Alistair Petrie is no stranger to the bad guys. The British star played some of the most notorious of television, especially since the school head with the face of Pierre and insensitive Groff in the successful series Sex educationWho has seen his glazed look add screens in more than 55 million households around the world during his four seasons.
But as the hardcore fans of the dramatic for adolescents of Netflix may remember, the redemption arc of Michael Groff was undeniably one of the points of the most moving intrigue in the series. The character of Petrie, formerly practically vibrant with resentment and shame, learns to lose his steel exterior and to make amends with his son Adam (Connor Swindells), with whom he had a heavy relationship. It is an end only possible by the work of Petrie who, unlike the men he often depicts, is attentive, warm and softened by a palpable worship of the machine.
“I think that nasty roles are extremely fun to play, but many of them can be taken out from time to time,” admits Petrie, also known for his roles Star Wars spin off Andor And BBC Sherlock. “The hero’s journey should be understood and the bad guys can sometimes (fall) on the edge of the road. This is what I find so entertaining when I read them – certainly those I take – because you think: “Who is the human being?” Where does wickedness come from? It does not appear, ”he continues The Hollywood Reporter Zoom at the end of September. “And in this sense, you are asked to raise the material from which it was originally designed. Each good story needs a villain, and how do you realize that? You try to find humans in it.”
It is this search for humanity that makes Petrie the perfect solution for the biggest villain in the theater: King Claudius, the uncle to Prince Hamlet of Shakespeare. The 55 -year -old man leads an actor of powerful together currently performing at the Lytelton Theater of the National until November, with Pi lifeHiran Abeysekera embodies our protagonist with a mischievous feeling of frenzy through the lively and contemporary point of view of Robert Hastie of the classic.
“What I like in the reading of Claudius on stage is that he has such energy of the character,” explains Petrie about the king, whose act of fratricide in an offer for the Danish throne sends his nephew in a spiral. “When the curtain rises, Claudius firmly believes that it is in a room called Claudius. He is not in a room called Hamlet. It’s his moment.
Alistair Petrie, above the left, plays King Claudius of Denmark in Robert Hastie’s Hamlet to the National Theater.
Sam Taylor
This is something that Petrie finds brilliantly inspiring on the stage, a place he describes as “an incredible acting medium, while the film and television are much more a medium of the director”. Hamlet marks his return to the theater after 11 years, and the Briton resumes his mind in the production of Declan Donellan West End Shakespeare in lovein which he played Lord Wessex.
It is not an experience on which he thinks fully affectionately, while Petrie found himself drawn between the meticulous requirements of theater and family life. “I am certainly not afraid of hard work – I enjoy – but I appreciate my other real roles as a partner and husband and father,” he explains. “I cheerfully thought that you could live slightly out of London and always travel and quickly make a West End show in front of an audience, then go home and continue as usual. But you can’t. This requires extraordinary energy reserves, really, and something had to give. ”
Petrie, married to actress Lucy Scott with whom he shares three sons, also found himself bogged down by the expectations placed on the casting in the adaptation of the scene of the Oscar -winning film Shakespeare in love (1998). “It was a very big budget show. He had very large plans. It was sort of supported by Disney, “he said,” and I think the expectations were so high and that was slightly pushed.
With his theatrical mojo rediscovered, Petrie finds himself in front of a live audience. And after more than a decade, he savor the thrill. “As an actor, I like the feeling of being part of a group, a whole,” he says. “I think that if we are looking for something in life, we seek to belong somewhere-I mean, a psychologist could have a day on the field with me”, he jokes, “but I think it is very linked to the idea of being mentioned as a military as and to move a lot.
A set on which Petrie found himself immediately at home was the favorite of the fans Sex educationAn experience that he continues to feel the ramifications of this day. “He permeates everything in everything in the most glorious way. Sex education is a gift – not was A gift. I put it in the present, ”says the actor about his time as Mr. Groff.
