Gary Oldman has delivered award-winning turns as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Sirius Black in “Harry Potter,” but he says he’d be “quite happy to continue playing Jackson Lamb for as long as they want me.” Oldman’s cantankerous MI5 agent on Apple TV+’s BAFTA-winning spy thriller series “Slow Horses” represents the longest-running television stint of the actor’s career.
On Lamb’s team of flailing subordinates is Jack Lowden’s likable River Cartwright, whose wrong-place-wrong-time misfortune has placed him in the organization’s administrative doghouse. The role marks a leap into the present day for Lowden, who’s best known for playing Nikolai Rostov on the BBC One miniseries “War & Peace” and Lord Darnley in the film “Mary Queen of Scots.” The two sat down with Backstage to share their tips for getting into character as a pair of hapless spies in the fictionalized world of Britain’s secret service.
The show is adapted from Mick Herron’s “Slough House” novels, but now its cast members—who are currently filming Series 5—are so molded to their characters that showrunner Will Smith is happy for them to make suggestions on their lines. “We contribute to the writing because we really know these people now,” says Oldman. “Rather than the voice of the books, [Smith] can now hear how we play these characters.”
Yet the books remain invaluable for the show’s cast. “One of my favorite things to do is to go around London with the audiobook version…whatever season that we’re doing, whatever book we’re doing. That’s how I really get into it,” says Lowden. “I make a point of going around places that we would be in. London just lends itself to that so well, the sorts of dark alleyways and dingy places.”
For Oldman, who “cherry-picks” between the methods of Konstantin Stanislavsky, Stella Adler, and Sanford Meisner to get into character, and is a big believer in Meisner’s famous mantra—acting is “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances”—it’s music that helps him access a character’s mind. “We think Lamb might be a Bob Dylan fan,” he says with a laugh, adding that he’d probably have the Bee Gees, the Who, and the Rolling Stones on rotation, too.
Check out the full interview for more tips on character development, techniques, and building an acting career that serves you.