The star on her new TV series Dope Girls, the benefits of intimacy coordinators and the joys of moving to the English countryside

Julianne Nicholson, 53, was born near Boston, Massachusetts, and worked as a model before training as an actor in New York. Her screen credits include August: Osage County, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Ally McBeal, I, Tonya and Boardwalk Empire. In 2021, she won an Emmy for her role as Lori in Mare Of Easttown. She recently played Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond in Disney+ political thriller Paradise and is now starring as nightclub owner Kate Galloway in BBC One’s period drama Dope Girls. Nicholson recently moved to the UK with her husband, British actor Jonathan Cake, and their two children.

Your Dope Girls character is loosely based on real-life roaring 20s nightclub owner Kate “Ma” Meyrick. What drew you to the role?
The story is such a fascinating look at that period. Normally when we see the post-first world war years on screen, the men are returning home, the women are ecstatic and life moves forward. It wasn’t quite as straightforward as that. Women had taken control in the men’s absence. Now they had to readjust or rebel. And I loved playing a gang boss. Who wouldn’t?