In the first throes of production when the other members of the ASA Butterfield distribution, Emma Mackey, Ncuti Gatwa, Aimee Lou Wood and Connor Swindells had not yet reached the glasses of celebrity, he admits that there were concerns about the way in which the show would land with the public of Netflix. “Given the explosion of all the banners and all the platforms and all the conservation that people could make,” said Petrie, “would we find an audience? Or would we be buried in a sort of algorithm, in the intestines of Netflix? And it was just the most glorious opposite,” he smiled at the show, which made his public and the public. “You could not have predicts how people would receive it, from all the age groups and demographic around the world.”
Sex education is part of his life that Petrie would never abandon in the face of snobbery, in particular because it provided him with some of the strongest relationships over screen in his career. In particular, Petrie is close to his son on the screen and Barbie The actor Swindells, and last year officiated his marriage to his compatriot Thespian Amber Anderson.
“I literally speak to Connor every day,” explains Petrie. He stops, recalling his first days on the ED sex together. “I am absolutely a 50 -year -old man trapped in the body of a 22 -year -old person. There is no doubt that I am a complete Labrador when it comes to working in this industry. And in a few seconds, I said to myself: “Oh, it’s going to be great”. We were just a happy gang. He works on a new series with ED sex Former George Robinson, Petrie says THRWho fans will know him like Isaac Goodwin.
From left to right: Petrie and Connor Swindells as a father-son duo Michael and Adam Groff in “Sex Education”.
Netflix
But Mr. Groff was a role that almost escaped him. In 2019, Petrie found himself at the last two for Prince Philip in another Netflix giant: The crown. The game finally went to Tobias Menzies, but disappointment was quickly overshadowed by a telephone call asking him to read for a new exciting show on the sex life of eager adolescents.
“The scripts were obviously so good,” said Petrie about the material manufactured by The crown Mastermind Peter Morgan. “I said to myself,” My God is a character that I really want to investigate. Tobias and I are different, and it was going to be him, it was going to be me. And it was beautiful – it’s a companion and a wonderful actor – and when I saw him, it was perfectly logical for me. In the hour after telling Menzies who caught the role, Petrie received the call about Groff. “The serendipity hangs over my being a lot,” he says, “and I will accept this. If the serendipity is my God, I will take it. ”
Another fortuitous development that excited Petrie is the second season to come from The night manager With Tom Hiddleston, the British spy thriller adapted to John Le Carré’s novel in 1993. During the first season, which made us seize the whole way in 2016, Petrie played Lord Alexander “Sandy” Langbourne, financial director of the cunning Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie).
What was supposed to be a mini-series is now returning to Amazon Prime Video for a highly awaited second episode which, at certain times, did not imply Petrie at all. “I would probably get a phone call once a year:” We think we are, “said the Briton. “I said to myself,” great “. And then I receive a telephone call about a year later, and it would be like: “We are going to do it, but you are not there.” I went: “It’s great. Laurie said something to the effect: “” If you one day stand on the set and the camera is on you and I stand behind the camera as an executive producer, then I suppose we do it. “”
Finally, conversations after hours on how to “crack” a story of Le Carré which is not entirely based on any of the author’s work, season two of The night manager was a blow, Petrie included. “Finally, (writer) David Farr was available,” said the actor. “I am seated and said:” Ok, that’s what I would do “and presented it. He. ‘”
The night manager should come back to the screens imminently. Petrie also says that the cast is supposed to film a third season next year. “David delivered a Shakespearean tragedy, I think it’s wonderful,” he teased. “It’s just based on what I read, but it will be huge. We are supposed to make it a third next year and I really hope that we will do it, because people in it and around it are simply wonderful.”
With Shakespeare in love,, Hamlet And now an adjacent season of Shakespeare The night manager Before, Petrie cannot help thinking about the artistic impact of the Bard on his career so far. “He wrote on all the main themes that go through our emotional life,” reflects on Petrie. “He wrote on power, love and madness and revenge and mortality and jealousy and fear of God, and he did it quite well.”
This time, with his all adult sons, Petrie has understood a little more the balance of work-life. What remains is pure pride. “Among the crash of this industry, we have raised three well-adjusted and decent human beings,” he shines. “We managed to understand it, my wife and I, because we are such a team. So the emotion of doing all of this is beautifully high for the moment. ”
Hamlet is at the Lytelton theater of the National until November 22, 2025.
