While picking up his Empire Icon award at last week’s Empire Awards, Brian Cox spoke to us about his new role in hit Western series ‘Deadwood’: the Irish con artist and actor, Jack Langrish.
“Yes, I con! Another con artist. I thought that was very clever, I’d never heard that before,” chuckled Cox. “He was a true guy, slightly less flamboyant than I make him. He came from Dublin, he was an Episcopalian and his father had a business that went ‘ftump!’ and (so) he became an actor. He ran the largest touring group in the United States - he had 115 at one time, touring with him. And he did the American premiere of The Mikado in Deadwood. So I play him.”
The Mikado eh? And can we expect his Gilbert and Sullivan stylings on Deadwood any time soon?
“Well, we haven’t done The Mikado yet because it’s rather expensive, and we can’t quite afford it. We haven’t even opened the theatre (in the show). You know what it’s like in Deadwood; it’s one day at a time, sweet Jesus! You arrive on a Monday and twelve episodes later it’s twelve days later. So we’ve got the theatre, it’s ready, and we’re doing the twelfth episode so we’ll probably walk into it at the end.” Still, the realism that Deadwood prides itself on is a pleasure rather than a burden to Cox as an actor. “The set is the most phenomenal thing you’ve ever seen in your life… it’s so concentrated that it does half the job for you.”
He might be engrossed in filming, however, but he won’t be away for long – his next project is co-starring in Tom Stoppard’s play ‘Rock n’ Roll’ alongside Rufus Sewell here in London in the summer.