Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series | 2024 Emmy Nominees | Conversations

I feel with improv like you said like with improv things will come things will come out you're far more alive it's it's the closest to the final thing you could get strangely with improv the words will be different but the Vibes right yeah I'm taking notes I'm stealing that that's a great idea uh this is an audience of your fellow sag actors and so I actually always like to start by asking how did you get your sag card um and I know this might be different for Jonathan and Jack because you might have been working for a while before you you did something in America um but let's start with Jonathan um I think my first American Film was Something Wicked This Way Comes My traumatizing film yeah 18 81 82 yeah that was your first American film did did you realize that you were going to be haunting children's nightmares for years I didn't I know it uh sadly that film didn't get a proper release like a lot of films I do um Disney was going through a state of flux at the time they didn't have a proper head of production a head of studio um and they held up the release for quite a long time well they changed the the nature of the film they'd hired Jack Clayton in order to just tell the story of Something Wicked This Way Comes and then they decided they wanted a special effects movie so they they held it up for a couple of years I think while they put the old special effect in wow I had no idea off for one thing sorry to interrupt but you should feel great comfort in that right around that time is when everybody started getting HBO in the suburbs and I think they just dumped it on HBO and it ran like five times a week so I probably saw that movie 15 times so it had its own version of a wide release just in a strange way oh great that's good to hear yeah in my memory stopped looking for the checks so yeah good luck Jack what about for you um I I I don't I I think I I only got mine uh last last year the end of last year or the beginning of this year um I did i' I've really barely done anything in America I did I did um Dunkirk but Dunkirk wasn't really I don't know what it was appar we shot some stuff in California like on a cliff That was supposed to be me in the air in a plane but it was off a cliff somewhere in California um but then I I did um I've done a Jim Brooks movie this year so I think we had to I had to get one otherwise I don't know how it works probably just got in trouble now that's so cool I could just talk to you for the next 45 minutes about the Jim Brooks movie if nobody Minds no Mark for you uh yeah mine was a little later as well because I came up making you know $3 movies in my kitchen with my brother and and those were like our little Sundance movies and that continued for quite a while so we were doing you know just movies with our friends none of us were in any unions um through the puffy chair through hump day that I made with Lyn Shelton and then um uh then I got the league which was my first TV but that was an after show when when they were split so I didn't get it then um and then I think there was a small movie I did with uh filmmaker Craig Johnson called true adolescence um that I think they were tired of T tart leing me and I think that's when I finally got my got my card oh I always assumed you gave it to yourself in one of your own movies yeah I think I didn't know what I was doing back then like I didn't know any of those rules I'm still figuring them out Billy for you um I think I got my sag card either on a movie I was fired from uh or sleepers uh which was a Barry levenson movie okay but now I want to hear about the movie you were fired from because I think that's a right of passage for everyone well it was my first big job uh I only had four days on it and I had two days of work it was sort of melodramatic uh work and then I had a twoe drop and then I was supposed to fly back for two more days and during the break my I was living with my um older brother um and he he said um your director called she wanted to talk to you and I said well that's funny she didn't talk to me much while I was on set um she's probably firing me and turns out that was that was the case they were like we won't be needing you for the return um but you the great thing oh I must have gotten my card then because I started getting residuals from a movie I was fired from so like every once in a while I'd get a doll7 cents and I was like hell yeah I like this Union this is working out well so so this is good Jonathan does an entire movie it doesn't come out he gets nothing um you get fired for two days work and start making the money for two days of what must have been horrendous acting work I mean to to go through the trouble for to fire me from that part it was such a small part it must have been like really really over the top which is not a mystery I make some some bad choices sometimes I I love this because I think all actors can relate on any level you're you're never really safe from being let go or replaced nope yeah thanks thanks for that I guess that concludes the talk yeah didn't mean to unlock a new fear for all of you but but again you're all nominated for great performances on some of my favorite shows um and you've all been playing these parts for more than one season I'd love to go back and and ask sort of about what initially Drew you to the role and and how it's changed and the C C uh the challenges your characters have gone through that you really enjoyed playing um Billy and Mark you've been doing these roles for three seasons now and they have literally been through so much did you ever you know predict I