need money” but is cognisant that “if it’s on camera, it’s forever.”

One of those “it’s a job” gigs is not Miss Fisher, which has become a surprising global phenomenon thanks to its second life on Netflix.

“It kind of blows my mind how big that fanbase is around the world. I get letters from a lot of Americans and South Americans, from all over.

Paper letters?

“Paper letters! For many people, it’s been a lifeline.”

Davis is excited about the forthcoming Miss Fisher movie, which is set for release later this year.

And like Dowd, sometimes when she’s recognised in public, fans don’t automatically connect that it’s her.

“In the airport toilets, I’ve had people go, ‘Gee, you look so much like that actress who’s in Miss Fisher’. Then I go, ‘I am’, and they’re always shocked!”

But she said she’s never been asked for a bathroom selfie, mercifully.

“It’s often when I’m not expecting it. Sometimes I have toilet paper and everything in my hands at the supermarket, and I’m in my worst, daggy clothes because I’ve run down to get something in the middle making something, and the kids have got sh*t all over me, and I’m holding a packet of tampons and someone will go, ‘I love your show!’”

Lambs of God starts on Sunday, July 21 at 8.30pm on Fox Showcase. All four episodes will be available to stream on Foxtel Now at that time

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