Richard Coyle discusses comedy and mixing it up

Sheffield-born actor Richard Coyle, 38, trained at Bristol’s prestigious Old Vic Theatre before graduating in the mid-90s, when he almost immediately found work as a successful television actor. Small but memorable parts in movies such as Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy and Justin Kerrigan’s Human Traffic (both 1999) soon followed, but Coyle’s breakthrough came in 2000 with the role of the romantically inept Jeff Murdock in the BBC relationship comedy series ‘Coupling’. Written by Dr Who writer Steven Moffat and also starring Jack Davenport and Gina Bellman, the sitcom, about six friends in their thirties, was voted Best TV Comedy at the British Comedy Awards in 2003.

The same year, after three series of the show, Coyle left to develop his acting career, building on his 2002 stage appearance alongside Gwyneth Paltrow in a production of David Auburn’s play ‘Proof’ at the Donmar Warehouse in London. While maintaining his theatre work – Coyle has since appeared in plays by August Strindberg, Harold Pinter and John Osbourne – he continued to work in major films both in the UK and abroad, and can be seen with Johnny Depp in The Libertine (2004), Russell Crowe in A Good Year (2006) and Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince Of Persia (2010). The last 12 months have seen him finding bigger roles in projects as diverse as Madonna’s WE, a semi-historical drama in which he plays an abusive husband, and Jon Wright’s Grabbers, a horror film in which he plays an alcoholic cop who is confronted by man-eating monsters in a remote Irish town.

In Luis Prieto’s PUSHER, a remake of Nicolas Winding Refn’s 1996 Danish crime thriller, Coyle stars as Frank, a drug-dealer who find his once-carefree life unravelling after a cocaine deal goes wrong.

How would you describe Frank?

Frank is a mid-level drug dealer on a one-way trip to hell, I guess. I see him as quite a decent guy – a noble guy caught in the wrong profession – and he’s trying desperately to get out.

What kind of research did you do for the role?

Well, I don’t know how much research you can do apart from hanging out with drug dealers and taking drugs! (Laughs) No, I didn’t take any drugs, and I’m not condoning taking drugs in any way, shape or form. No, it was basically just the material. I see it as a story about a man, and the drugs are kind of irrelevant. It’s about a man fighting for his soul.

What were your first thoughts when you were approached? Did you have any reservations?

No. I loved the role immediately. It’s one of those roles that just makes you go, “Wow!” My only concern was the schedule. There wasn’t a lot of free time; I’m in every scene – it’s brutal. I’d just done two movies back to back, and I was worried about getting ready for it, because I knew I’d have to be pretty fit. I mean, I keep myself physically fit anyway, so that wasn’t really the problem. It was more about getting my head around it, and having enough time to get what I needed to get, mentally. It’s quite a big journey. Frank’s story is a big spiral – it spirals out of control, and it would have been quite hard to keep tabs on that without enough time to stop and think about it.

You’re nearly at the end of filming now – how do you feel?

I’m feeling drained. We’ve been shooting six-day weeks and there’s no day off, because Saturday is a recovery day after a night-shoot, always, and then you’re back in on Sunday morning. So it’s been hard to switch off. A day off here and there would have helped, but it’s also the nature of the film as well. The character is just a swirl of emotion and aggression, and that starts to take its toll.

Have you been watching the rushes, to see how the movie’s going?

I don’t really like to watch myself very much, even afterwards. I kind of feel that when I’ve finished shooting, that’s my job done, really. It’s not my business what happens to it next. I just do what I do and that’s what I love: doing it.

What’s it been like working with Agyness Deyn?

It’s been amazing. I think she’s a real natural talent, because, being a model, she’s used to being in front of a camera and playing a character for the lens, so she slotted in very naturally. The thing that surprised me most about her is that her instincts are brilliant. She really knows her way around the camera, she never tries to do too much. She’s always doing what is necessary, without over-embellishing anything or trying to play a scene in a way that’s not true.

How would you describe your character’s relationship with her character, Flo?

The way I see it, we’re in love, but if the circumstances were different we would be together. And because of those circumstance we’re not, and we can’t be together. That’s the tragedy, that’s the thing that’s the most poignant about their relationship – for one reason or another, they can’t be together. Much as they’d like to be. There’s kind of a yearning for each, a yearning for a soulmate, like a safe haven in a storm. But they’re not able to embrace that.

Were you familiar with the original Pusher?

No, I didn’t watch it. I wasn’t told not to, I just chose not to. I had a chat with Luis, the director, and I realised he was trying to do something different. So I didn’t think it would help me that much. I wanted to create my own Frank. I’m sure there are certain bases that need to be touched, but I’m sort of trusting Luis to fill me in on them and point me in the right direction.

What did you do to find the character?

It was just in the script, really. And some of it I was making up as I went along, trying to take it scene by scene and day by day.

What’s happening in the scene you’re shooting today?

