No./17 Paapa Essiedu is stepping up
With a buzzy new sci-fi TV show, the actor takes his place in the spotlight
THANKS TO APOCALYPTIC time-hopping series The Lazarus Project, Paapa Essiedu’s skill set has broadened considerably. The role — his most physical yet — required the actor to learn everything from handling guns to jumping off bikes. Yet there was one thing Essiedu couldn’t nail. “Karaoke is not my strong suit,” he tells Empire mournfully. “They really threw me in the deep end with that. I was like, ‘Are you joking me?’” The scene in question sees his character George deliver the opening lines of R.E.M.’S ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’ on a work night out, a musical nod to the show’s premise. In the opening episode, George is recruited to The Lazarus Project, an organisation that jumps through time to prevent world-ending events.
Essiedu hails from a theatrical background, having taken centre stage in everything from Hamlet to Romeo And Juliet. On screen, he’s risen up through supporting roles on some of the most enthralling British shows in recent years, playing Kwame, Michaela Coel’s troubled best friend in I May Destroy You, and criminal scion Alex in Gangs Of London. This is the first time that he steps up as a leading man. “There was something unexpected about George,” he says of his reason to take the leap. “Plus I’m a huge fan of [creator] Joe Barton’s writing; I love his ability to have this dry humour present in something that pushes humans into extreme situations.”
The role comes at a pivotal time for Essiedu. For starters, he returns to the violent streets of the capital in the second season of Gangs Of London. ”I’ve never been invited back to do something before,” he admits. “And [showrunner] Corin Hardy has got such a gory eye for detail, it never ceases to amaze me.” Then, he has a mysterious role in Alex Garland’s upcoming horror film Men. “He’s exactly how you imagine him; his brain works in a very different way to the average person,” he says of the director. “And there was a real force to the scenes that I shot with Jessie [Buckley]. Or should I say, Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley. That’s literally how she’s saved in my phone.” At the rate that Essiedu is going, it might not be long before he earns a similar title.
THE LAZARUS PROJECT WILL STREAM ON SKY MAX AND NOW THIS SPRING