know that like you had major plot changes just because of the nature of the world um are you surprised to see where your characters are now uh totally I'm surprised to be here now the this was the first time that I had a chance to do a second season of something and uh so I imagined that that would be the end of it really and so to then have well first of all the show is trying to address every possible issue that's happening in the world so needless to say the characters in that space face are going to go through all the various things that we uh particularly you know obviously As Americans in the in the pop news media have gone through over the last four years which is a lot it's a lot and so they they spare none of the characters uh any of the twists and turns so yeah I've been shocked to be a part of it and shocked to play a character it has been amazing to be back with some of the same crew that I haven't had that experience before you know for we've been doing it for four years even though it's only been three seasons yeah and you get baby pictures and all that stuff coming back it's really cool yeah totally it's a wild thing yeah I mean my my experience was was similar I think that you know what drew me to the project um you know it was it was definitely not a thing where I was like well there's four or five different um globally enormous television shows that are calling me right now so which one will I pick they showed interest in me and you know and it was going to be this incredible cast um and so that was sort of a no-brainer to jump in I think what's been surprising and what's been fun for me is even though it is a it's a monster you know it's it's uh so many producers it's one of Apple's Flagship shows you you can feel the pressure to do things right um and the little things that I make at dup plus brothers are not that way um yet somehow they've remained some creative uh elasticity inside of uh the Monstrous machine you know I think for instance the the relationship between chip and Alex between my character and Jen Addison's character I don't think it was supposed to be what it ended up becoming but they they saw something interesting in the chemistry that they liked and they sort of pushed it and and built upon that I mean Billy would never tell you this but like he was also supposed to be just one of The Ensemble and and there was an electricity about him and they just started building things for him and increasing it so that's been really fun to watch is like how how a boohemoth can actually like move and shake and follow the creative because I've never I've never been a part of that before I I could be wrong but Billy when the show started it felt like Corey was um a little more morally gray or like I don't want to say he was our villain but I don't think we were supposed to like him quite as much as we did um were you sort of surprised people responded to him so warmly I'm shocked when anybody likes anything that I'm in for sure yeah uh I I can't tell you how many times dur whatever project I'm working on a play or a movie or TV show where I I'm literally trying to interpret exactly what I believe the text is saying and the director or the writer will come up and go wow what a bizarre choice and I go no no no I'm just I was just trying to do what is that not what you meant I clearly like my brain does not process things um in uh a reliable way in any case it's not by me going I've got a creative idea here that I know will be subversive and attract viewers that is not the uh swing po uh it's like let me survive and please don't fire me again like I was for my first job and Jonathan in addition to capturing real world events you have the additional challenge of playing a very real very iconic person in Prince Phillip how many how much do you see this you know as a performance how much do you see it as you're bound to autobiography because I know they've been very clear that that the crown is not a documentary yeah no I um it's not a documentary and it's not a not an impersonation and uh it's it's a version of uh of Phillip um I I started off uh at the beginning of that that series when it was shown that there was no way I was going to watch uh program about the royal family I'm not a royalist I'm monarchist um I just see myself as a Republican and uh anyway we thought let's give it uh let's give it at least you know 20 minutes and uh we watched the whole of that episode and then we started binge watching it and it turned out to be an extraordinary Series so when they and I kept my eye on it over the over the seasons and the years thinking well there's got to be something I can do what the hell what is it um and I kept getting older the characters kept getting older and then they uh Peter Morgan asked me to play philli and I um you know I'd had the experience uh I think playing Pope Francis so it I wasn't daunted by the idea of representing a real figure um and in fact playing him uh and playing within the constrictions of that character I found it instead of uh I thought it I might be stifled by it but I was actually quite released by it I was uh there was an ease to how I approached the work um because whatever I did had to be right and you know Peter Morgan said it's right so it's uh it's going to be right um I spent a bit of time like we all do on the show um watch there's a huge research department so that they send you loads of stuff um and there I grown up I was six when uh Elizabeth was crowned and um and we were the uh first ever a television in our street and it was three days after my sixth birthday and I've been given a toy Cannon and uh we watched the coronation on television I lay on my