Rivals Season 2, with only three episodes aired of its 12-episode run, is already shaping up to be a big season for Cameron Cook and Basil “Bas” Baddingham. Though the two characters rarely share the screen, their respective arcs are some of the many compelling ones on the show. Cameron returns to Rutshire after trying to kill Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) in self-defense, and Bas seems to have a particular twinkle in his eye when he’s around Taggie O’Hara (Bella Maclean). Ahead of the second season’s premiere, I got to interview Nafessa Williams and Luca Pasqualino about Cameron and Bas. We talked about everything from their characters’ mindsets to their favorite details or set pieces they got to do as their characters this season.
For Nafessa Williams, she was excited “to come back and pick up where we left off with that [cliffhanger] to see what would the consequences be.” It was a given to her and many of the fans, especially those who read Dame Jilly Cooper’s book on which the series is based, that Tony would return “with some type of vengeance, but we just didn’t know how.” So, when Tony does rise from the floor of his Corinium office and tracks Cameron down, Williams was excited “to play the vulnerability because [Cameron] did play so strong and she had it all together, and you’ve never really seen a weak moment in her in Season 1.”
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“As an artist, it’s just nice to kind of play the complexities and just play the different layers and the emotions. She’s a full-layered woman, and I think we get to see more of the human in her when we open up in Season 2, and she doesn’t feel so strong,” Williams shared. She noted that those nuances in Cameron manifested in choices across departments. “If you notice, the clothes represent where she is, too. She’s not wearing red. She doesn’t have on high heels. She’s not like Cameron in the suit and powering through,” Williams explained. “She’s actually really sad, and she’s hurt, and she doesn’t know what’s next, so it was just exciting to kind of get back in as an artist and play those different levels.”
All of that was visible in Williams’ physicality, as it was in the lack of makeup or the different clothing, especially in that first episode. It all came together, with the story on the page, to send a smart, strong story about where Cameron was at when Rivals Season 2 found her. “And that’s kudos to the hair, makeup, and wardrobe team for helping make that feel real to the story,” Williams added.
For Luca Pasqualino, he shared that he “learned so much about” Bas with the super-sized second season. He even spoke to how that additional room created so much space for “new revelations” about all the characters that “were sort of eye-opening.” For Bas, specifically, Pasqualino enjoyed learning more about the character’s history. He revealed that Rivals Season 2 uncovers “a lot more about where Bas has come from, the relationship between him and Tony.”
Bas and Tony are half-brothers, but the first season only scratched the surface of their strained dynamic. So, it’s exciting to imagine what’s in store for the two characters, who only share one scene in passing in the second episode of that first, three-episode drop.
In our conversation, Pasqualino quoted that saying, “They say if you want to understand a man, you need to know his history,” to emphasize how important it is to learn more about Bas. “I think it’s very easy, especially after Season 1, to sort of think that Bas is sort of quite one note, that he’s just a playboy, enjoys women, and, you know, is a bit of a party guy. But, I think, as the series progresses, you definitely get to see that he’s a hell of a lot more than that. And he’s got so much more within him than sort of meets the eye.”
You start to see that in the moments where it counts, like speaking up for Venturer during the board meeting or bringing Taggie back aubergines. They’re little things that add up to real depth for Bas. He’s a businessman and a skilled polo player, which is something Luca Pasqualino was “most pleased with” exploring in Season 2. He expressed an awareness that it may not be “the most articulate answer,” but he really enjoyed being “able to learn to play polo and sort of get onto the back of a polo pony and do all of that.”
Pasqualino shared that he “was very, very sad when those days ended, and we had to sort of call it quits for the day. But yeah, I mean, I love horses, and to be able to do the polo aspect of things for Bas was great. Those scenes were so fun.”
Even as Rivals fans get to know Bas more this season, Pasqualino’s hopes for the fans’ takeaways extend well beyond his character to the new characters and new relationships. “And I think if fans can take away the fact that these characters have a lot more heart and it’s not just surface level, and you know, the emotions behind some of their acts, like the sex and some of the choices that they make, it comes from a place of probably deep longing and wanting and a place of sort of hurt.” He hopes that “fans can get on board with that” as this season “kind of changes the gear of the show.”
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Pasqualino noted that the second season “sort of feels tonally the same” to the first, but “it’s a different gear shift, and it sort of goes in a different direction. Sort of slightly, I don’t want to say darker, but it sort of explores…more intense themes, I guess.” The first three episodes definitely start to tease those darker corners for Rivals Season 2. Some of which Cameron Cook is at the heart of, opposite Tony. But there’s hope to be had for Cameron. “There’s a lot of moments that Cameron’s standing up for herself,” Williams shared, knowing that “we saw it somewhat in Season 1.”
She was also hesitant to give away too much more but wanted to emphasize the importance of “standing up for yourself and standing up for what’s fair.” In reference to the relationships from Season 1 that “expand in Season 2,” Williams pointed out, “If you’re not happy, kind of like speak up about it and do something about it in a relationship, whether you’re married or not, and get the love that you’re yearning for and get the love that you desire. And it’s out there, and your happiness is like the most important thing.”
As for Rivals fans, specifically, Nafessa Williams asked, “The world is just a crazy place, right?” To which Luca Pasqualino and I agreed. “So I want them to be able to tune in to Rivals and escape the madness and have some fun and go on the roller coaster ride with all of us,” Williams continued.
After hilariously beating Pasqualino to the punch of plugging the season’s premiere date, Williams explained that Rivals is “a lot of drama. And yes, we know it’s a lot of sexual expression, but it’s a lot of funny moments. And I hope that people just watch it and they feel good, and they laugh, and they can maybe see a bit of themselves and learn something from it.”
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