Ross & Demelza: Unbreakable

(soft piano music) - I was 21 when I auditioned and was cast as Demelza.

Gosh, it feels a million years ago.

To think that we first saw her in a dog fight, to be mistaken for a boy, a little grubby urchin.

- Have they hurt you, child?

- Do not child me, mister.

Demelza Carne.

- Ross Poldark.

- [Eleanor] I actually didn't watch a lot of the previous adaptation.

It was important to me that it wasn't a copy of Angharads's performance.

'Cause I think she was a fabulous Demelza.

- Who do we have here?

- This is Demelza.

- It was important to put my own stamp on it.

- No lice.

- Yes, sir.

- [Eleanor] Ross decides to take this urchin Demelza under his wing.

And he needs a maid in the house, so that's how she starts off.

And then, slowly she starts to want to impress him more.

She wants to be better for him.

- You get through more in a day than Prudie in a month.

- She knew what he wanted even before he asked for it.

She could run his household immaculately.

- She's not afraid of hard work, and I think she's a very fair person.

She has a real sense of social justice.

And she's fearless, you know?

She is fearless.

And she's a bit of a gambler by heart, too.

Not life-threatening ones like Ross' most of the time.

- [Minister] We are gathered together here in the sight of God.

- [Debbie] It's one of the reasons he married her.

She totally worked for his life, and he didn't really care about the fact that people would think that was a scandalous thing to do, to marry your servant girl.

- [Aidan] We knew we had this big, epic relationship ahead of us, so it can be quite a scary thing as well.

She's so talented, and so easy to work with, Eleanor.

'Cause you just need to look at her.

She takes it there.

- [Debbie] We all love the falling in love stage of a relationship.

- [Aidan] That intense emotion, you know.

That they just crash together and the world's changed.

And then there's this moment in the parlor when you kind of feel like sort of falling in love.

- [Eleanor] And then suddenly, you're able to take a character on a journey that then becomes Lady of the manor.

Which is just extraordinary as an actress.

It's been brilliant to be able to portray that and to go on that journey.

- They have come through some very difficult times, very turbulent times.

- [Aidan] Losing a child.

Infidelity.

A lot of these massive challenges that the relationship needs to tackle.

- I'm not content to be second best.

- [Ross] Have I asked you to be?

- Have you not made me so?

- He really needs to get things right.

And not allow anything like that to happen again.

- It is not my pride that is wounded, Ross.

It is my pride in you.

- [Eleanor] He was having to get over this first love and realize that he would always love Elizabeth, but in a different way to the way that he loves Demelza.

And I do think that is possible.

- [Ross] My true, real, and abiding love is not for her.

It's for you.

- I think for Demelza it's also about her accepting that.

- [Debbie] Series Three in particular was a difficult one to watch the relationship going through such turmoil.

- [Ross] Everyone has shadows.

The trick is to outrun them.

- Or ignore them.

- [Eleanor] I think at the time in Ross and Demelza's relationship, they weren't seeing eye to eye and Ross was keeping things from her and she was becoming paranoid and losing sight of herself.

Hugh Armitage came along and was a knight in shining armor, you know, he spoiled her, he paid attention to her when Ross would not.

- Not once have you asked my advice or hearkened to my opinion.

- Perhaps you should look elsewhere for a pet.

- [Eleanor] He just opened up a door to affection and love which I think she felt she hadn't had in a while.

And that's something we see in modern day relationships when kids take over, life takes over, and you forget to actually take care of your partner.

- [Debbie] They're both fallible, actually.

Neither of them are perfect, and in a way, Demelza almost needed the indiscretion with Hugh to understand how Ross could be so completely taken with Elizabeth.

And Ross needed to be hurt in order to understand what Demelza had gone through.

- [Ross] Do you think there's room in a woman's heart for two men?

- Or two women in a man's?

- [Debbie] In a way, it's a kind of divine justice.

I don't ever think that it was about Demelza getting her own back.

I've never felt that it was that.

- I think perhaps I've taken you for granted.

- [Aidan] Talking things through, that's when you see progressions in every relationship.

And I think for a long time there wasn't that talking and listening.

- Ross had a steep learning curve there.

And I think that's what builds their relationship and makes them much stronger.

We see her taking charge because Ross is away a lot.

I think she's grown in strength.

- There's a courage there that I think he really responds to.

And she's a mother by nature, and she's got such a big heart, you know.

- [Eleanor] She's incredibly understanding.

She's incredibly forgiving.

She is humble, but she's incredibly true to herself and to her love and to her relationship with Ross.

- [Aidan] You can feel the relationship's growing up.

- [Eleanor] And they live very separate lives, but they trust each other in doing that.

- There is just a sense of peace that they finally have.

- [Debbie] Now we see the bond between them, the love between them, the humor.

- No, you can't have me.

(laughing) - Oh, yes I can.

- [Eleanor] It's one marriage with other marriages that spin off and surround it.

And how all the marriages interact.

But it is a story of marriage.

And how beautiful that is, and how beautiful love is.

But also how hard and trying it is.

- [Demelza] Elizabeth was your first love.

- [Ross] But not my last.

I made that choice long ago.

- [Debbie] They just get each other on a very profound level, and that's not to say there aren't challenges.

But we never get the sense that that's gonna break them.

They are now, I think, unbreakable.