That fragility comes to the fore when the exotic Fiamma arrives, a Spanish princess whose confidence and worldliness is everything Miss G aspires to.
Fiamma’s arrival awakens something in all the girls, not just Miss G. After the initial jealousy and catty bullying, there’s a period where they all appear to be getting along famously, but it doesn’t last as passion turns into obsession, jealousy into rage and Miss G begins to totally crumble.
“Miss G is a fantasist who ends up believing her own stories,” says Eva. “She’s created this persona from the movies she’s seen, like Marlene Dietrich films and things. All her physicalities are calculated and she becomes this fantasy person.
“But ultimately she wants her girls to travel, be independent and not to be housewives and to have a great life full of adventures.”
Eva has had more globetrotting adventures than most. Born in Paris, to a French mother and Swedish father, she and her twin sister, Joy, were raised in the French capital, also spending time in London and Ireland.
Eva also trained at the New York University’s Tisch School Of The Arts before returning to stage work in her native France.
Fortunately, Eva’s school was nothing like the one depicted in Cracks, which is strict, oppressive and surrounded by water, seemingly completely isolated from the outside world.
“God, no, my school was nothing like that!” says Eva. “I went to a very normal school in Paris, went home at night, there were boys in my school, too. It was a tough school, but I think your school makes you who you are.
“You have to very careful when you have a child not to put them in a very strict school where hard teachers are going to put them down all the time.
“I had one English teacher in an American school I went to and he loved what he was doing, and that’s so contagious.”
Next up for Eva is Womb, in which she stars alongside the new Doctor Who, Matt Smith; The Last Word, with Trainspotting stars Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner, and a remake of 1986 gangster flick Mona Lisa, with Mickey Rourke.
