Gary Oldman talks Slow Horses and the fine art of fart acting
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On the Apple TV+ Slow Horses (premieres April 1), Gary Oldman plays an MI-5 spymaster named Jackson Lamb, although the spies he masters are a very peculiar bunch. Lamb is the boss of "Slough House," a rundown building in London where disgraced agents are sent to rot in the hope they will retire and save the security service the effort of officially dismissing them.
"They are MI-5 agents who have messed up and made a mistake, or some mistakes, and are not fired," says Oldman, an Oscar winner for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in 2017's Darkest Hour. "They're sent sideways, or down, they're shipped off to this place Slough House, under the leadership — I used the word 'leadership' loosely — under the leadership of Jackson Lamb, who's the character that I play. My main objective is to make their time at Slough House so bone-crushingly boring that that they leave and remove themselves from the service."
Jack English/Apple TV + Gary Oldman in 'Slow Horses'
A couple of things worth knowing about Jackson Lamb: he is brilliant, but also slovenly and flatulent. In fact, Oldman's character delights in appalling those around him by loudly breaking wind. So what is the secret of great fart acting?
"Well, you need an audience. You know, you've got to have someone who can react," Oldman says with a laugh. "It's a company thing, yeah. But what is it? It's probably just the slight raising of the cheek, it's a series of gestures you mime, and then you hand it over to the sound department. I actually had a text conversation with the director, having seen the very final cut, the final sound mix of the series, and I did write to him, and I said, 'Really good fart choices.'"
Jack English/Apple TV + Slow Horses
The show is based on the series of Slough House novels by British thriller novelist Mick Herron, with the show's first season adapting both 2010's Slow Horses and 2013's Dead Lions.
"This has become very confusing," Oldman says. "We haven't shot season 2. Season 1 is twelve episodes. We've shot two books, which is season 1. So there is another six episodes of Dead Lions to come. There's eight books in the series. Since we've shot this, Mick may have gone off and written another two. I mean, he's prolific with this stuff."
So would Oldman be happy returning to Jackson Lamb's dingy office for more adventures?
"I think they're waiting to see how well it does and the response to it," the actor says. "I'm hoping that people like it enough that the big people up there on the top floor at Apple say 'We're going to do more.' The books are fantastic, and I'd like to revisit Jackson, yeah."
Slow Horses costars Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jonathan Pryce, and Olivia Cooke, among others.
Watch the show's trailer below.
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