An Interview with Sharon D Clarke from ‘Inspector Ellis’

Sharon D Clarke as DCI Ellis in ‘Inspector Ellis. (Photo Courtesy of Acorn TV.)

Sharon D Clarke is a highly accomplished actor that has appeared in a bevy of iconic shows and movies. Currently she starts as DCI Ellis in Inspector Ellis, and we here at NTG had the great honor of sitting down with Sharon to discuss her new role.
 
John Betancourt: I would love to start by getting to know what it was about this project that called to you as an actor.
 
Sharon D Clarke: So, I got a call from my agent saying Channel Five are commissioning a new police drama, and they want it to be black female led, and they're asking if you're up for doing that. So, to be offered this fantastic role, because I would have been very, very prepared to audition (Laughter) to do something like that, but to be offered her… that someone was initially entrusting me to lead this show was such a privilege and such an honor. And for me, as someone who grew up in Britain and never saw that represented on my television, it was something that I was -- yes, of course, I was going to take it on. Of course it was something that I wanted to do. For me, I'm making my own history, and being the first time that I'm leading a show as a number one, but also as a black female cop, a DCI whose brain is phenomenal, who is so blooming good at what she does. And yeah, I'm, I'm stoked. So that's how she came into my orbit, and I was not going to let her go.
 
John Betancourt: But also, I'm curious too. You mentioned a little bit there some of what called to her call to you as an actor for the character as well. What else was it about inspector Ellis that was just so enchanting that, you know, you just had to play her.
 
Sharon D Clarke: Well, there's, there's two things that one, first, that the show is not site specific, so you're not seeing people who are embedded in where they work. You're seeing Ellis and Harper having to navigate a new station each time, because they are being parachuted in to solve a case somewhere else. So, you're having to deal with that then coming in as outsiders. And you can see how Ellis is received when she first arrived as DCI, to lend a helping hand. There's a lot of resentment there, because if she's turning up, it means that basically that station is not doing their job properly or as fulsome as they could. So it's interesting watching that kind of dynamic each week to how each particular station runs their institution and how she deals with them within that institution, and having to code switch, to change, to do whatever it is, how she navigates it from her experience as a black woman in society and as a policewoman, you know, if we think about how Ellis would have come up through the ranks, the kind of things that she would have had to have dealt with in the police station, racial slurs, all of that, that madness that comes with being in a racist institutional organization, that you get to a situation that in life, some things then just become water off a duck’s back. There are situations in Ellis that things are said to her where there's no big reaction from her because she's actually heard worse in her time. So, it's… there is that interesting point about her as well, but also that there is such a tenderness about her and a deep, deep well of compassion. You will see her well up. You will see her cry with her victims. And it was that tenderness that I really love about her, because she's just kind of using all the things that have happened to her in her life. She's realized that when she has been underestimated and when she has been invisible, that she can actually use that as a superpower. And it's watching her wield that superpower in that way that is really interesting to me, how she deals with life.
 
John Betancourt: I'm also curious too, because you're bringing up a lot of great points here, about representation, about the institutionalized racism that happens in the police world. And I'm curious, since there are so many layers to this and so many themes, what are you ultimately hoping audiences take away from this when they from the season, when they've had a chance to watch it?
 
Sharon D Clarke: I'm hoping that they can get into Ellis's world and see how she sees the world, how she deals with the world, how she deals with cases. I mean she has this thing where she says to Harper about funk music, it's not about the notes. It's about the space in between the notes, and for Ellis, it's not about that physical evidence. It's about the people and the spaces in between those people, and what connects to those people that tells her more about what's happened in the case, the physical evidence can't say anything about the human condition, and she's about the human condition. The physical evidence says that happens, but it doesn't say why it happened, what led to it? What was the love behind it, the fear behind it, the jealousy behind it. And that's what I love about the way her brain works. She's very much emotionally attached to her cases in a kind of detached way, if that makes any sense, she does all the research and the digging that she needs to do, but it's always about, how does she link it emotionally? And that's a very different way of looking at crime, I think, from the stuff that I've observed, and also, like I said before, the fact that they are in a different police station each week, and how they encounter that, that makes it different, because we're quite used to cop shows being site specific, so it's interesting in that way. And if we get a series two, we'll be able to explore much more of our beautiful British countryside and just bring that to the world as well. So, there's lots of layers that excite me about it, and think that getting a second series would enable us to mine more of that, to mine more of her backstory, which is all there, which we know what it is. It's just, we can't give you everything at once. We have to tease it out. And so in consequent episodes, that will all be made clear.
 
John Betancourt: Obviously I do want to get into some of that personal meaning. I hear the passion your voice about playing this character. I hear the passion in your voice about this series in general. What does it mean to you then to be playing what is going to be flat out, a revolutionary crime drama?
 
Sharon D Clarke: It means everything. Means everything. Like I said, I didn't grow up seeing myself represented on my television. My school, very multicultural, where I live, very multicultural, but none of that reflected when I'm watching my television growing up. So for me, had I seen some someone like Ellis when I was growing up, it would have meant the absolute world to see that representation and the fact that I am now this far in my career, and being entrusted from the get-go to lead this series is an honor and a privilege, and I really hope that, you know, some young kid watching it will resonate with them, and they will go “That's a path that I think that I can take now,” I did a show called Holby City, which is kind of like are equivalent to your ER. And the character I played was a consultant, and I've had since then, subsequently, five young black women come up to me and said that they have become doctors because they saw themselves represented. And if Ellis does that, then that is just the proudest thing that I could do. But even without that, that kids of all cultures can see a black woman leading a crime drama, which is not something that I've seen on my television screens, is very, very important to me, to educate. You know? I mean, I think what we do in our art is about holding the mirror up. And when you can do that, when you can entertain and educate and elevate and inspire and spark debate conversation, then that is the best of art. And I'm hoping that this is what happens with Ellis.
 
John Betancourt: The last question that I have for you today, what are you most proud of when it comes to your work in season one of the show?
 
Sharon D Clarke: Getting it on, getting it out, being able to tell it. I'm proud that we have these episodes that I am proud of. Do you know what I mean? That I want to share it the world, that I'm not going, “Oh, that didn't quite work out the way it was supposed to,” that I'm going, “Yeah, I want, I want to share this. I'm proud that we are here in 2024, that we're walking the walk”. Do you know what I mean, that someone has gone -- and it's really weird, we did a screening yesterday, and it was said that “wasn't it incredibly refreshing that Channel Five had done this?” And I was like, yeah, it is incredibly refreshing. But it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be. So, I'm proud that we're here. I'm proud of the complete totality of the work, because it's on and people will see it, and hopefully it will make people think differently and think wider, and that roles might expand elsewhere for people. So, I'm proud of that.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.