stomach shooting matchsticks at the queen of Vil as they passed um so even then I was not respectful um but I I say I've grown up with him all my life but I'd not known much about him like most of the royal family um they don't speak very often in in apart from the Queen's address every now and then um they don't speak in public very often and so I I spend a lot of time looking at videos and things to get the nature of how he talked and how we walked uh what he said was a given um and I actually had a wonderful time doing it yeah a lot of fun uh I'm curious because I just think as actors when you're watching a show and you you kind of mentioned you were like oh you know there's a lot of British people on here maybe they'll get to me but you never imagined it would be Prince philli did that did that surprise you when he came at you with that offer I knew it wasn't going to be the queen but uh you never know he was the only one left um no it did I wasn't that surprised I was um no I I was very taken with the idea and meeting Peter um actually before I said yes it was uh it was great to talk to him how he wanted the how he saw the character developing and how it would grow and one of the first things he told me was that um he was about to reveal through Phillip this enormous secret about the fact that philp had a female friend and um he would this was going to be the storyline in my first series and I left the his house thinking do I want to be the guy who's going to upset the entire British population by telling them that Philip had a let's call it a fale friend and then um I went to France on holiday and I thought I'll Google Phillip and um Penny her name and on French Google it's page after page after page of stories about Philip and Penny there's nothing in the British press and it's very hi Jack yeah Jack you're my grandson you never call I didn't know never call no I I I you're talking sorry no it's okay go ahead no I could I couldn't remember I couldn't remember which one you were nominated for I thought you were going to talk about slow horses and then I forgot you're nominated for two you're nominated yes multi it yeah I'm talking about the crown Jack so I won't be talking about you and what a wonderful actor you are to work with I won't be saying any of that what a waste I know I know there there'll be other times don't worry you'll get nominated again anyway so I I got enormous confidence in the fact that the rest of the world knew about it but the it was suppressed in uh in Britain um and it's I got to work with Natasha Michael who i' i' made uh Ron in with years before so that was nice oh wow and Jack I was just looking back because your character on slow horses has literally been through so much physically and emotionally as an intelligent agents I and I know that you know these are based on books at the same time were you really prepared for everything this character was going to in tail uh um no not not really no he he does he R he does run a lot and they they do like to they beat the crap out of them a lot um I I very rarely we've shot now for about four years just like like the guys on the morning show and there's rarely been an evening where I've not gone into the makeup truck to get some kind of bruise or cut or something off my face or found or found bits of it on on a pillow so he he does get kicked out of him quite a lot it's quite fun um which is always a nice place to work from I think it makes you have to you don't have to act as much because the sort of 20% of it's on your face already and then and then you you can add another sort of 25% when you run because you can't really pretend to run so you know you either run or you don't um so all that's left really is for your character to be asleep and then there's very little sort of acting required but no no it's it's it's it's it's quite remarkable um the uh the sort of progression of calamities that can keeps that mcaren through the novels um came up with and yet they're sort of still marginally believable um which is why the show works so well it's sort of you know he he he famously describes it as a sort of workplace drama um and he wanted to he knew he wanted to to write a sort of black comedy uh workplace sort of drama and he had the two options where the police and the secret services and the reason that he chose the secret Services is because everybody knows what goes on in the police nobody knows what goes on in the secret services so it was a sort of from from a place of laziness Mick wrote about the the Secret Service because he could just make it up he didn't have to really research anything um but I think that's a big cover story and I I I think Mick used to work in secret Services um I hope he did and so everything that we do actually does happen but you just outed him yeah I hope so I just want to say off the uh uh it's an incredible show and you guys are phenomenal in it I love that show I was working recently in um London and I just kept watching it I a rerun I would watch the there's three seasons right yes yeah I get to the end of the thirds where you are beat to that almost entire season and running so apparently I'm hearing now very little acting work there but that's not not the way that I received it and watching it it was most excellent but I love that show so much that's great no there there is very little acting because the the character that I play which is why I fell in love with him I I am he he's he's incredibly um cynical and sarcastic um you know he he wants to do well he's he's very much on the side of the Angels but he also thinks he's above everybody which is quite similar I think to a lot of the a lot of the characters