‘I’ve only been addicted to two things – funk and praise’: Eddie Marsan’s honest playlist
The actor dances his insecurities away and wells up at a particular Eric Clapton song. But which double act brings out his inner cockney?
As told to Rich Pelley
Sun 28 Jun 2026
The first song I fell in love with When I was a little boy, we had a caravan on the Isle of Sheppey, and I remember hearing My Sweet Lord by George Harrison one summer. It’s about searching for God, and I’ve always thought the way it moves from Hallelujah to Hare Krishna is really beautiful.
Actress Marisa Abela and actor Eddie Marsan film a scene for the Amy Winehouse biopic ‘Back to Black’ in London. Neil Mockford
By not lip-syncing Amy Winehouse’s songs, actress Marisa Abela confronts impossible expectations in ‘Back to Black’
Katherine Meizel
Like Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black,” the new biopic about the late British singer, has been no stranger to controversy.
In the case of the film, opinion has been fiercely split about director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s decision to have actress Marisa Abela sing – instead of lip-sync to – Winehouse’s recordings.
Why character actor Eddie Marsan always plays the villain
By Julia Yepes
April 3, 2018
You know his face. Over the last 20 years, the British character actor Eddie Marsan has distinguished himself by playing complex villains and characters teeming with thoughts, who don’t—or can’t—articulate their ideas. He’s the rare actor who creates characters you can feel for, even if they’re terrifying. His unforgettable turn as Scott, a volatile driving teacher in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky [2008], who coaches his cheerful student, Poppy, to turn corners “expecting the worst” is both hilarious and powerful. He’s brought nuance and pathos to Reg, a solitary laborer, in Leigh’s Vera Drake [2004]; John May, a civil servant who arranges funerals for people who have died alone in Still Life [2013]; Reverend John, who counsels Benicio del Toro’s born-again Christian ex-convict in 21 Grams [2003]; and Terry Donovan, the brother of the main character on the current Showtime crime drama Ray Donovan. This spring, he stars in 7 Days in Entebbe as then-Israeli defense minister Shimon Peres, and he’s part of the highly-anticipated superhero action-comedy Deadpool 2.
Eddie Marsan: 'There's no great mystery to acting'
Elzabeth Day
The East End actor on his new TV show, his love for Sinatra and why he has doubts about David Cameron
Elizabeth Day
Sunday 3 October 2010
Your new role in Sky 1's detective drama Thorne sees you playing a detective who seems embittered but also slightly infatuated by his professional partner, DI Thorne (David Morrissey). Do you have any close "bromances" in real life?
Yeah, I do. I don't have many – I'm not a great social animal. I have my family and I have my work and then I have three very close male friends and that's it. But we speak every day and it's very fulfilling. I was brought up in a house full of three older sisters, yet I do have intense, close friendships with male friends.
Were your sisters nice to you when you were growing up?
Both nice and nasty. When you're the youngest and the only boy, you get spoilt but you get told you're spoilt so you don't get to enjoy it very much. I was the only man in the house because my parents divorced and my dad moved away when I was 13.
You played a murderer in Pierrepoint, a snarling villain in Hancock and a psychologically unhinged driving instructor in Happy-Go-Lucky. