Rose Williams talks Jane Austen's 'Sanditon,' skinny-dipping, more

British actress Rose Williams is playing a not-so-typical Jane Austen heroine in the not-at-all-typical Jane Austen drama, “Sanditon.”

        The new eight-hour British series, premiering on PBS’ “Masterpiece” on Jan.12, is based on Austen’s last novel, which she left unfinished when she died in 1817 of a mysterious ailment. Doctors now suspect she suffered from Addison’s disease (easily treatable today), but her intended plot remains a mystery. Picking up where she left off is acclaimed screenwriter Andrew Davies, who has authored four Austen film adaptations (including “Pride and Prejudice” with Colin Firth), plus the “P&P” update “Bridget Jones’ Diary.” Safe to say the man knows a thing or two about Austen.

        His take is a salty tale of a naïve yet sharp-witted country girl, Charlotte Heywood (Williams), who visits a seaside resort unprepared for dramas involving a dashing playboy (“Divergent’s” Theo James), conniving fortune hunters and — in a first for Austen, who introduced this character in the book — a biracial beauty from the West Indies.

        Born in West London, Williams’ big break came in 2014, when she was hired for three episodes of the CW’s Mary, Queen of Scots, drama “Reign,” and got bumped to series regular for three seasons. Now 25, she spoke by phone with Newsday contributor Joseph V. Amodio.

The young blokes of Sanditon do a fair share of skinny-dipping in this series, don’t they?

Yeahhh. (She chuckles.) There was such a big reaction to that when we screened the first episode in the U.K. It’s funny how a few men’s bare bottoms can cause such controversy. When filming, it never felt like a racy scene. It was sweet, humorous. But it is historically accurate — people skinny-dipped then.

Men, you mean. As we see in the series, women had to wear long dresses and pantaloon-like undergarments.

It was such a bizarre look.

How cold was that water?

Ohhh, it was something I’ll never forget. Me, Lily (Sacofsky, who plays Charlotte’s friend Clara), the egrets, and the camera operator, all in the water, and we were in hysterics because we were kind of floating away, and were absolutely freezing.

Charlotte Heywood is a rather unusual Jane Austen heroine.

It’s definitely a step in a different direction. And because it’s unfinished, Andrew (Davies, the series creator) could take Charlotte where he wanted to. I like that she goes to Sanditon because she’s inspired to see life outside her village. She’s not going to find a man and get married. The nice thing about Charlotte is that she doesn’t care about that. Austen only wrote 11 chapters of the book (about the first 30 minutes of the series), but the pace…and the type of characters she’s writing about were so different.

Like the character Miss Lambe, a biracial heiress from the West Indies.

Yes. And the (middle class) businessmen and entrepreneurs of this story. The Mr. Darcys of her books were all landed gentry, they came from money. So she was really commenting on the changing state of England. The fact that (these characters are) so different from the get-go maybe hints that she was going to surprise us with something different.

When you wrapped production, you posted on Instagram that you wouldn’t miss the corsets and bonnets, but you’d miss the “Friday night Prosecco on the makeup bus.” That sounds pretty good.

Our makeup designer, Helen Tucker, was brilliant. Working with people from four a.m. to the end of the day — 12, 13, 14 hours a day — in the wind, in the rain, in the water, and dealing with makeup and costume malfunctions, you can’t help but bond. We shared coffee in the morning, and on the odd Friday night….a bottle of Prosecco would come out. I have so much love for all of the crew and cast. It was such a family feeling every day.

I hear you split your time these days between London and L.A.

They’re so different and I think that’s why I like both places so much.

You’ve adjusted to L.A.?

I love it. I’ve got some really good mates there.

Any weird American phrases or habits you can’t quite get used to?

I think it’s an L.A. thing — when people say, “Yeah, no…,” it means no, and when they go, “No, yeah,” it means yeah.  (She chuckles.) I think that’s so funny.

And what British phrases of yours amuse us Yanks?

Well, this is a curse word, so I probably shouldn’t say it in an interview, but….”Bloody.”

Oh, that’s not a big deal here.

English people say “bloody” all the time and when I say it in L.A. some people are like (and here she imitates a flat American accent) “Oh my God, you’re British.” I get that quite a lot.