Deep State

Season 1 FOX (*125) 21:00 & 21:50 Drama

Brooding British baldie Mark Strong takes on a new mission in drama Deep State (2018-current) as retired secret agent Max Easton who is reactivated by secret service MI6 for “one last job”. “Max is morally conflicted, which is the exact type of role I find myself drawn to,” explains the 54-year-old, laughing that “dark, shady espionage characters are the most exciting.” And Mark has a thing for cloak-and-dagger roles…

1 He’s played an undercover agent in films like Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle (2012 and 2017), as well as 2016’s The Brothers Grimsby, which was shot in Cape Town. But his work has come at a price, admits Mark. “I lost my anonymity. I can no longer go to the shops unnoticed.” Despite being mobbed by fans, he refuses to move out of London.

2 James Bond actor Daniel Craig is godfather to Mark’s 14-year-old son Gabriel with his TV exec wife Liza. They also have 10-year-old son Roman.

3 The actor is London born and bred but his heritage isn’t British at all, nor is his birthname Marco Giuseppe Salussolia. His Austrian immigrant mom Waltraud raised him alone after Mark’s Italian dad Guiseppe abandoned them. Mark’s name was legally changed when he was five to fit in with his friends.

4 Mark started going bald in his 20s and considered giving up acting, but his mom forced him to continue. “I decided to crop what was left of my hair and thought, ‘It’s over, I’m never going to work again. It’s basket weaving from here on out’.”

5 He got into acting after failing his first year studying law in Germany and while he made money singing in punk bands in high school, Mark jokes that “I’m horrible with a mic”.