That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Mark Strong

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

In this episode Gaby chats to the wonderful actor, Mark Strong. They talk about the new season 2 of “Temple” available to watch on Sky Max and the streaming service called NOW, his incredible repertoire of work from Shazam, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood and Cruella to Zero Dark Thirty and Kingsman and of course Our Friends In the North. He talks about his incredible time in the West End and then on Broadway in the award-winning production of ”A View From The Bridge”, meeting Arthur Miller, and of course they discuss “that” voice you hear when you go to the cinema and now the Covid voice over adverts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to that Gabby Rosen podcast, part of the Acast Creator Network. My guest on this week's episode is the wonderful actor Mark Strong. We talk about season two of Temple, available to watch on Skymax and the streaming service now, which he not only stars in but also producers, and I absolutely love it. We discuss his incredible repertoire of film work from Shazam, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood and Cruella, to Zero Dark 30 and Kingsman. He talks about his incredible time in the West End and then on Broadway

in the award-winning production of A View from the Bridge. And of course, we discuss his voice. Yes, he is that voice when you go to the cinema. He is genuinely an absolute delight. I do hope you enjoy listening. Please, can I ask you a favour?

Would you mind following and subscribing, please? By clicking the follow or subscribe button. This is completely. and utterly free, by the way. And you can also rate and review on Apple Podcasts, which is the purple app on your iPhone or iPad. Simply scroll down to the bottom of all of the episodes.

I know there have been quite a few now. And you'll see the stars where you can tap and rate and also please write a review. Thank you so much. Mark Strong, how lovely to speak to you again. Because last time we spoke, you were going off to Broadway for View from a Bridge, which, as you know, I...

loved. I saw it twice and it was, goodness me, that was incredible. Did you see it in two different theatres or in the same place? I saw it when it was at the Young Vic and then when it was in the West End and it was just, it was so pure because no set and no, it was the most incredible theatrical experience. And I remember you saying how much you loved it as well. Oh my God, I ended up doing something like nearly 300 performances because after the Young Vic and the West End. We went to Broadway with it and did something like 36 weeks over there. So I moved the whole family out there for months and the kids went to school over there and every single day, I can honestly say, for every single performances, I've relished going on. You can't always say

that about plays that go on for a long time. But that one, yeah, I couldn't wait to get on stage. There was something about having no furniture and no set and the intensity of that experience with those incredible actors that really it's the best production I think I've ever been involved with because the audiences every night were on their feet. It really moved them. And that's when theatre is great when you realise that you're doing something with it, that it's actually, it's making people leave the theatre thinking about it. It's making them think about their lives. It's moving them emotionally. That's when it really works. And with that production, it did. That's incredible because you're saying the people left and they were thinking about it

and this is maybe five or six years later I'm still thinking about it. It was so extraordinary because it's suddenly, as somebody who passionately loves theatre and film, it was the first time and I've seen View from a Bridge before and but it was the sort of first time I really heard it because it was so pure. It was just the words and the actors and you were completely engulfed in the role. It was incredible. Yeah, well, you're not alone. A lot of people said that. Funny enough, you know, that I wasn't dropped names, but Tom Stoppard I spoke to, I was at an event with. And he said to me, I'm so sorry

I missed your view from the bridge. He said, I've seen that play so many times. He said, I just didn't feel like I could go through another iteration of it. And I said it was very different. He said, no, no, I subsequently found that out. And so many people said the same thing. It was removing all of that paraphernalia around that play because for people who don't know it's a very Italian-American play and two Italian boys come from Italy to come and stay in Eddie Carbone's house and they're usually played with Italian accent and everybody talking like this and doing all this kind of acting and then there's loads of pasta and there's loads of Italian stuff on set and everybody marvels usually at how Italian the play is with the director Eva Vanhova kind of

realized all that is getting in the way because what's underneath all of that is a really intense relationship drama and by getting rid of everything the pastor the accents uh the furniture the props everything it really was it was just completely clean all you heard was the words and all you saw were the relationships and it made it so um intense that people yeah they they they they they People often come up to me and talk about having seen it and how much they enjoyed it. Oh, I love to. Absolutely loved it.

Isn't there a link between that and the sound of music? Because didn't you... Is this right that you spent a week with Arthur Miller in Christopher Plum... What's the... Maybe I've got it completely wrong. Have I got this wrong? Brilliant. That's a really brilliant, tenuous link you've just created there

because there's no link between a view from the bridge and the sound of music. But Arthur Miller obviously wrote the play. Years before, when I was at the National doing Death of a Salesman, we were invited over to Salzburg, where Arthur Miller was chairing a conference on theatre around the world in Christopher Plummer's House, in The Sound of Music, that beautiful house that's in Salzburg. Love this.

And I just kept referring to it as Christopher Plummer's house, because that's where he lived in the Sound of Music. And there was this conference, and they invited people from all over the world to come and perform little pieces, talk about theatre, talk about it as a sort of social force, what its usefulness was. And as I say, Arthur Miller was chairing it, but he would take time out to come and sit with us and read Death of a Salesman, which I did at the national...