in the morning show is that I think I think a lot of people in the morning show characters just like in slow horses is that they they all secretly believe that they're better than everybody else could run the building or run the floor or whatever um so I I like the fact that he's sort of he's very very Earnest in many ways and wants to wants to save the world but he wants to be seen as the one that saves the world so it's pedigree of this uh Jack of this um spy body that can run forever you know he's got an athletic pedigree in him which makes him of the slow horses the Ace in the Hole that you need to pull off all that crazy yeah that's such a fun Point Jack pointing out that the the three of us share you know this this inherent hubris you know in all these characters and yet and yet Jonathan you know is playing in the world of the royal family where it's just all ability really um all day long so yeah I actually Jack forgive me for not knowing um how did the role come to you I don't know if you you know it was a audition process or if it was just an offer no Christ no it wasn't an offer you joking no it no it was it was a it was auditioning it was um like 2019 um the scripts came to me through an agent very you know really classical classic kind of way and as soon as I read them um I I knew I badly wanted to do it uh because I the character shares my sensibility and um inability to sort of take anything sort of too seriously um so uh I auditioned I begged them to let me do it in my own accent I said just show because they wanted me to do RP um sort of basic English um and and and I always feel that it sort of cuts the legs away a little bit of your creativity I know other I don't know if you guys are the same but other actors uh you know love working in in accent it kind of gives them something else but I I hate it um so I begged I I did it in an English accent and and I didn't know if they wanted me or not so I begged them please let me do it in my own accent um because I'll be 20 times better and I'll be fantastic um and they thought I was better in the English accent so show you what you know shows you what you know but yeah it was it was about three or four rounds and I read with a bunch of people um so it was wonderful to get it yeah it may sound like an odd question but was there ever a chemistry read of sorts with Gary Oldman because you know that Dynamic is so vital to the show no no there there wasn't which is strange which is a bit of a gamble um to be honest uh the first day I met Gary properly um I actually met Gary years ago Gary came to see a play that I did in London um and he came backstage um and he was very kind about what I did in the play I think he actually went he went he sort of out the corner of his eye he was almost sort of slightly annoyed he went I was like 21 and it was a great part it was a great role and he s um it it was ghosts ion and I and I just died of a syphilitic stroke at the end of the play and Gary was G Gary was backstage and he said um you're you're actually quite good aren't you like he'd been told I was shy I don't know it was quite interesting but the first day I met Gary was was when we did a read through and the all of the slow hor were there and they were all incredibly nervous and Gary did we we read a couple of scenes and I don't know whether he did it on purpose or not but either way it's great when we all went for a coffee Gary was stood in the queue for the coffee and Gary just sort of said to the nearest two or three slow horses he said I'm not getting this at all Christ I'm not getting this this isn't I don't know what I'm doing and he's and we're all going what but he he instantly relaxed all of these sort of younger less experienced actors cuz we're all like well if he's scared so that was the first time I actually met him wow do you think he meant it or was he just putting you all at ease I think having worked with him now for years he means it he's so um he's a perfectionist and uh yeah he's he's it's from that sort of stage background he just he wants to keep making it better and better and better so no no I saw I saw Jack and ghosts same times same time Gary Olman did and I was the one who told Gary you were shy [Laughter] Jack knew it again Place yeah you did audition but I don't believe the rest of you did um just sort of out out of curiosity because at least starting out it is such unnecessary process even though it it seems counterproductive at times um do the rest of you sort of do you miss auditioning do you are you grateful to not have to you know do that step anymore or maybe you still do I shouldn't assume I well I rarely audition now um they can watch films uh but the thing I find difficult is when you uh you talk to the director over the phone you don't meet personally you have a quick chat and then you turn up on the set and um I did a film with George Clooney uh called leatherheads we hadn't met we talked on the phone I arrived in the um where was it somewhere anyway I arrived and I'm walking towards him and I swear he went oh and I carried that look for the entire film he oh god oh oh I should have met him it was terrible and um you know Mark you were talking about the character in your series who part grew and grew and grew because I found him so interesting well in leatherheads my part got smaller and smaller I wasn't paranoid At All by the end of it terrible terrible Mark for you you've been on both sides of the camera obviously auditioning and then auditioning other people do you think that gives you a special you know empathy for actors when they come in it does give me a special empathy for actors and I'm I'm you know this is not