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Douglas Booth has, admittedly, always been drawn to rather eccentric characters.
The English star has been in this business for almost two decades — “so old now,” he laughs over Zoom, mussing up a famously good head of hair — and in that time has portrayed rock stars (The Dirt), poets (Mary Shelley) and fairies (The Sandman). “It’s really hard to go and play Boy George or Nikki Sixx or Dan Leno,” Booth tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Certain actors can’t do that, but I thrive on that.”
As thrilling as thriving is, Booth, who was undoubtedly part of an unofficial 2010s “Brit Pack” of 20-something actors with his Riot Club co-stars Sam Claflin and Max Irons, found himself gunning for a part that would involve less fantasy and more familiarity. “I very much love playing people that are just so far removed from myself,” he says. “[But] this was a good time to play a modern bloke. Does that sound silly?”
The product of Booth’s self-set challenge to take on “normalcy” is anything but silly. In ITV‘s six-episode The Blame, premiering Sept. 20, he stars as Tom, a detective in a run-of-the-mill English town trying to be a good guy. His professional partner, Emma (Michelle Keegan), is a headstrong presence in the force and consistently confronts the everyday sexism that permeates the office. But a teenage ice-skater’s murder soon draws Emma and Tom down a dark, twisty path, forcing them to investigate their own team.
In what will almost certainly shock viewers tuning into The Blame, adapted from Charlotte Langley’s book of the same name, the show depicts actual text messages from the real-life Metropolitan Police group chat scandals, in which multiple investigations exposed deep-rooted and systemic racism, homophobia and sexism — dismissed as “banter” — poisoning the country’s top police force.
Such was Booth’s discomfort finding out these texts were sent by U.K. police officers that he felt confident The Blame could send Brits an important message. “I remember reading [and thinking], ‘No woman would ever [write this]. This is just so uncomfortable and shocking.’ And then, yes, on the script, it came up: ‘These are all real text messages from members of the Met Police who’ve now been dismissed,'” he recalls to THR. “It lands really well in this series and anchored it for me. It’s also the reason why we’re making a big commercial series that, I felt, is one of the first to really delve into the problems we have with misogyny in the police force.”
Below, Booth discusses what he hopes The Blame can achieve and why Tom is caught “in a moral bear trap.” He also touches on the career he’s built, the U.K.’s adoration of a gripping police procedural and whether he’d ever be up for playing a particular fictional spy dominating a lot of the current headlines: “I would sound disingenuous if I said that playing such an iconic character wouldn’t appeal to me.”
I know this story is adapted from a book. Did you know much about it before the show came up?
I didn’t know anything about the book. I got a message from my agent and a message from [Quay Street Productions] founder Nicola Shindler, who’s an amazing producer. I’d actually worked with her on my first-ever lead performance when I played Boy George [in Worried About the Boy]. She [sent] an email saying, “You may remember me,” which I very much did. I had an amazing experience working with her before. I mean, she’s been nominated for like 13 BAFTAs or something ridiculous. So instantly, my ears pricked up. And then I read the script and absolutely loved it. I stupidly read it right before I went to bed, and then I couldn’t get to sleep because of the twist at the end of episode one. And I was like, “What?!” It really was a page-turner. I also think it had something important to say.
From the beginning of episode one, I was immediately suspicious of a couple of characters.
At its core, it’s a whodunit set within a police station, right? But you will be guessing until the very end of the last episode. Everyone comes under suspicion at some point for different reasons. One could call them red herrings, but I don’t necessarily think they are. It’s the fun of watching a thriller — if you’re sat there watching something like, ‘I think it’s that [person], or that [person].’ It’s quite a complex story with a lot of things going on. As you get into it, there is a tangled web of things that all get resolved the right way, but everything that happens happens for a reason. You’ll find out more about Tom and Emma’s past and how they’ve leaned on each other.
How would you describe Tom as a character for audiences coming into this show? He is a man very much trapped between two worlds.
