Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden are part of the new secret service drama, Slow Horses. Based on the novel with the same title written by Mick Herron. 

The Synopsis 

This darkly funny espionage drama follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 due to their career-ending mistakes. Led by their brilliant but irascible leader, the notorious Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman, “The Dark Knight”), they navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces. 

I spoke to Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden (“Small Axe“) to talk about their participation in Slow Horses. They both spoke about their character and more…

Nancy Tapia: Hi, how are you, gentlemen?

Jack Lowden: Great.

Gary Oldman: We’re good.

Nancy Tapia: Can we talk a little bit about Lamb’s (Gary Oldman) strategy as a team leader? What can you say?

Gary Oldman: Haha…Lamb’s strategy as a team leader? Well, he’s going to separate the men from the boys, basically. He gets sent these agents who have messed up, and part of the objective is to make life so miserable and so dull that they quit or even kill themselves. I mean, it’s been known to happen. I imagine that he gets the list of the people that are coming in and he can see the potential of some of them, and knowing that that one’s going to last six months, that one’s not going to be able to take it.

If you imagine a drill sergeant in the Marines, there’s only a few people that are ultimately going to make the cut. So I torment and ride these guys as hard as I can to see if they’re going to crack and whether they’ve got the right stuff. It’s a dark, very cynical world that we’re in. That’s why I think he also, in the series, initially he gives River (Jack Lowden) such a hard time, because in spite of himself, he sees that he has potential.

Nancy Tapia: Right.

Gary Oldman: And have you got the right stuff? River comes in also a little entitled and he’s got an ego. I think Lamb has to break that. He’s not a team leader I’d want to be around, that’s for sure.

Jack Lowden: No.

Nancy Tapia: But I think it also helps River to give him that push, and takes that initiative to keep looking and not just continue with that label as one of the losers.

Jack Lowden: Yeah. I mean, I think Lamb (Gary Oldman) probably breaks every single workplace rule and regulation going routinely, because he knows that where else have they got to go? They’re not going to go and complain to HR. They’re somewhere that no one knows about for a start. And probably the alternative is to be shoved in a cell.

Gary Oldman: You’d be embarrassed to go to people and say where you work.

Jack Lowden: Yeah. And it’s quite interesting how he deals with that sort of workplace kind of buoy in essentially that it’s seen as part of it. And these people are completely conditioned, I think, by the fact that they see death. Lamb turns to River at one point and says that, “You’re going to see more of it. Get used to it.” Because we imagine it’s a pretty horrible world that these people do operate in. So it’s probably for a reason that he does it as well, rather than just enjoying it.

Gary Oldman: Can I ask you a question?

Nancy Tapia: Sure.

Gary Oldman: Given the repulsiveness of Lamb, do you still enjoy him?

Nancy Tapia: Yes. I’ve finished the six episodes I was given and I want more. I think he’s under a strategy. There’s a strategy in there. That’s why I asked.

Gary Oldman: Well, you know that the first season is 12 episodes, which is the first season? So the next book, which is Dead Lions, which is already in the can and which we’ve shot, is coming soon.

Nancy Tapia: I can’t wait. Thank you so much.

Gary Oldman: Thank you.

Jack Lowden: Thank you.

Slow Horses is now available on Apple TV+

Source: LRMExclusive, Apple TV+