Richard Armitage has a leading role in ITV’s latest high-octane drama, Red Eye, which is set to have viewers enthralled but there was one scene that had the actor rolling his eyes.
In the six-parter, Richard plays doctor Matthew Nolan, who is accused of murdering a woman in Beijing. When he lands in London, he is immediately sent back on the final flight of the day to address the charges. Keeping him in check is DC Hana Li, played by Jing Lusi, who initially wants nothing to do with him outside of the job at hand.
Before being put back on the plane, one scene required Richard, 52, to stand in his boxers.
While speaking at a press launch for the series, Richard revealed his initial reaction to the direction on the page.
‘Honestly, I rolled my eyes and went “Oh no, not again”,’ he recalled. Just last year, Richard starred in the Netflix show Obsession – an erotic thriller, with BDSM content.
For this role, his preparation sounds like our dream diet. ‘I started eating loads of pies because I wanted him to look like a doctor and not an actor,’ he joked.
The debut episode also features a memorable scene, where Matthew stands up on a high surface in a busy airport and begs the general public for help.
Rather than being surrounded exclusively by extras, there were people just heading on their trips who weren’t aware it was for a fictional TV show.
Performing the dialogue at Stansted airport was ‘hair-raising’ for Richard, who clearly remembers the reactions of those around him.
‘Some people were running into WH Smith going: “There’s a man being arrested”,’ Richard told Metro.co.uk.
‘I’d gone into a zone. You’re hyper-aware but also just focused on getting in, and getting out quickly. In a big packed room like that, getting out after they’ve yelled “cut” is my instinct. I had to go find somewhere to hide.’
Since the 1990s, when Richard played a love interest for Dawn French’s character Geraldine Granger in Vicar of Dibley, he has worked consistently with standout parts in the international franchise The Hobbit, North & South, Obsession, and all the recent Harlan Coben book adaptations.
Despite his wealth of experience and undeniable talent, Richard still finds himself getting nervous during these big scenes.
‘I don’t want to screw things up,’ he said. ‘You only get a few chances.
‘If you forget your lines, or you stop in the middle then you’ve kind of blown the whole tape.’
Viewers will be trying to work out whether Matthew is telling the truth throughout the series, and they’re going to have a hard job because even Richard admits he wasn’t always able to understand the character.
‘At points, I didn’t really know whether he was telling the truth,’ he shared.
‘He doesn’t really remember what happened that night so he can’t be 100% sure. He’s in a state of flux within himself throughout the story.
‘We ebb and flow between absolutely convinced of his innocence and doubting who he is and whether he’s a spy or some kind of mule.
‘It was really interesting to play around with that,’ he concluded.
Red Eye is on ITV1 and ITVX from April 21
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