He read it with it. Yeah, he read it. Oh, my word. Yeah, in fact, somewhere, I've got footage of him. I had my first ever video camera, you know, with tape and everything. Yeah. And I took it with me and I said to him, do you mind if I record? And he said, well, only if it's just for you.

And so somewhere in a box in the attic, somewhere around here, is tape of Arthur Miller reading Willie Lohman and Biff. Oh my word. Yeah, it was a real privilege to be kind of in the room with him. I love that somehow there's this straight. Well, everyone says there's a couple of degrees of separation. Actually, that's always with Kevin Bacon. So I'm sure you've got Kevin Bacon's story as well. But what's...

Have you? Have you? No, no, no, I'm kidding. obviously. That's how intense that relationship is. No, I don't know Kevin Bacon, but I'm sure I could find the degrees of separation to get to. I'm sure.

It's probably just one, don't you? What's so funny is, so I was so looking forward to chatting to you again, Mark, and my 14-year-old daughter, when I said that I was talking to you, I went to view from a bridge, and Temple, which we're going to talk about, which we're all obsessed with as a family.

We're obsessed. So that's why I was so thrilled I'm going to talk to you. apart from everything else as well. But she went straight to Shazam and Cruella. And it's funny where we, because, you know, there's such an extraordinary amount of staff to talk to you about. And then, of course, I went to the weird videos of people doing strange things to you singing,

Take Me Home Country Road. So there's so many things. Okay, where should we go? Let's go to there. Let's go to you singing in Kingsman, Take Me Home Country Road. it seems to crop up in all the strangest places. People love that moment. I think it's just a great moment in a movie.

I do remember somebody, an older actor, maybe Michael Gammon once saying to me, so the thing about the movies is you don't have to have a big part in it, but as long as you're in one of the four or five moments in a film that people talk about when they come out, then you're in the movie. And that is a classic example of a scene that roots you in the movie. People loved it.

And it was a sacrificial moment as well, People love that character, so there was a lot of goodwill towards him. And it's a sort of big exit, if you like. But I love those, those Kingsman and Shazam and Cruella. They kind of all fall under the same heading for me, because as an actor, you have to decide what kind of actor you're going to be. Do you? Well, if you're privileged enough to have like 40, 50 years in the business, which path are you going to go down? Do you want to be famous?

Do you want to become a celebrity? Do you want to stick with theatre? Do you want to just do movies? Or do you want to be a TV person? You know, there's lots of different choices, if you're lucky enough, that you can make. And I just found myself once, I kind of did theatre for the first sort of 10 years of my career

and then got involved with television as a result of our friends in the North. Oh, wow, what a show. Yeah, an amazing show. But then that led to film. And in film, if you do those little independent movies that you love, you don't really get paid for them they're often you know very hard intense work and they may

never actually be seen they might go around the art festival circuit or something or probably not get a release in a cinema because they're so small but those are the ones you do for love and in order to make those viable yeah i decided you have to do the big ones so shazam crewella and the and kingsmen all fall into that category for me if you want to be very very visible. You have to be in those big movies. But do you still love them? I do love them. Because you said that you love those independent ones, but do you still love doing that? Because it looks like every interview I've ever seen you do or heard, you just

look like you're having the best time. Oh, well, you know, I feel so lucky, you know, privileged to be doing this job. I lucked into it by accident and I've managed to kind of make a career out of it. So honestly, the one piece of advice I can ever pass on to my children is if you're fortunate enough to find something you love, your life will be much easier because obviously a lot of people end up working to live and not always doing what they would love to do. So I feel really lucky doing that. But they are great fun, those big movies. I mean, they're hard to, people probably find it difficult to understand they're hard to make because they can be very boring. They can take months and months. So like Robin Hood, for example, took I think seven months to shoot or something. Seven, wow, wow. Yeah, seven months. And on the first time I arrived there,

I got into costume, which was layers of a knight's costume, including chain mail and all of that, and then I was told, could you wait here, Mr. Strong, we'll be with you in a moment. And then the whole day went by, and they came and they said,

sorry, Ridley Scott was shooting it. Mr. Scott has been shooting a different part of the set that you're on today, but we'll get you tomorrow. Came in the next day, put all the gear on, sat there all day. At the end of the day, they said sorry. Three days I waited to get on set.

That was even just to get started. That's how big that movie was. And I found out subsequently that William Hurt had waited 12 days. Twelve days. He'd come in, they'd put his beard on, put his costume on him. And it was a big battle sequence. That was the thing. And it just depends where you point the camera,

whether your character would be in vision. And his wasn't. And that shoot for that final battle. took, I think, three or four weeks. So for 12 days, he wasn't on camera. We all have this wonderful idea of it being a very glamorous world. And of course, there are, you know, there are plenty of glamour. There is plenty of glamour. But, you know, sitting around doing that, I think I'd go mad. I'd start singing and dancing all over the place or annoying everybody by chatting to everybody when I shouldn't be. Well, yeah, that's the problem,

is you then get really sidetracked into chatting with everyone and then suddenly somebody will time I go, right, you're on, let's go, and suddenly you've got to remember that you're in a Ridley Scott movie playing a knight in Robin Hood, rather than just having a cup of tea with your very interesting dresser who you might really get on with, you know? The amazing thing about all of those movies and fight sequences, for example, in Kingsman, they take weeks and weeks to get right, and they can be very tedious, but the one common denominator of all of those big films is they look amazing on screen. Yeah, they do.

