Five years ago, British actress and singer Cynthia Erivo had a meteoric rise to movie fame, after performing in theatre for some time. In 2018, she got her first-ever film roles in thriller movies Widows and Bad Times at the El Royale, then she was Oscar-nominated for playing Harriet Tubman in 2019. She will soon be seen in the role of Elphaba in the Wicked movie.
There are some spoilers for the Luther movie in a new interview with Cynthia Erivo in Entertainment Weekly, in which she discusses her current role is as DCI Odette Raine in the spin-off from the acclaimed detective series. The physical challenge of the role was an aspect of the character Erivo thoroughly enjoyed.
Luther: The Fallen Sun turns the dial up with big action movie sequences, including a frantic scene where the villainous Robey (Andy Serkis) manipulates his victims into jumping off buildings, causing several car accidents in the city’s centre. “It was really cool to do a big set piece like that,” Erivo says about the night-time shoot of the major sequence.
DCI Raine also has a brutal and daunting fight scene at the end of the film in the Red Bunker as she battles desperately to save her daughter. “I remember that I was so full of adrenaline that I didn’t realise that my temperature was dropping, so our medic had to stop me to warm up internally before continuing, but I would have kept going because I was having so much fun.”
When asked if she’d play Odette again, Erivo says, “I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’d love to go back again.” As we said earlier, Erivo is going to be tied up for the foreseeable future, filming Jon M. Chu’s epic two-movie version of the long-running hit musical Wicked.
Check out our guide to the best detective movies.