He made his name working with Mike Leigh and became a worldwide star in the Harry Potter films — but David Thewlis says he was still intimidated by taking on the title role in the new TV adaptation of An Inspector Calls.
Thewlis takes centre stage in the BBC1 drama based on J B Priestley’s play about a mysterious Inspector whose investigation into the death of a young woman rips apart the peaceful world of the well-to-do Birling family.
It was first staged after the Second World War and revived by Oscar nominee Stephen Daldry at the National Theatre in 1992, before running in the West End and Broadway for many years where it was seen by some three million people — including Thewlis.
He said: “I’ve not done TV for a long, long time. I’ve managed to stay in film for a long time but it was just something I was very keen on. I saw the production at the National years ago and remember being rather blown away by it. I thought it was a fantastic, strong piece of writing and I bought it and read it and it always stayed in my head.”
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Thewlis, who was teacher and werewolf Remus Lupin in the Potter films, is glad the BBC has not tried to update the story, which is set in 1912. He said: “I think it’s supposed to be timeless in its message. Fundamentally if you had to explain that message to a child it would be, ‘Don’t be selfish,’ which I think stands up pretty well today.
“Obviously I have vague memories of the stage version. I started to watch the 1954 Alastair Sim version again, then I listened to a bit of a radio production of it with Toby Jones so I was a little intimidated by my predecessors.”
Thewlis has just finished working with Rachel Weisz and Colin Firth on a film about the true-life tragedy of sailor Donald Crowhurst. Crowhurst was lost at sea in 1969 during the Golden Globe round-the-world solo yacht race. It later emerged he had dropped out of the race while forging logbook entries to suggest he was completing the course.
Firth plays Crowhurst and Thewlis is Rodney Hallworth, a journalist-turned-publicist who represented him. He said: “Once you know the story, it gets more and more incredible.”
An Inspector Calls is on BBC1 at 9pm on Sunday, September 13.
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