Deep State’s poster boy
After favouring the big screen in recent times, Alistair Petrie has found a small screen role he can sink his teeth into in Fox’s Deep State, writes Debashine Thangevelo
WHILE some actors are okay with taking on a role just to pay the bills, Alistair Petrie isn’t one of them. This 47-year-old British actor takes his craft seriously. After all, he is an alumnus of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. With acclaimed Hollywood projects like The Bank Job, Cloud Atlas, Vendetta, Victor Frankenstein and Rogue One, among others, under his belt, it talks to his clout and pedigree as an actor. That’s not taking into account his small screen résumé.
Talking about television credits, he has favoured the big screen more in the past year.
In a recent tête-à-tête with the actor, he explains: “It’s the writing; the quality of the writing. Usually, you can tell pretty quickly when you read something
– it jumps off the page at you. I’m also a complete sucker for the genre. I love spy thrillers. Who doesn’t!?”
Petrie continues: “I think the thing that really got me was that it wasn’t just surface – it dealt with moral conundrums of the character. Of all the characters. As I’ve always said, no one person is either good or bad. The interesting stuff is the grey in the middle.”
And that’s where Deep State deserves praise. In exposing the fallibility of its characters, it makes them more fascinating.
In this era, where audiences are as discerning as they are demanding, it can only work to the show’s advantage.
He adds: “What intrigues an audience isn’t just the high-end production values, although they are very important, it always comes back to the characters. It comes back to whether the audience identifies with the characters, identifies with their situations, identifies with the moral challenges.”
And Petrie’s character, George White, is the poster boy.
He is from the old-school MI6. He is ambitious and entrepreneurial.
“What’s interesting about him? We started off asking this question. I spoke to someone who had applied for and was successful in getting the British security services. I also spoke to someone who applied and didn’t get in. Some do it because they fancy themselves as a bit of a James Bond, or they are excited by the idea of getting onto a plane with a false passport.
“If found guilty of those kind of things, they are gotten rid off very quickly. I think the people that do generally apply want to serve their country. They have a great sense of honour and integrity in what they want to do,” he reveals.
Petrie continues: “I would say, he is a man with great ambition. He is ruthless. Those things feed into the nature of the job. If you had to go to George and ask him if he would kill one person to save 50, he would have an interesting moral argument to make about why that is a good idea. Whereas other people would counter that.”
“He is a quite a high level operative and a political animal as well. He has been dragged into politics more than he could have imagined.”
When preparing for this character, Petrie used the script as his bible. And his understanding of the character is underpinned by his compelling description of him.
He shares: “If the character is well written, you start to see certain human characteristics about them. I’ve been cast for a reason. Not only because of my age but my skill set, too, as I usually play high-status characters. I like to be overprepared than under-prepared.”
Interestingly, he worked with lead actor Mark Strong some 20 years ago.
He recalls, “We did a wonderful television adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma. And, amazingly, I have not seen him since. When the opportunity came to work with Mark again, it was a gift. He is a very natural leading man. Doing a shoot at the speed that this was shot, you need someone to lead the team, and no one does it better than Mark.”
As for what else is in the kitty, he confirms: “I’m about to start shooting a movie in a couple of weeks time. It is based on a true story of a remarkable man. I can’t say more as they haven’t announced it. I am also doing a TV series for Netflix. It’s a comedy drama.”
Fans can rest assured that these forthcoming offerings will be worth watching!
Deep State airs on Fox (Dstv channel 125) on Wednesdays at 9pm.