Julia Blenkingsopp is Rhiannon’s worst enemy in Sweetpea. The quintessential It Girl of her school, Julia spent a good portion of her time tormenting Rhiannon, making her feel like she didn’t exist.

Rather than peaking in high school like she was supposed to, Julia actually appears to have got everything in life – a cool job, a hot fiancé in Marcus, and a close circle of friends who will do anything for her.

When she returns to Carnsham after some time away, Rhiannon’s old feelings quickly re-emerge, and Julia can’t resist taking jabs at our poor leading lady, who wore a wig until the age of 23 because her bullying caused Rhiannon to pull her hair out.

But there’s more to Julia than meets the eye, and she has buried secrets she would rather stay that way.

Speaking ahead of the series launch, actress Nicole Lecky talks female rage, her bond with co-star Ella Purnell, and elevating Julia Blenkingsopp beyond that of the book.

(Warning: Contains Spoilers)

I thought Julia was a compelling character because you meet her as one thing but then there are all these layers to her. At first, she’s sparkly and shiny but, bit by bit, you realise there’s something much darker going on and she doesn’t have the perfect life. Rhiannon has to reconcile with the question: can people ever truly change and does Julia deserve what’s happening to her? And Julia has to face the demons of what she did when she was a teenager.

It means that you can put your own stamp on a role. I hadn’t read the book, at first, I had just read the script so I took what was on the page and there was something quite liberating about that. Then I did read the book and they’re quite different in a great way. You definitely want to know more when you’re reading it. I’ve only ever adapted my own work and then played those characters so this is the first role I’ve played that was coming from an adaptation that I hadn’t written myself.

When you meet Julia, she’s moved back into town and feels like she has a lot to prove. She’s trying to reassert herself as the queen bee, “Everything is great in my life, and my Instagram is perfect.” That’s why, when she meets Rhiannon at her dad’s funeral, she’s still punching down to show everybody she’s back.

What’s brilliant across the series is when Rhiannon kidnaps her, these layers just peel off because she doesn’t have anything to fall back on. It’s just her and Rhiannon in a dark room, she has this dark night of the soul, to face what she’s done in the past but also what she’s running away from in the present.

I was able to dig into that on set, being tied up and stuck in a basement for most of my experience. It was as realistic as it could be and Ella is great. She knows the story so well, she had a clear idea of what she wanted the show to be, and what Julia represented.

She had a clear idea and sense of who Rhiannon was which meant I understood who Julia was in relation to that. What Julia means for her and what Rhiannon actually means for Julia. I love the scene in the bathroom where she sort of says, “You had your dad growing up and I didn’t have that. I was jealous of you,” so it’s never quite what you seem.

It is this strange love-hate thing where maybe in another universe they could have been friends. They’re both strong in such different ways. That’s why, hopefully, they’re captivating characters to watch on screen.

Julia wants to be the best version of herself but some people are very good at making you feel lesser than and that’s something Julia does to make herself feel good in a very subconscious way. It comes from a place of insecurity so that was a way I could get into who she is as a character. Why does she need to be the queen bee? What does that mean to her? There are a lot of people on social media where you can go on their page and feel like your life’s not as great. There’s a quality of people who are quite shameless about it so I looked at a few people who I thought would be good to base Julia on. Even in terms of my voice. I talked to Ella about how she speaks: she’s got an affected voice that she thinks makes her sound better than everybody else.

I loved all of that process. The costume designer and I talked early on about how to make Julia distinctive. I sent her this TikTok of a young female estate agent who is super dressed up, she’s showing the house around and she jumps in the pool at the end, which I found so bizarre but very authentic.

I wanted Julia to have a contemporary formality in how she dressed which felt real for this day and age as well as being bold. The designer and Ella were so receptive to that. The costume really helped me get into who Julia is.

I love anything physical, so the fight scene for Rhiannon and Julia was a lot of fun to shoot and a really fun piece of choreography. It does tickle me, watching the show, I find it very darkly comic. A lot of the moments between Marina and her boss were fun; they offered something different to the rest of the show.

I also like the bite in the moments between Rhiannon and Julia, when they’re arguing back and forth. There’s a moment in the kitchen which is obscure and so strange where she’s feeding my character smiley faces. They’re both slagging each other off at the same time. Their dynamic is quite fun to watch.

My way of looking at stuff is always through humour. It gives you the licence to go to dark places. When there’s a little bit of levity there’s a way to look at something a bit more left field and that’s what this show does brilliantly.

Some of the themes in it are quite complex but you’re able to drive through when you’re watching it because there are brilliant characters in it that you can relate to and everybody has had that experience of feeling like your voice isn’t being listened to. The show has got that bite to it, that’s what makes it enjoyable to watch.

It’s a great time to have a show where a character is living out the fantasy of whatever the f**k they want to do. It is this female rage story where she is seeking vengeance and television is always such a great outlet for you to experience things that you’re not experiencing in your own life.

Maybe it suggests that at the moment in the world, women are full of rage and want an outlet. That’s always a good thing and a good place to be in the industry where you can have female characters who don’t give a f**k and are antiheroines. I’m a big fan of that.