Hi, guys.
Hi, I'm going to begin by asking, Oh, I'll come to you first, Sarah.
I mean, when you first read the scripts for a series like that,
do you go on that same journey that we go on when we watch it?
Because, I mean, every kind of episode ends, isn't it?
And you just kind of desperate to know what's going to happen next?
And are you privy
to the whole series right from the start or do you have to wait as well?
So the next script comes in?
Well, the thing with this, this particular one is,
no, I didn't have the whole script, but obviously this book,
so I read the book, so I so I knew I happens
But no, I try and read when I get scripts,
so I try and read them as an audience member would read them
It's very tempting as an actor to get a script through
and just look at your part and go, Well, let me just break through really quickly
and just see where I go and how much I've got...
So I've really tried over the years to not do that and just sit down and read it.
If I was an audience member and if I was watching it and
and and with this particular script, I did that and I loved it.
I really enjoyed reading it.
I preferred reading the script to the book, really.
I liked what they've done with the characters.
They'd mix them up a little bit,
made a bit more of certain characters, not so much of different other characters.
And yeah, that's how I approach scripts ready.
But no, we didn't have all the scripts,
and it's very rare these days as an actor that you do get all the scripts.
They sort of come as you start it, they come in drips and drabs.
But I think we had episodes one to three.
So I think,
yeah, James, I was speaking to Richard [Armitage] was saying
having kind of Harlan [Coben] around as kind of as a producer on this
was helpful because if if there's any questions
you want to kind of know anything you want to kind of learn about the character,
having the man who created the characters in and around the place was quite useful.
Did you ever seek to speak to Harlan to kind of help when crafting the character?
I spoke to him a bit before I came to the job.
Quite late. I think I don't really know,
but the great thing was that I think
when Harlan has done those other shows, he's always been around a lot.
But because of, you know, because of the situation we were in, he wasn't there,
but no certainly I spoke to him a lot beforehand.
And what was great about him was I didn't.
I didn't know him.
I was actually unfamiliar with his work.
I was the only person in the world
Sarah and I were the only two people in the world who were unfamiliar with his work.
And obviously, when I got the job, I then when I read the scripts,
I loved the character, but I spoke to him for a long time on the phone
before I accepted it.
And he really
what was wonderful was that he kind of he said, Look, this is
this is the character and this is the world is and this is the story.
But in a sense, I want you to bring a lot of what you think, too.
So the minute someone trusts you like that,
it's really
very kind of heartwarming and encouraging. And
but yes, certainly I am a very collaborative actor.
I mean, I'm someone who works very closely with directors, which is why done
having Daniel O'Hara as a director was so important to me
because I've worked with him before, lucky man, and he's
just got a real,
accessible intelligence.
He has got a sophisticated level
of kind of understanding of of of emotion,
but he's very straightforward and makes things quite simple to understand.
So and obviously, Harlan would be there, and you always push harder
when you have an opportunity virtually to have a chat with him.
But but it was the fact that he sort of trusted me in a sense means that
then that's like saying you're allowed to jump off whatever if you wanted.
And that's that's one of the best things a producer, writer or director
or anyone can go through to say, Listen, you jump and we're happy for you to jump
. It's going to assume when playing a detective like this.
Do you find that you you do any research into actual detectives?
Or is this kind of creation
so ingrained into the kind of fabric of cinematic storytelling
that your reference points are?
Actually, they're not really reality, but more other films and kind of TV shows?
I think that's a really good question, actually.
I mean, I've polayed plenty of detectives, you know, so I think certainly in the past,
I think whatever it is, playing detective, sort of thing.
I think, you know, what levels are.
I certainly sometimes you know what levels of research today.
I mean, what I try to take over four years ago, Tommy Murphy [in Murphy's Law]
as that show got darker and darker, I spent a lot of time
with a former
undercover policeman, and he was invaluable because he had
kind of walked a very dangerous and fine line in the work that he did.
Was this not as much, although we did have a fabulous police
kind of consultant on set
who with me was brilliant in terms of authenticity because.
Insisting even in a thriller like this, even on account of a fictional town
like this,
you still have that as there still has to be believability and credibility.
And she was just wonderful in that kind of general curio type way of
just being really very, very specific in terms of when she would notice
that something wasn't right wasn't professionally right.
So to me, that's the mindset to do it.
