London.
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Let’s start with an easy one. What made you want to become an actor?
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That’s the hardest one! I came at it quite late. The main answer is that I failed as a footballer, I wasn’t quite good at it, I wanted to be a footballer until I was 17 and then one day my mother one day said “I think you should stop” she looked at me thinking “this is not gonna work”. And then I had an amazing drama teacher who invited me to play Fagin (“Oliver Twist”) in a show, and then I kind of had the same buzz of playing football from acting, and then I naively said that I wanted to go to drama school and ended up at drama school at 18 in Oxford. I guess I still kind of think “do I want to be a footballer?” No, I’m joking! I was at drama school so young, that it is an odd thing to say that one day I just decided I wanted to be an actor. And then came the fascination of being an actor, I had no idea how amazing the actual craft is, and everything I did at drama school and the discovery of how amazing it is. I had no idea that I would love it so much.
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What does theater mean for a British actor and for you?
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Historically and for drama school, I would say that theater is the backbone of acting; I think that it is where all comes from. In my head when I was thinking of being an actor I never imagined of being in front of cameras, I always thought I would have been on stage, not that I was ever told I won’t be on cameras, it just that was my training, so to speak. Theater for a British actor is tradition, I think it is the most liberating form of the arts that I’ve ever seen, and when you see good theater, you never forget it and that’s the kind of thing. Whenever I have a dull moment in my career and I see an amazing piece of theater, it gives me that kind of kick and that energy. Things happen in one room, in one night and it’s never the same, what happens in that night it’s electric and it’s the best thing.
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How do you usually approach a character? And do you look for something in particular when you read a script?
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This is a good question. Every time I approach a character, whatever the character is, I have fundamentals that I use, but I think that the beauty of what we do, as artists, is that you should never stick with something, you should always be changing. Somebody was asking the other day, while we were on set: “how do you become a successful good actor?”. And the answer that we came up with is that you should never stop learning, whatever performance you have done, otherwise what’s the point of carrying on? When I read a script, [I look for] good writing, you can tell when you read a script that the language is amazing, or it’s funny, or it hits you in a way that something hasn’t before, like the project I am doing at the moment. “Carnival Row,” it’s one of the best scripts I have ever read in my life and, as soon as I was ten pages in, I couldn’t put the script down and that’s the sign of a good script; you literally don’t want to go to make yourself a cup of tea, you want to read the whole script.
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About “Black Mirror,” were you dreaming of being part of the series?
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Honestly? I had seen one episode of “Black Mirror” and I heard the buzz, but when I auditioned I was like “Oh, wow, this is a great audition”. And an amazing director and I had no idea that Andrea (Riseborough) and Kiran (Sonia Sawar) would be part of the project. When I turned around to my friends and said that I’ve just landed this “Black Mirror” job, there was no kind of “What’s Black Mirror?” there was an “Oh, f**k, this is cool.“ So, I guess I didn’t realize the buzz before the meeting, but after the meeting there was excitement.
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Let me tell you, I loved your episode. Your performance is incredible, in particular when you hit the guy, you go out of the car and you have those dialogues with Andrea. How did you prepare for it?
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The way John Hillcoat (director) works, and the way Andrea works as an actress, it sounds very wonky, but it’s all very “what happens in the moment, happens in the moment.” There was no one take that was the same, so how did I prepare? I don’t know, just really… The thing about two people genuinely believe that they have, in the primes of their lives, in their early twenties, knocking somebody over and killing somebody and that thought for me, I don’t know about you guys but sometimes I had the thought of what the hell do I do If I knock somebody over or push somebody down the stairs by accident and you kill somebody, that kind of guilt and what it can do to people. That was the simplest form for that scene, rather than overcomplicating. It was the most effective because it was literally two people who have had a great night, were madly in love with each other and they knock somebody over, so I think that the beauty of that moment is that you just go for it.
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Is there also some improvisation?
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A lot of improvisation, and around the script a lot of it. And Charly Brooker (creator) was very amazing: the fact that he gave us a great base to work from. But John Hillcoat the director was very keen on bringing reality to the script.
I actually think that audience has become harder to shock.
There is no mystery anymore in the world!
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We know that “Black Mirror” makes us reflect on how humanity is going. If we are crossing a line, or we have already crossed it, what’s your take on all these topics of the Series?
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Good question. I actually think that the audience, a younger audience, has become harder to shock, and I think that it disturbs me, like [the fact that] people can access things on their phone actually baffles me. The other day I was walking over Charles Bridge in Prague and I guarantee you I was the only person on that bridge without a phone, and the way people smile when they take photos, they are smiling for thousands of people on their Instagram, they are not smiling for them. That constantly baffles me. There is no mystery anymore in the world, and I think that Charly has created something that really makes people think and hopefully question the world we are living in and whether certain things we do are dangerous. It’s crazy that a lot of the episodes from past series I hear of are actually come to happen, “The Waldo Moment” episode with the little frog and people running for president and David Cameron, our old Prime Minister, supposedly did f**k a pig, yeah he did f**k a pig’s head. Anyway, you can quote me on that.
It’s “Orwelly” and, like, 1984 kind of, but for today’s audience. I still find very odd that we can seat on Netflix and you can watch anything. I’m quite old fashion in that sense, which is why I hadn’t been exposed to “Black Mirror”: I don’t have Netflix, I like to be quite selective and I like to listen to the radio. I feel like sometimes there is a lack of mystery, you can access everything, people are so keen to tell everybody everything and record everything as well.
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How was your experience in “Outlander”?
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Amazing. I had no idea how passionate the fanbase is for the show, and how big the market is internationally; it’s a huge market. And for me, it was such a fun time creating the character that existed, such an iconic Scottish hero. My experience on that show was like a family, I’m still in touch with several people from the show and I will always be, and made friends for life and I kind of count on my lucky star that I was involved in some way, in a small way.
