Stowe: It's great to play a villain

Madeleine Stowe has revealed she didn't expect her Revenge character to be such a hit with viewers.

The actress plays scheming matriarch Victoria Grayson in the hit US show, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination in 2012.

"I had no idea that she would catch people's fantasy that way," Madeleine said.

"It's funny, we were going through a list of films and someone said, 'Let's talk about films with villainesses in them' and there aren't that many.

"I think women are expected to behave a certain way and this is a woman who behaves badly most times, but from her gut and her instincts and also this primal need to protect her children.

"She has her very own damaged past... in terms of where she came from and why she is as warped as she is."

Madeleine also praised her co-star, Canadian actress Emily VanCamp, who plays revenge-seeker Emily Thorne.

"Emily is wonderful and disciplined and comes to the set every day prepared. We work very differently - I tend to feel my way around a scene and she knows what she's going to do with it while I like to kind of hunt it out and find it, and I've learnt a lot from her because she's had more experience working in television than I have. It's been interesting. She's lovely."