NOW that the murderer of sexy artist Elena Alves has been revealed in HBO’s smash hit drama The Undoing, fans are asking just who is the actress who played her.
Stunning brunette Matilda De Angelis, 25, brings the character to life alongside Puerto Rican actor Ismael Cruz Córdova, 33, who plays her widower husband Fernando Alves.
Last night the series finale revealed which of the main characters had killed her out of her lover Jonathan Fraser, played by Hugh Grant, 60, his wife Grace (Nicole Kidman, 53), their son Henry (Noah Jupe, 15) or her husband.
Despite the host of stars in the mini-series by HBO, which is one of the channel’s biggest launches, it is unknown Matilda who has captured viewers attention.
Naked ambition
Matilda, who lives in Rome, spent months learning English for her breakthrough role starring opposite A-listers.
But, she claims she wasn’t nervous stripping off in front of two of the most famous people on the planet in several scenes.
“Whether it’s my eyes, or my mouth, or my boobs or my vagina, my body is just another tool to express myself,” she told Interview magazine.
“It’s still me. As long as the goal is to communicate something complex, then nakedness can be a powerful way to express and persuade.”
Her character in the mini-series tears Grace and Jonathan’s world apart as her murder causes a rift to develop as her affair with Jonathan is exposed and he ends up on trial for killing her.
‘Such a big scene’
Matilda admits she was convinced she wouldn’t land the role in The Undoing when her agent got her to record a self-tape.
She said: “After reading the scene I was pretty much sure I wasn’t going to get the role, because it was such a big scene and I was doing it on my own.”
The actress, 25, added: “I thought, ‘okay I’ll just try, and I’ll do my best’. When they told me I actually got the part, I could not believe it.”
She flew to New York to film for the show, which was her first time ever in the Big Apple.
Matilda told W Magazine: “I was very excited; New York is perhaps the most iconic city in the world. It was so exciting for me to walk around and get lost in the city. I kept thinking, ‘Oh, here was that scene from that movie!’ It was my favourite game.”
On Monday night she gushed on her social media about the show, admitting it was “easy” to be obsessed with Nicole.
She posted: “Thank you so much for watching us last night! It’s been an incredible journey and sometimes I still can’t believe it’s true.
“Thank you so much @susannebier for giving me the incredible opportunity of performing Elena.
“Thank you so much @nicolekidman for being a constant inspiration, it was so easy to be “obsessed” with you. Thank you @ismaelcruzcordova for being such a lovely and hot husband, I don’t deserve you.
“Thanks to all the cast and crew for the amazing job you did, I’m a big fan of all of you , and thank you @davidekelleyproductions and @hbo for this amazing show you’ve written and produced.”
Scouted on Facebook
The Italian actress was originally a singer who was scouted for her first film, Italian Race, by its director Matteo Rovere, on Facebook in 2015.
She said: “[He] saw some of my pictures on Facebook and he wanted to meet me because they were searching for the leading role in this new film and the director didn’t want to get a professional actress because he needed a specific dialect from a specific region in Italy (Emilia Romagna).
“So, I went to the audition and after, he told me: ‘You have to do it again, but with a script’ and I had three or four auditions after that and then, I got the part.”
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For her role as Giulia De Martino she was nominated for a prestigious Italian film gong – a David di Donatello Award – for best actress and got a second nod for an original song she wrote and performed for the film.
She then went on to star in a number of Italian movies including YouTopia, The Prize and A Family before landing a role in The Undoing.
Matilda has also recently finished filming Leonardo, a series about Leonardo da Vinci, alongside Finding Neverland’s Freddie Highmore, 28, and Poldark’s Aidan Turner, 37.