Ultimately, Tom is someone who wants to be a good person. He’s got himself trapped in this toxic work culture, and he’s very much trying to do the right thing. But along the way, he’s probably got himself into a bit of a moral injury and made some compromised decisions — as does Emma, as do many people in that department. In my head, when I was playing him, I kind of imagined that he’d got his foot stuck in a moral bear trap, and he just couldn’t quite get himself free. He’s wrestling with that, and it’s corroding his internal core a little bit.
To take a step back and [give] an outside view of Tom, he’s a detective at this police station. He’s very close with Emma. I feel, in certain ways, he feels isolated from the rest of the department. He’s in a constant wrestle with his principles, but also his ambition and drive to be promoted and do well in life… His eggs are very much all in one basket. And sometimes I feel that about myself in this career. (Laughs.) All my eggs are very much in this basket. I always try to understand the humanity behind it, you know […] if you find out something compromising that could derail the whole thing right before you get across the finish line — do you say something or do you not say something? It was that wrestling with inner human greed and the want to progress alongside your principles.
I read that this series uses the actual text messages from multiple real-life cases of toxic police group chat scandals in the U.K. Were you shocked when you found that out?
That is one of the most shocking moments of the series, apart from some of the twists and turns towards the end, and probably the most sickening. It’s absolutely awful, and it’s really shocking. And I was like, “I can’t believe [the show writers] have written this.” I remember reading [and thinking], ‘This can’t be no writer… no woman would ever [write this]. This is just so uncomfortable and shocking.’ And then, yes, on the script, it came up: “These are all real text messages from members of the Met Police who’ve now been dismissed.”
It lands really well in this series and again, it anchored it for me. It’s also the reason why we’re making a big commercial series that, I felt, is one of the first to really delve into the problems we have with misogyny in the police force. When we were filming, it was the [BBC] Panorama Charing Cross film [about the] WhatsApp group — it came out the year we were shooting. It is shocking and disgusting behavior. You can’t quite believe the misogynistic, racist things that these people are saying. [The show] very much reflects the problems that we have with some of our systems and institutions, the police that are supposed to be protecting us that are potentially letting us — and specifically women — down.
Is the hope very much among writers and producers of this show that The Blame prompts discussion and stays with viewers? As you said, it’s a big commercial series, so hopefully a lot of eyeballs on a very important story.
I hope so. First and foremost, it’s a gripping thriller about a murder, and then it quickly becomes more complex. I think we obviously want the themes of the show to stay with people, and I think hopefully by the end of the series they will have. But yeah, there were definitely conversations about it, and there was a lot of sharing. I was always sending the producer the constant BBC News headlines about the failure of the police. But at the same time, I also have a lot of respect for the police. It’s a really difficult job that they do. So the aim definitely wasn’t to go out there and be police bashing in in any way. They do a really tricky job, but there are systematic failings that just don’t seem to be fully addressed.
We’d be thrilled if it started a conversation or at least made however many of the — hopefully — millions of people that watch it… If it makes a small amount of them, particularly men who have acted inappropriately or [people who] have been acted inappropriately upon, to sit up and think about their position within that, then could only be a very good thing.
It was refreshing to see all of this explored through such a strong character in Emma. Have you and Michelle crossed paths before?
No, I’ve literally never crossed paths with Michelle before, which is rare because I’ve been doing this almost two decades. So old now. (Laughs.) Over half my life. But yeah, she’s famously one of the nicest people in the industry. I’ve only heard incredible things, and she’s the nation’s sweetheart. When you’re around her, people just love her wherever you go — from all walks of life. She’s so grounded and down-to-earth. And we just got on like a house on fire. Also, she’s not in loads of things. She’s in things that run for a while. She’s in good things. It was a real pleasure to work with her and that really helped our chemistry throughout the series.
You have been in this industry, as you say, for nearly two decades. I think I first saw you in Great Expectations or The Riot Club, over a decade ago. How does The Blame capture this chapter of your career and which roles are talking to you at the moment?
It sounds silly to say but it was the chance to play a very normal person — to play a detective my own age in a six-part show where I could really just explore that human element and that complex character. That was a real draw for me. The job I just did before, I played a fairy in The Sandman for years, so I’d been getting up, having prosthetic ears put on my face at 3.30 every morning.
