Jack Lowden is making himself useful

Jack Lowden’s is a face that is familiar to many. Over the last fifteen years or so,
he’s built up an impressive CV, with credits spanning the titular role in the Morrissey biopic to innumerable prestige BBC period dramas, to blockbusters like Dunkirk and the upcoming Ella McCay. So it’s unsurprising that “a bit mad” is how Lowden, in his signature Scottish twang, modestly describes the year he’s having. We meet during a few hours snatched away from shooting the new Netflix adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, in which Lowden plays literary history’s most famous heartthrob, Mr Darcy.

Emily Moss: When you signed up for Slow Horses, did you anticipate it would run for so many seasons?

Jack Lowden: Yeah. That’s the streaming landscape that we live in now. It was pre- Covid — I think we were supposed to start shooting at the end of 2020, and then obviously that all went out the window — but it was a new thing at that time to get your head around. I was aware that there were six or seven books, and then Mick [Herron] kept writing them because, of course he would, he’s just got a hit show. The enormity of that was scary. Really scary. But I knew very quickly from the scripts alone — and the fact that Gary [Oldman] was attached, obviously — that there was a hole that hadn’t been filled. Which is really bizarre for espionage. You would’ve thought we’d covered espionage to hell. But the sideways look at it they hadn’t done. I knew it would do well.

EM: You’ve also just finished the West End run of The Fifth Step, your first play since 2018. How did you find returning to the stage?

JL: I feel at home on stage. Being on camera still feels like an away fixture — it still always feels a bit strange. So being on stage just feels great! And that play in particular, and the character that I got to play, was a total gift and some of the best writing I’ve ever come across. But I’m glad to have my evenings back. I don’t miss that. But that was a real highlight of my career, doing that play and playing that role, and working with a young director, Finn Den Hertog. One of my great loves is actors that become directors because nobody understands it better. I think that should be a prerequisite, really — for most directors is to have acted at some point.

EM: Do you think there’s any difference between the projects that would attract you as an actor versus as a director or producer?

JL: I think there is a common thread and it’s probably that there’s the potential for a brilliant performance. The only reason I go and watch theatre is if I know that there’s a brilliant actor in it. I couldn’t care less what the play’s about, I just want to see technically brilliant acting, and sit there and come away and go, I don’t understand how that person did that. So to pick any project as an actor, certainly selfishly, [is based on] if there’s a potential for me to do something I’ve never done. But as a director or a producer, it would be driven by if there is a performance in there that I can facilitate — I would love to show somebody off. It’s a constant frustration. I always feel in our profession that people don’t know what a good thing is until it’s shoved straight in their face.