The Crying Game
Daniel Sharman plays the Weeping Monk
So what’s with all the weeping?
His reputation is that he looks as if he’s crying, but he actually has birthmarks on his face. The origin of it is complex, but you get to find out why he looks like this.
Would you call him an antagonist?
I think he’s confused. Certainly to begin with he’s a very feared figure, because he’s incredibly violent. He’s a tool Father Carden can use to inflict huge amounts of pain and damage. His past – this sordid and dark past – is very interesting. He’s been trained since he was six or seven to be able to do this. Father Carden’s a father figure, and almost like a cult leader, and he’s taken on this boy from a young age. There’s a deep sense of complexity within that: love and distrust and hate. And Father Carden is also violent to him. So there’s this really interesting push/ pull with his character, and it’s such a pleasure to play the nuances of that.
What’s driving him?
It’s not about revenge, or rage. It’s about somebody being trained and used in a way that’s incredibly efficient, and harnessing a sense of inner conflict. He’s taken a sense of humanity out of himself. I think for young people it’ll be interesting to see that you can be removed from societal norms and told to do something, and do it very efficiently – until you question morally whether that’s right.
Will we be able to sympathise with him, then?
I think by the end you understand the internal conflict within him, and why this has happened. I’m always internally conflicted anyway, in real life. We all are! We all play different characters, so there’s always this sense of trying to keep up an appearance, and I think he is desperately holding on to this idea of being a killer.
We like your side-lacing boots! Do they have hidden zips though?
No – I fucking wish they did! At first I was like, “This is great!” Then after day 15 I was like, “Why did I agree to this? Why didn’t they have Velcro back in those days?” Funnily enough, not a lot of the detail gets seen. But it adds to my sense of who this person is. The work that it takes to get into it informs how you carry yourself. So I’m grateful for the details of these things.