During an exclusive interview with CBR, Ben Aldridge and Emma Paetz discussed the appeal of playing Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane in Pennyworth, and what makes the relationship between their characters so engaging as performers.

Executive produced by Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, Pennyworth explores the England of a DC Universe decades before Bruce Wayne was born, instead focusing on the formative years of the man who would one day help raise him — Alfred Pennyworth — and the people around him. A major subplot of the series has also focused on Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane, both of whom play agents in the explosive civil war that has erupted across the nation.

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Unlike their co-star Jack Bannon (who plays Alfred Pennyworth in the series), Aldridge and Paetz play characters who were far less prominent outside of origin stories over the years. With Pennyworth focusing on personal missions and their own burgeoning relationship just as much as the title character, the pair got the chance to really explore unique characters that weren't as emboldened to previous performances.

Aldridge noted that as an actor, it was almost freeing to have a greater blank slate instead of looking so much to the past. "I think to have the pressure on our shoulders of expectation, and reinventing a version of what someone else has already played... [Audiences] get so attached to things in that way that you're always going to disappoint a few people. Luckily we're part of a complete invention process with Bruno Heller. Bruno Being the author of it, where he's been able to completely invent and imagine who these people are.

"We obviously know where [Thomas and Martha] end up: morally upstanding citizens who got murdered in a dark alleyway... I think what Bruno has brilliantly done is, we know who they are, we don't know how they get there at all. And he's taking us on real interesting journeys with both of them.  And I don't think that they're the people that you expect them to be when you meet them in Pennyworth and there's this huge progressive arc which is an exciting thing to play."

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This aspect of the show has allowed their relationship to take some unexpected and engaging turns: Thomas and Martha are drawn to each other instantly, but their conflicting loyalties and personal views lead them to bounce off each other more often than get along. "I just love the scenes that they get to play together," Paetz explained. "Their shape is so sort of like, constantly morphing and you never quite know where it's going to go. And they're just, they never kind of land anywhere safe with each other. As soon as they seem to be like a tender moment between them, it'll instantly shift and change. So they're always a lot of tension and that's exciting and kind of scary for each of them and really fun to play."

Considering the relationship, Aldridge added that "I think they just, there's just this kind of tension/chemistry between them, which is just based around, not based around conflict, but conflict happens between them all the time. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing for them. It draws them to each other. But as I said, the scenes were always so much fun as a play, there's always... They're never straightforward, never see them just having a cup of tea and getting on being domestic. It's always something strange is happening within their relationship. It's always high stakes, there's always an argument to be had and to be won."

You can watch the interview below.

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