Peter Harness says Eleanor Tomlinson doesn’t need a lot of dialogue in ‘The War of the Worlds’.
The screenwriter behind the BBC’s new adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic sci-fi novel has opened up about the leading star – who plays two versions of her character Amy both during and after the Martian invasion – and heaped praise on the way she has delved into the story.
He told RadioTimes.com: "Eleanor’s one of those actors who can essentially just tell the story with their performance.
"They don’t necessarily need an awful lot of dialogue. Somehow, they just intuit the rhythm of the story, and they just tell it.
"Sometimes you think, ‘I know precisely what you’re going through. I know precisely where you’re taking me as a character, and you’re doing it beautifully.’ She’s a real star. It was a real privilege to have her do it."
The three part drama has already taken a turn from the original novel, which ended quite abruptly as the Martians died out on earth and society started to quickly return to normal.
However, Peter was keen to explore how the world would actually struggle in the aftermath of such an event, as he decided to ditch the "cheerful ending" Wells tried to give his readers.
Commenting on the parallel narrative, he added: "I wanted to stay with it a bit more and see how life would play out after the invasion, and having to cope with this kind of ugly persistence that wasn’t just going away, and essentially trying to turn Earth into Mars.
"They’re both kind of there, in parallel, a bit more so in episodes two and three."
War of the Worlds writer says Eleanor Tomlinson doesn’t need much dialogue
