Mr. Tovey, your acting repertoire is comprised of so many beautifully open and vulnerable characters. How is it for you to play these kinds of roles on a film set?
When you’re acting, you’re very aware that there’s a crew there. You’re very aware of the dialogue and the other actors, but you long for a feeling which is almost indescribable; when you connect with your scene partner and you exist somewhere else. It’s something that drives me, this plane that you can play on as a performer. It’s magic.
When did you first realize that special power that acting holds?
I remember when I was a little boy and I started doing drama classes, and we would have improv scenes where it would get emotional. We’d make up these scenarios where you’re telling family members or friends some terrible news, and you would go into this zone. I didn’t know what it was, but I was so vulnerable and open to all the emotions and this feeling of generosity, of wanting to share what it is to be alive. As a kid that sounds pretty existential — and it was! it was like a drug when I was younger, acting was like a drug. So when I have the chance to do these emotionally intense scenes now, it still feels like a drug, like something I crave.
“It’s impossible to feel that every time, but that is what drives the instinct.”
Do you reach that peak every time? Or is it something more fleeting?
No, not every time, but that’s why you keep going back, and that’s why we want to be storytellers. You might shoot a scene 15 times? Do you feel that feeling 15 times? No, you might even only feel it in the rehearsal, which is very frustrating, and then you start filming it and you don’t feel it again. Or you get a direction, then you feel it towards the end, it ebbs and flows. It’s like doing a play on stage every night where you long for this moment when the audience is in your hand and you’re completely in this feeling. You’re existing in that zone. It’s impossible to feel that every time, but that is what drives the instinct. That’s the instinctive drive of an actor.
It sounds like a really incredible thing to get to experience as an actor.
To be vulnerable is a privilege. When you’re given opportunities as an actor to really be quiet and sensitive and connect to your scene partner, it’s just such a privilege. It’s what I look for in scripts, those moments of stillness, or moments of silence. For example, with my recent role in Plainclothes, there’s a moment where my character and Tom Blythe’s character meet in the bathroom for the first time and there’s this intensity that highlights what it is to be human. It’s a daunting situation, a sexy situation, you’re full of apprehension, but you’re also consumed by desire, but you can’t get the zipper undone, there’s a bit of clumsiness. Those moments were so beautiful to film because within the context of that story and that period we were filming in… These characters are allowed to be soft. These two characters, they have an armor that they carry around with them the whole time, but that drops when they’re together, which is so beautiful to observe as an audience and to act out as an actor. It is a real privilege to play those scenes.
Apparently Plainclothes was already two weeks into filming by the time you joined on set. How was it to have to reach that state of vulnerability quite quickly?
If you’re not there from the beginning, growing with the energy that the company is making together, you hope that when you step in, it is safe, so you can give your best work, and you can be vulnerable. Because being vulnerable is… Well, it’s vulnerable. You want to feel like it’s earned, you want to feel like you want to be vulnerable. And the projects that I choose and the roles that I play, they’re worth that of me. They’re worth me going there and being emotional and using all the stuff that I’ve been through in my life, cherry-picking my biography to create these characters and then put that character on top of my own experiences. Everything we do comes from us. I’ve only lived this life, and I draw on everything I’ve got. So when you step onto the set like that, there is an anxiety for it sometimes. But this was just full of love and joy. I wanted to be on my best form for it because the role and film deserved it. And it was amazing from day one. And now myself and Tom are being considered for the BAFTA award… It’s just magic when you do something you care so much about and it gets that response.
You mentioned cherry-picking from your biography to create characters. How is it to dig so deeply and be so introspective in your job?
Well, I’ve have gone through all of these experiences in my personal life and I can just sort of like purge them. That’s the privilege of being an actor is that you can have these feelings, and you get given these opportunities to purge them in characters and stories. What other job can you cry your eyes out and scream, and everyone gives you a round of applause? (Laughs) It’s a wonderful thing to be as honest and open and authentic and vulnerable and generous of yourself as you can at every opportunity.
Emma Stone says that she used to think that kind of sensitivity was a curse, but as she’s gotten older, she knows it’s actually something to be treasured, especially as an actor.
That’s biggest thing I’ve realized as well in the last couple of years! As humans, there is a certain shame around being vulnerable or soft or emotional. When I was a young actor, I probably tried to overstep those vulnerabilities to tell the stories, but that was detrimental to the people connecting to the characters. I’ve realized that all of these things that I try and not show, that I try and hide from, that I’m embarrassed of, or that I have a shame about, are actually the things that people are connecting to and seeing in me without me even realizing I’m doing it. I’ve realized it’s my greatest asset: the things that I was ashamed of have become my superpowers.
Is it true that growing up, you actually had some anxiety and embarrassment around acting because you had never gone to drama school?
Coming from a working-class background in Essex, I definitely had an imposter syndrome. But there was another sense of shame around even loving the performing arts or art in general, it was considered soft, you know, for many years, I felt like I didn’t have the right to be smart. I had a shame around that from school as well. If you showed any interest, if you were intelligent at all in my school, then you were marked out and you were a target. The moment I came out as a geek and a nerd for film, for art, for so many things my life changed. All of that has now made me more determined than ever to tell stories and give access to art in the way that I needed it. I want to play characters that I needed to see when I was a kid. I want to tell stories that I desperately needed as a kid, to see myself represented. I want to give access to art via my podcast. My aim is to show that this is for everyone, whoever you are.
“I’d love people to take confidence from things I put out.”
I love that your podcast, Talk Art, is so inclusive — you never make anyone feel bad for not knowing certain names or terms in the art world.
It’s the most beautiful thing when you get over the shame of not knowing something. So much of what I listened to growing up would be highly academic, elitist conversations about art, and they would come up with these quotes and phrases and artists and movements, and I had no idea what they are. When I started the podcast, I was determined that if someone said something that I didn’t know, I would say, “What is that?” And people were kind of shocked, because they’re not used to being asked that. But I think there’s so much to know and I want to be educated on it! You want to know about the Renaissance, well, let’s talk about this thing. Or you want to talk about the pre-raphaelite brotherhood? Great, teach me about it. Isn’t that the best way to receive art? That was my determination, to make everything as accessible and easy and fun as possible.
You seem like the type of person who is very comfortable in your own skin, like you’re not afraid to be who you are.
I’d like to think so, yeah! I do feel very safe in my own body right now.
Is that something you’re trying to uphold with the kinds of work you’re making, whether that’s via film work or your podcast?
I’d love that to be a feeling that people get from the work I do. I’m definitely driven by queer stories, especially in the current climate, more than ever. And that visibility is incredibly important! Those stories need to be told more and more to the point where people are maybe fatigued by seeing so many, because it becomes so normal or isn’t radical. It’s just life. I’m definitely driven by that. And I’d love people to take confidence from things I put out. I want to be that invitation for other people to be themselves, or a conduit to discovery, where people can say, “Oh, let’s go and look at that or see that because we’ve heard Russell say that this is worth seeing.” And that’s a really beautiful position to be in.