Icke admits that when casting, he typically thinks, “Who’s like this?” reasonably than, “Whose appearing is like this?” He says that he wished Manville to play Jocasta as a result of he thought that she was extraordinary in Phantom Thread, and in addition, crucially, as a result of she “looks like a mum”—which she is, to a son she raised after a quick marriage to the actor Gary Oldman; he’s now 36, a digicam operator for movie and tv. For the same motive, Icke wished whoever performed Oedipus to look regular, principled, dedicated to his household, and in addition like somebody who might plausibly run for workplace and win. Sturdy often performs villains (Robin Hood, Shazam!, Cruella, Kick-Ass) and spies (Kingsman, Zero Darkish Thirty, Physique of Lies, The Imitation Sport, Deep State, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy—amongst others!), regardless of having a repute for being supremely warmhearted. “He looks like he might clear up your issues for you,” Icke says, and he was impressed by Sturdy’s “integrity and his articulate calm.” Three years in the past, when Icke came upon that he was going to be a father, Sturdy—who’s married to the producer Liza Marshall, with whom he has two sons—was one of many first individuals Icke went to for recommendation. “I used to be like, Come on then. Inform me what you probably did. Inform me what I ought to do.”
I meet Sturdy at Wyndham’s Theatre: It’s the late-Victorian monument subsequent to the Leicester Sq. Tube station, within the coronary heart of London’s West Finish. That is the place he carried out in each A View from the Bridge and Oedipus, and so he’s in a position to present me round, mentioning the place Maggie Smith used to have her dressing room. He strikes via the constructing with the convenience of somebody who belongs there, or certainly, like a seasoned politician with a form phrase for everybody. He’s additionally tall and lean, with an awesome voice—it’s simple to see why Icke would need his face on a marketing campaign poster. Although when Sturdy describes his background, I’m wondering if it’s additionally not a coincidence that he’s performed all these worldwide spies. His title at delivery was Marco Giuseppe Salussolia—his father was Italian, his mom Austrian. He went to high school in England, and studied regulation in Munich—the place he met drama college students, and realized they have been having extra enjoyable than he was. He defected, and by his mid-20s, he was on the Nationwide Theatre with small elements in King Lear and Richard III, learning the luminaries from the wings.
