Aussie starlet Claude Scott-Mitchell well suited for her Rose-coloured life

Australia’s Claude Scott-Mitchell says playing a meek English rose is a world away from her own upbringing.

Her on-screen alter ego Rose Drummond-Ward is always perfectly clad in the most stunning of Roaring Twenties fashion from printed sundresses to pointed-collar, drop-waist sheaths with jewels glimmering on her neck or her wrist, but Hotel Portofino star, Aussie actor Claude Scott-Mitchell, is rather envious of her male colleagues.

“I just love all the boys’ suits,” she says when she’s back home in Sydney ahead of the opulent Foxtel drama’s second season.

“I get very, very, very jealous. Oliver Dench (her on screen fiance Lucian Ainsworth) has all of the best suits.”

Scott-Mitchell’s learnt so much from the costumes of the archetypical English rose.

“Fashion says so much about place and about culture. I found that really interesting, the juxtaposition,” she says.

“I had days where I would have these really glamorous pieces that showed we were heading into that prosperous, golden period that was the Roaring Twenties.

“But then we would have a scene at the beach and we would be wearing swimsuits and there would be stockings. And I was like ‘Why are we wearing stockings in the water?’; (costume designer) Louize (Nissen) would say ‘Oh, it’s because at the time they had people on the beaches who would come and measure how much skin you’re showing and everything’.

“So it’s the juxtaposition of ‘here’s a period we’re changing. We’re sort of throwing off all of those shackles of the Victorianera’ and yet, you know, you’ll get a fine if you’re showing too much knee’.”

Aussie actor Claude Scott-Mitchell as Rose Drummond-Ward with Louisa Binder as Constance March in Hotel Portofino. Picture: Supplied

The ensemble cast – which also includes Natascha McElhone, Anna Chancellor, Mark Umbers and Lily Fraser – was overjoyed to learn a second season had been commissioned.

Set on the Italian Riviera in the 1920s, Hotel Portofino tells the story of the Ainsworth family that has relocated to Italy to set up a quintessentially British hotel. Amid the rise of fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, this new instalment will see Ainsworth family relations reach breaking point and the future of the hotel threatened.

Natasha McElhone in Hotel Portofino.

Scott-Mitchell’s character’s romance (and eventual engagement) with the town’s most eligible English bachelor provides one of the main narrative arcs of the series. Rose is very much in the shadow of her domineering mother (played by Lucy Akhurst). She’s worlds away from the confident and assured Scott-Mitchell.

“It’s very interesting – I think I found it really rewarding playing her because she is so different from me,” she shares.

“I was describing her as a wallflower while were doing season one, and there’s a meekness there and there’s something really restrained. But what you see in season 2, and which I really love playing, was that there is just a real deep sadness to her.

“I think there’s still a wallflower quality to that but actually this is just someone who is in trouble and has no way of communicating that. There’s no one for her to tell and, at that time, no one wants to hear it.”

Aussie actor Claude Scott-Mitchell in the Foxtel period drama Hotel Portofino.

Scott-Mitchell’s not sure how she would have fared in that era.

“I’d like to think – I come from a family of strong women – I’d like to think that I’d have a little more gumption than Rose, but I don’t really know,” she muses.

“So many of my favourite artists are from that time. There is a quality to that period that I would love to have experienced.

“But you do just go ‘Oh my God, the world was really hard for us’. It’s not an easy thing being a woman back then.”

We saw glimmers of hope for Rose – the party scene in the first series, where she was pulled into a different part of society, filled with dancing and music and alcohol and the bright young things of the ’20s. Can we expect a little more joy?

“I think she tries really hard this season,” Scott-Mitchell shares.

“I think you see her try and, I mean, she’s a married woman now trying to understand what that role is.

“And maybe they aren’t so compatible, but there’s real effort on her part to find some joy, find companionship in the partnership.

“So you do see her try really, really hard to find joy.”

It’s hard to imagine that Scott-Mitchell had to work really, really hard at finding joy shooting the period drama. Though set in Italy, most of Hotel Portofino is filmed along the Lungomare in Croatia’s Opatija – a picturesque location that’s all crystal blue water and whitewashed villas set on the side of steep, rugged cliffs.

“Well, it was still work,” Scott-Mitchell says, with a laugh. “But it was such a joyful job, really.”

Australian actor Claude Scott-Mitchell back home in Sydney ahead of the launch of the second season of the Foxtel period drama Hotel Portofino. Picture: Richard Dobson

Quite apart from the English ensemble – “we’re really a family, I think that we bonded so much on the first season because of Covid, but also because they’re all just a really good group of people. I’ve only got good things to say”, she laughs – half of the cast was Italian.

Scott-Mitchell’s full of chagrin as she admits that didn’t mean she became fluent in the language.

Despite her luxurious costumes, Claude Scott-Mitchell is jealous of the boys’ suits in Hotel Portofino. Picture: Foxtel

“Oh, shamefully, it didn’t,” she says. “I tried and they tried to teach me some. I don’t have the ear for it.”

But she adds she does have an appetite for their food.

“I did make up for my lack of language skills with eating a lot of pasta.”

Scott-Mitchell hints at more exciting projects on her horizon, but can’t divulge just yet. She’s hoping to continue bouncing back and forth between her UK base and home. Scott-Mitchell was raised in Sydney, but has now lived in London for five years.

She’s also keen for more stage roles, after making her Sydney Theatre Company debut late last year in The Tempest with Richard Roxburgh.

“I had such a beautiful experience, so hopefully more theatre here and there,” Scott-Mitchell says.

With Covid travel restrictions basically a thing of the past, it’s thankfully much easier.

“It just changes everything really – so hopefully that means there’s a lot more jumping around.”

We hope that too – because it definitely suits her.

Hotel Portofino, Sunday, Foxtel

Originally published as Aussie starlet Claude Scott-Mitchell well suited for her Rose-coloured life