like false modesty I'm just not good at auditioning I don't know if I get nervous or I I maybe try too hard and push a little bit because I'm I'm I'm worried it's not coming and I don't trust the subtleties but I'm just I've gotten a lot of feedback like that well he's he's actually really good but he's he's not good in the room he's bad bad at auditioning you know so so I did this I made this decision um early on and my agents were like this is a terrible decision Mark but I I I was like let's just tell people that Mark does an audition okay and try try and do it in a way that doesn't sound like he's like an who thinks he's above it but just like he's got his writing directing career he's got young kids he just is just not something that he does and what I have discovered is that I win way more roles out of them going through their whole process of auditions not getting exactly what they want and then in their imagination they think we didn't see Mark wonder what he bet what he did it could have been great so I think I win more than I lose by by that's brilliant I'm taking notes yeah I've been through all different phases of it get like from the beginning of my career auditioning for everything and for some reason I got the idea in my head that when I'm auditioning it's actually my part for that period of time so there's no win or lose I just have to get really good at enjoying that moment and trying to play the part and then the it took all the pressure off me ended up getting a lot of parts then I didn't have to audition for a while and then I wasn't so good in the things I didn't have to audition for I guess or they didn't work and I had to start auditioning again I can remember when um alien um the LA um I can't remember the name of it but I did an alien movie um it'll come to me in a sec uh Alien Covenant and um they wouldn't even send me the script and I was like well am I going to have a meeting with Ridley um they're like no um we'll send you dummy sides and you can put yourself on tape if you want and I was like all right you know you got and even Morning Show they were like uh I we think you're too old um and my agent was like well if you want to get the part buy a suit and um fly out to LA and uh sell them pitch them so I stayed at my agent's house and um drove around La and pitched my S to the various people who so there's really there's there's no end to it um you know you I mean I suppose for some people but it's a it's a rare group of people who have ascended I mean Jonathan obviously has been producing significant work for decades so were you to try to audition for him I think you would probably not live very long the I I have been asked but the thing that annoys me about present day or is what you mentioned is the tape young actors um are asked to put stuff on tape with no notes no feedback um and I think it's uh I can say this now because I don't care it's lazy casting directors and lazy directors who won't get the people in to see them they won't put themselves on the line they assume the actor Will you know give all they've got and then I'm with you on that I'm I'm so with you when when my brother and I cast our HBO show togetherness um you know J Jay and I were both the the showrunners and we were writing and directing all the episodes and we knew I was going to play the lead role and we made a decision that everybody who came in the room I would read with them so that we knew it was you would it was a chemistry read right off the bat and we would do one um read with the scenes as it were and then we would throw out the script and we would do an improvisation and see if there was any interesting chemistry that we hadn't yet written for that we could write for and it was always out of those improvisations that we found the new thing that we hadn't thought of yet on the page and we would sort of rebuild um and that's always been the best process for me on the other side for auditioning that's what I do I I with tapes I I hated doing tapes because like Jonathan said because you you you don't really get anything from anybody they also send you you know far too much stuff um so what I started to do was that I would improve of something to camera but as if the character was like sending a video message even if he was in like you know in the 1700s or whatever I would send a video message um I did one I played a part of a guy a criminal a real life criminal um and I met the director and the writer on zoom and they were like so we get the cast director is going to send you the the sides and I and as they were talking I kind of like shut off listening to them because I was thinking about what I got an idea in my head and I literally said okay cheers and I shut the laptop down and then I lifted it back up and I pressed record and I just did this sort of video message to the camera in in the character as if he was sending a video message from prison someone um I said I said please just watch that because I feel with improv like you sit like with improv things will come things will come out you're far more alive it's it's the closest to the final thing you could get strangely with imp the words will be different but the vibe's right yeah I'm taking notes I'm stealing that that's a great idea so I I put an improv at the beginning of every single tape I send I put it before they see anything that's what I stick at the top and it does work most times is I was curious Jack for for your slow horses audition was there any sort of like scene where you were running because that's pretty much the whole first episode so how do they know you could pull it off no they just they asked me to sit on the chair and pant and then