Wentworth star Nicole da Silva spills on new season

Actress Nicole da Silva stars as Franky Doyle in TV series Wentworth.

Nicole da Silva knew there was only one way to get under the skin of Wentworth's feisty Franky, so she checked into prison. She talks to Eli Orzessek.

Wentworth is the kind of show that's so dark a decent binge-watching session will leave you curled in the foetal position from the intensity of it all, yet unable to resist another episode.

Based on the Australian classic Prisoner, Wentworth enters its third season dealing with a series two cliffhanger that saw the bad girl Franky Doyle pass over the reins as top dog to incarcerated mum Bea Smith (Danielle Cormack).

Franky (Nicole da Silva) is the most dynamic, charming character on the show - so much so it's easy to forget at first that you're talking to da Silva, not her character.

Feisty young lesbian Franky ended up in Wentworth Prison after appearing on a reality show that gave underprivileged teenagers cooking lessons - Franky threw a pan of hot oil in the face of an arrogant celebrity.

Speaking from Melbourne, da Silva says the "sophisticated" season three brings important developments for her character.

"A lot of the different parts of Franky's life come together, so you kind of see it all build and everything she's been through pays off in this season."

Though she does have some similarities to her character - citing her physical energy and strength - da Silva says in other ways she is completely different. Franky's tattoos are fake and take a couple of hours to paint on before filming - but sometimes she leaves them on for the weekend.

"I loved leaving them on and watching the way people dealt with me differently," she says. "Suddenly they saw the tattoos and they weren't going to take any s**t from me."

She researched prison life before agreeing to sign on to Wentworth - and the research paid off with the creation of the well-rounded and believable Franky.

"That was one of the stipulations of me getting the role, I really wanted to delve into prison life and I really wanted to do justice to the stories of prisoners and ex-prisoners," she says.

"It's such a closed-off world that we're all intrigued by because it is so far removed from what any of us know. So before season one started filming I visited prisons. I went to two prisons and then I sat down with some ex-inmates and got their stories and their opinions and developed Franky from there."

The show is often compared to Orange is the New Black - a comparison Da Silva describes as "a bit of a privilege". But though it does have its funny moments, you wouldn't exactly call Wentworth a comedy. Its darkness can be hard on cast and crew. "There have been moments over the course of shooting the show where we do need to take a step back and kind of get some space for yourself, because it is so fraught," she says.

The show has attracted an international cult following - much to the surprise of its cast and crew, who were unsure if it would last past season one.

"We had no inkling that anyone else would want to watch it. We didn't even know it was going to resonate in Australia," says da Silva - noting that New Zealand was one of the first markets outside Australia to pick up the show.

"Suddenly it was this kind of cavalcade of interest and none of us had anticipated that."

What: Wentworth season three
Where and when: Screens on TV2, 8.30pm from Monday, August 24.

- TimeOut