So it's worth it. So all are the ones you've mentioned, they are incredible. Actually, talking about fight, weren't you nominated for a best fight scene for Kickass? I was, I think, because Matthew Vaughn always has this slightly crazy idea that fights should be, because every kind of superhero movie, every good versus evil movie has some kind of fight. And he always likes to mix it up. So in Kickass, I was finding a 12-year-old girl. Yes.

Chloe Moretz, who is now a very fine actress in her own right. but then she was literally 12 years old. And I had to throw around the room and punch her and fight her. And she was doing the same to me, although she did have a little double as well. But she was smashing decanters over my head. But not really her. Chloe and you didn't do it yourselves, did you? Yeah, we did, yeah.

Some of the sequences, definitely. It had to be her. Oh, my word. And it had to be me because you had to have the close-ups where you could see it. So we did, yeah, we battered each other. And then I'd come home to the kids, which was a really weird. Oh, how weird. Yes. What did you do today, Daddy? Oh, I beat up a 12-year-old girl. How was your day?

Oh, my, I didn't realize you did it yourself. So can you actually fly then, as you did in Shazam? Yes. Please say yes. Say yes. Of course, yeah, yeah. I did flying at second year at drama school. They teach you how to actually levitate and get off the ground. Good, yes. And you never forget. It's like riding a bike. Exactly that. No, actually, that is a really, that's all about harnesses and wires. And you have to be incredibly fit because you are. in the air being spun around. Hold on. No. I would have thought that was all CGI.

No, no. The background is CGI. So when I'm flying past, you know, office blocks in Philadelphia, that's CGI. But I have been strapped into a sort of what they called a T bar. And it was basically a long piece of metal with a circular semicircle at the end that fastened onto the side of your hips behind you. Yeah, and you had this special belt harness thing that it fastened. So you could roll forward, sideways, head over here, you know, everywhere, every which way. And then they would rush around wherever you needed to be in the space,

and you would have to do fighting in the air while at the same time kind of keeping it together because it's quite, if you're fighting upside down or rolling sideways and throwing a punch, it's quite hard. Do you know what? It does, when you're saying it all like this, and sort of a shortened price of your life. It must be like, okay, so I've been in a harness, I've been upside down, changed my eyes with the seven sins, I've beaten up a 12-year-old, I've been in armour. Do you sometimes just lie in bed at night and just go,

oh my God, this is bizarre? Well, now when you list it like that, it does seem bizarre, and it's so fascinating that I've been able to do that because when I started out as an actor, I wanted the variety, that was the thing. And that sort of relates back to what I was saying to originally about doing small independent films and theatre and TV. It's mixing it up as much as possible because the variety is the thing that makes it really interesting. And just to sort of also, that Matthew Vaughn fight thing that he likes to have in his movies at the end,

I forgot about Stardust in which the final fight, my character is actually dead. Yes. So I'm having to fight with my eyes closed with a sword, with Charlie Cox, who went on to play Daredevil. TV and do this fight sequence and I can't even look at him. So he had to be in the right place at the right time and our swords had to be in the right place at the right time. And that took quite a long time to get right. But yeah, that's another, yeah, it's another amazing thing to have, you know, I've been able to do. Oh, it is incredible. It's very interesting with everybody, every interview that I've been reading and everything, everyone is obsessed with

There are three questions that everybody asks you all the time. And I thought, what a weird thing? But they all ask you about, oh, is it? You always want to be a baddie. I mean, it's quite extraordinary how every single person. It's like you said, yes, that's what I'm going to do. Today, it's very odd. They all ask you about Bond, which we'll come back to you because of the lovely quote recently.

And they all ask you about the other people you've been with on the screen, not who you've been with. That's a whole other. That's a different podcast. We weren't. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But it is, it's everybody's obsession is, oh, you've always wanted to be a bad guy. I mean, you must get so bored of that question. Please just say you are because it's bizarre.

The thing that I realize, and you must know this, because obviously you do your research and you know when you talk to somebody, you know, what they've said before and, you know, what interviews they've done and what their careers have been and all of that. So the unfortunate thing from my point of view is I only... have one history. So when you've done 30 years of doing interviews, unfortunately, you do end up saying the same things and being asked the same questions. Yes, it's not you saying the same things because you come up with a different sort of way of spinning it. But it's that it's really bizarre because you're your own person. That's what I mean is it's not just about Mark the actor

is always a baddie. You're not always a baddie. You know, so many of the things that you've done. you're absolutely not the baddie at all. Well, no, it's too easy a question to ask. I suppose what happened was when I did start, when I started movies, there were a few that all came out at the same time. And they were, I think it was kind of,

Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood and Kickass were all about the same time. I think they all came out within a year of each other. And they were all villains. But the truth about the villains or the batty's is they really genuinely are good fun to play. You get great lines. Great costumes, you're present in the movie, you know, like I said.

