(Photo: HBO Max) 
Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley) currently stars as famed chef Julia Child in the miniseries Julia, which is available via HBO Max in the U.S. and SKY Atlantic in the U.K.
Child wasn’t just a chef, but cookbook author and TV presenter. But according to the Radio Times she wasn’t quite a household name in the U.K., like she is in the U.S.
Lancashire’s first introduction to her was in the 2009 movie Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep as Julia.
Clearly, that’s all changed. Now Lancashire knows her quite well, as she's now portraying the pop culture icon.
On one level, it’s nice that Lancashire could step into the role without any preconceived notions, but at the same time, there may be expectations from viewers who do know Child from seeing her on TV.
Lancashire talked about her thought process going into the project, saying to the Radio Times, "When I was approaching this, I never approached it as a comedy. I wasn't convinced it was a comedy, to be perfectly honest. I thought, ‘If everybody else wants to treat it as a comedy they can do... I’m just going to do my Julia Child in the only way I know how.’”
Like Child, Lancashire wasn’t scared to say no, going on to elaborate about requests made of her: “Occasionally, I would be asked to take it a little bit higher and I would always resist. I would always say, ‘No, absolutely not’. I think she's a woman who could be very easily lampooned because of her exuberance, but you don't need to do that. It wasn't necessary to do that.”
If the miniseries Julia is new to you, here’s a peek at the trailer:

We like that she takes her work seriously. What about you?