Slow Horses co-star Jack Lowden took his character River Cartwright on an incredibly emotional journey on season four of the Emmy-winning Apple series. Lowden’s River experiences so many issues with many father-like figures in incredibly different situations. Yet, through it all, he says he’s constantly undermining River’s desire to be in control of and make everything funny. Here, in an interview with The Contending, Lowden breaks down his River’s season four arc.
Major spoilers for season 4 of Slow Horses follow.
The Contending: River is separated from the whole group for pretty much the entire season and you have to get across a lot of his emotions through your facial expressions and body language. How did that change how you approached him this season?
Jack Lowden: It was a more interesting season emotionally, and I was really looking forward to doing it. All the stuff with River’s grandfather in particular is quite horrible in many ways because it’s all of our deepest fears about a loved one. It was tough to do. I’m just very glad that we can take someone like River, who is an action kind of guy, and typical of Slow Horses to take something else from him, so we learn something new about a character that we’ve seen for three seasons.
The Contending: The whole build-up this season is for River’s interaction with Frank (Hugo Weaving), his biological father. How did you two prepare for that big emotional moment after all we’ve seen River go through this season?
Jack Lowden: We didn’t really prepare at all. The writing is so good and when it’s so good you just get out of the way and you just serve it as well as you can. Then with someone like Hugo, who is just the easiest man to get along with in the world. He is known for playing iconic stern or villain roles and Hugo is just the opposite of that, just a big lovely man. So it was actually quite easy to do those scenes with him and the place where River meets his biological father there’s not some big breakdown scene where he cries and can’t deal with it. He just sort of accepts that’s his dad. I really love how quickly he gets over it that his dad is some maniac running around killing people. I love that he has a non-reaction.
The Contending: River plays a lot of cat and mouse with Emma (Ruth Bradley), and when they finally interact after River is captured he is actually able to convince her that there is a good reason for the stuff he has been doing, and that she is not on the right side. It was one of my favorite connections this season because you never know exactly how you think they’re going to interact and they end up being on the same side even before they are attacked. What were those scenes like for you?
Jack Lowden: It was great! Ruth Bradley is a phenomenal actor and one of the best things about Slow Horses is every season more and more actors want to be part of the show and so actors of Ruth’s caliber turn up, which is great. I loved doing those scenes with Ruth because I think River thinks he’s the smartest person in the room and when he meets someone who also thinks she is the smartest person in the room it made for some fireworks.
The Contending: At the end of the penultimate episode you are put into a trunk and all we hear is your breathing over the end credit. What was it like being used to create that unsettling mood?
Jack Lowden: I had forgotten about it until I watched the episode like everybody else. But I literally got in the boot of a car with a microphone next to me. The director Adam Randall had this idea earlier and I was like, what are we doing? He said just get in and breathe. So I asked why? He said it was going to be for the credits so I just said, “Ah.” So while all these grown ups stood about I got into the boot and just breathed as heavily as I could for a minute and a half in the dark. It was a really strange experience but put it all together and it has this really eerie environment that it creates. I think it’s gorgeous some of the stuff they did with it.
The Contending: You don’t have as many scenes with Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar) this season, but the scenes that we do get have a lot about their relationship. Her toast about not being in Slough House and River seeming upset by that, and she is the one he needs to pump him up to go see his grandfather. Then when they connect again at the end of the season the first thing she says to him is, why did you have to run off and be a hero like an idiot? What do you make of these two right now?
Jack Lowden: I adore them, I adore Rose. She’s an exceptional actor and an exceptional actor’s actor. She makes every actor she works with better. Their relationship I love because they’re kind of brother and sister; Louisa is River’s best friend at work for sure. So every time we get to do a scene it’s one of my favorite days. Louisa has a frankness, a sort of hit around the back of the head that River needs because he’s quite a self-obsessed bloke. I love that she’s there to remind him that he’s not that special. I adore their relationship.
The Contending: You have touched on the emotionalness of what River is going through with his grandfather. In the finale you have that incredibly intense scene where his grandfather is being dropped off at the home with him yelling, leaving him in a terrible place with his father figure. That is the same episode he’s dealt with his actual father. Then River has probably his best interaction he’s ever had with Lamb, a third father figure, at the bar even though they barely talk to each other. What was it like having those three big events all in one episode?
Jack Lowden: We shot this a while ago so till I watched it I forgot in that final episode that so much happens to River that culminates in my favorite scene in Slow Horses so far, that scene with Lamb and River at the bar. It is so typically male, typically father and son, where you can’t share any feelings so you are both looking in a certain direction and not looking each other in the eye. It is totally unexpected from Lamb, which makes it twice as moving. We shoot those things so spread out that when you put it all together and that final episode you are like, Jesus Christ, he really does get put through the wringer. I think for most normal people it would take more than that one whiskey at the bar. I can tell you that. Again, I just love River even more because he has such incredible resilience.
The Contending: The show always had its big action moments, and with this season you have the big sequence when you’re chasing Frank and it seems like he’s testing River, like he wants to be caught. So you have this great composition of action and possibly this deeper or psychological motivation. Then you also have the action sequence where River is running from the crowd and he also falls through a roof in a completely humorous moment. What is it like trying to combine the action and the comedy that Slow Horses is known for, and that pathos as well?
Jack Lowden: It’s not a challenge for me because in every piece of work that I’ve done I’m always trying to make it funny, because in life I have an inability to take most situations seriously. So I am constantly trying to undercut the seriousness of the situation, which is probably my way of dealing with serious situations. I’m the guy making a joke at a funeral. I do not find it difficult in Slow Horses because it’s what I naturally do. It’s quite scary how similar River is to me, although I don’t run around as much or fall through roofs. I don’t do that as much anymore. (Laughing) What’s quintessentially River is he’s trying so hard to be taken seriously but I’m trying to undermine him at every turn. (Laughing)
The Contending: I know the next season has already been filmed and you cannot say much but, with the journey River has been on this season, where do you feel River is now personally and professionally?
Jack Lowden: Again, he has this atmosphere like he’s seen everything and he is so resilient, but I do think his grandfather is his weak point, where his heartstrings are. And where we finish in season 4 of taking him to a home, I think that’s River’s limit. I think you can show River as many dead bodies or reveal long lost relatives, or take him anywhere, but I think his grandfather is his Achilles’ heel. I think that’s where he’ll struggle, without having his grandfather. I’m glad that we were able to find that in River.
