With a lead role in the latest Netflix Harlan Coben thriller, and a return to Slow Horses, Rosalind Eleazar looks set to enjoy another big year. We chat about what’s in store
Rosalind wears: top and skirt by The Frankie Shop; bra by Savage X Fenty; long earring by BIMBA Y LOLA; and stud earring by Tilly Sveaas JewelleryHad Slow Horses star Rosalind Eleazar been offered the lead in Missing You after last year’s blockbusting Fool Me Once was released, she believes she might have thought twice about taking the job. The series, which premièred on New Year’s Day, is the latest thrilling Harlan Coben novel to be given the Netflix treatment, in what is fast becoming an annual new year treat for fans of the bestselling author who signed a multi-million-dollar five-year deal with Netflix to adapt 14 of his books into TV series. Last year’s Fool Me Once was the streamer’s most watched series of 2024, with over 100 million viewers. “Luckily for me, I got the job before it came out, or I might have been like, ‘Oh my God, this is too frightening!’,” she laughs. “I’m glad I didn’t know; it was really nice to try something different – this is the most commercial project I’ve done. It was great.”
Adapted from the 2016 novel of the same name, “it follows a detective who is the head of a missing persons unit,” Rosalind tells me. “Her father was murdered 11 years prior to when the story opens, and around that time her fiancé disappeared. And she is trying to date again, and on one of these dating apps she comes across her ex-fiancé’s picture. So, this sort of raises lots of questions about what happened to her fiancé, and it also opens up questions about who murdered her father, and what she believes and that sort of thing.”
Rosalind wears: dress by Selezza; tights by Wolford; heels by Christian Louboutin; and earrings and ring by Pianegonda. All other jewellery, Rosalind’s ownRosalind plays detective Kat Donovan, with Ashley Walters portraying her ex-fiancé, Josh Buchanan; the star-studded cast also includes Lenny Henry, Richard Armitage and James Nesbitt. It’s no surprise that expectations around the series have been so high. I wonder how Rosalind, who has already watched the whole series, thinks it compares to previous Netflix Harlan Coben adaptations. “People love these shows, they’re just so bingeable,” she admits, “and I think this is the same, but it is very different to Fool Me Once. It’s a smaller story, in a way. I think Fool Me Once is eight episodes and Missing You is five. And it really follows Kat very closely, so it’s quite intimate in a way. And it’s very emotional because everything is happening to her, it’s like her journey of discovery. So, I think it’s nice that you don’t… well I hope that you don’t compare them too much.” Of course, playing Louisa in Slow Horses, Rosalind ought to now be getting used to being in the spotlight. The Apple TV+ spy thriller is based on the books by Mick Herron and boasts an almost unheard-of critics’ rating of 98 per cent on reviews site Rotten Tomatoes. Regularly touted as one of the best shows on television, it was nominated for six Emmy Awards at the 2024 ceremony, winning the award for ‘Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series’. It hasn’t always been this popular, though, Rosalind says. “Something happened after season three,” she laughs. “Season three… suddenly the show sort of exploded. In season one and two, people had watched it, but something happened. I don’t know what it was. I guess the best publicity is word of mouth, and I think that’s how a lot of people came to the show – you know by family or friends saying, ‘Have you watched Slow Horses?’.”
The explosion in popularity is extremely gratifying, but not surprising, she is keen to point out. “Our writer Will Smith is extraordinary, the guy that adapted it, and obviously it’s come from really good source material; Mick Herron is just phenomenal. I remember reading Slow Horses and I just thought it was such a unique script; it doesn’t fully fit into any genre. It’s sort of a comedy, it’s sort of a drama, it’s sort of a thriller, it’s a workplace drama as well… it is so many things. I think with most really successful shows, like, I don’t know, The Bear or Succession, it’s because they’re very new – you haven’t seen it being done before. You can’t really compare them to something else on TV.”
“There seems to be a PREOCCUPATION with wanting to play sort of LIKEABLE people, but I find CHARACTERS that aren’t immediately LOVABLE probably more THRILLING to play”
Rosalind wears: dress by Selezza; tights by Wolford; heels by Christian Louboutin; and earrings and ring by Pianegonda. All other jewellery, Rosalind’s own“It’s been really nice taking on a role that’s reoccurring,” Rosalind tells me, when I ask about her experience of working on the show. “It’s become an incredibly collaborative show, in that the actors are very involved in the lines that they say, in the journey, and you know there are scenes that we sort of semi-improv’d, which allows the actors to take ownership of the series as well. I mean, with all the Slow Horses actors you start to have a shorthand with each other, you know how they work, they know how you work, you know your character so well, they know their character so well, and so the scenes become really, really playful. And the possibilities are endless, and the environment on set is so conducive to good work – that sounds a bit wanky – but it’s such an open set, from everyone: the crew, the cast, our directors, who are all brilliant.”
It was, therefore, wonderful to see all that hard work and talent recognised in last year’s Emmy nominations, and the experience of going out to LA for the ceremony was very special, Rosalind says. “The Americans just know how to put on a really good party!” She exclaims when I ask about it. “It was so nice to be there and to celebrate with the rest of the Slow Horses, and obviously I was so, so happy for our writer Will, who won the best writing award. But yeah, you’re in La La Land, that’s for sure!”
