LIFE ACCORDING TO ADRIAN LESTER

The Brit actor tells us about facing one of his busiest years

When Adrian Lester calls me on a wet, wintry afternoon, I expect him to have this big, booming Shakespearean voice. In reality, he greets me with a softly spoken Midlands drawl (he grew up in Birmingham) mixed with a south-east London twang (which is where he lives now).

‘My voice does change quite a bit,’ he admits, laughing when I tell him I’m surprised. ‘Losing an accent I’ve learnt for a part can take a while. It’s basically muscle memory – if you spend six months on stage playing an American like I have [in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof ], that’s going to hang around. My wife often says to me after a job, “I’m glad he’s finally gone.” You don’t lose yourself in a role, but that person does sometimes become a part of you.’

It makes me wonder how Lester’s wife, writer and actress Lolita Chakrabarti, is going to cope over the next few months, because 2019 is shaping up to be a very busy year for the multi-award-winning British actor.

First off, he’s starring alongside Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan, David Tennant and Guy Pearce in

Mary Queen Of Scots, an epic retelling of the life of the doomed Scottish queen. Heavily tipped for

Oscar glory, it’s a fascinating look at the relationship between Mary (Saoirse Ronan) and her cousin

Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie, complete with scenestealing, white-powdered, smallpox-riddled face).

It focuses on the price both women paid for power and the way much of the tension between them was caused by the men in their respective courts – including Elizabeth’s ambassador, Lord Randolph, played by Lester.

‘I loved all the intrigue and plotting. These two women

were completely surrounded by men and it shines a light on a side of our history that has always been told one way. They’re essentially the same, and these two queens should have come together much earlier to unite the kingdom, but that didn’t happen,’ says Lester.

Well aware of how differently the sexes still get treated today, Lester says he’s happy to be called a feminist, ‘even though I haven’t been on any marches or anything’. I imagine that living in a strong female household – the couple have two teenage daughters, Jasmine and Lila – might have something to do with it, too.

At the end of this month, Lester will also be treading the boards in Cost Of Living, a 2018 Pulitzer Prizewinning play, which gets its UK premiere at London’s Hampstead Theatre. Lester plays the lead and says his American accent – this time, one from New Jersey – will surface again, much to his wife’s annoyance.

In February, he’s appearing in the new Sky One series Curfew with Sean Bean – about street-racing in a totalitarian-ruled London – and, later, Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s new supernatural TV series, The Rook.

Having always admired people who can pop up in roles you didn’t think they were capable of, Lester has made a pretty good job of doing this himself, quickly switching from historical drama to apocalyptic sci-fi.

Indeed, it may come as some surprise to people that he’s playing Lord Randolph in Mary Queen Of Scots,

who was of white British descent, but Lester points out

that there were also many wealthy black traders in Elizabethan times. ‘Of course, people will go, “That doesn’t look right.”’ he says, ‘But the director [the soon-to-be-departing Donmar Warehouse chief Josie Rourke] has shifted the character to try to represent what society would have been like at that time.’

Unsurprisingly, given the fact Lester is one of our most talented and prolific actors, he started his career early, honing his talents as a singer in a local choir aged eight. Then, when his voice broke, he began acting in the Birmingham Youth Theatre. He was accepted at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) before he’d even completed the sixth form, and then made his name in a string of West End hits, including Company (for which he received an Olivier Award for Best Actor),

Six Degrees Of Separation and Sweeney Todd. And, although he doesn’t demonstrate it for me today, he displayed a perfect Shakespearean accent in the title roles of Henry V and Othello for Nicholas Hytner at the National Theatre. His film breakthrough came in Primary Colors, directed by Mike Nichols and also starring John Travolta and Emma Thompson. And yet, despite other parts in The Day After Tomorrow, Euphoria, Grey Lady and Case 39, he’s never quite cracked Hollywood – not that he seems particularly bothered.

In the UK, Lester is probably still best-loved for the BBC’S Hustle, in which he played charismatic conman Mickey Bricks for eight years. ‘I had to learn pick-pocketing techniques to play Mickey and, even now, if I put a jacket on [Mickey’s trademark look], people check their pockets,’ he jokes. More recently, he’s appeared in Sky Atlantic’s hit Riviera and the BBC’S political thriller Undercover. Lester has also worked successfully with his wife. They got together at RADA but, coincidentally, grew up on the same street in Birmingham. ‘I’d love to work with Lolita again, and we’ve got a few things we’re thinking of doing together in the future, but these kinds of things can take three or four years to come off,’ he says.

Having shared screen time on several occasions, they’re a great partnership off camera too, having been together for 31 years and married for the last 20. ‘We just get on and we always have done,’ he says, shrugging off any idea that they might know something we don’t about making a long-term relationship work. The key, it seems, is communication. ‘A friend of mine once said a good argument clears the air, but I disagree. I think you can say many difficult things to each other over dinner and a glass of wine as long as you say them with respect. We talk constantly and that, if anything, is our secret,’ he says.

Life could have been very different for Lester and he knows it. Growing up on a council estate just off the Bristol Road with a single mother couldn’t have been easy. ‘My parents separated when I was 10 and my brother was 12. I didn’t take anything for granted. We were aware the electricity could be cut off at any moment, for example. That’s who I am and you don’t forget that.’

It’s also part of the reason Lester took his mother with him to collect his OBE from the Queen a few years ago. ‘How could you go to the palace to get an award without taking your mum? It was the right thing to do.’

Lester’s humble background has given him a humility that’s rare in the industry. The picture he paints of his family life today is also one we can all relate to. It involves the inevitable juggling – ‘because it’s a team effort and one person can’t stay and do everything while the other goes off to do a job’ – and his teenage daughters ruling the roost.

‘I’m not allowed to play my own music in the car. As soon as the girls get in, they say, “Dad, give me your phone”, and then they put on some new band or artist that

I’ve never heard of. I was the same with my mum, always trying to introduce her to the records I liked – on vinyl in those days, not on a phone! They don’t see everything we do, either. We tell them about our projects but to them, acting is just our job.’

He says he’d happily support his daughters, though, if they want to follow in his, or their mother’s, footsteps – ‘as long as they’re aware that they are entering a profession that is not secure’.

Despite his modesty, you get the feeling Lester’s a cool dad. ‘Both my kids and I can take ourselves from the beginning to the end of Hamilton the musical. Sometimes, when a song comes on, I will take one part and they will take another as they are both brilliant at it. I love messing about with songs on the guitar with them. It helps me relax. But no, I don’t play grime!’

Lester turned 50 last summer, but he didn’t mark it with an extravagant party, although one might be on the cards this year when his wife turns 50. ‘The zeros always make you think, don’t they, and I’m thinking about all the things I still want to do. There’s more directing, for one. Rather than being a cog in a machine as an actor, it would be nice to be the person creating that machine. I’m not preparing to slow down at all. I’m preparing to get the kids settled and off into the world and then take on some more projects that will utilise the new freedom that gives us.’

Whatever those projects might be, there’s no doubt Lester will make a success of them – as long as he doesn’t bring any dodgy accents back home.

Mary Queen Of Scots opens nationwide on 18th January. Adrian will star in the upcoming UK premiere of Cost Of Living at Hampstead Theatre, which runs from

25th January until 2nd March 2019.

‘I AM NOT PREPARING TO SLOW DOWN AT ALL. I WANT TO TAKE ON NEW PROJECTS’