Time Capsule
Eddie Marsan
THE BRITISH CHARACTER ACTOR ON MOMENTS FROM HIS SCREEN LIFE
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
EDDIE MARSAN’S CAREER has been about the long game. Always funny and frank, the 55-year-old Londoner has carved out a reputation as one of the most versatile character actors in the business, something he displays this month with turns in Back To Black, the final series of Inside No. 9, and Franklin. The last of which sees him play John Adams, a role he came very close to playing in 2008. There’s that long game again.
THE ADAMS FAMILY FRANKLIN (2024)
“I was doing The Illusionist with Paul Giamatti, and they offered me the part of John Adams [former US President] in an HBO mini-series. I did a screen-test in Virginia, I signed a contract, and came back to London and did loads of tests with actresses to play Abigail Adams. Then what happened is, they fired the original director and the show went away. The next I heard, I wasn’t doing it, and Paul was doing it. He’s a lovely bloke and a good friend of mine. I was so pleased for him. And as an actor, I went on. Then Kirk Ellis, who wrote the John Adams series, wrote Franklin and I got an email from my agent that said, ‘Kirk Ellis has asked: would you play John Adams for him now?’ I jumped at the idea. What goes around comes around.”