Hayley Atwell spent hours in a huge water tank with co-star Tom Burke for her return to the stage.
Agent Carter star Atwell said the shoot was one of the most surreal moments of her career, telling the Standard: “We filmed it in Croydon in a studio that has done everything from a Björk music video to Harry Potter.
“We spent the whole day underwater, coming up with these individual shots. Ian [Rickson] was directing it and we would come up for air and receive different instructions each time.
“He would say: ‘All right, now look as though you’ve found inner peace with each other’ or ‘Now look as though you are twins in the womb’. We were just underwater trying to get these shots without laughing.
“For the final shot, I was standing on one of the professional divers as he lay across the bottom of the water tank. I felt terrible for him so I glanced down — he had an underwater phone and was just lying there texting away! It was one of the most surreal moments I’ve had.”
Burke, who has starred in the BBC’s Strike as well as War And Peace, added: “It felt like a baptism at the beginning of the job. It’s a good way to equate yourself with another person.”
He said: “The play’s mystery is one of its great strengths. It doesn’t have a singular message. I like that it is about people trying to find the point of politics, the truth of the moment.”
Rosmersholm is at the Duke of York’s Theatre from April 24 to July 20
March's best theatre shows - in pictures