You've got the sense about authenticity
when you've got someone that you can rely on being a policeman and I
to my that with then
your own interpretation of a character is also kind of falling in love.
Again, he's going through all the kind of human things that we
sometimes forget that policemen do
was, I think, where it was successful.
Mm-Hmm.
And I said,
if you're talking before about you, maybe only getting
a few kind of scripts at a time,
but how would you have kind of waiting to discuss with live audiences ?
Because I mean, because even when I've seen something,
if I've been privy to watching like two or three episodes of the series,
I find it's so hard not to just talk about everyone
and anyone that will listen to me.
But obviously, sometimes I've seen it in advance and it's, you know,
embargoed and stuff like that.
How is it being in something that has so many twists and turns
and is a sort of series of a show that that does keep people guessing?
Do you ever struggle to to not speak to the family and friends about?
So you're quite good at kind of keeping all your secrets?
I'm quite good at it. I think I mean,
the thing is that by the time people want to talk about it
as an actor, you're usually on to your next job
so you don't get you'ew veering to something else, you know, and then you start
doing publicity and press for a show that you were doing six months ago.
So more often than not, you kind of have to sit down for an interview and go,
Christ, you know, what was the character called again?
Because like, you know, like Jimmy, just been doing another character.
I've just been in Cardiff doing another show playing a completely different part.
So in actual fact, it's quite easy because because you
you come back into the interview process, just sort of remembering
and learning about the character,
as you did when it was brand new. So.
So you kind of all the nuance and the nooks and crannies that you're
probably not allowed to talk about any way you can't remember.
Also, what's what's interesting is this almost...
The interviewer reminds you of the
character
I'll be like, I'll get some questions, although it's brilliant.
That's right. That's what I mean.
That's completely so true.
I can't tell you how true that is. Honestly, before sitting down to talk to you guys,
I kind of went, Oh, I just have a little read up because, you know, it's
like, Oh, we can't remember what we were doing six months ago.
Is it?
Is this something quite nicely about doing like a limited series like this?
Because I get I always wonder sometimes
when actors sign up to a TV show, they can find themselves in that show for
like seven, eight years, and it can be all they do.
Sometimes with that type of look, that can be a great thing.
Having that kind of regular work and having great characters
over years is a great thing to practice to get their teeth into.
But I mean, again, I think that's really it's just, you know,
there's nothing,
you know, I suppose one of the reasons if a show does go to five,
four or five seasons is because it's pretty good.
But also but I think with that, I think sometimes, you know, with
the real regularity of the same character, I think that can be challenging at times
can also be wonderful, you know, because you can
still be evolving the world and still be evolving.
And certainly, Sarah and I have done plenty of that over the years of
repeats shows, but I'm going to
what was great about this was that.
I mean, of course, as you're doing it, there's a very few things we've got,
I wish there was another series of this kind of thing that says
it provides a lot of security and all of that and also was.
But no, there was something lovely about particularly, I think, for us to show.
I mean, I don't see a lot of churn, but because of the. The
resolution
because of the journey of our two characters
and and the fact that they haven't seen each other in years
on them, they've got, say, 6-7 weeks
to establish this extraordinary story to really... the challenge
of almost six weeks, really, because it's an eight weeks or less.
They've got six weeks, six episodes
to really become
relevant and important to an audience,
but also to ourselves as actors and those categories.
I mean, that was
to meet a resolution.
Whatever that resolution might be, I think it was very satisfying.
And you know, it's it's
something I really remember.
It's quite lasting.
Mm-Hmm. Definitely. Definitely.
I think, you know, like you said,
there's pros and cons to being in a long running series.
You know, the series goes great and lovely to have that security.
And there is and as an actor, you know, when you come back, there's
always something that you can rediscover about a character or something new.
But there has to be a certain amount of discipline
as an actor to say, I've reached the end of the journey with this guy,
and that can be very difficult because you go, Well, yes, I've reached the end
of the journey with this character, but have I financially reached the end?
And that's when you kind of have to go, No, this is the, you know,
I have to stop playing this character now,
and I've got to take a risk and move on and do something else.
And when you are in a serial like this, like,
stay close, you don't have that choice.
You know, you you know, you've got to do this journey and you make the most of it.
And it's it's terrific fun.
Well, talking of coming to an end.
This interview is sadly coming to an end as well because I'm out of time.
But thank you so much for. Thank you very much. Thank you.