eve-willOliver Woollford’s Will Clarke has been one of the central three characters of the CBBC series Eve from the very first episode – it’s his nanobots, we later learn, that bring Eve to life, and it’s at his house that Eve lives. On the set of the last episode of the third season, Woollford chatted with Paul Simpson…

How did you get involved with the show in the first place?

I went for a day of filming in London for it; I think they did three different days with different Eves, Wills and Lilys – I didn’t have Poppy [Lee Friar as Eve] or Eubha [Akilade as Lily], I had someone different. That was a year before we started filming the first series. Me discovering Eve, Lily discovering Eve – it was more like an audition, but it was a day of filming. It was really weird. Then a year later I got a call saying that they wanted me to fly up to Glasgow to see what I was like with Poppy as Eve. I was like, sure; flew up, and we got on really well and then we started.

eve-will-wakingWhat did you know about Will originally? Presumably the nanobots weren’t part of it at that stage…

Precisely. All I knew was his dad brought this robot back, I’m a teenage boy and he’s trying to give Eve a sense of what it’s like to be a teenager. I didn’t know anything about the nanobots, although when we did bring Eve to life, we did this little hand thing and a blue spark came. No one knew then, but now we’ve found out about the nanobots, we realised it’s because of them. I just thought it was because we were bringing her to life, it happened with everyone – but clearly not.

The show’s run three years and it’s clear that you’ve become a tight knit group. Did you guys see each other in-between filming?

Yes, we’re out for drinks and having a good time – we are like a family. We get on so well. I love them – it’s brilliant.

What do you think of Will as a person? Would you get on with him?

I think I would. He’s a lot different to me – he worries about stuff a lot, and he’s a lot more caring than I am about other people. But then again he is the average teenage boy where he wants to go out and play football, go to parties, hang out, play videogames, whatever – but his life changed when his dad brought a robot back. It’s changed completely. But yes, I’d get on with Will – he’s a nice guy.

eve-will-4In some ways he’s almost a mother hen with the group which is a gender switch from the usual cliché – have there been elements to him that you’ve read when a script comes through that you weren’t expecting?

Like you say, you’d think that the girl is a bit more the mother hen, but when Lily wants to get Cain to hang out with the gang, and she’s bringing different people and Will says he doesn’t think it’s a good idea because they’ve got to keep things low… that was a surprise because I’d’ve thought it would be Will bringing in extra people, but Will hasn’t really done that. He’s not brought other people to the gang.

How do you see the relationship between Will and his father, Nick?

I think it’s a great relationship. They’ve got a banter. In some ways I think Nick’s a bit more childish than Will – there have been a few times when Nick has done something and Will has been going “Dad, let’s not do that…” Like when he kissed Katherine and there was a bit of banter because Nick’s awkward there.

eve-will-and-mumWhat’s challenged you most about playing him?

I would say this year has been a tough one – I’ve had stuff to do where the nanobots are changing Will. He turns quite intelligent for a bit, and that was quite challenging because I had a lot of lines. That’s across a few episodes.

With the block filming, that could have been difficult if you were ordinary Will and then bright Will on the same day! Does that sort of shooting pattern throw you, where you’re doing scenes from lots of different episodes?

You always have to think, “hang on a minute, what are we doing? What’s going on? What episode is this?” I’d say I’ve done pretty well with it – I don’t know what other people might say!

EVe AbeWhat got you into acting?

I was at school and we had a theatre company come in to teach about drugs and drinking and whatever. They asked for someone to go up on stage and I said okay. They knew someone who worked at a place called the Television Workshop in Nottingham, and I got an audition to go in there, and I got a few jobs from that and now I have an agent. After the first series of Eve I did an ITV drama called Black Work, and been working since, trying to get jobs – it’s quite hard.

Are there particular roles you’d like to be doing – theatre maybe?

Film, theatre – I’d love to have a go at that. I’d love to do some voiceover work – I’d love to do it all really, instead of just TV… although that’s terrific.

Eve continues on CBBC on Wednesday at 4.30