pant again and then don't pant no no there no there was no running audition again that's that's bad auditioning yeah because yeah I did though I've said this before but I did notice in the script the writer very specifically used the word he would always get to barriers like ticket barriers in a subway station or something and he'd always Vault very specifically that I was like I I'd never vaulted over a fence I'm G kind of climb over it slowly kind of guy so I did for one summer was just whenever I saw a fence I would Vault over it and it it helped it did help um I don't think it's any coincidence that that the three shows who are that are represented here have multiple nominations especially for the casts um and I know we talked a little bit about Gary Oldman but I'd love to know about working with your co-stars I mean Jack In addition to Gary you have Christ and Scott Thomas and then you bring in people like Jonathan like I have to imagine every other day it's like some amazing actor that you you grew up watching does it does it ever get intimidating no but no no no no not because because they're all so lovely like genuinely they aren't and I I and I always I I might be wrong but I think the the the stage element plays a huge part in that all of these actors that come in that you've mentioned like Jonathan especially has such an incredible stage pedigree and you I can smell a stage actor a sort of Mile off is that there's a sort of there's a company feeling a givingness um and also a sort of they don't really take themselves that seriously very quickly and that's needed on a set like slow horses um and so British particularly British stage actors seem to have that in common um and and the the the great thing about slow hsees it's kind of like a top up every season we do we get we get a different raft of brilliant actors come in as well as people like Jonathan and Kristen and and Gary and SAS or Reeves and it's it's insane but they all have brilliant stage pedigree and I think I don't think that's a coincidence but yeah just Geniuses everywhere on that show I don't mean to single anyone out but I think I've seen you all on stage except for maybe Mark I I don't know because you started in movies have you ever done life theater no I'm terrified of the stage um I uh I have pretty extreme anxiety and I have I used to play um in bands um and um I was in indie rock bands all through my 20s um and I have nightmares once every five to six days that I'm back on stage trying to play that show and I can't remember any of the words so I am deeply terrified that I will get up there and and forget um and and and that's why I was just talking about my wife about this I was like you my youngest is in seventh grade and as soon as she kind of flies the coupe I was like I have to go do a play I have to face this fear at some point and figure this out um but I am I'm genuinely scared no I don't blame I just saw well like it feels like it was I saw Billy's play which is a oneman show where he does like 17 characters like you can't blame anyone else if you forget your lines well and to Mark's Point uh during the first week of previews um I went up and it's about an 80-minute show and I went up about 3 minutes in and I called for line but we didn't have any system set in place for line because I'd never called for line before so from the booth I hear I was like me I guess I'm on my own and the show came in under an hour because I cut about 20 minutes from it and I came back afterwards and the director she was like well that happened and I was like yeah I'm just going to go home now cry a little bit I get home I'm talking to my girlfriend she's like I'm sure it wasn't that bad and I was like honey I had a full-blown panic attack I started to hyperventilate I had tunnel vision and like uh I I'm feeling pretty um stressed out about it and she was like yeah but I'm sure nobody in the audience all and then we're at a dinner party about three years later and one of her friends Gabby who's a director it was her dinner party and I was telling the story like this and she was like well Billy I was in the house that evening and I was like oh God I'm sorry and she's like not as sorry as I was it was awful see I told you and and I was like well Gabby it wasn't as hard for you as it was for me okay but then then he marched back in there the next night and there's a certain kind of um uh joy that comes from the Simplicity of the storytelling knowing that it can fail and everybody can survive and then you get back you learn a little bit there that some of that camaraderie that I think um you were speaking to uh Jack so eloquently before comes from that kind of tribal we got to get through this show together today regardless because it's not I mean even though I'm the only one on stage it's the stage manager myself and the audience that are all collaborating on this event so we have to all be in the room together speaking the same language so it really is um uh we're we're in it for together and you have to you know um be there for your yourself that sounds beautiful and I'm and I'm now even more scared I G you're not helping him but I'm still here Mark and also it was that play that led to the morning show so came and saw that play and she said well I just saw you play 15 characters I bet you could play one of these guys and I was like yeah I like the weirdo and then some of the other people were like he's too old that's when I that whole process started but it was from that play yeah wow all right a direct line Mark do a play and you might get on the morning show I gotta get there yeah I was just doing it in London too which was amazing because it was