Alias Grace Star Sarah Gadon "Didn't Really Sleep" During Intense Filming

Gadon's performance in the new Netflix series will haunt you

By Lauren Piester Nov 02, 2017 8:02 PMTags
Watch: Sarah Gadon Talks Taking on "Alias Grace" Role

Prepare yourselves: Netflix's newest series is pretty intense. 

Alias Grace tells the mostly true story of Grace Marks, a woman who was convicted of murdering her employer and his housekeeper whens he was a teenager in 1843. The show, which is based on the book by Margaret Atwood, which was based on the real-life murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery, follows a doctor's interviews with Grace many years later. 

Sarah Gadon stars as the titular Grace, and it's a performance you're not going to want to miss. She's both sympathetic and totally chilling, and it sounds like it took a toll on Gadon. 

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"It was really intense, and there's no other way to describe it," Gadon told E! News. "Everything from the way that I got the part through auditioning to the prep we did to the actual shooting, which was grueling, to the six weeks of voiceover that we did after shooting, everything about it was really intense. I didn't really sleep when we shot it. It was a full on experience." 

Anna Paquin plays Nancy Montgomery, the housekeeper Grace is accused of murdering, and apparently part of Gadon's research got a little bit method 

"Anna let me choke her like a few times in real life, like just to get the feel for it, so that was really generous," Gadon said. "She's a really generous actor."

"Yeah, she learned how to choke really well." 

Alias Grace debuts tomorrow on Netflix.