In the 1971 novel “The Day of the Jackal” by Frederick Forsyth and the 1973 film adaptation by Fred Zinnemann, there was not much of a question about who the shawl was: a changeable killer who had been hired to kill French President Charles de Gaulle. Either he would die or the Gaulle was.
But Peacock’s new television version, created by Ronan Bennett, is different – partly because it is a continued series, so you expect its title character to survive, and partly because the sink is played by Eddie Redmayne, whose innate similarity means that we are obliged to root for him at least part of the time.
Redmaynes Sjakal is careful and relentless, but one of the performances in the show is that the British detective who is looking to get him, played by Lashana Lynch, is as unnecessary as her goal and almost as willing to bend the rules. Between that dynamics and the level’s increasingly contradictory personal life, the series weaves a tangled web, morally and legal.
The last time we spoke was for the movie “The Good Nurse”, where you played Charlie Cullen, a real nurse who was responsible for a death string. Both that project and this play your nice persona. We just tend to be on your side.
It is interesting that you say so, because I think the reason I got the role is that Brian Kirk, our director, had seen “The Good Nurse.” I do not want to relate fiction to reality, but what I found in (director) Tobias Lindholm’s hold of that piece is that it never gave you a simple reason why Charlie Cullen did these things. I believe that as people, to feel comfort, we must know, “Oh, this person had a trauma, and that’s why he did it.” But it in some way lets us from the hook. And I find qualities of sociopathy in the shawl and in Charlie that somehow connects these two polar-ups life.
There is a moment late in “Jackal” when your character meets an older couple to help him. When we looked at it, I turned to my wife and said – and it was just a guess – “I think he will kill the nice people, but I’m still rooted for that guy.”
I didn’t know the extremity of what to do when I signed up. They sent me the first three episodes, and the goals in the first episodes were people for which you did not necessarily have empathy. But it was the gang of the needle: how do you do such scary things and yet people keep engaged?
I found that there was room to find this inner life in him that remains while he is pulled apart. And he is also someone who is so careful. I think we all relate to that moment when a curve ball is thrown and your plan is completely dismantled and see how you try to survive.
What was it about the three episodes that interested you?
They arrived in my inbox and “The Day of the Jackal” was the title. It was one of my father’s favorite movies and one of three or four VHS movies in our house when I was growing up. When these scripts arrived, there was a moment of horror, because you do not want to slaughter something you love, but what I read was so different. It was contemporary, but it had the qualities I loved in the original movie.
It was a thriller in the 70s, so it was kind of analogous rather than from the digital age we are in. I loved the feeling of the previous Bond films where you would set things and then watch the Dominos fall. There were also so many challenges in these sections. It was like an actor’s playground: language, disguises, physics, action. So I jumped right in and signed as a producer.
When you had three scripts did you know where the story went?
I asked not to know because I was so excited about the scripts that came in. But also, when I signed up, I joined as a producer. And this whole experience has been a massive learning curve for me. For several years I have worked quite intimately with directors and producers that I have worked with. I’ve always got some kind of input, I guess. But this really looked behind the curtain in an exciting way. It was a rigorous process but a rewarding one.
I always wonder about actors who are involved in television programs on the basis of a couple of episodes. When you get a script for section 6, do you ever think, I wish I had known about this guy in section 1?
Yes. I mean, I asked what the general bow was. But the truth was that I assumed that the next seven scripts arrived in the next two weeks. And that was not the case. (Laugh)
It is not specific to television. I have worked with movies where there is a release date and the script is not clear, and you go in and do not know the whole bow of anything. What I found complex about this was that I could do all this prep for the first three, and then suddenly things arrived: different dentures, different languages, and now you and you are on the hoof. So I had to juggle prepping with photography.
You talked about how accurate the character is. And it’s fun to watch it a year after seeing the David Fincher movie “The Killer”, where Michael Fassbender plays a very different but equally accurate killer.
It was really fun, that. We already shot when that movie came out, and I remember that the original opening was the shawl that made a plank (set a shot against his goal). He checks his Apple Watch. And my first instinct was that it can’t be an Apple Watch. This guy is an analog guy in everything. I find that exciting, because in this world we live in now, when everything is online, the way to disappear is completely analog.
And I remember when I saw the trailer for “The Killer”, it was Michael who made a plank and looked at his Apple Watch and checked the pulse. I was like, “Ok, thankfully, we made that change.” But I have also found it interesting that there seems to be a revival in this type of genre, whether it is “Jackal” or “Black Doves” or “The Agency.”
But again, one of the things that appeals to me about playing Jackal is that as a British child who grew up, I always loved these kinds of characters. And yet the shawl, because there was something specifically old school about him, I felt that this could be something I could do. While I do not necessarily have the physical heft to play the Butch-Eer spies. (Laugh)
The character lives a double life that his family does not know about. Do you feel that he really loves his wife and son and is committed to them?
On the one hand, there is a ruthlessness and lack of morality and a kind of refined, scary elegance. And then there is this family man, and I think both of these things are true. In some ways I saw him as an addict. I think he believes in it when he says this is his last job. But the idea that he just sat there in his beautiful house with his beautiful wife and children reading a book for the rest of his life, I just don’t see it happening. (Laugh) There is a move, and also his virtuosity. I relate to addiction to doing something you love. It is very rare to find a job that meets you and is more than a job. So I tried to pull on my own passion to act, I guess.
At the end of Season 1, the character comes directly out and says what his two goals are coming forward. I guess this is where we go in season 2?
These are the first ambitions. I have just seen the first script, and what I love is that it remains faith in the character, but the ambition seems to have bloated. The other one I read it, I thought, “When can we start?” But we have some more to write.
So are there still things for you and the audience to learn about the shawl?
Oh, I think it’s like – charging. (Laugh) I think we just scraped the surface of him.
A version of this story first appeared in the drama issue of Thewraps Awards Magazines. Read more from the question here.
