Note: This story contains spoilers from Netflix’s “Missing You.”
Rosalind Eleazar, who plays eminently capable MI-5 agent Louisa Guy on “Slow Horses,” stars in the Netflix limited series “Missing You,” based on the book of the same name by Harlan Coben.
Her character, Kat Donovan, never fully dealt with the fact that her fiancé Josh (Ashley Walters) disappeared suddenly without a trace 11 years earlier. Although she’s the head of the Missing Persons Department, she hasn’t tried to find him … until a photo of him pops up on her dating app.
Kat is also trying to solve who really murdered her father, Clint (Lenny Henry), a fellow police officer who was stabbed to death. She doesn’t believe the murder happened at the hands of the career criminal who confessed and is now dying in prison for it, however. It’s a lot for the character to juggle, especially when her friends seem reluctant to talk about Josh’s whereabouts.
TheWrap spoke to Eleazar before the show’s premiere about the series and the ending she couldn’t predict when she first read the book. “Harlan Coben is brilliant at the twists and turns and sending you up the wrong path and whatnot,” she said with a smile over Zoom.
She also discussed how much she loved one of the show’s opening scenes, where Kat’s on a date at a nice restaurant and ends up rushing to the rescue — in high heels and a little black dress — when a chef takes someone hostage in the kitchen.
“I got to do some stunt stuff that was tricky, but fun: We had to flood the floor, and I was in six-inch heels. She just completely lines [the suspect],” she said of the scene.
“It’s just so badass. And it sets the character up brilliantly. You’re like, ‘Okay, she’s cool indeed. I love running and sprinting, anything like that,” she said of getting to do more action scenes than in “Slow Horses.”
Here’s more of our spoiler-filled interview with Eleazar:
TheWrap: There are a lot of twists that I didn’t see coming. And she’s in such a difficult place because it doesn’t seem like she can trust her friends or family.
Rosalind Eleazar: Exactly. She can’t trust anybody. We come to learn that they are protecting her, but she’s very much alone in this journey. That’s also to do with her personality. She is a private person and likes to deal with things by herself.
Why do you think she never went looking for Josh before she sees him on a dating app?
She’s never discussed it with anyone, and she hasn’t even tried to find him, even though she’s a detective herself, when he disappeared. To me, that was the bit that I found the most interesting about her. She’s a detective, she’s the head of the Missing Persons Unit. Why doesn’t she figure out where he went? I think she was too afraid at the time to find out what would be the answer to that. The worst being, he doesn’t love her, as simple as that. But now it’s been 11 years, and she’s probably more able to go on that journey.
What were your initial theories about why Josh left?
I think Kat told herself a narrative that made sense, which you often do to try and take ownership of a traumatic event. The tricky part for me as the actor, and also for Kat, is that they had an incredible relationship. So when someone leaves like that, it’s really, really confusing, especially because when he left, he took all of his stuff. It’s not, “Oh, he’s disappeared.” It’s clear that he made a decision to leave.
This was around the same time that her father was murdered, and she was a mess and a wreck. I think she feels that he wasn’t able to properly support her, that she was never going to get out of that space of grief, and he basically ran.
I don’t think in her heart of hearts, she actually believes that. I think she does feel that he still loves her, but she’s too afraid to find out the real reason, because that is probably more painful than anything else, if he actually did leave because he couldn’t cope with her and he didn’t love her.
Richard Armitage plays Kat’s boss and she suspects that he’s not telling her the whole truth. You’ve worked with him before, right?
I worked with him on stage in “Uncle Vanya”: I played Yelena, and he played Astrov. And we always laugh, because in that play, we are lovers and in this series we have a very different dynamic. When we first started rehearsing, we sort of fell back into Yelena and Astrov. We’re like, “No, no, this is wrong, completely wrong. You’re more of a father figure to me in the TV show.” I love him. He’s such a sweet man.
Can we talk about the ending, where the two big mysteries in her life end up being connected?
There’s a lot going on for her, it is relentless. I couldn’t believe it when I read the book and that final chapter about what happens. [She finds out that Josh accidentally killed her father and fled rather than tell her the truth.] I didn’t think that’s where the story was going to go. It’s interesting to know whether people think that they will end up together in the end. It’s really heavy. I don’t think you can get more traumatic or dramatic than that.
I assume she does not tell her mother the truth about her father’s murder.
That’s a good question. I don’t think she probably would tell her mother. But then is she just going to hold on to this with him? I don’t know that [Kat and Josh] will end up together. I don’t know that you could get past that.
What are you expecting people’s reactions to be to “Missing You”?
I think they’re going to be pretty shocked. I don’t think anyone will be able to predict the way the story ends up. I don’t think you would ever dream of that unless you’re a genius.
In retrospect, maybe I should have put that together. But the show does a really good job of misdirecting.
It’s sort of perfect for the first of January. You just do it in one sitting because you’re hooked. I really hope people enjoy it.
All episodes of “Missing You” are now streaming on Netflix.
