Stephan. How are you? I'm well.
How are you?
I'm very well, thank you.
It's very, very hot in London.
So if I look like I'm sweating, it's great.
All right. It's all good, man. No worries.
But I congratulate your jumper, by the way.
Oh, thank you. Thanks, man. Thanks for that.
So you just put out of the clothes?
I just put out of clothes and.
Oh, fine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Congrats on the. Congrats on the show.
Thank you so much.
I really, really enjoyed it so far.
I must say I'm a big fan of yours since you saw your Beale Street, which is.
Thank you.
Tell me about the lure of of this one, because it's a script
that has so much going on.
I can imagine as an actor, when you get a script that you like, it's one thing.
But then when you get one that has as much texture and as much substance
is as much going on in this one, it must be must be a dream come true.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, honestly, you know, when I was approached with this,
you know, just knowing that, you know, for one, Veronica West
was going to be at the helm
as as the showrunner and just have been such a huge fan of hers.
And when
it was, you know, when the world was pitched to me, I was just like,
this is my favorite, you know, type of stuff, like, you know, Thriller,
you know, you know, things that play on, you know,
your psychology as a human being,
you know, mysteries and things.
You got to sort of put together, you know, a slow burn, if you will.
And and,
you know, so understanding the world, understanding the story, the characters,
the actors that were going to be portraying these characters, Gugu Mbatha-Raw
you know, to me, you know, when Veronica called me and said
he would be this, you know, undercover cop, you know, that was going to help,
you know, Sophie put, you know, the pieces of her life back together.
You know, it just struck me as an opportunity to do something cool,
something different, and to play a guy that was pretty layered.
You know, you don't have Thomas Baden all figured out in the in the
in the first episode, which is something I absolutely loved
and was a great challenge for me to embrace, just peeling back
those layers over the course of the show.
Is there a bit of a double edged sword for you as an actor?
Because you obviously want to know your character,
you want to know where it's come from and what the endgame is.
But also because it's a show where it's a lot of mystery,
you kind of almost don't want to know this.
But is it is it is it a fine juggling act kind of knowing what you want to know,
but also keeping yourself in suspense as well as the audience?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think yeah, I think you're right on point in saying that.
And if anything, you know, television might help aid
to that sort of process, right?
Where you don't it's not like a film where, you know, the beginning, the middle
and the end, you know, television, you're sort of
you're growing with these characters or evolving with these characters.
You know, the writers are able to see us
as actors, embody these characters and write for us in a weird way.
And so,
yeah, I mean, as frustrating as it is on one hand
to not know everything and not know what's going on and where you're headed,
it certainly aided in the process.
But, you know, I couldn't preconceived anything or predetermine
anything because, you know, a lot of it I didn't even know myself.
But that was the exciting part of it.
Yeah, I always ask about working with Google
because she's she's such a formidable actor, but also in some respects, like,
I feel like she's not in a negative way,
but I feel
like people are still discovering, you know, as you did for ten, 15 years.
What was it like being alongside her?
Because she's done in last couple of years, done some incredible stuff.
And this is just another another one.
Yeah. She's a special actress.
Very, very, very special actress. I would I would
say to her often,
but I was looking forward to people seeing her in this space.
You know,
just I don't think she's ever done anything quite like this, you know, to,
you know, to to helm her own television show in this way.
I think she just
she did a really phenomenal job as an actress and was so great
in terms of the process and inviting myself into the mix,
being collaborative with, with, with me and open to hearing ideas and suggestions.
And, you know, it's just a dream, too, to play opposite an actress like that.
And not to mention she's just a special human being.
Like, she's just a great a great person.
So very much enjoyed my time working with Google.
Yeah I'm trying to her and Oliver it's more interesting revolver
because he's got this role last time he was like the invisible man.
Now playing this character, it's kind of like, what have you done?
Yeah, but what's the you?
He's crazy, Rose.
Is he just a crazy guy in real life, man? That's just.
That's all it is. It's not even acting.
It's that. I love it.
Stephan, lovely to talk to you...
Yeah. I appreciate it.