And people ask that question because, I don't know, they don't really, they don't understand how the business works, which is that as an actor, you don't really have that much choice. Your only real choice is to say no. You have to wait to be offered things. Can you say, do you say no? Yeah, often. If I feel I can't do something or I can't make the character live or I don't find it interesting enough, then I'll say no.

I don't want to shoehorn myself into something and find that I'm not very good at it. In fact, I often suggest other people. Do you? That's so lovely. Who might be better? But I'm lucky enough to have enough that I can do. And all of those things, the thing about the villains is

they're all, if you forget that they're called villains, they're all interesting characters. Of course they are. And that's the important bit. Yeah, that's the important bit, I think. The other question, though, that everybody goes on about, not just to you but to every actor at the moment. And I know you and Daniel are great friends, Daniel Craig.

But everybody talks about in this country, in the UK, everyone talks about Doctor Who and James Bond. Like there is no other characters. It is extraordinary. And then the minute that people know about you and Daniel, and there is a wonderful quote that's come out about you being getting drunk with Daniel and James Bond. That is another thing.

There was an actor recently that I interviewed. And at the end of it, he said, thank you. You didn't ask me if I'm going to be James Bond. I said, well, there are other characters. It's just very bizarre. It is extraordinary how people are obsessed with that. So the minute that people know that you know Daniel, they're straight on it. Have you had those conversations?

It is incredible. But that says a lot about how interested people are in him and what Bond does to you as a lot. individual. It made him world famous. You can go to the... He was doing really good independent movies, but he was kind of an actor like another actor who is, you know,

getting some great stuff under their belts. But Bond obliterates everything. There are a few parts. Maybe Doctor Who is the equivalent on television or something. But Bond, yeah, I mean, you become world famous. You can't walk down the street anywhere without people knowing who you are. And then with the advent of social media, everybody wants to selfie,

everybody wants to sort of connect with you. And for him, yeah, that's why people, so any connection to him is also therefore interesting, I suppose. Oh, I see, right, okay. But for you, though, you're not, they don't instantly think of one character. Or maybe they do, I suppose different ages. Like I said, with my 14-year-old,

because she loves Shazam. Absolutely loves it. I mean, I don't know how many times she's, watched it. But she went straight there. So I suppose for different people and different ages, you hit a nerve. That must be great, actually. It is great. And what it means is when people come up to you in the street and say, oh, I really, I like you, I like your work. The funniest thing I was in. Yeah. People are very kind. You know, I like you. I like your work. And then they'll say, and then I have to quickly guess what it is that they, I think that they might have seen.

A certain age group will like, as we said, our friends in the north. Some younger people will like Shazam and Cruella. And then some will be much more focused on stuff I've done in the theatre. So do you know. Can you tell when they come towards you? I play a little game with myself. Not in a kind of nasty way, but just to be prepared. Because the worst thing that happens is someone comes up to you. And the funniest thing I was ever asked was, it's you, isn't it?

Oh, it's a bit weird when people say that. weird. It's you, isn't it? And I went, yeah, yeah, it is. And you went, what have you been in? Oh, no. Here we go. Yeah. And you do the roll call of stuff. And about three or four things, if you get it wrong, and that's not what they've seen you in. You can see them slightly starting to think, maybe it isn't him. Oh, no, no. And then you become like, no, no, no, I want to, I want you to know what I've been in. So I then start working hard to try and work out. Oh, oh, no, I'm embarrassed. Yeah, exactly. And that makes me embarrassed. I'm embarrassed for them

and I'm embarrassed for you Actually you keep mentioning Our Friends of the North Let's go back to that Because that's one of those TV shows That has gone down in It's probably in the top 100 TV shows of all time It was incredible, wasn't it?

I mean, how long ago was that? I should have looked up the date That I think was mid-90s I think Mid-90s And yeah, I know It's that long ago I think, yeah

Didn't have a 25-year celebration or something It's mid-90s, I think. The main thing about that show, though, was it was the last of the great sort of epic series. I don't think anything's quite been made like it before, although now with the streamers and television being the new god, there's a lot more being made. But back then, it was so unusual because Michael Jackson, who was running BBC 2, committed, I think, 80% of the drama budget to that one show, and everybody thought he was mad.

Yeah, no, it was a massive gamble. But he genuinely saw in it. what everybody got out of it, which is as a state of the nation piece about the country, you know, from Harold Wilson through to Margaret Thatcher, wrapped in a sort of social history of these four different characters who were all friends. And it was, because really, I mean, some people see it as a story about post-war labour housing policy and others see it as a little soap about these four people. And Peter Flannery, you wrote it, his genius is the fact that he managed to meld those two things.

