Jim Sturgess – Hard Sun

By starrymag | March 16, 2018

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) I did “Hard Sun” last year, which just came out on Hulu here in the states. Then, I did two projects after that. I actually didn’t think I would work after “Hard Sun” because it was six months. It was so intense and pretty grueling that I thought I’d take some time off, but I ended up doing two kinds of smaller projects. There is a film called JT Leroy, which is about the author JT Leroy. When I read the script, it sounded somewhat familiar to me and I realized I had heard of the story. It’s a crazy true story about an American woman who wrote a book under the pseudonym of JT Leroy and she pretended that the book was written by a fifteen-year-old boy named JT Leroy. The book became hugely successful, so she had to pretend to be a fifteen-year-old. She ended up getting a young girl to embody this young fictional boy and it was the story of this young girl and her journey of becoming this fictional author. I shot that with Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart. Kristen plays the young author and Laura plays the actual author. So, it was a brilliant story with an amazing cast.

Q) How was your character Charlie Hicks from “Hard Sun” originally described to you?

A) He wasn’t so much described to me as he was given to me on the page. I read the first episode without any description at all. I was glad I didn’t know anything about the character so I could read it and go along the journey with him. Very quickly I was excited about him as a character, but het introduction to him on the show got my radar and antennas sticking up thinking who is this guy? From the introduction, he is getting a man out of bed with a sawed-off shotgun and a baklava while stealing all of his money. Then, it cuts to him as a family man and then it cuts to him going to work and he’s a police officer. I just thought, “Wow! Who is this guy? It’s kind of interesting.” So, I was kind of hooked from the introduction alone and kind of knew deep down quite quickly that I was excited to know more about him and then to get to play him. When I agreed to take the part, I was able to speak to Neil the writer and spend a lot of time talking to him about Charlie and where he comes from and why he is the way he is. So, yeah, he was sort of described to me as a working-class guy from London who could have easily (had he not taken a career in law enforcement) fallen down the path of being a criminal. Those two worlds were sort of living side by side in his working-class environment. He’s comfortable and capable of moving around the criminal underworld, which makes him a very good police officer but also a very questionable police officer as he’s also capable and comfortable bending and breaking certain rules to get what he needs.

Q) How did you get into character? Was it through those conversations with writer Neil Cross?

A) Yeah, that was a big part of it. We all sort of sat down and we were really lucky because we had about two weeks before filming to spend with Neil, the writer and Brian [Kirk] (the director) just going through any questions that we had. Neil had it sort of all in his head as he is the inventor of these characters. So, he really fleshes them out in his mind. It’s quite rare that you get to spend time with the writer and two weeks with him to just go through it. And it was important because we had to know who these people are since these intense things happen to him and they have to make all of these decisions that when the end of the world is near you really want to know who your character is and how they would behave in those situations. So, it was hugely helpful to spend time with Neil. Then, I was fortunate to meet with some actual ex-detectives who had lived a very similar career path as Charlie Hicks. I discovered from talking to these people that Charlie is a bit of a dying breed on the police force because these days you have to pass a test and have an academic degree to become a detective whereas before you could work your way up through the ranks from the street level and not have such an academic brain – just a switched on good take on criminal activity. Now, you have to sort of be an academic. He’s a bit of dying breed, Charlie Hicks.

Q) Renko and Hicks have such differing morals when it comes to police work. What makes them such a good fit as partners in this pre-Apocalyptic world?

A) [laughs] I don’t know. They come at the job from very different perspectives. She hasn’t moved up in the ranks the way that Charlie has, but they are both very quickly realizing that they are both very, very good and capable detectives. So, there is a glimmer of respect between the two of them even though they have a profound distrust and dislike for one another. There is some sort of gleaming respect between the two characters. They are very different. They think very differently. I think Charlie is led through his heart a lot more whereas Renko (Agyness Deyn) is much more the head. The combination of the two – the heart and the head- makes for a good partnership, even though they want to kill each other half the time.

Q) We get to see some quite memorable moments between Hicks and Renko. What were some of your favorite scenes or moments?

A) I think for me it was just an amazing experience to have London, the city where I live and love, to be the backdrop of such an exciting story. I was so thrilled to be filming in my home town and seeing it come to life on a giant movie set was amazing. We’d be filming on streets that I knew well. We’d be filming around the corner of my house sometimes. We’d be filming in parts of London that I hadn’t been to for years. Getting to use London and see London again – even just getting up at five in the morning to drive across London and see the city kind of wake up… It was just really amazing for me. It’s so rare I get the opportunity to work in London and I’m always really excited when I get a good story that uses that as a landscape. So, I was excited really with just the thrill of being in my home city.

