Q&A with Russell Tovey
Interview with Russell Tovey, who plays Michael in BBC One drama What Remains.
It’s a compelling, dark, whodunit. A very captivating and intense adventure. It’s not just a whodunit as it’s about people’s relationships breaking down and people hiding things and then being found out and discovered."
Tell us about Michael…
Michael thinks he’s an adult but is completely trapped in his adolescent life. He’s one of those guys that say your school days are the best days of your life. At school everyone knew him, he was popular, he was cheeky and he felt like life was going to be brilliant for him. He’s come out of school and is still stuck in that mode. He’s got this girlfriend and they’ve only been together for a short while and she’s pregnant. He think he can be ‘the man’ and he isn’t! When he bumps into his old teacher in his building he regresses back to that stage in his life to when he affected him and made him feel like a little man. He’s got a kind of small man syndrome, even though he isn’t small. He feels like he has to battle and prove himself the whole time, which is quite an immature quality. He moves into this house with his girlfriend and spends all his time on his Playstation. He’s got this state of mind where he’s an adult but he hasn’t actually accepted the fact that he needs to mature and be responsible?
What is his relationship with Vidya like?
I think they have quite a passionate relationship. She’s definitely the mature one, she gets all the bills covered and is the one that has got more money. It’s kind of a mothering relationship, I suppose. It is sexual, that’s kept them together for this period, and I think the baby is an accident. She’s definitely the more mature one and she’s ready for the baby.
How does Michael feel about becoming a father?
I think he thinks that he’s cool with it and that he can be a Dad and be a great Dad. He’s hoping for a boy and he thinks they can play football together and arcade games together, he can take him to a sports shop and dress him up in trainers. He projects that he’s going to be a great Dad, the Dad you see on TV, that façade, but in reality he doesn’t have a clue.
Why is Michael so interested in his neighbour Joe?
Joe has affected him so much and it has stayed with him. The importance of that time to him is shown in the fact he hangs on to his school photographs, I have no idea where my school photos are! But he carries them around, they are an important possession to him and those years meant a lot. So when he bumps in to this teacher who as a child ridiculed him, made him feel that he wasn’t good enough and singled him out in front of people, now as an adult, it’s like all his childhood dreams can come true. He has the opportunity to get his own back and get revenge on him. So it’s a fixation, he’s fixated on this opportunity and that becomes his everything. He even neglects the fact that he’s going to be a Dad and that becomes second fiddle to this obsession in screwing his old teacher over.
He doesn’t seem that affected by the dead body he has found…
It’s a weird thing that he’s not affected by that and that Vidya is. He’s got other things on his mind and he didn’t know her, nothing is going to happen to him or Vidya, so oh well!
Do you think what has happened to Melissa in What Remains is reflective of society today?
Absolutely. It’s a comment on communities and neighbours. If that happened 25 years ago, everybody would know, because people communicated with each other. Because of online presence as well, people have whole lives online and they don’t need to experience life with real people outside. It is becoming quite a common thing. You see it with old people in the winter, there’s no one checking up on them, everyone just gets on with their own thing. If people don’t have a lot of friends or don’t have a job or family still around, it can easily happen. It is easier to slip away in this current lifestyle that we have become accustomed to than it would have been in the past.
In this block of flats, Melissa comes and goes and it seems like people don’t really talk to each other. Then my character and Vidya turn up and we try and get the neighbours together and they haven’t really seen each other for ages and it’s quite an awkward thing.
What attracted you to the role and What Remains?
I love Coky Giedroyc (director). I read the script. I remember seeing Inside Men that Tony had written. I loved the character, because it’s a big departure. I’ve played a lot of loveable characters and even though Michael is charming and cheeky, he’s not really loveable and has an agenda. He’s quite a complex character which was nice to explore. Even though he projects out that he’s very likeable and popular and cheeky, people are going to think that he’s one of those guys that haven’t grown-up. That was a nice role to play. The dialogue is awesome and the scripts are superb and it was just a very exciting project to be a part of. I’d met Coky before about a couple of things and it never worked out so I am very happy that this time it did.
What was it like working with the rest of the cast?
Awesome. They are all so good. When you get the job and they announce every other day someone else involved, it’s so exciting. I love Steven Mackintosh. It was so great to work with David Bamber. I’d never worked with Amber before but she was delightful. I didn’t get to do scenes with Claudie but I am a big fan. I love Victoria and David Threlfall was just great and so compelling. I didn’t get to do anything with Jess Gunning but, from seeing the first episode, she’s just heart-breaking as Melissa. She’s the likeable character and it’s just a tragedy. It’s such a sadness that she’s died. She’s pure and she just lived in the wrong house and the wrong things happened to her. I feel that the other pure character is Vidya, who is an innocent mother who takes on Melissa’s innocence and pureness as well. Everyone else is corrupt and screwed up.
Did you have an input into Michael’s styling?
Yes. I worked with Edward Gibbon, the costume designer, and we had lots of discussions. I wanted him to still be quite teenagey. He hasn’t got a proper job, he’s got the shoe shop going on so has a uniform there so doesn’t have any major clothing responsibilities. Everything is sporty based and comfortable, for sitting at home on the Playstation. There’s no real thought in to everything. He’s one of those guys that will spend a fortune on clothes just to have a proper logo on it, again that teenage thing where it has to be the proper brand.
What can audiences look forward to about What Remains?
It’s a compelling, dark, whodunit. A very captivating and intense adventure. It’s not just a whodunit as it’s about people’s relationships breaking down and people hiding things and then being found out and discovered. It’s like Cluedo!
