Stephen Graham did 'quite a lot of training' for Nocturne
Stephen Graham has revealed how he prepared for his role in Nocturne.
Stephen Graham did "quite a lot of training" in preparation for Nocturne.
The 53-year-old actor plays Jurek Walter, a serial killer imprisoned in the basement of Riverside Psychiatric Hospital, in Nocturne, the new crime-drama series, and Stephen has revealed how he prepared for his on-screen role.
The acclaimed actor told Interview magazine: "If ever I get asked for advice, I’m saying, 'Just analyse the script and look at what’s said about your character. That will give you clues to who the person is and what he’s about.' And then particularly with this one, it was the physical aspect of him because look, I’m a little fella, do you know what I mean?
"But I wanted it to be a man who, if he really wanted to, could rip your jaw off with his bare hands. I did quite a lot of training with my trainer because I wanted to change my shape physically."
Stephen stars in the series alongside Liev Schreiber, Zazie Beetz and Chrissy Metz - but Stephen particularly enjoyed the experience of working with Rory Culkin.
The actor recalled: "A lot of my stuff was with the gorgeous Rory Culkin, who I just found a fascinating, wonderful man.
"Look, I’ll be honest with you, we kind of dated a little bit. We went to galleries, we went out and had dinner, we went about 40 minutes outside of Pittsburgh and watched this lovely little play in the middle of nowhere. It was just getting to know each other so you could be comfortable with each other."
Stephen also explained that he sees Nocturne as a "revenge story".
He said: "With this one in particular, Rowan Joffe wrote a beautiful script, and then John Hlavin, our showrunner, we’d spend a lot of time together. And we really looked at the backstory and the reasons why he was doing what he was doing. And for me, it’s kind of a revenge story. It’s his pursuit for the truth. I saw it in one of those ways.
"You know that kind of beautiful essence of a Akira Kurosawa film where vengeance has a reason? It’s just that, isn’t it?"
