LIVE24SEVEN // Interviews
I wanted to be a part of My Cousin Rachel for so many reasons: a great director, a fantastic script and a wonderful cast. It’s a psychological thriller but it’s also a period drama and what I love about Roger’s vision is that he didn’t want it set in any particular time or any particular place, it’s slightly ambiguous, and left to your imagination. I also loved the idea of playing this character that thinks he is a man but in many ways is still a boy. We often see the story of a boy who becomes a man but this is more a man who turns into a boy and I enjoyed that transition. At the same time, working with Roger is a treat for an actor. He definitely supported me along the way and he helped guide me and I trusted him totally. I’ve never felt safer.
Your character Philip is inspired by Ambrose, his cousin who raised him. Who has inspired you? So many people for so many different reasons. I always look to my parents and as much as my parents aren’t in the arts, they have this determination and strength that really inspires me. My Mum and Dad are ambitious and loyal at the same time. They never use their ambition to push people away. So it starts there, with my parents. As an actor there are performances and other actors that have inspired me also.
Let’s talk about working with Rachel Weisz. What was that like? Because it’s very much a story about your two characters… My character is swept away and is in awe of her and so I didn’t feel like I was acting much (laughs). She is incredible and you only have to watch the film to know what I’m talking about. I was constantly on edge in a really exciting way. She was a joy to work with.
Do you need to empathise with the characters you play? And if so was that the case with playing Philip? Yes and I think the most difficult character I’ve ever played in that respect was Alistair Ryle in The Riot Club who came from a very different background to myself, and I had to try and understand why he was the way he was. And it was similar with this. To get into Philip’s head I had to understand what had happened to him as a child – he had lost both his parents and had grown up in a house without any women, surrounded by dogs and farm animals and a lot of manly men.
Your career is clearly going well. Thank you. I try and stay away from the box office madness. If you get too wrapped up in that it will drive you nuts. I think the difficult thing about where I’m at now is that there is an age gap in the industry, I feel, for a lot of men of all ethnicities. Between the age of 25 and 35 there are stories, but not many, about young men of that age. There are a lot of boy to man stories, like 18 to 25, and there are stories that follow men of 35 and over but not so many in between. So at the moment I’m in the process of bulking up and I’m about to explore a slightly older character next. Now I’m a father, I feel I’ve got an emotional depth greater than, say, it was two years ago. What’s great about where I am now is that I’m starting to get scripts for older men and I’m ready to explore that.
/ 14
What’s the role you are bulking up for? ’m not sure I’m allowed to say because it hasn’t been announced but it’s something I’m very excited about and it’s working with a great team of people and an incredible script and playing a very different character to that which I’m used to.
I guess part of the joy of the job is that you can take time between projects when you can be, as you say, a full time Dad… Fortunately, where I’m at in my career is that I can talk to my representatives and say ‘I’d like a couple of months off. .’ But at the same time if a script came in that was an absolute no brainer and a great opportunity then of course I can do it.
Your younger brother, Joe, is acting too. Was he inspired by you? I don’t want to speak for him but I think he followed all of us in a way. I have two older brothers and one of them is in computing and he tried that for a while and my second oldest bother went travelling and Joe went travelling for a little bit and then he kind of saw how much fun I was having with acting and he also enjoyed drama and he kind of got involved. He almost followed in my exact footsteps, he went to LAMDA like I did and was very successful there and he is doing really well. My whole family are amazingly understanding about what I do but it is nice to be able to talk to a brother who is in London, acting and being able to hook up with him and chat with him about it all.
You’re one of four brothers. What was that like? My poor mum (laughs). My Dad loved it because we’d all go and watch the football. And actually my Mum loved it as well and she wouldn’t change it for the world. She sort of became an honorary lad (laughs). She used to ferry me and all my friends to football matches. She had a big mini bus that she used to ferry the entire football team around in it. So she is a trooper – a proper powerhouse, God bless her. My Mum and Dad and my two older brothers are back in Norwich, where we grew up. It’s still home for me and it’s a beautiful place. My wife and I love going back to see the family. The area around Norwich is lovely – we love the beach walks. And Norwich as a city and the people are lovely. It’s a wonderful place to go back to.
You’ve worked on some of the biggest film franchises of recent times – Pirates of the Caribbean, The Huntsman and The Hunger Games – what has that meant for your career now? I’m getting great opportunities to sit down with great directors and work on smaller projects that I believe in and I’m passionate about. My Cousin Rachel is a great example of that. I kind of want to work out what I want to do as an actor, where I want to go and what I want to explore. It’s a really interesting time and fortunately directors, like Roger, are willing to take risks on me because I think it would be easy to slot myself into a particular box and do the same thing. But I want to do different things. I really admire Christian Bale who literally transforms from film to film and that’s what I’d love to do.
My Cousin Rachel opens in cinemas June 9th
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164