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And how did you prepare to play such historical and particular character?
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For that character, I had a book, which was, the biography written about the prince called “Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart” by Frank McLynn. So I had the book which was my Bible and then I had “Dragonfly in Amber”, the book, and I had the script and it was kind an amalgamation between the three. And then I found his voice, I found the whole relationship with his father being an outcast, being an outlander himself (he is an outcast in Paris) It was kind of an investigation and then eventually after using the book and using “Dragonfly in Amber” it came to a point where I just focused on the script and what is in the script, and I came up with him.
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On your upcoming project, “Carnival Row” and “Humpty Dumpty,” what can you unveil?
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“Carnival Row” is a new 8 episodes Amazon Series, which is filming in Prague; it is with Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne and my character is a series regular who basically, within the world, at very beginning he invests in a boat in which he lives with the sister. The boat goes wrong, it’s bringing over creach from another island; it’s very hard world to explain. It’s a new world basically created by Travis Beacham. And my character is kind of integral to the beginning of the story with refugees: all types of different creatures are living alongside humans in a place called Burque. My character brings this boat over, the boat sinks, we meet the protagonist and my character kind of falls flat on his face and then it’s all about my journey and this is all about the struggle with his sister, and our new neighbour; so basically the creator, Travis Beacham, who created “Pacific Rim” and consistently works with Guillermo del Toro and the amazing directors have created a dystopian future. As I said when I read the script to begin with it, it’s some of the best words and worlds I have ever read. So, yeah, I am really excited to kind of come out and see what people think.
About “Humpty Dumpty,” that is my own project, which I am producing with a good friend of mine, Steven Walters, from “Outlander” and we worked together on another job in Morocco. That’s a passion project about Tommy Quickly who is part of Brian Epstein’s stable and he was the final of the five: the Beatles, Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer, Gerry and the Pacemakers and Tommy Quickly was the final act he signed and not many people know about Tommy. It’s a documentary that delves into his life, and basically, tells people this fascinating untold story which we are really excited about, and I’m a huge fan of music, of the era of the Beatles so I’m really excited to kind of hear the muzzy bitty. I’m excited to show that to people.
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And when are we going to see it?
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Well, because of “Carnival Row” Steven and myself have been quite busy and because we kind of said to people since we had a lot of help from the “Outlander” fans, we said to them “we want to do this to the best of our abilities.” We filmed a lot of it but it has been delayed and we are hoping to have something to show people by the end of this year. It’s a passion project and it is something I think every actor sometimes wants to take control, and they have certain stories they want to tell, and this is a story that I really wanna tell to people. I’m directing and producing, it’s the first time I have ever done that, so I get a completely different hat, slightly nerve-racking, but it’s fun, it’s really fun and we’ll see what happens.
You are literally like little boys and little girls playing dress up.
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What does it mean to be an actor for you?
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Bloody hell, that’s a good question! I would say it’s a responsibility but also a joy to be able to show people both beautiful and ugly sides of life, so whatever is for escapism or to make people think. But we are not saving lives, we are not doctors, it’s the kind of thing I always thank my lucky star or whoever gives me the opportunity to work with people who want to work with me, and I want to work with. I think that’s the main thing. Being an actor, for me, is finding people who have a similar imagination or creativity to you and you come together and you are literally like little boys and little girls playing dress up and filming it or in front of an audience. It’s a joy.
Must have on set: Rooibos tea
Superpower: To fly! I would love to fly, can we make it happen?
Epic Fail on the job: I once did “1984” on stage and instead of being called Winston Smith they called me Wilson Smith and all the way through the play I was thinking of Tom Hanks in “Cast Away” shouting “Wilson,” and so I couldn’t give a straight face.
Happy place: Watching Everton. I am a big football fan for the Everton team.
Favorite accent: Scottish, closely followed by Liverpool accent, that’s mine.
Favorite movie Then and Now: “Back to The Future,” 1 and 2 (not 3). 2 is genius!
Last movie you really loved: “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” with Annette Bening and Jamie Bell. I cried like a little boy. Paul McGuigan, the director, is fantastic.
Favorite word: Monotonous. I like it, it sounds like “hippopotamus”!
Who’d you’d rather be: John Lennon. I would like to play him just because I think there is a part of John Lennon that hasn’t been told yet.
Favorite Quote: my granddad used to always say “Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you’ll cry on your own”. But it’s funny because it’s quite a sad saying but he used to say it with a massive smile on his face.
The last series you binge-watched: I have two older brothers and if my middle brother ever tells me to watch a series I always watch it. He told me to watch two series: “Motherland” on BBC which is a funny series about mothers and there is a stay-at-home dad which I think is brilliant. And also I use my brother’s Netflix to see another series called “Love”, it’s very good!
What have you already crossed off your Bucket List: To be honest I don’t have a bucket list, but I would say scuba diving, horse riding, sidesaddle… there are so many things I want to do. Like when I was in Matera I cooked at home – made pasta and I scaled my own fish. My bucket list is probably slightly pathetic. I really wanna go to Tokyo and I have never been to Australia and I’ll go to see my family there this year.
Your dream project: I don’t have one. I think you don’t know what your dream project is until is there, maybe something with music
The most beautiful thing while filming “Outlander” and while filming “Black Mirror”: filming in amazing places for both films: in Scotland for “Outlander” and in Iceland for “Black Mirror”.
Ops! Break Time
Snack Crush: a crumpet
Sweets or popcorn? Popcorn
Since we are Italian…Hawaiian pizza, yay or nay? Not for me, no at all! I like spicy pizza.
Photos by Johnny Carrano
Thank you so much for this interview! Great questions and I love the new pictures!