Pure actress Charly Clive talks about her first screen role in Channel 4's hit drama

Pure: Charly Clive as Marnie in the Channel 4 OCD drama
Channel 4

Standing in a room full of naked extras may sound awkward, but Charly Clive insists it’s even more awkward when you’re fully clothed.

“There were 50 naked people all talking as though they weren’t naked and I was like, ‘How am I the only odd one out in this situation?’” laughs the actress and star of Channel 4’s new hit drama, Pure.

The six-part comedy is based on the memoir by Rose Bretécher, and Clive, 23, plays lead character Marnie, a young woman struggling with a form of OCD called Pure O that manifests as relentless X-rated thoughts.

Inevitably for Clive, then, sex scenes quickly became part of the job. The first thing her agent saw her do was crawl across a table to lick another actor’s face, and filming mass orgies on the Tube seemed “normal”.

Lead star: Charly Clive as Marnie
Channel 4

It may sound erotic or sexy but Clive insists the reality was far from it: her character Marnie is horrified by her thoughts, and after a particularly extreme intrusive sequence of them at her parents’ wedding anniversary in Scotland she runs away to London in search of answers.

“She doesn’t know exactly what’s going in her head but she knows that something isn’t right. It’s a coming-of-age story in that way,” says Clive, who hopes Marnie’s more “comedic aspects” are a reflection of her own.

Indeed, making light out of heavy subjects is her speciality. Three years ago Clive was diagnosed with a brain tumour — which she and her best friend Ellen Roberton nicknamed Britney. They discovered humour was the best remedy so the pair wrote a sketch show and took it up to the Edinburgh Fringe. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” says Clive — there, she was spotted and called in to audition for Marnie. “It was mad.”

The TV show marked a lot of firsts for Clive: her first screen role, first time living in London and first time living alone. Filming took place this time last year over a period of 11 weeks, mainly in Hackney.

Clive grew up in a village outside Oxford, and says she identified with her character. The arriving in London scenes “were all really close to home for me so hopefully they come across as authentic”.

Pure: The hit drama is on Channel 4
Channel 4

Getting into character took months of preparation. Clive worked with a dialect coach to perfect Marnie’s Scottish Borders accent and spent “a lot of time” with Bretécher. The book was her bible and its author was her “guiding light” in terms of learning about the condition. “She was really open with me. We met up a few times to talk about her experiences.”

Clive admits she was “apprehensive” at first. “I really didn’t want to say anything that could be insensitive. I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable, but there really aren’t any stupid questions. If we keep talking about, it will be less of a taboo to talk about mental health.”

There was one line in particular that helped the actress get into the zone: “you are not your thoughts” — something Bretécher drummed in. “Yes, Marnie has this condition but she isn’t this condition,” says Clive. “That’s the whole crux of it really.”

She hopes Pure will be a more “nuanced” portrayal of OCD than has previously been seen on screen. “Typically the portrayal of OCD tends to be really idiosyncratic, like people tapping or cleaning their hands or not stepping on cracks on the sidewalk. It’s usually like kind of tragic or quirky, but it’s not realistic.” What’s interesting about Pure is that the condition it portrays isn’t “all-encompassing”, Clive continues. She thinks the tone of the show is well balanced. “It’s never too much if you can’t relate to [the condition], and if you can relate to it, you’re not being made fun of.”

The scripts were all checked by professionals and some therapy scenes were looked at by patients with Pure O, so “there were too many eyes on it for anything to have slipped”. That said, the programme “certainly isn’t making a general statement about Pure O. It’s talking about this character’s experiences.”

Clive hopes the series will have a big impact and says her family are already big fans —not that she’ll be watching with them. “That would be too strange,” she admits. Instead, she plans to watch it with Robertson at her flat in Haggerston, which was close to the set and became a favourite hangout for the cast.

They’re all still friends, and see each other a lot. “I love them,” says Clive. “We feel like a tribe.”

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