Jackson Lamb, played by Gary Oldman, is not known for his niceties in Slow Horses and the actor said he enjoyed playing him the way he is.
In the wake of the season four trailer, the Oscar winner sat down with the Los Angeles Times and discussed his character’s unconventional method of conducting espionage.
“The idea behind the dirty [raincoat] and the smell of whiskey and cigarettes is that he’s playing chess,” he continued. “That’s one of the great joys of playing him.”
“That and the fact that he has no filter, that he’s utterly direct. The reason we enjoy it as an audience, and I enjoy playing it, is because we can’t be like that in our lives.”
“And on top of it, we give you James Bond, but warts and all, with dirty laundry and stale toast.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the Batman Begins star gushed about the Apple TV+ show being shot in his home country, England.
“When it was presented to me, I went, ‘I’ve got, like, one costume? It’s espionage and it’s in England? I don’t have to do an accent?’ I couldn’t believe it,” he added. “It ticked every single box. And on top of that, it was really good.”
