“Keeping Faith” offered everything the Welsh actor Eve Myles had been waiting for: An unflinching leading lady. A richly layered mystery showcasing her magical homeland. A role so different from anything she’d previously done that it was almost frightening.
And yet she turned it down repeatedly, uncertain that she could dig deep enough into the character — let alone in more than one language.
Developed by the Welsh-language channel S4C and co-produced by BBC Wales and Acorn Media Enterprises, “Keeping Faith” was designed to be shot in two versions: One in English and the other (titled “Un Bore Mercher,” meaning “One Wednesday Morning”) in Welsh, which Myles, like so many natives of Wales, didn’t actually speak.
But in the end, her fear of regretting passing on the job outweighed her fear of actually doing it.
“I had to take a deep breath and go, O.K., if you’re going for it, don’t do a mediocre job,” Myles recalled recently. “If you’re going to do it, smash the [expletive] out of it.”
‘Keeping Faith’ Is a Hit in Two Languages https://t.co/5If9pR6FKb
— Rhian Ivory (@Rhian_Ivory) August 31, 2019