Q) Was it nice to revisit the same house you had filmed in for Heartless?

A) [laughs] Yeah! That was crazy! It shows how much London has changed because I was there for about an hour and a half before I realized it was the same. I was like, “Oh! I’ve been here before!” When I filmed Heartless that was all wasteland and this was this little house on the corner and all around it was wasteland. Now it’s all built up with all these new buildings and centers so everything looks so modern. So, it took me about an hour and a half to suddenly go, “Oh, I know this place! I know this street! I’ve filmed here before!” London has changed a lot since I filmed Heartless so I almost didn’t recognize it. It was so great to go through parts of London. When you live in the city you tend to go to the same places and drink in the same bars and shop in the same areas. You sort of forget that there are other versions of London. Often times you have to spend time in someone’s house so we’d be filming one day in Hempstead and the next day we’d be in a small council estate in a rough area of Peckham. Then, another day you’d be by the canal where it was almost rural looking and beautiful and idyllic. I got to see how varied and diverse London could be. You sort of get to see some people’s version of London when you film something like that. The city really came to life, which was amazing for me.

Q) We have “The Walking Dead,” “iZombie” and now “Hard Sun” that focus on a pre and post apocalypse world. What is it about this genre that makes it so popular right now?

A) [laughs] TV, especially for our show, which is exciting to be in a pre-apocalyptic show instead of a post-apocalyptic show. It’s really interesting about looking about the world and thinking about the world in its final years. Much of that can feel like a very dark subject matter. It can also be a very beautiful, profound and necessary one in a way. You really think, “We really are all here together on this planet and we could disappear. What does it all mean?” You see how kind of fragile life can be and how we unfortunately use that and abuse that and forget about that. It’s easy to forget we’re all just living on a rock in space in a giant solar system. You get caught up in the day to day politics and struggles of everyday life. Sometimes it’s nice to get a little perspective and think of life from looking out in space and remind ourselves how fragile and how lucky we are really to be here. [laughs] So, on that level it’s kind of exciting.

Q) You are a part of social media. Have you been enjoying the instant fan feedback you’ve been receiving to “Hard Sun?”

A) Um….Only a few. Maybe some on Instagram, which have all been really positive. It’s very exciting. I’ve seen some great comments about the show, which is always really encouraging. The people that have watched it all the way through seem to want to see a second season because it feels like the story needs to carry on. There are a lot of unanswered questions and you sort of feel like the story itself is only getting started.

Q) You frequently take on dramatic roles. Is there something about this genre that really draws you to them?

A) Yeah, definitely. I’ve always loved sort of watching drama. I’ve always been attracted to that – things that have something to say as well and a kind of vicious look at the world that we kind of live in. There is a necessary sort of viciousness about it sometimes. But I really hope and try and sort of do as much varied genres as possible I suppose and kind of enjoy telling stories in different ways and different genres. But I’m definitely drawn to the sort of dramatic side of storytelling.

Q) What do you hope viewers of “Hard Sun” take away?

A) I don’t know, really. It’s really important to remember that you can get caught up talking about the end of the world and it sounds kind of gloomy, but the show is actually really thrilling and exciting. Everyone’s behavior gets turned up to an eleven really because of what is at stake, which is very exciting and it actually becomes a very family led drama as well as being a cop show and a detective sorry. There are all these kinds of genres that kind of fluidly weave through the story. It’s just a really exciting piece to watch. It starts at a hundred miles an hour and only just gets faster. [laughs] I think there is a lot you can take away from it. It’s not just your average detective-crime drama. There is a sort of family drama in there way and hints of it almost being a graphic novel as well. You could easily imagine it as a drawn graphic novel. I hope people just enjoy the ride because it’s fun and there are a lot of twists and turns. It’s as thrilling and tender as it is scary and intense.

Q) The cinematography of the show was amazing!

A) Absolutely! They made London look so beautiful! They really mix the kind of old London with the modern London. So, the history of London comes through really brilliantly and beautifully in the visual style of the show.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) I’m just eternally grateful to the people who have kept up with me and stayed watching the things I’ve been working on. I’ve made a few independent films that not a lot of people have had the opportunity to see because it’s not been given the wide reach of a larger film. So, I am always really touched when someone says they’ve seen one of the smaller films that I’ve done and the more challenging independent films I’ve been involved in. I always feel very touched about that. So, I’m very, very grateful for that.

 

 

All six episodes of “Hard Sun” Season 1 can be viewed on Hulu in the US as well as BBC iPlayer in the UK