Rising British star, Emma Appleton plays Nancy Spungen, Sid Vicious’ ill-fated lover in “Pistol,” a new mini-series directed by Danny Boyle, based on a memoir by Steve Jones, guitarist and founder of The Sex Pistols.

The pioneering punk band simultaneously appalled and entranced British society with their angsty lyrics championing social change, which had a catalytic effect on popular music. Here the actress tells us about transforming into a groupie with an abrasive attitude.

How did you get the role in Pistol? What was the process like?

I never anticipated that I would be involved at this stage with such an amazing project, and I have an incredible agent [Molly], and have been on this upwards trajectory, and I got this email through for an untitled Danny Boyle project, and had no clue what it was about, but if it says Danny Boyle, of course you’re like what do I have to do…learn magic? that’s fine, I’ll do it, ha! I did the tape and didn’t hear anything for months and then my agent called one day and said Danny wants to Zoom with you tomorrow for the role of Nancy Spungen, so I started frantically googling her, and the Sex Pistols, 70s England… because I was aware of these infamous legends, but didn’t know enough. I had heard of The Sex Pistols and seen all the iconic imagery, and of course I knew who Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm McLaren and Chrissie Hynde were, but I didn’t know how all of the dots joined together. But after the Zoom I got the job!

So how did it all come together and what was it like working with Danny Boyle?

We had two months of rehearsals, but the boys had even longer as they had to do a band camp and learn how to play all their instruments, so it felt more like a theatre project rather than a TV show because you never get as much rehearsal time as we had. We worked through the scenes with Danny and got to play around with ideas and build the chemistry between Louis [Partridge] and I [who played Sid], and Danny wanted us to be able to just get on set on the first day and be ready and comfortable and know our characters inside out.

Was it intimidating but also fascinating to play a character who is also a real person, how did you prepare for the role?

There’s always a great sense of responsibility playing a real person, because I want to handle it delicately and respectfully, and it was important for me not to be an imitation of Nancy, I was very much doing an interpretation. So you need to find a balance of bringing authenticity from the source material I had like Nancy’s interviews and the book her Mother had written about her, because who else would know her better? Then weaving that into the Nancy in our script.

Were there any scenes that were particularly difficult to shoot, like the physical and mental side effects of Sid and Nancy’s heroin addiction is depicted, were you nervous before you shot those?

I don’t think I was ever really nervous, I did my research and we also had a drugs expert come in to talk to us so we could ask anything, and make sure those kinds of scenes were as authentic as possible, like the final scenes with Louis and I that got to the absolute tragedy of Sid and Nancy — they were quite tough. But it was such a safe space on set and we were really looked after, so we knew we could be as creative as possible, and then after shooting, we would go off and have a cup of tea and a biscuit! I think also because the role is so far away from me, I could dive into it and then dive back out very quickly.

Nancy’s character is one of several memorable women in the series, alongside the designer Vivienne Westwood (Talulah Riley), and the punk icon Jordan (Maisie Williams) - how did you all get on, was there a real girl power between you?

It was so easy right from the rehearsal period, we would all sit around eating lunch together and talking about our characters and sharing research, and just really hanging out as we were filming during pandemic times, so we really only had one another, and it just felt so organic.

The pistols really informed the dress code of the punk revolution, so what was it like transforming into Nancy fashion-wise?

It was sooooooo much fun! The costume department and Liza [Bracey] the costume designer had to make so many pieces, like all the Vivienne Westwood clothes, and I basically wore a lot of fishnets and leather, ha! Also this amazing black and white mohair jumper that the real Nancy wore back in the 70s, so it was really cool to pay homage to her in that respect too.