The British actor is developing a reputation for villains and complex antagonists, as seen in ‘The Invisible Man,’ ‘The Lost Daughter,’ and the new Apple TV+ series ‘Surface.’
The new Apple TV+ thriller seriesSurfacecasts a cryptic pall over Oliver Jackson - Cohen . Watch a few episodes and you ’ll be convert his character , a San Francisco - based speculation capitalist named James , is up to no goodness , concealing secrets from his amnesiac wife , Sophie ( Gugu Mbatha - Raw ) , who recently try suicide . After seeing Jackson - Cohen as a villainous sneak inThe Invisible Man , a manipulative spectre inThe Haunting of Bly Manor , and a menace inThe Lost Daughter , it ’s wanton to corrupt into the machination . The 35 - twelvemonth - honest-to-god British actor seems to be produce a calling out of playing big guys . In this case , there may be more beneath the , ahem , airfoil .
During a late Zoom conversation , Jackson - Cohen , who has a wide grinning and attentive eye , made exculpated why he has gravitated toward cryptical roles , admit in the outgoing Amazon seriesWilderness , a " wrestle love story " about retaliation . Early in his vocation , when he starred in the would - be action mechanism blockbusterFasteroppositeDwayne Johnson , he felt out of place , realizing he craved more subtlety . That precede to part in the Australian miniseriesThe Secret River , BBC’sMan in an Orange Shirt , and Netflix ’s aforementionedHauntinganthology .
" This thought of maleness and the way that men are impersonate — this sound so cliché , but I ’m quite raw , " he say . " I feel quite vulnerable a lot of the time . " He wants his work to reflect that , even when the bad guys think they ’re immune to vulnerability .
Design by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist
Ahead ofSurface ’s July 29 premiere , Thrillist talked to Jackson - Cohen about calibrate his on - screen villainy , finding his way in Hollywood , and not wanting to be " sexualise . "
Thrillist : You get the scripts forSurface . Is there any part of you that aver , " Another high-risk dude"?Oliver Jackson - Cohen : But is he a bad dude ? The matter that ’s majuscule aboutSurfaceis that nothing is ever what it seems . And then when you think you lie with and you are given answers , there ’s constantly more that come up out . What I lie with about these characters is that , including Sophie , they all live in a grey region . Of naturally , we have to set up sure things that put people , in an audience ’s mind , in sure category . But the pleasure of it is to sabotage that , and it go on multiple time throughout the time of year . So I do n’t know necessarily if I approached it as playing another sorry guy wire . I opine he ’s an incredibly complex , blemished mortal .
Surfacesets up a apparently sorry dude who ’s wispy and enigmatic but maybe not what we think he is . The unseeable Mansets up a ostensibly big dude who very muchisa bad gallant . How do you calibrate those differences?InInvisible Man , he’spsychotic , so that ’s his category . That was pretty straightforward . The thing about that movie that I thought was so much play was that , again , we want to trip mass up . You had this idea of who this person was so that when you properly met him in the final act , we wanted it to be so disarming . That in itself is so worrisome . They are very , very different characters , but with James , we are dole out with someone that is entertain onto secrets , and that can be read so many different way . It can be read as life-threatening and untrustworthy , and potentially it is .
Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in ‘Surface’|Apple TV+
We played with this idea very early on on with Sam Miller , the film director , about putting a coat over someone ’s shoulder . It can be see as a genuine human action of kindness or an act of possessiveness . There is something quite delicious about that as well . But with James , I knew right from the get - go the full extent of what fall out and the chronicle . Is he a good guy , or is he a unsound guy ? I do n’t really lie with . That ’s what ’s so interesting .
Your persona Toni fromThe Lost Daughterraises some interesting questions along these demarcation as well . We do n’t get a lot of backstory for him . We often see him on the periphery , see intimidating and angry and maybe abusive - seeming . Who was Toni to you?Toni , to me , was in reality quite terrifying . [ Lost Daughterdirector ] Maggie Gyllenhaal and I spoke about this a lot . Originally , I met Maggie for a different part , and —
Was that the Paul Mescal part?No , I ’m too old for that . He ’s 10 years young than me . No , it was to play Jessie Buckley ’s hubby . I met her , and then they take Jack Farthing . The Toni part was written as this 60 - year - old , heavy and bald . And then Maggie just had this idea , and so she rewrote it a bit . We wanted him to be unsettling , but I genuinely think Toni is a person that I would really not require to be around . We talked about what he get up to . He quite intelligibly has multiple schoolmarm and has plausibly managed to stay out of jail for quite a while .