Oh, so it was just, and you know, you knew you knew and you cared about every single one of those characters. Do you know, when you're saying all of that, wouldn't it be incredible? I know, I'm sure people have said about bringing it back all these years later and looking at what's happened in those almost 30 years. That sort of drama, television drama, I'd love to see something now. Post-pandemic, post-Brexit, post-everything that's happened, it'd be fascinating. It would be amazing to see if it holds up.

Yeah, no. You know, because things can date and do date very quickly. I mean, I just went through a whole series of watching sort of a bunch of movies with my eldest son with Robert Redford in. And like three days of the Condor and things. The title sequence takes so long. You know, we've, everybody's attention span is much shorter these days, as we all know. And those films really languorously kind of introduced. film. Really the idea is that you sit back and you allow the music to wash over you and the

title sequence. And Lawrence of Arabia is the same. Huge long title sequences. Everything takes much longer. And if you were to re-edit any of those movies, you'd make them much faster, much punchier. So it's always interesting to wonder whether things that were made that long ago, whether they would stand up today. But I think our friends in the north, I've had people recently say that they've caught up with it recently and they say it stands up. What did your son think of the Robert Redford films then? Suddenly I went straight to Butchcasting the Sundance Kid when you said that. Yeah, no, I saw that with him.

He loved that. Oh, he did. The sting. He thought the sting was amazing. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, you see, there's all these films that I want to try and introduce him to to get him to realize that there was great storytelling going on. What's the one?

What's the one with Dustin Hoffman and the Watergate? Oh, what's it called? It's called All the President's Miss. Oh my goodness. Yeah, fantastic movie. Anyway, we're not talking about those. We're talking about those. We're talking about you.

But yeah, what a great one to go back to you. Weirdly, I'm going to go away from film and TV. My husband said when we met, this isn't about me, but you'll see where I'm going with this. I love musical theatre and I love having a good old sing-along. My husband likes punk And yes And I said to him Oh Mark was in two punk bands

Honestly he's went which ones which ones what He must still love punk because everybody who wants love punk Still loves punk So do you still love punk I do love it but more now as a political statement That's what he says Yeah And what it meant to me as a 14 year old boy

Rather than the music It's fantastic But if it's on, it's very loud, it's very brash, and that's what it was designed to be. And as an older guy now, I don't love the chaos as much as I did when I was a teenager. But it came along at exactly the right time for me, because I was just at that age where, you know, you want to grow up fast, but you don't have anything yet. You know, sort of 13, 14. And then punk came along, and it looked so and sounded so dangerous and so in your face and so anti-authoritarian. and anti-parent that I grabbed hold of it with both hands.

And there was a full-page ad in Sounds, which was a mag. I think it was a paper magazine, like NME and Sounds, with the two music mags that you used to buy and read. And a full-page ad said, here's three chords, and I go out and form a band. And I took it literally. And I said to my mates at school,

like, you get a bass, you get a guitar, you get a snare drum. And then we just plugged everything in and made some noise. And so the bands weren't ever famous. We did cut a couple of tracks in a recording studio. I don't know what happened to those. But the main thing...

You must have them in the set. You've got them in the same box that you've got Arthur Miller's... Yeah, yeah, maybe. Maybe. Yeah. That mythical day when you go through the attic and find all those things, you know? You have to. You have to.

But you say that it was what it stood for as opposed to now the music necessarily. If you think about what was around at the time in 1976, 77, it was pretty dull stuff. I mean, I think our parents had all been through the 60s and had a great time, and they were getting tired during the 70s. And everybody slightly, you know, England was a sort of, it was damp tweed and ducks on a village pond and scampy in a basket. It wasn't very dangerous. And I think punk came along and just shook everything up. That was the thing behind it. And as I say, I was exactly the right age to buy into all of that.

But what it taught me more than anything was performance, because that band that I then formed, we did play some gigs. And that's what taught me that I loved performing. I didn't get involved with theatre until much later, or even think about acting until much later. But I can trace back to there, I think, the idea of self-expression. And that's what punk was great for as well. You could align yourself with that movement.

and just eliminate everything that had gone before. But you then went to Munich and studied law. And was it there that you realized you wanted to act? I mean, you've done your punk and you realize you like performing. But where was that moment that you thought, no, I'm going to stop law, I'm going to act? How did that switch happen? I didn't really know what I wanted to do at school.

I remember going to a careers office, having a meeting with the careers officer who said to me, well, what do you like? I said, I don't know, I like, I like, I like, I like reading. He said, what else do you like? I like, I like art. He went art publishing. And that was basically the sum total of my career's advice because I liked, I liked pictures and I liked books. I should be an art publisher. So I realized that that was going to be no help. So I had to work out and I couldn't, I just didn't know what to do. And I speak German because my, my mom and her son of the family are Austrian. And school, who were all, you know, they just wanted you to go and do something interesting

at university, if you could. They wanted me to go to Cambridge and studied German. So I went for a couple of meetings there, but I realized I didn't really want to do German. But my mum was living in Munich at the time. And if you're resident there, you could sign up for the university. So I just randomly chose law at Munich University because I thought it was a great thing to tell my teachers I was doing. and it would get them off my back, and they would stop making me try to go to Cambridge to do German. So it was a slightly lazy choice.

