All right.
Well, I'm actually going to begin with you Harlan and I was wondering,
when you make, write a book
Eventually it becomes a series like, Stay Close, I say.
Do the actors who play the role was like Richard [Armitage], like, like James [Nesbitt] or Sarah [Parish]
Did they become the roles that you first created
when you now picture these characters?
Do you see the the actors who were who were cast?
I do.
first of all, it's
been a decade since I read the book other than having to read it right before hand
which is always a strange experience, because even I'm reading it, I
where am I going with this?
And I just make myself forget it all.
But one of the cool things about collaborating
and maybe because I was thinking about this, maybe because I'm a novelist.
And so when I'm a novelist, I'm a dictator, right?
I'm everything.
I'm writer, actor, director, I'm key grip
I don't know what the key grip is, but I grip.
So when I'm able to work with people like this, like Richard here,
I love the collaboration.
I actually really love to hear what they have to say, how they want to change it.
It's almost a little bit like I may maybe birthed these characters,
but now someone else is going to help raise them and bring them into the world,
and they end up being different then than what I created.
And I kind of love that.
I sort of love that collaboration.
So yeah, I do.
I will sometimes.
Now that Richard's been on two shows, I will call him Richard,
but there will be times that I will think of them as
I was just on with, I think, a the kitchen I think there's Broome... there's Lorraine there.
So sometimes I actually do it the other way where I start
thinking of the actor as the character.
But yes, especially in this case, working with the cast, this amazing.
I do see now Lorraine as Sarah, I see Cush [Jumbo].
as Megan as Megan as Cush....
But yeah, because obviously you as someone who's been
in a whole myriad of different shows and films and TV, of course your career.
Do you when it comes to
when something is based on a very popular novel or popular series
of books, for example, do you use the book sometimes to help craft a character?
Or do you almost have to separate the books from the
character from
as the one that was written on the on the page in the script?
No, I mean, I when I look back at
most of my work, I for some reason I.
Seem to gravitate towards working on pieces and characters that come
from from literature, and maybe that's maybe I choose it, or maybe it finds me,
but yeah, I mean, I'm a bit of a stoic for respecting the writer.
I love having that Bible that you can delve back into,
and I tend to find
each scene in the script and then label it in the book so that you can.
You have instant access to what the writer was thinking of because
you know, the difference between a novel and a screenplay is that
the writer will tell you what's going on inside the character's mind.
And in a way, that's it's my job to carry that into the into the visual story. So
I loved kind of being able to find
exactly the scene that that that exists and some of them don't exist.
But you use all kinds of things.
But you know, Harlan will give me the interior of the character,
and I take that.
And it's not necessarily the desire to change it, but you want to
you want to make it walk and talk and think and breathe
because on the page, it's it's printed words and what.
I love that process and part of that for me is finding
kind of music and images to just really give them a whole life.
You know, I usually figure out what their politics are
and all this kind of, you know, you just create
an entire character because in a in a novel, you're part of
a tapestry of many, many
characters, and I hope to fill it out as much as I can.
As much as time will allow me to step on on here as to what I was about,
what I was going to ask a question to Richard about
your work, which I can ask now because you can't see you blush
now if you sort of like talks really
highly of it, which is quite interesting.. You can talk highly - it's no problem!
It's just, I mean, you know, Harlan's work and material is something that is
I mean, there's a reason why it's got a huge big Netflix kind of deal
and obviously, you've worked before in The Stranger Richard.
What makes Harlan's writing
so watchable and so easily adaptable and such cracking TV?
Well, as Harlan said before, I mean, he used the word dictator,
but I wouldn't use that. I would say he's a director.
You know, when he writes, because you're creating the scene,
everything about it is is a kind of cinematic construction.
But and I think that would be my question of
as as modern
writers do, we are we influenced heavily by cinema
because I think it's impossible not to be or cinema
or any kind of visual medium because it is flooded into our lives.
And, you know, even when I'm creating a character, I
I sort of dream in cinematic images.
And I think Harlan writes so brilliantly in cinematic vocabulary,
but added to that, like I just said, he gives you the interior
of the character's thoughts and feelings, their pasts, their hopes, their dreams.
And so he's sort of offering you
like the entire smorgasbord to choose from.
But aside from that, the settings are always kind
of crying out to be photographed
so I can see why it's it's
kind of catnip for for TV and film producers.
And, you know, I think where we sit there waiting with bated breath
for the next book to see, like, what is this going to look and feel like?
Because, you know, from the first page, you start
to create images in your head when you read Harlan's work.
So I'm very grateful for that.
And if there's a
very visual, very striking and authentic visual field to your work, as Richard
said, you can picture the places, but often your work takes you to Britain.
If you spend a lot of time in Britain to be able to have
that visual landscape in your mind that you then onto the page.
Well, my brothers lived in England now for 24 years, I think.
25 years almost so.
And you know, I've been there many times,
but I think that's part of the collaboration.
