*Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Power, episode 1.
Eddie Marsan makes a strong first impression in The Power, presenting Bernie Monke, a ferocious London criminal boss who takes no hostages.
The ability is based on Naomi Alderman’s novel of the same name, and it stars a stellar ensemble full of exciting new talent. It follows a group of teenage girls who find they have the ability to electrocute others, sparking a female uprising as women eventually control the world.
Roxie, Bernie’s daughter, is among those teens with a newly dangerous weapon coursing through their blood – a fearsome force to be reckoned with, abilities aside.
Bernie’s first encounter is definitely unforgettable. Look no further than how Bernie brutalises his own wedding cake for evidence that he is one of the most powerful and intimidating men in the city.
On the morning of his wedding, Bernie rushes into the kitchen, where he notices his amazing four-tier wedding cake, which could have been whipped up by one of Paris’ best pastry cooks.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for Bernie, and just hours before he was supposed to carve the cake, he smashes it with his hands and demands another.
Eddie was defeated by the sponge, despite appearing stronger than Tyson Fury on a bad day.
‘I think we went through about three or four, cakes’ he recalled. ‘But the worst thing was they built these cakes, and they filled them with cocktail sticks to hold it together so every time I punched it, I was getting stabbed by cocktail sticks.
‘So actually, I was playing is really tough gangster knocking over a cake but every time the cake was winning, because I was coming away with the cake.’
The Power has truly taken years and years to develop. Filming started before the epidemic, and women’s advancement has made a sad U-turn in many ways since then. Roe v Wade was reversed in the United States, and misogynistic characters on networks such as YouTube have only grown in power.
Ria Zmitrowicz, who plays Bernie’s daughter Roxy, acknowledged that when the epidemic hit, she worried that the Power would become “irrelevant.”
Unfortunately, this is an uncommon instance in which she hoped her worries were realised.
‘There’s always a risk that it’s going to become irrelevant if you have to wait. It’s been three years that we’ve been filming this. But sadly, I think it’s become definitely way more relevant now.’
‘Especially because post the overturning of Roe v. Wade,’ Eddie agreed.
‘I remember when I was driving and heard the news of that, and thinking, “wow, I mean, we’re in the middle of making a series about women having autonomy over their bodies, and in the real world, that autonomy has been taken away from them.”’
The first three episodes of Power are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now with new episodes dropping weekly.
Source My Celebrity Life.