And then school ended, and I went home to where my mum was living. But I didn't know anyone in Germany. And I used to go to these lectures in Munich, and it was very dry and very boring. And I speak German, but not legalese, you know, not legal German. It was a whole new world to try and discover. And on the way to the lecture hall where the law, was the theatre faculty and I used to look through the window and they just were having basically a lot more fun than anybody in the law faculty and one day I was looking on the notice

board in that in the theatre department and got talking to a guy he said yeah yeah we do trust games and we we do text study and we you know we sit around and we talk about it and I thought that sounds way more fun so I wrote back to teacher back at school in England and said I want to come back to England and I want to do drama thinking I want to go to university. I didn't really know what a drama school was then. Still didn't kind of know how to get into the business. And then came back and studied English drama at London University. And that's how I got started. It was kind of random, completely random. Yeah, but that's nice. Yeah, I knew, though, the minute I chose that path, I was absolutely convinced that's what I want to do.

And I was lucky because there was no one around me, parents or siblings, saying, you're mad, what are you talking about? You can't swap law for being an actor. You know, actors, it's really hard business. You won't succeed. Nobody was telling me that. So naively, I just went with my instinct and luckily managed to carve out a path. That's quite wonderful, though.

And I love that nobody stood in your way. Nobody said you can't. Not because they didn't want to, but because there was no one there to say that to you. So you just thought, right, I'm going to do it. It wouldn't it be great. The more power to young people, if they were able to just say that and not have people judging them from parents or schools or friends or something, if they just say, you know what, I'm going to do this because I found my tribe.

Yeah, I mean, but that's, you know, I realize as a parent, I think that I've educated my sons or I've taught my sons the ways. and I realise it's just not true. I think they're kind of fully formed when they're born. All you've got to do, instead of telling them what to do or how to behave or what's good for them and what's bad for them, you've just got to basically kind of nurture them through to the point where they can make their own decisions. But unfortunately, childhood is all about being given parameters by your parents,

some of which are useful, obviously. But it would be better. It would be good, as you say, if we were confident enough just to let people form themselves. Yeah, find their own part. So how did that, so obviously that's the acting side, but then the voiceover side, because who do you think you are, you're the voice of that, you're the voiceover in cinemas, in view cinemas. You were the voice for the pandemic. That sounds a strange thing to say, but you were the voice of, yes, not the pandemic. That sounds a bit weird, but you were the voice and told everybody what to do. So where did the, who was the person that said, I mean, because you do have a beautiful voice and you use it very well, indeed. Thank you very much. But who was the person that said, right, you know what? You should do voiceovers because yours is a voice that everybody knows

and they might not realize they know it if you see what I mean. Yeah, it was, again, I was acting. I knew nothing about the world of voiceovers. And there was an actor who I was working with who said he was doing voiceovers and that you could earn spare money to pay the bills. And also you could earn spare money, which meant you didn't have to be. take the acting jobs that you didn't want to. So you could actually, you know, work out, yeah, your career.

So you could pay your bills with the voiceovers. And I just, I don't know, I got into it. And the weird thing was, having talked about the villains, in my film world, I was playing nasty, evil, bad guys. But in voiceover world, I was playing very lovely guys. I was, you know, encouraging people to, yes, give blood, you know, and encouraging people to do good things. So I had these two different worlds going on.

And then, funny enough, when the, when the, it came time to do the government COVID voiceover. There had to be an element of both. You had to sort of be, I don't know, scary or menacing enough that you made people realise this was really important. But on the other hand, you couldn't just terrify people. I remember those John Hurt voiceovers for the AIDS campaign. Do you remember those?

Yes, I do. They were absolutely. I remember as a kid, they were totally terrifying. But with the whole COVID issue, it had to be a kind of gentle nudging of people. into understanding what needed to be done. So there had to be a sort of hint of authority, as they say, but... But making us feel safe. Yeah, yeah.

And then gradually, as things improved, I was told to lighten it up and lighten it up. And then it got to a point where they decided that they should use a woman to, you know, an even gentle voice to encourage people. But you're also, when you're seeing you in the cinema, not you, you as a role in the cinema and you're telling everybody the voiceover in the cinema I wonder if people don't ever put the two and two together. I don't know.

I mean, I like the anonymity. And fine enough, that's coming to an end with the voiceover in the cinema. Really? And yeah, with the COVID thing because everybody's, I think, become aware that not everybody, but it's just cropped up in a few places. I did read it.

I'm not on Twitter, somebody did send me one as a giggle that somebody had heard the COVID voice over so much they couldn't watch any of my movies anymore. No. That's what they decided. No. Yeah, I think it was more the person showing off that they'd made the connection, you know? Oh, yes, probably. That's what it was. That's what they were. Yes, because you're saying that people, not as many people, obviously at the moment are going to cinemas, but what they are doing is streaming.

