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Christopher Maynard : And is there something from that because that's so the skill set that you're with is so much different from dramatic acting and then taking that to television or film those are completely different skill sets as well. I mean they have some fundamental things that are consistent but the actual I think possibly the more tactile side of things is different and those are there things that you have taken from that into the theater or I'm sorry into television or film?

Richard Armitage : I guess not bumping into the furniture is one of them is sort of an act.. an inside actor's joke but I know it really made me realize that I just.. and I still feel this I'm just not much of a showman or a performer. I think I could probably enact the role of a showman or a performer as a character but my personality is not that, not that type of actor and I realized that when I started working at a more different, a different psychological level and we did something in drama school called a private moment exercise and I also used it when I did The Crucible in London and it's really about doing something very personal and repetitive that people observe you doing and I realized that that's where my part lays in terms of drama I'd rather be observed rather than push or show something to an audience in, in a kind of virtuoso way so that's the difference for me in terms of style. I think and as a person as an audience member I'd rather observe somebody doing something than have something sort of thrown at me.

Christopher Maynard : And is that something where do you feel protected of your personal life and sort of who your personal identity is because you know acting can be very vulnerable but if you're distancing yourself from the character in that way is that's something where you keep that arm's length distance?

Richard Armitage : A little bit yeah I mean you always bring bits of yourself to the to the roles that you're playing and when sometimes bits of the role that you're playing kind of enter your own life so I find myself now like if I play the character which has a very visual kind of identity that for a few weeks after I'll still keep dressing like that character and I can't shake it off because I've sort of fallen in love with those traits you know even with something like, something like red dragon that I played in Hannibal. You know there was a glimmer of a moment where I actually considered getting that full body tattoo. I just, I just found it fascinating and I loved having that kind of artwork on my back but you know I was advised against it for various reasons but, but there was a moment where I probably could have gone through with it. But but yeah you sort of take these things up and it's one of the things I really enjoy about the work that I do is that you, you know the preparation is about laying all of the foundation work and almost tailoring the garment and then you get inside of it and you wear it for a while and then it starts to really fit you and feel comfortable to the point where you feel you're not acting anymore but then getting rid of it afterwards can take a little bit of time but you know.

Christopher Maynard : Was there anything that you took from a Dr. White into your sort of personal life afterwards?

Richard Armitage : Um that's a good question. I, I guess, I guess the sense of study was interesting in him and actually in I've played a doctor once before and in a much more kind of immediate medical drama and I really, I really enjoyed sort of watching the size of your scene partner's pupils change shape during the scene so this idea of someone that's studying another person. I think that really reflects me as a person more than, than any other character that I think I am somebody that studies and waits and watches and listens before pitching in with my opinion. In fact I can sometimes wait for far too long and to my own detriment. It's very fashionable now to pitch in first with your idea but I think I probably draw back to the character and took it away with me you know the sense of observation.

Christopher Maynard : And this film is one of those ones that I, I have a tough time with because I, I want everybody go out and see it but I know clearly this isn't a film that's going to necessarily work for everybody but I want everybody to see it cuz I think it'll probably work for more people than might give it a chance who do you think this film should be who do you think should be seeing this?

Richard Armitage : Gosh, that's a good question. I would probably say anyone that's interested in the subconscious oh and that probably is most people I think anyone who's ever had or has very, very vivid dreams and almost some people remember them some people don't but that, that sense of frustration when you literally wake up from the dream and you're already forgetting you try to remember the immediacy of it and it just disappears from us so but you know anyone that's interested in that. And, and you know, I think that as somebody that trades in imagination and I, you know, I crave those moments where I read a book and I'm transported just for that, for that period where you're reading one chapter where the rest of in a reality falls away if you have that ability because some people don't some people and I think people are losing the ability to completely disappear from the world for a second whether you know you can be sitting on a tube train reading a book and you can just forget where you are for a second anyone is interested in that I think this film will appeal to them because you're going to lose yourself a little bit in the maze that Elliott Lester created.

Christopher Maynard : You know you actually touched on something earlier that resonated with me that I think ties back into that last part where you said as you've grown older you read more nonfiction and that seems to be where you end up spending your headspace more. And I have to force myself to read fiction at this point because I'm automatically drawn to you know, I just kind of feel like when I'm sitting down to read a book I don't get to do it nearly as often as I would like I need to, you know, kind of work out a little bit while I'm doing it I need to make myself a better person for doing it and I think I've lost some of that just losing myself in something and I think we need to get back to that more as adults and sort of realign ourselves with our imaginations.

Richard Armitage : Yeah and also you know this.. you always just need to, you know, read what's the latest thing what everyone else is reading, you know, sometimes it's nice to go back and reread a book that you've read before sometimes many times before because you re-enter the world that you've already created and ,you know what, you know, you know, all the doors and exits and that's how I was felt about Tolkien when I went to work on The Hobbit I knew that, I knew that book so well I read it in school as a little child I revisited it as a 40 year old and I, it was like walking around rooms that I was very familiar with but I just felt different about it because I was so much older and I think that's also something that's not to be sniffed at, you know?

Christopher Maynard : No, of course not and that has to be one of those you know sort of surreal moments. I don't know if that's one of those kind of like pinching yourself things of your career when you're, you know, waking up and you're seeing your name on the call sheet and, you know, it's next to a character that you've been familiar with for probably more years than you haven't been familiar with this character. So what was that like for you?