about a kid from the middle of America who thinks he's British so to watch to watch the London houses um watch our manufactured accents was pretty fun Jonathan you've obviously been been doing theater for years I um I think the height of the storm was last time I saw you on stage I don't know if that was your last play it was it wasn't okay okay what do you love about returning to the me medum what what's what what I love about yeah the medium of of theater I love everything that we just is been described the the sort of danger of it the excitement of it I love um I don't know I just enjoy it I I love being in front of an audience um and uh I love being with other actors um I could never do a one man show I would be not anatha um who who do you go out to eat with afterwards I I swear I was on vocal rest the whole time I would go home and I'd call my wife and be like I've got about five minutes honey and then I'm gonna and then I'd stare at the wall for three hours you know yeah yeah down no but I do and all forgetting lines is uh is part and parcel of it that adds to the excitement I did um I'm relying on other actors to see I did the caretaker on stage playing Davis and it's incredibly repetitive and um we between the three of us we'd have a little signal when you realized that you'd miss the section out I'd go I'm going back but there was one night uh very important that there's a whole sequence about Davis bringing a bag in with him and they he's taunted with they don't let him have his bag and there's a whole uh game goes on on stage and I I forgot the bag one night and I forgot to mention it I forgot that I I had a bag and all this kind of thing and I was going on quite nicely and then Peter McDonald who was playing as and said um didn't you have a bag with you oh my God and uh I scurried off stage and uh I was handed a bag and we carried on but uh yeah know it's I love the theat I don't I think I love doing theater more than I like watching it yeah it's uh everyone's nodding oh no I love it I love I love I love the good the bad the ugly I love all of it yeah okay yeah I I find I find Shakespeare difficult to watch unless it's an extraordinary uh production oh did you see Jack's measure for measure because it was incredible Jack's measure for measure yeah no that is my least favorite play in the world you wild I did Angelo I jack yeah I play I played Angelo and I it's a terrible role he comes on in the beginning and then for an hour 40 he disappears and I did it in Stratford I would go across the road not to the pub I'd go across to somebody's house I'd watch TV and then I'd come back and it was I fin it oh so I I left the production uh I didn't do it in London I couldn't bear did you like it I I loved playing him yeah he was such a it was great yeah yeah I found that difficult you see I found that really easy exactly it's just him just wrestling with being a cat or not uh and undermining the morality of the society yeah I found super entertaining I love that show Jonathan do you not like the show or you just didn't like being that character I I don't like the play very much no definitely classified as one of his problem plays for sure yeah it is yeah yeah the the dke goes on and on and on oh yeah he does yes it was probably too supporting for Jonathan to for sure yeah CHS has got more lines than almost anybody in Shakespeare I think yeah yeah yeah maybe that something to do with it it was also the first play I ever did uh straight out of drama school but it wasn't to play Angelo it was to play elbow oh the the policeman the clown comic relief there yeah I was elbow for the first half of the play and then I was the Duke's henchman and uh I remember one night I had to it was kind of modern dress and as the henchman when Leno comes to plead with the Duke I had to step forward and beat him over the head with my trunch in and then steep back into the shadows and this one night I stepped back and I went like that and the audience just went up completely and like this really cool gesture yeah I hit him and um the actor then uh got me up against the wall in the theater don't you dare ever do anything like that and this was my first job it was like two weeks in and um maybe that had something to do with my hating the play I wanted to give up being an actor then I thought people were horrible how is this guy gonna talk to me like this all I did was scratch my ear just when he was about to speak yeah I think we found Mark's first play I'm ready you sold it you sold it four of us yeah actually when you when I'm I'm manifesting this when you do go on stage what are you thinking a classic or a new work or maybe something you've written um I have a oneperson show that's rolling around on the back of my head for a while that is very terrifying to me um but I think it will probably be that when I'm ready yeah even after everything Billy said everything just be said yeah yeah I think it's like it's that thing it's like oh got a friend who wants to be in in the house during the first previews yeah yeah he loves that experience yeah no it's like I'm looking at a shark in the ocean I'm just like slowly walking out towards it I'm like why am I walking towards the shark what am I doing I don't know I guess I just want to get eaten by the shark that's how I feel sweer it's a manity yeah well I'm so sorry we're out of time because we could go on but I look forward to seeing what all of you do next um and on behalf of the SE after found Foundation I just want to thank you for sharing your experiences and process and craft with our audience thank you so much for being here and thank you everyone for watching this was lovely thank you guys