That does sound like a corny link into talking about Temple, but we have to. because we love it. So Danny Mays was on the podcast before. I absolutely love Danny. And I remember him, he was talking about it when he was on last season, the podcast. And I remember then, I was late to the party, I have to admit. I then watched it and then became, it's one of those ones that I became obsessed with. And I'm lucky because I've had the sneaky link to watch the new season.

Oh, my goodness me. and I know you're the exec on it, and I know I'm talking to you, and I don't have to say this, because what I would say, if I didn't like it, I'd say, congratulations. Do tell me about it. But no, it's not. It's very addictive. Oh, great.

Now, this is probably the right word for it, but I devour it. Good. How many have you been able to see? Have you got the links to all of them? Yeah. No, I've got links to the first three and I've watched the first two. Well, we all have watched the first two. And my husband, who says, I can't watch, I haven't got time.

He doesn't, he doesn't move. And I said, I thought you weren't going to watch you. No, go and put another one on. Go on. It's, it is. You want to devour it. It's just, it's multi-led and it's, it's so clever and it's so dark. And it's, oh, I love it.

People who haven't seen it have got to watch it. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how you encourage people to something because there's so much out there. And I'm always saying to people, oh, this is great or that's great. Or being told by other people, this is great and that's great. No, but this really is. I haven't got time, you know. Yeah, no, and we wanted to make something that just defied categorisation.

We had a problem actually, but the first series was how we sold it to people, because people couldn't really work out what it was because it had a thriller elements, although it's not solely a thriller. It's obviously got medical sequences, but it's not a medical show. It's got criminal sequences, but it's not a crime show. There's a cop story as well, but it's not a cop show. So it had a little element of everything. But most of all, we wanted to make something, as you say, that was multi-layered, based in London,

a London that we knew and the added extra if you like was the whole concept that it was underground underneath Temple Tube Station that was the bit that made it sort of extraordinary

and then that first season we adapted from a Norwegian original we didn't copy it we adapted it we took the characters but we made our own storyline and that's meant because they didn't get a second season

on that show that our second season is all our own work so we could cherry pick all of the best bits that we liked from the first season. You know, that dark comic thread, you know, the relationships.

Yeah. And then just dial it all up in the second one. Oh, you shouldn't. Oh, no, you do because, I mean, oh, it's so good. But there is, I'm not giving anything away because I know the trailer's out there as well. But there's this really funny policewoman scene. I mean, properly, you know, we're all sitting there open mouths. because if you've seen,

if you haven't seen season one, then you have to see season one, and this is to the listener, I'm saying this too. You have to watch season one, but you can go into season two, because it's self-explanatory. But there is,

it's, it is properly funny, this scene in the police station. And there was a part of me that thought, I love her reaction, but this is, oh, it's, I can't give any, obviously, no spoilers,

but, but it's funny, and it's, It's brilliant. Oh, thanks so much, Gabby. I mean, honestly, I'm really proud of it. I feel like, you know, so much work has gone into it to make something that will kind of absorb,

be absorbing for people to watch, be funny, easy, but also a little bit threatening. There's some dark moments in there. There's some kind of light moments, a little bit of everything. It's kind of what I like to watch. I like something that I can't put into a box or know exactly what it is.

It makes you think. It makes you work a little bit. too. And then you've got very, very kind of dark comic threads running through it with Danny's character. And yeah, we just, we just had fun writing what we thought was kind of witty and amusing and funny and a bit weird. So it's got elements of everything. It's quite, it's quite crazy in places as well. Yeah, quite. It's very crazy. I love that quite crazy. No, it's very, very crazy. Oh, good.

When you're the executive producer on something, though, does that feel your baby feels more precious, you know, because this is very much it's got your name all over it? Yeah, very. And also, I've never had the opportunity as an actor to get involved in that way with a show. And usually you're quite isolated from the show. I mean, you're often, you've probably had this. You interview actors about jobs they've done like a movie.

They will have done a year ago. And since then, they've done two or three other things. This is something that's like back in their past. So as you're you kind of cross fertilise as an actor between different shows and your allegiance isn't particularly great to any of them because you're kind of brought in to to perform once all the scaffolding of the show has been set up by people working incredibly hard behind the scenes and that's what I learned as an exec producer just how difficult it is to mount a show, any show, but particularly this one and it the added complication was we did it in the middle of the pandemic. So we were meant to start shooting April 2020 and March 23rd we were told to go into lockdown. So we had no idea what that meant, obviously, at that time,

where we were headed, whether the show would even happen, whether it would all just get cancelled, we had everybody employed, we had all the sets built, we were ready to go, and then we had months of negotiating, working out how we get to get back into a studio to shoot the thing. And Liza Marshall, my wife, who produces it, she's really the powerhouse behind it. She kind of basically had a lot of meetings with Sky and worked out this whole system of masks,