Richard Armitage : I mean it was and continues to be a kind of marvelous flaw in the universe, I you know, I just think you know how on earth did that happen you need a six foot two guy playing a dwarf but, but yeah and you know at the same time that I'm marveling at it I'm sort of feeling the responsibility of it because it was, it was a sort of childhood character that I, you know, admired or was fascinated by and I'm taking the responsibility for every other reader and you know realizing this character into life um you know I but I, I really cherish the opportunity to do that and there are characters that I will play hopefully in the future that I coveted for a long time, you know, historic triggers that I look at and I think I'd really like to play you and, and maybe I get to do that one day so yeah, I enjoy the responsibility but I'm also remain in awe.

Christopher Maynard : You actually have one coming up that I, I think it's coming up I don't know though if you've shot it yet or not but you're doing Julie Delpy's next film I believe My Zoe. Is that correct?

Richard Armitage : I am indeed. And it's really interesting because a lot of the time I have to be talked into projects because I, I, I read them and more often than not I don't like them and then I have to be convinced about it and then I absolutely fall in love with it but with Julie's piece I knew immediately that I was, I wanted to do it. I loved the story so much it was I don't know how many drafts she made of the script, the script was and is, it's almost perfect in the state that it's at now but we're not even in production but it's just a fascinating piece to me. It's a subject which I touched on right at the beginning of my career and I won't give it away too much but it's, it's science but it's, it's veering toward science fiction but not in a kind of HG Wells kind of way in a medical way but it's a, it's a, it's a family drama and it's a tragic story of a couple that are pulling each other part in the divorce and, and then something happens to their child and then the story takes a really unusual course but I'm really excited to work with her and Daniel Bruhl and Gemma Arterton. And you know she's written it, she's going to direct it which is amazing and you know she's found the, the money and she's producing it herself she's like a little one-woman film industry all on her own and so I feel really privileged to be going to work with her.

Christopher Maynard : She's done some amazing work. She's one of those people that it's pretty much anything that she attaches her name to. I will, I'm on board day one so I'm really excited for that project for sure.

Richard Armitage : She's got great taste and you know her style of work and her style of work as an actor I think is fascinating and one of the things that you know I talked to her
about when we, when we've met over the last few months was how do you, how do you feel directing yourself and she said you know I, I get so engrossed in the story I forget to put myself in the movie I forget to film myself because I'm so fascinated with the story but and I found that really, really delightful because clearly she has no vanity or narcissism she's just a great storyteller so I'm really excited about this project.

Christopher Maynard : And is that something that you would see yourself doing at some point would you want to go into directing and do you think you would be able to direct yourself?

Richard Armitage : I don't know if I'd be able to direct myself. I wish that you know, I wish I could find the intelligence to become a director and maybe I will maybe I will, who knows? But it, but um, we'll see, we'll see I mean I think I'd have to become a writer as well at some point but then yeah.

Christopher Maynard : I think you've probably at this point been around enough sets and been around enough people to at the very least know what not to do and that can be a ... [to start with]

Richard Armitage : That's true. And yes, yes I think I might, I might be in danger of it but a kind of indulgence because I love actors so much and I love watching what happens between two actors or I could just let it live on and on and on sometimes the director has to cut and but there's less and less actually because we work on digital you can play a scene and then let it live for a couple of more minutes afterwards but I might watch them for hours still be filming it.

Christopher Maynard : That's one of the disappointing things about Robert Altman passing when he did it seems like he would have been the type of director that would have just absolutely flourished in the digital age just with being able to he seemed like somebody that just would let actors play for hours and I couldn't imagine the stuff he could have pulled off if he would have just had pretty much limitless time.

Richard Armitage : Yeah well that's the thing at the moment it's again it's the frustrating thing as an actor is that you, you kind of apply yourself to what you're given and what's on the page but sometimes with delay or repetition something completely unexpected happens and more often than not the director has cut this or that happens and so you know I mean which is why it was great to work with Peter Jackson because he really, he really didn't. He would let the scene run and run and run. He'd, he'd discover things in the moment but sometimes time on television for example, you know, you get, you, your call, you hear the word cut before you've actually like hit the moment where something unexpected happens.

Christopher Maynard : That's a that I would imagine that has to be one of the big challenges of working in television just the schedule being so tight.

Richard Armitage : Yeah, I know. You know, and I always kind of go into the project and one of the things that I, you know, say to myself and to the director and to my scene partners is. You know, I'm here because I want to, I want to find out what's not on the page and I also want to surpass my own expectations and everybody else's and you can only do that when you, you know, you allow yourself to get the scene, that you, that you're given and then look for something more or wait for something more sometimes.

Christopher Maynard : And I just want to say one kind of side thing here I, I feel bad because normally when I interview somebody I always make sure that I've seen the specific piece that they're working on twice just because I want to watch it once as an audience member and just let it wash over me then once a little bit more critically and then I try to see other recent things but you were so fucking busy that I couldn't catch up with all the stuff you've done.

Richard Armitage : Oh thanks that's all right.

Christopher Maynard : No, no, and, and I was it's something that I just this has got me back on track to see Pilgrimage which is something that I have been meaning to check out and just you've had a hell of a year and it's kind of all over the map with Sleepwalker Pilgrimage Berlin Station the TV show and then the Castlevania series it's just...

Richard Armitage : Yeah