Forget James Bond. Thanks to Jack Lowden, audiences have fallen for a different kind of spy in Slow Horses – the Apple TV show in which is plays a character who is far from a smooth operator.
An MI5 reject, Lowden’s handsome but accident-prone agent, River Cartwright, contrasts with the series lead, Gary Oldman’s dishevelled yet crafty Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, where unwanted spies are sent to see out their careers.
Lowden and Oldman have returned for the show’s fourth season, while the show has also scored a swag of nominations in the upcoming Emmy Awards.
In the Outstanding Drama Series category, it’s up against the likes of The Crown, Morning Wars, The Gilded Age and Mr & Mrs Smith.
What does Jack Lowden say about Slow Horses season 4?
With each season, Slow Horses’ cult-like following grows. Lowden believes that’s in part because the “workplace thriller” is, at its heart, a relatable story.
“It’s the best of both worlds because it has the sort of super intrigue and sexiness of the world of espionage. It’s never not boring,” Lowden tells WHO. “It also has the sort of workplace element with the dreadful boss and a terrible sort of working environment that
I imagine most people around the world can relate to at some point in their lives or are doing at the moment – hav[ing] a terrible boss or being given mundane tasks or whatever. So it’s sort of that mashup that’s so fantastic.”
Season 4 is the best yet, at least according to its star, who recently married his long-time love, four-time Oscar-nominated actress Saoirse Ronan.
“I was obviously there shooting it, and I genuinely think it’s the best one yet,” he explains. “I think it’s gone up a notch again. All the sort of loose ends are coming together; a lot of things are explained. I think as a viewer, it’s a really delicious thing to watch. And the action is sort of twice as mad. Everything gets a little bit madder, even madder than it’s already been. And I think we’re going to ask a lot of our audience, but I think that’s Slow Horses. I would put money on it that I think it will be even better than [Season] 3.”
The season opens with a bombing – one that will obliterate personal secrets and rock the foundations of Slough House, which, as long-term viewers know, were already on unstable ground.
The banter between Lowden and Oldman’s characters (and Oldman’s and everyone else) is one of the most delicious aspects of the show, but according to the 34-year-old, he didn’t feel like he was acting at all.
“I don’t think I’m ever in character, if I’m being honest,” he admits. “It’s such a relaxed set. And it needs to be so that we can all play as much. With River, in particular with Lamb, I’m really enjoying how that’s building – that relationship between the two of them.”
Off-screen, Lowden and Oldman’s relationship sounds a little terrifying. “Gary said very early on that it reminded him of the relationship of a sort of an acting tutor or an early director that actors get put with, who’s purposely there to scare the s–t out of you and tell you that you’re s–t, break you down to ground zero, always,” Lowden reveals. “As soon as he said that, it became very clear to me that he knows that I’m good and I know that he knows I’m good.” Even so, Lowden admits, “It’s incredibly frustrating.”
Away from the series, life is a dream. In July, he married Ronan in Scotland, where the English-born groom was raised, a year after their engagement.
The nuptials were top secret, with just a few close friends and family members as guests. The couple met on the set of 2018 film Mary Queen of Scots and now call London home.
“Being with an actor is wonderful, because we understand each other,” he told The Guardian. “We’re quite odd people, actors. We’re strange animals. So it just makes complete sense, and I understand why there are loads of other actors with actors.”
Stream Slow Horses on Apple TV+ from $12.99/mth, with a 7-day free trial. Subscribe here.