temperature checks, sanitising, you know, everything that we've now become used to. We had to put all of that into place. We had to have each of the parts of the crew in separate bubbles, so the makeup girls were in one group, the costume girls another, the camera crew were another, the AD, the directors department were another and they couldn't cross fertilise. You know, you had to keep away from each other and everyone was being tested every two or three days. And we shot from, we went back to work in August, August 2020 and shot all the way through to January, 97 shooting days. And in that whole time, we only had one positive case. Wow. It was kind of a miracle. So, but actually you were, I, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd

presume you're not actually really under Temple Tube Station where you're filming it. But you were all underground and you had to be masked in scenes because you're playing a doctor. There were moments where reality and fiction must have collided. It's so funny watching those operation scenes now with Danny and I wearing masks. Because subsequently, we've all got used to wearing masks. So it's not remotely unusual. Yes. You know, shooting in the middle of the pandemic and getting a,

had all done. There were positive things as well, which meant we were able to get into, well, first of all, the crew didn't have anywhere to go out. Nobody could go out in the evening when you went home. So there was no danger of anybody getting infected because everything was shut down. Couldn't go anywhere. Couldn't go out to the pub, couldn't go out for a meal, anything. So everybody literally came in, worked, went home, crashed out, got up, came in, focused solely on the show. But it did mean that we were able to get into buildings that you would not normally have access to because there was nobody in them working. So we were able to do that. We were able to shoot in Piccadilly Circus. We were able to shoot Gerard Street in Soho in the middle of the

night, which you would never normally be able to do because it would be thronging with people. So there were some upsides to it as well. And when you watch all seven episodes, you've got absolutely no concept that there was nobody around. No, it's really clever. There are people there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don't give away all your secrets. No, no. But it was, yeah, it made for an incredibly loyal group of people. Because the one thing I worried about was that the banter would go.

You know, the joy about working on a film set. I mean, everybody gets up at very early in the morning, five o'clock, you know, you're in there. You work till very late at night, often seven days a week. And it can be exhausting. And it's the banter and the relationships between people that keeps it all going. And I worried that this whole separation thing and the masks, would kill that, but it did the opposite. It actually brought everyone together.

And we felt like we were a little band of brothers, you know, and sisters working in the middle of this lockdown. Well, I'm so pleased you did. Honestly, I do sound like I'm making it up, but I was on radio this morning on Virgin. I'm standing in for Chris Evans. And I was going on about it then already. I said, I've just seen a sneaky thing. Oh, it's so good.

So we always ask everybody on this podcast, what makes them belly? laugh. And I want to know from you because I imagine that you're quite a giggler. I don't know why I imagine that, but I do. So what makes you properly lose it and belly laugh? That's a very good question. I can't think of the last time I really lost it. I suppose it's, it'll usually be when somebody is trying to be deadly serious and failing. Like I think that thing, do you remember the little clip that went viral of the lawyer and his daughter had put the cat image

on the screen and he was there talking to the judge saying, I'm not a cat while, you know, that made me laugh out loud. So I think harmless things that are meant to be incredibly serious that are really funny, make me belly laugh.

I did a very, I did a film that has some very rude moments in it called Grimsby with Sasha Baron Cohen. And there are some moments in that film. Comedy is really hard to achieve in movies, but there are some belly laughs in that movie. I have to say, there's something about

Sasha's crazy comedy. If you think Borat or you think Ali Jean, they can sometimes make me really laugh. Because I suppose what that is, is failed seriousness, isn't it? Yeah, they two are very similar

that you just said, though, I'm not a cat. I love the idea. If Sasha heard you saying that, that he compared you to the man saying, I'm not a cat, I don't know how quite he takes it. But what a body of work you've got? Like you said, Stardust, Rock and Roller, Sherlock Holmes, Zero Dark 30. I mean, all of these things. And they are all so amazing.

They're the serious ones, actually, that I think of. Like, imitation game, Zero Dark 30, Syriana. I suppose those are the ones that I'd like to do the most because they've got meaning behind them. You know, they're attempting to kind of create something in the audience and make them think. But if I can mix that with doing like Temple on TV and developing a character and a group of people that are all around him

and write hours and hours of that, plus do the big Hollywoody ones, the Shazams and the Crewellas, then I feel like that mix is the most important thing. Variety, yeah, it's what it's all about, I think. Well, long may you do it because it's a joy to watch. And as I say, congratulations on Temple, season two. It's just magnificent. Mark, thank you very much indeed.

And for people who don't know what we talked about beforehand, you did warn us that there was going to be a leaf blower in your next door neighbor's garden. They haven't actually done it. And I've slightly disappointed because I was waiting for you to, to make up some story about a leaf blower and it hasn't happened. Maybe he got rid of them all before we started, but I was mortified because the noise level was unbelievable. But maybe he did the last leaf just before we switched our mics on.

That's what's known as timing. Mark Strong, bless you. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. Coming up next week, Joanne Frogert. That Gabby Roslyn podcast is proudly produced by Cameo Productions. Music by Beth McCarie. Could you please tap the follow or subscribe button?

And thanks so much for your amazing reviews. We honestly read every single one and they mean the world to us. Thank you so much.