Though Irish actor James Nesbitt has played everything from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Pontius Pilate, he says there’s only one requirement to acting: believability. “You try and play the truth of the character, as complicated as that is,” he says, in his lyrical Irish brogue.
“Without believability, we have nothing. And there's such incredible content on our screens now that I think audiences actually invest a lot in — otherwise there's a remote control that people can use, and it can very easily play into something else,” he says.
“So I think when you see the characters make difficult decisions ... the audiences nowadays are saying, ‘Why have they made that decision?’ And, ‘Do I go along with it? Can I understand it?’”
Making difficult decisions is what Nesbitt does in his latest role as the veteran detective on the trail of an assassin in a case gone ice-cold in “Bloodlands.” The four-part drama, which was filmed in his native Northern Ireland, premieres next Monday on Acorn TV.
Nesbitt says he was fascinated by this story because of the writing. “Everything starts with the writing,” he says. “And the writing and the plot were so arresting immediately.”
Chris Brandon, creator and author of the series, says setting the story in Northern Ireland was a crucial part of the tale. “The idea came from that very distinct sense of place and wanting to tell a story in this place, in particular,” he says.
“And that was influenced ... by the Scandinavian crime dramas — but definitely what, at the time, ‘The Killing’ was doing in Denmark, and what ‘True Detective’ was doing in Louisiana, and also the writing and the films of Taylor Sheridan (“Hell or High Water,” “Yellowstone”) as well.
“That kind of idea of neglected frontiers, I suppose all fed into this idea of telling a story that really used the landscape of Northern Ireland to underline the drama that the lead character was going through.”
Nesbitt thinks Brandon brought a unique slant to the story. “It's an astonishing job, really, what Chris did here,” says Nesbitt. “I've always said it doesn’t matter how good an actor you are, it's hard to make bad writing work. But you can never have acted before in your life and anyone could make some of his writing sing, I think.”
The 56-year-old actor says he felt an intimate connection with the character of DCI Tom Brannick and his relentless pursuit. “How could I not in the sense coming from Northern Ireland, being of a similar age? I know that background. I myself am a parent of two daughters. And Northern Ireland has always been part of the backdrop; has been the backdrop to my life in many ways,” he says.
“... I think I tried to base a lot of it — at its core was my relationship with my daughters, because the main jigsaw pieces in Tom's life are his daughter, his missing wife, his job, and of course, where he comes from. And all those things have collided; the other three things have collided in such a kind of traumatic way. And all that he's left with, in a sense, is his daughter.”
Nesbitt’s mother worked as a civil servant, his father and his three sisters (he’s the youngest) all went into teaching, but he knew in his early teens that he wanted to be an actor.
“I was 13. I was playing the Artful Dodger. It was the first night and I remember having the sense, it was like coming home, even though it was the first night. I got it in a heartbeat,” he says.
Acting, he says, fulfills him. “It feeds my soul, I think. And I used to hate the idea of admitting that maybe it did. It’s the world in which I feel comfortable. And you know, it’s a good life. I work very hard and then I was a performer as a child. The best way of dealing with it is to then see what I enjoyed as a child ...“
Nesbitt has performed consistently since he started. “I love the craft, the collaboration, the discipline of film acting – be it in television or on film,” he says. “The focus that is required to sit around for seven hours and then go and work for an hour. To live in the moment I find fascinating, and I think you can learn a lot about yourself in acting. You can escape from yourself in acting very easily. And I think all actors will do that. But you can also confront yourself in acting as well — and it’s finding the marriage of the self and the actor that’s quite interesting.”
‘THE MASKED SINGER’ GOES UNDERCOVER AGAIN
Fox’s “The Masked Singer” is back incognito Wednesday with Nicey Nash as the new hostess and the court of judges still prying and vying to discern who’s behind that gargoyle costume. The panelists say they have different ways of solving that puzzle.
“I'm all gut,’ says Ken Jeong. “I mean, you really have to just not think and just don't listen. I'm not trained. I don't have any musical talent. I'm not a recording artist. I've never been signed to any label, my choice — which is why I feel I'm the most authentic voice — is because I only listen to my gut and nobody else, including my peers, producers, network, studio. And that's why I'm very necessary ...”
Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg says she’s more cerebral in her divination. “I would say that I'm 90% clues except when I get the first impression. But most of the time, I lean on those clues. I'm one of those people that are also watching it, that loves clues ... I love to figure things out. So, I really lean heavily on those (clues) because it makes it even more fun for me.”
Nash says, as hostess of the proceedings, it’s difficult for her to hold back. “It was way different hosting because I wanted my own guesses. I wanted to look to my left or right and say, ‘Now, which one do you think it sounds like?’ But you can't because you are up there trying to lead the charge, lead the circus. However, every time I had a free moment, I was somewhere trying to figure out the clues and take in the clue-package. So, I loved it because I still felt like a viewer at home even though I was hosting.”
NAT GEO HONORS ARETHA FRANKLIN
National Geographic kicks off its next “Genius” installment with a tribute to the legendary Aretha Franklin on March 21. Airing on four consecutive nights, the series features Tony, Emmy and Grammy-winning actress-singer Cynthia Erivo as Franklin.
Erivo says playing the fabulous Franklin was beyond her dreams. “I love Aretha. I’ve been listening to her since I was little, and I learned to sing and tell stories that way, by listening to her. So you approach it by paying attention to the music, listening to her voice, listening to how she communicates with her music. Reading. I was lucky because now this amazing documentary ‘Amazing Grace’ is out, and it’s a really wonderful look into the relationship she has with people and the way she communicates, the way she is with others. I’ve been poring over lots of her interviews to find out her cadence and just different things, really. I get to be a geek of something I really love.”
‘CREEPSHOW’ SLITHERS BACK FOR NEW SEASON
The spine-chilling and campy “Creepshow” will be returning to the streaming Shudder network with a new season of horror tales that owe their heritage to the spooks of our past on April 1.
Based on the works of horror-meister George A. Romero, the series of mini-movies are orchestrated by executive producer Greg Nicotero.
“I've always been a big fan of the genre,” he says. “I've always loved being scared and scaring people. So it's a big thing for me to be able to be the showrunner on a show where I can craft, design, create, develop, direct a myriad of amazing stories that have some great, great effects in them. So it's really kind of a dream come true for me. And, you know, I got my start in the business with George Romero on ‘Day of the Dead,’ so I feel his spirit all around me all the time. So it's pretty great.”
Easter eggs for the fright-fan are sequestered throughout the series. “You can almost always equate one of these ‘Creepshow’ stories to something that has an iconic moment in sort of horror history,” admits Nicotero.
That’s particularly effective in the first film, “Model Kid,” which tells the tale of a young boy whose fascination with all things ‘monstrous’ helps him cope with his less than idyllic home life.
“I realized in retrospect that a lot of my episodes were period pieces,” says Nicotero. “A lot of them take place in the '70s. I have a big affection for growing up in the '70s and reading famous Monsters magazines and watching ‘Chiller Theatre,’” he says.