When you’re younger, you try to pretend that you have some great master plan for your career, making choices like you’re Leonardo DiCaprio. But not everyone is blessed like Leonardo DiCaprio to work with Martin Scorsese from the age of 20 or whatever. You’re always trying to do the best work that’s available to you. And this was a really exciting script, with a producer I really trusted, and Michelle was great. […] You make independent movies and you go to film festivals and 150 people see them and that’s it. (Laughs.) So I guess if there was any strategic thinking in the choice, it was to be in a commercial show that had lots of eyeballs on it and just play a man. I’m often drawn to playing fairies or rock stars or poets. I love playing musical performers like in The Limehouse Golem and I very much love playing people that are just so far removed from myself. This was a good time to play a modern bloke. Does that sound silly?
Not at all.
It’s really hard to go and play Boy George or Nikki Sixx or Dan Leno. Certain actors can’t do that, but I thrive on that. And I think it was a challenge for me, for over a good six-hour stretch, to just play a bloke.
I want to ask about The Sandman and the Netflix of it all. At this moment, in an industry with a very saturated market, where the streamers are dominating and the broadcasters are a little more cash-strapped, the police procedural continues to do very well. Can you speak a little bit about that and why they’re so important here?
It’s funny you say the traditional broadcasters are more cash-strapped, but when you do this show [The Blame], I can’t walk through the city without being on a 30-foot-high billboard in every single train station. If [the broadcasters] think they’ve got a good horse, they’ll back it, and then you make a massive Netflix show, and they don’t do a single bit of promotion for it because they don’t feel they have to. So the way they spend the money is quite interesting.
On the importance of it, I can only answer it from my own experience of doing this and having one coming out, but the amount of people that want to talk to me about it or are excited for it in my day-to-day life… My mates don’t normally give a crap about anything I’m in. (Laughs.) That’s why I love it. They couldn’t care less whether I’m in this movie or doing that, but the amount of people who say, “I can’t wait to watch [The Blame].” There’s something about it. I don’t know whether it’s going back to school, that autumn feeling. It’s pure comfort food [in] entertainment.
A quick note on what you’ve got coming up: The Way of the Wind. Can we talk about that?
That’s a Terrence Malick movie. I filmed it a couple of years ago now. It was a really beautiful moment in time. My agent said, “Oh, Terrence Malick wants to speak to you. You need to call his assistant.” I called his assistant and got through to Terrence and he said, “Oh, Douglas, it’s so great to speak to you. I don’t think I’ve seen you since you were on stage with McKellen…” I was like, ‘This is all a mistake. They think I’m someone else! I’ve told my friends I’m going to do a Terrence Malick film.’ And I said, “I don’t think I was born then, Terrence. [You’re] talking to Douglas Booth.” And he was like, “Oh, Douglas. I thought I was talking to Douglas Hodge,” who he’d also offered a part in the film to.
Luckily, it wasn’t a mistake. He’s seen the Mary Shelley movie I made with Elle Fanning and my wife, Bel Powley. I can’t actually say too much, but that film made him want me to play a part in this film. I would love to see it, but he’s been editing it for a very long time. He is an absolutely wonderful man to work with. He didn’t sit down once on set — he’s always by the camera, still like a young child, still so hungry, and communicates with you through old, typewriter-print letters. He’s so inquisitive.
Apart from Terrence, do you have a dream director you’d like to work with? You’ve already done so much, so I also have to ask: Bond? Does that appeal? You’re in the right age range and you’re British.
(Laughs.) I would sound disingenuous if I said that playing such an iconic character wouldn’t appeal to me. But I’m definitely not the one making the decisions on whether I will or not. I’d love to work with Denis Villeneuve. He’s fantastic. Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, if he ever makes movies again. Chris Nolan. I’m saying very basic answers! I’ve worked with Darren Aronofsky and the Wachowskis and when you work with these filmmakers who make such big, iconic movies, there is a thrill about it.
The Blame premieres in the U.K. on ITV Sept. 20.
English (US) ·