I’m trying to save my mate Tony [Bronson Webb] from getting decked by some other dudes. It’s always fun to do that stuff, it’s like the light relief in amidst all the turmoil. It’s quite good to do a bit of fighting. I do quite a lot of fighting in this, because there’s quite a lot of violence. (Laughs) Which is nice!

Did you need any training for that?

No, it’s not really that kind of stuff. (Laughs) It’s very rough and ready!

What’s Frank’s connection with Tony?

The way I’ve been looking at it is, he’s sort of like my little brother, And that’s really helped me, because that makes it all the more tragic, what eventually happens. I’m trying to make that friendship as warm as possible, so that when it gets flipped, it’s a real shock and very upsetting.

So are you finished with the fight choreography for today?

Yeah, we’ve done the fight, and I think now we’re just going to dance. We’ve been working on some moves and routines and things, me and Bronson. I can throw a few shapes! (Laughs) No, it’s important, actually, because in amongst all the soul-searching and the darkness, this is the part of the film where the two of them are just having a good time. It’s so important that you see that. It’s all meant to be as good as gets. Well, as good as it can be for Frank.

Do you have any techniques to get into Frank’s mindset?

(Mishearing) Did I take any drugs?!

Do you have any techniques?

I’ve heard that on the original they were doing real coke! (Laughs) Allegedly! But in my case, I just think you have to do whatever you have to do to get your juices flowing. If you’ve got to do something really nasty, or really violent, or really emotional, you’ve got to find it in yourself. So you just have to do whatever you can do to find it. I use music a lot, whenever I can. I’ve heard that Johnny Depp has an earpiece that fits into his ear so that you can’t see it. I wish I could get one of those, because there are times when I have my iPod earphones in and I have to tape the lead down my back, because I’ve got my iPod in my back pocket. Which helps. It really helps. (Laughs) But when I’m acting I have to make sure the camera can’t see it! Which can be awkward …

So what music have you been listening to for Pusher?

Normally, what I do before a job starts is that I go through the script and I choose songs that I think will help. It’s a moveable feast, and it always changes, but I get a general idea. For this film, there’s a band called Health from LA. I’ve been listening to a lot of that kind of thing. It’s like a wall of noise, an angry, violent wall of noise, and it helps me get worked up. Or I’ll find other things. For example, in the last film I did, which was a monster movie called Grabbers, for the first few scenes – which were quite desolate, because I was playing a bit of a lost soul – I was using Bon Iver. But I’ve been using Health for this one; quite violent beats. Apart from music, I do a lot of running on the spot, like a maniac. I get some very funny looks on the street! All that kind of thing. Running up and down the stairs, anything to get my blood pumping. It’s a good way to go into the scene.

Do you have any empathy for Frank?

I do. But I never like to judge the character. I just have to leave my feelings of pity, or fear, about a character – whatever I feel towards the character, I try to leave to one side. It’s good to have them, but it doesn’t help me. I can’t act those things. I just to play the character as truthfully as I can. But … (Pauses) How do I feel about Frank? I feel like he’s very tragic and I feel very sorry for him. A lot of what he does is reprehensible, but I understand it. I don’t want to just create a psycho who’s just losing the plot. I’m trying to portray him as a man who’s stuck in a real, real rut, who’s just lashing out. Because, as you do, he’s lashing out at the people closest to him, I think. He’s got so much rage and such desperation to get out of the situation he’s in. I don’t know about the original film – because, as I said, I haven’t seen it – but as for my Frank, I feel like he’s a man that’s elsewhere. He’s somewhere else. He’s not always there. In his eyes, he’s not present. He was a dreamer once upon a time, but he’s got stuck in something he didn’t want to get stuck in, and he’s at an age where he’s started thinking, “I’ve got to stop this, otherwise this will be my life.”

Is it easy to switch off from being him?

No. I get home and I feel kind of wired and full of this helpless, frustrated rage! (Laughs) I want to beat things up, so I just go home and hit pillows with golf clubs for about an hour, and then I’m wrecked. 

The original Pusher was the start of a trilogy. Do you see this story continuing?

I’m sure it could, I guess. There’s quite an ambiguous ending for Frank. It’s not quite crystal clear what’s going to happen to him, although it’s pretty obvious.

You’ve also made a lot of comedies. Is it important for you, as an actor, to mix things up?

Yes, very much. I’ve never wanted to get stuck doing one thing, which is why I left ‘Coupling’ when I did, because I just didn’t want to be a TV sitcom actor. It was a great experience, it launched me, and I’m very, very grateful for it, but I never just wanted to be that. There was so much I wanted to achieve and do. And there’s so much I might still do.

So which do you prefer: comedy or drama?

Well, comedy is generally easier. It’s not easier to do, it’s much harder, but it doesn’t churn you up in the same way that something like Pusher does. (Laughs) You don’t get churned up about knob gags!

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PUSHER IS OUT NOW ON BLU-RAY AND DVD