The Nevers stars talk changing tones, underwater fights, and more

HBO’s new series The Nevers doesn’t lack for ambition. It’s a Victorian superhero drama about a group of (mostly) women known as the Touched who find themselves in possession of fantastical powers, from prescience to pyromancy to the ability to invent all manner of crazy contraptions. That’s what Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) can do. She uses her power — or her “turn” as the show calls it — to create high-tech steampunk gizmos that her boss and best friend Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) can use in battle against the many forces trying to attack the Touched.

“I love how she names them,” Skelly told TheWrap. “I love the fire extinguisher, she calls it her Snuffer. It’s so cute. Little things like that.”

Penance got to use the Snuffer in combat with Bonfire Annie…right before she got accidentally high off an opium shipment Annie had used her turn to light and fire. It was a funny way to start the newest episode, and couldn’t have been more at odds with how it ended. “Ignition” got very dark in the end, killing off a pure-hearted character in shocking, brutal fashion.

To Skelly, that sort of swinging between tones is what makes the series interesting. “I mean, that’s what I really, really, really love about the show,” she said. “It’s so different to me, because I didn’t realize how challenging comedy actually is or trying to put in those funny beats in something that is actually — the mission and the world itself can be quite grave and quite serious. So I do think moments of lightness relieve those tensions really well. And just as equal to crying or upset moments, it’s a real relief, I think, because the show doesn’t take itself too seriously.”

"That makes it so fun as an actor, because then you don’t have to take yourself too seriously and you can do anything and it could go anywhere. I love that. There’s so much humor in real life as well. And you know what? So many period things are quite stiff and stuffy. This show, I think, refreshes that genre in a way that has a touch of wackiness and fun and kind of [James] Bond jokes."

How did The Nevers pull off that crazy underwater fight scene?

The show is big on variety. In addition to the comedy and the drama, we also get some impressive action. The third episode stepped things up with a battle between Amalia and follower who worked for the Begger King, who’s turn allowed him to walk on water. The result was a very creative action scene where Amalia was underwater while the goon tried to kill her from the surface.

“It was not easy, but it was so much fun,” Laura Donnelly told Digital Spy. “I had never done anything of the sort before. We spent a week shooting that in the underwater tank at Pinewood Studios. So I had to learn from the ground up.

"I had two days of learning how to dive, of learning how to use all the breathing apparatus – with the goggles and everything. And then I had to learn how to let all of that go, and to just be five metres underwater without any of that. It was scary at first, and I don’t tend to get scared by anything that’s physically challenging like that. It’s very alien to be that far underwater, so it was a very, very steep learning curve for me."

As we saw, it all came together very well. For Donnelly, the final step was sartorial: “[J]ust before we began shooting, we had a rehearsal for the first time in costume,” she said. “And once I put on Amalia’s costume and walked into the water, I was totally fine about it. Once it was not Laura underwater and it was Amalia – at that point, it was like a magic trick. The costume just completely changed my view on the whole thing, and I felt completely comfortable.”

New episodes of The Nevers drop Sunday nights on HBO!

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