Panos Koronis and Oliver Jackson-Cohen in ‘The Lost Daughter’|Netflix
Usually when we opine of costumes really inform a role , we think of something more like a picture you latterly did , Mr. Malcolm ’s List — an extravagant period piece countersink in the 1800s in Europe . Toni has the opposite : slicked - back hairsbreadth and black musculus tees . What did the smell of that character do for you?Oh my god , so much . Our costume graphic designer , Ed Gibbon , was unbelievable . I remember the first fitting : We had to picture out what Toni wears when he make it [ in Greece ] on his boat . And he just said , " I feel like he fail to Miami and buy this , and this was so expensive . " It ’s a Gucci shirt and matching underdrawers with some horrific design on it and a gold crossbreeding . All of that stuff and nonsense is so helpful . Again , I ca n’t talk extremely enough of Maggie .
You have the frame of a traditional movie star . You look like somebody who should be in aMad Maxor a Marvel blockbuster or something like that . What has stopped you from either getting or taking those roles?I’ve had quite an interesting path to this . When I first start out , I was 21 or 22 . I had to forget drama shoal because I got a Book of Job , and I was moved over to LA to do an action picture . It never resonated well with me . Those film are hugely enjoyable , but I find like what I get big joyousness from is cut into into something that ’s maybe a bit more complex , character - wise . Also , I ’ve never feel well-heeled trading on , I guess in a room , being sexualize . I would much rather that any outward stuff is either irrelevant or is an bring thing .
When you say " sexualized , " are you thinking about the forcible regime required to get the eight - coterie and biceps that guys in blockbusters now have?I’ve done it for line of work before , where I ’ve been throw in gymnasium , eating volaille breasts at 4 am . It ’s an experience in itself . To me , that ’s not really why I do this caper or why I bonk the job . It ’s very much a thing in itself , which I fully respect . It ’s just that I ’m wait for more heart than being whittled down to a body . As much as it would be keen play to go and do , to wear a superhero suit or being in aFast and Furiousor whatever it is , up until now , I have always just wanted to be handle with nuances of humanity . I palpate that ’s where I get really invested and excited at the here and now .
Victoria Pedretti and Oliver Jackson-Cohen in ‘The Haunting of Hill House’|Netflix
Before activity motion-picture show were the dominant genre , the movie star topology of yesterday were beautiful and sculptured and godlike , but they were n’t inhumanly work up . Now there is an expectation put on worker to go to great lengths to reckon a sure way . And I do n’t have it away that it ’s sizable for anyone . My hat comes off to people that do these rigorous trainings . A acquaintance of mine has just done a Marvel movie , and it ’s so much work . It ’s unbelievable that people are able to do that with themselves . I think that this has been a lifelong matter about the unrealistic first moment we are putting out into the reality . I think of doing a job with an thespian once who had to do a scene where they just pose on the edge of a bed in their underclothing . This was eld ago , and a manufacturer came in and said , " Do you want to put a sail across ? " And she said , " No . This is me . I have a duty to show bodies as they are . "
Fastermust have been an interesting experience because we consider of Dwayne Johnson as box seat - office Au , and that movie really did not take off . You put in all this work , you did this thing that felt a minuscule uncomfortable , and then the great unwashed did n’t really yield aid to it . Was that part of your reaction to how to move forward afterward?I do have to say : Dwayne and Billy Bob Thornton were just unbelievable . I was a kid from nowhere . It was quite a harrowing thing because I experience deep chagrined by what I did in that . I watched the movie and was like , " Oh my god , I ’m terrible . This is horrific . " I probably should talk to a healer about it . After watching that movie , it completely shattered my confidence . It was quite a hard punch in the face . And really it was a good object lesson . It was a good experience to go through to learn how the humans works . With that particular movie , I feel like I was seek to put so much humanness into someone that should have just been a shoot man . I recall that what it did do is it made me go , " Okay , I mean I need to work with stuff that ’s probably better suitable to who I am as a person . "
You were bringing layers toFaster , and they were not needed . But therearemany layer to your characters in theHauntingseries orSurface . Are you conscious of finding unexampled ways to peel those layers?The Haunting of Hill Housewas such an important turning spot . The reception of it was incredible , but the real doing of the chore was very authoritative to me . It was the first time when nothing was expected of me . I could be as vulnerable as I find . I did n’t have to pretend to be anything other than that . I ’ve been very favorable since then . I palpate very proud of the output . That ’s not to say that I get it right — I do n’t lie with if I do . But this process of bring in them feel correct to me . I made a marked decision after doing something on NBC — I was like , " What am I doing ? " I took a break and I was like , " I demand to only do thing now that intend something . " I voice like such a fucking actor cliché , but I find I ’m better become for that .
This audience has been edited and distil .
