Working it out

Rose Byrne on playing an ambitious 1980s fitness guru in a darkly comic drama…

- STEVEN PERKINS

Rose Byrne won rave reviews playing feminist trailblazer Gloria Steinem in BBC2’s Mrs America last year, but her latest role sees her portraying a woman whose journey to independence happens via Lycra and leotards.

In Apple TV+’s new comedy drama Physical, which is set in 1980s San Diego, Rose plays Sheila Rubin, a one-time activist who is now stuck in a dysfunctional marriage to college professor and aspiring politician Danny (played by Rory Scovel).

Sheila is also hiding her bulimia by visiting a motel during the day to binge and purge on fast food, and is subject to a savage inner monologue that constantly criticises her appearance, weight and self-control.

It’s only after curiosity prompts Sheila to follow a stranger into a keep-fit class that she discovers she has a natural aptitude for aerobics, which leaves her filled with a sense of power and self-worth.

The burgeoning home-video market gives Sheila an opportunity to turn her talent into a business, and establish herself as one of the first female lifestyle gurus.

Here, Rose, 41, tells TV Times all about embracing a character who finds freedom in a very unexpected place…

What is Sheila’s life like at the start of the series?