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<p>LOS ANGELES &#8212; Kelly Macdonald looks every inch the star, in a stylish dress and perfect makeup and manicure &#8212; which she proudly notes she did herself.</p><p>And yet, the Scottish-born actress says with mock distress, she&#8217;s cast as the servant rather than leading lady in films including &#8220;Gosford Park&#8221; and the upcoming &#8220;Holmes and Watson.&#8221;</p><p>That&#8217;s not always the case, witness &#8220;The Child in Time,&#8221; based on Ian McEwan&#8217;s acclaimed 1987 novel about a toddler&#8217;s kidnapping and its aftermath. Macdonald and Benedict Cumberbatch star as the couple whose world is staggered by the loss.</p><p>Potential viewers shouldn&#8217;t be put off by the tragedy that propels the story, as heartbreaking as it is, Macdonald said of the drama airing 9 p.m. EDT Sunday on PBS (check local listings for times).</p><p>&#8220;This isn&#8217;t about a missing child and finding that child in a procedural (crime story),&#8221; she said in an interview. &#8220;At at the end it&#8217;s about love. &#8230; It&#8217;s nuanced and beautiful and uplifting.&#8221;</p><p>Nuanced applies as well to Macdonald&#8217;s body of work, whether as a bereft parent in &#8220;Child,&#8221; a woman threatened by a hired killer in &#8220;No Country for Old Men,&#8221; a gangster&#8217;s wife in &#8220;Boardwalk Empire&#8221; or, yes, even the naive maid she played in &#8220;Gosford Park.&#8221;</p><p>Acting was always her preoccupation.</p><p>&#8220;I used to dress up as Wonder Woman in my backyard in Glasgow in the &#8217;70s,&#8221; she recalled, smiling at the memory. &#8220;From day one, I wanted to watch films all the time and I would re-enact scenes from &#8216;Calamity Jane&#8217; and &#8216;Singin&#8217; in the Rain,&#8217; which is weird because they&#8217;re musicals and I&#8217;m not a song-and-dance person.&#8221;</p><p>She made a quick career start with &#8220;Trainspotting&#8221; and kept going. She marvels that the temporary visa allowing her to work in America is the O-1B issued for people &#8220;with an extraordinary ability&#8221; in the arts, movie or TV industries, according to federal rules.</p><p>&#8220;Oh, so you&#8217;re exceptional?&#8221; a Los Angeles airport passport control agent said to Macdonald as he checked her documents earlier this year, the actress recalled.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just a bit of an ego boost when you come here and you&#8217;re &#8216;exceptional,&#8217;&#8221; she said, adding, &#8220;Thank you very much!&#8221;</p><p>She&#8217;s playing opposite another outstanding British actor in &#8220;The Child in Time,&#8221; and found Cumberbatch &#8220;a dream to work with.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s so good, and I think we&#8217;re both quite generous actors,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I have worked with people where you give, and you don&#8217;t quite get back. &#8230; Some people just know what they&#8217;re doing and do it regardless of your intonation.&#8221;</p><p>She and Cumberbatch take different approaches to acting &#8212; he&#8217;s intellectual, she&#8217;s more instinctive &#8212; but &#8220;it&#8217;s like we get each other,&#8221; Macdonald said.</p><p>Cumberbatch, whose company produced the film, returned the compliment earlier this year during a Q&amp;A with TV critics. Macdonald is &#8220;astonishingly natural and open and fluid and just completely at ease with her craft,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The stars acknowledge that the film, in part a time-shifting meditation on childhood lost and found, may seem dauntingly painful.</p><p>But the &#8220;real story isn&#8217;t about the missing child. It&#8217;s about a real relationship and the breakdown of that relationship and the possible coming back together,&#8221; Macdonald said.</p><p>&#8220;There is hope,&#8221; said Cumberbatch.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">This image released by PBS shows Kelly Macdonald as Julie Lewis, left, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Lewis in a scene from &#8220;The Child In Time,&#8221; based on Ian McEwan&#8217;s novel about the aftermath of a child&#8217;s kidnapping. Macdonald and Cumberbatch play the couple whose marriage is staggered by the loss.  </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_AP18089038677124.jpg</photo0><caption0>This image released by PBS shows Kelly Macdonald as Julie Lewis, left, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Lewis in a scene from &#8220;The Child In Time,&#8221; based on Ian McEwan&#8217;s novel about the aftermath of a child&#8217;s kidnapping. Macdonald and Cumberbatch play the couple whose marriage is staggered by the loss.  </caption0><photoCredit0>Pinewood Television, SunnyMarch TV and MASTERPIECE for BBC One and MASTERPIECE via AP </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Lynn Elber</p><p>The Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

Loss, love for Macdonald, Cumberbatch in ‘The Child in Time’