I mean, one of the things I'm able to do with Netflix is The Innocent
was filmed in Barcelona, in Spain, and
the Woods was filmed in
Poland and Gone for Good was filmed in France.
So it's part of the collaboration.
Even if I don't know, it plays well, it's trying to find those versions of it.
The British version or the French version, the Spanish version
and taking this of what I heard
in a very specific places and trying to make them universal.
What I found in writing
is the more specific you are, the more universal the appeal.
The more I try to write a book.
That's every town USA versus being specifically about New Jersey.
That's when you start to lose it.
I have a friend is in the clothing industry.
His clothes are very, very specific for Palm Beach in the summer,
when they try to spread out, when they tried to make something that's
maybe a little more bland at the rest of the country will like they always pop.
So it's.
The same kind of thing, it doesn't necessarily matter if it's in Manchester
or if it's in Newark, New Jersey,
you have to find those places in those settings and those worlds
that will spring to life specifically for those environments.
There's the authenticity extend to kids actually hiring photographers
to their bar mitzvahs because that's something I'm just
I can't believe I didn't get a red carpet and walk down it
when I was like 13 years old, just just on my birthday party.
I've been to one of those parties.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
As soon as I saw that was a real job, I'm like, Whoa, there's no way I'm not
tell me what could be lower than being a paparazzi?
Well, a paparazzi for high secrecy,
working a wedding or a bar mitzvah or something like that.
As soon as I saw that, I figure it's how the book opens
actually on Ray, Richard's character,
a dealer working in one of those bar mitzvahs.
Mike, how can I start a character and really show how low he is?
And so that's where I just was fascinated
by that sort of occupation.
And that's where Ray sort of started out.
And then you ask, how did he get there?
Where is he?
You know what?
What happened in this life that led him there?
And that's how I read all the books.
You kind of start with something like that,
and then you just keep working up until a character emerges.
You ever had an interest in photography, Richard?
So I bought very expensive cameras
in the past and never really known how to use them.
But I think, you know, as you develop as an actor and you watch
cinematographers creating shots and creating, you know,
painting with light and all this kind of thing,
my brain starts to work in that way.
So this was really interesting to take on a character like this, and I studied
a guy called Tim Hetherington, who I thought would be a good model for,
for the for the role loosely.
I just looked at his pathway into the into the industry
and what kind of cameras he is.
You know, HArlan was just talking about getting specific and,
you know, when the props department call you and say, what?
What cameras do you think your character uses?
You know, it was really nice to be able to be very specific and give them,
you know, a £9,000 camera that they couldn't afford.
But, you know,
you sort of I mean, it's one of the joys
of this profession for me is that every role I take on,
you get some sort of learn a little bit about the profession.
And so I did learn about the twin
lens camera that he used and developing.
And you know what time of day he would shoot.
And you know, part of the interesting thing about the character,
unlike some of the other themes that Harlan talks about,
which is about people hiding their past, is that Ray's past is hidden from him.
So he's going back through images trying to trigger his memory by looking at
the photographs he took of this particular night because, you know,
there's 17 years of just fragments that have come through.
So it was interesting to to sort of for myself
to create a biography of images of of different events.
You know, I think we I think that's quite a human thing.
I think we all have, you know, your iPhone won't throw up a couple of pictures
to remind you of, you know, this particular date and time.
I think we live in pictures, really? Mm yeah.
My final question for you guys, Harlan, I was going to ask, you
speak about the kind of art and
and the importance of collaboration, but now is something you probably be
a bit more used to, by the time Stay Close is here
But is it quite hard handing over your material to other storytellers,
filmmakers, TV, you know, execs or directors?
Because I guess there is a kind of pressure sense of this is belongs to you
and it's not something you just had to get used to across
your career is kind of giving it to someone,
letting them bring their own interpretation to to the characters
or to the projects and story in this case.
No, just because I'm working on it full time with them.
I mean, I'm I'm an executive producer and
I'm there all
the work that they do every day.
Pretty much.
I get the the rushes and the dailies, and I'm there at the table, reads them there.
I'm helping write all the scripts, so I'm heavily involved.
And so I can't also duck it by saying, Oh, I can blame somebody else.
I don't like it.
I can come right to me and yell at me.
I don't know. I love that kind of ownership.
But at the same time, it's also the thrill of it.
You know, this is not to sound Pollyanna, but I was fortunate to be on set at this time.
But there's always a moment when I go on a set of a show
and I'm watching all these people milling around that I'm looking at all
these incredible, incredible cast that's in this film.
Know besides Richard, you have a cushion and Jimmy
Nesbitt and Sarah Parish and that hard.
And Jo [Joyner] and I mean, everybody who is in this show.
And I just go, Wow, I had this little idea in this room.
Bring in now and all these wonderful,
talented people are bringing it to life
for 190 countries, 200 million Netflix subscribers.
And that's really heady and that's
if you start getting jaded about that, somebody yell at me or slap me
in the back of the head because that's really such an honor and such a privilege.
But well,
thank you so much for your time It was lovely to see you, well - and hear you!
All right.