The finale of the latest season, which was first shown in early October last year, saw Louisa involved in an epic chase. Rosalind tells me that the filming of that scene was amongst her favourite moments on the show. “We shut down St. Pancras Station to do the chase scene. And the director told me that they really struggled to find a shot of me where I wasn’t smiling, because I love running so much,” she recalls, laughing. “So, they were sort of hard pressed – they had to really edit around that – I feel really bad because they probably spent millions on this location, and there you have Louisa just having the time of her life! I’m laughing about it a bit more than probably the execs and the director were…”
Rosalind wears: jacket by DANSHUU; tank top by The Frankie Shop; trousers by STINE GOYA; and earrings and rings MISHOThe fact that there have already been four seasons of Slow Horses is quite extraordinary when you consider that the first series only premièred in 2022. Indeed, series five is already in post-production, meaning that fans won’t have long to wait to find out what’s in store for Louisa and her colleagues at Slough House. Can Rosalind reveal anything about what’s to come? “What can I say… I think viewers are going to be quite shocked. I think they’re going to be quite shocked at what happens. I don’t think you expect what happens to Louisa in this series…”
With series six of Slow Horses already confirmed, it is almost certain that we will be seeing even more of Louisa, but what else is Rosalind hoping for, work-wise? “I’d like to play something or someone completely different,” she says, thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t mind doing a relationship drama, something that’s a bit smaller. But yeah, it’s a good question. I don’t know exactly what I want to do next, you know, the decisions are sort of made for you – when things come in and you go, ‘OK that’s something that I would like to explore’. I think it all starts with writing. It’s hard to do a lot without good writing, and I think for me, you know, I sort of ask myself, is the character a stereotype? Or are they, you know, sort of one-dimensional? I love flawed characters, and not always necessarily nice characters. There seems to be a preoccupation with wanting to play sort of likeable people, but I find characters that aren’t immediately lovable probably more thrilling to play. I like to get into their heads and to understand why people might not like them on first meeting…”
Rosalind says that she has always been captivated by other people, and that because of this, her career path was likely marked out from early on. “I was always quite a shy child growing up, and I think I had a fascination with humans,” she recalls. “I do remember when I was very young, just watching people all the time, maybe not always participating in a conversation, but just watching people and how they moved, and thinking about what they were really trying to say behind their lines, or what words were coming out of their mouth. It was something that I was good at, let’s say, and I’d always done it. I always did drama at primary school and secondary school, and when I went to uni, I was part of the drama society there. It’s weirdly always been a place for me that I find a lot of peace. I don’t know if it’s because I’m sort of taking on someone else’s words, and someone else’s being, and someone else’s experience, but I find a lot of freedom in exploring someone else. I think I’ve just always had this quiet burning, and sort of knowing that this was going to be my path.”
Rosalind wears: jacket by BIMBA Y LOLA; tank top by Levi’s; shorts by ILA; tights by Wolford; boots by Kurt Geiger; and earrings and rings by PianegondaPeace is just one of the emotions that this job evokes, though. “I particularly love the moments on set when you’re acting opposite someone, and you’re both incredibly attuned to each other, and present to each other, and there’s a sort of – and I mean, this happens a lot in theatre, and not always on TV and film – but there’s this sort of magic that happens between you,” Rosalind reveals. “You end the scene and you’re almost on a high. It feels like, I don’t know, you’ve taken something, because you have both sort of released in a way, and it’s so freeing. It’s such a freeing moment, it’s also petrifying, obviously, when you watch it. I admire actors, sometimes I go, ‘God how do we get up there and do what we do?’. Let’s say in TV, you’ve got, you know, the cameras all around, you’ve got someone holding a boom right in front of your face, you know you’ve got all these people around you and you have to find a way to be present and sort of block them out. And in theatre you have got a sea of however many people in front of you. I think it’s a real skill.”
Since graduating from LAMDA, theatre has played a big part in Rosalind’s career, with standout roles at the National Theatre, The Royal Court and in the West End. She is as grateful for those jobs as for the big screen roles. “I like to do both. I think, you know, after a theatre show, I’m itching to go back to screen, and when you’ve done screen for a while you’re sort of itching to go back to theatre. And they both offer completely different things, you know, they are very different skills,” she tells me. “You can’t edit theatre, and I love that. It lives and it changes every night, and something that happens in the audience can really affect the actors. There was this one time that I was in a play called Uncle Vanya, with Richard Armitage: there’s a scene towards the end, and it’s a very intense lovers’ scene, their final goodbye. It’s sort of very passionate, but also loving and tender, and I noticed that there were three women in the audience who were videoing Rich. And it was really infuriating me… I remember looking at Rich’s face, and he is the biggest sweetheart, and he was looking at me like, calm down Ros, it’s OK. Because I was so fuelled with anger, in a way, our scene became really, really electric. And the scene was so different to the night before… it brought a dynamic that we both weren’t expecting. I should probably thank those women.”
So, more theatre in 2025? We’ll have to wait and see, but where new year’s resolutions are concerned, Rosalind is all about doing more of something, rather than less, so here’s hoping. “I feel like new year’s resolutions should be about adding rather than giving up,” she explains. “You know, instead of saying, ‘I’ll give up this’, asking, ‘What do I want to add to my life?’. We shouldn’t have to go, ‘I shouldn’t do this, I shouldn’t do that…’ Instead, we should add things, that’s much nicer!” I couldn’t agree more, and first up a new box set to binge.
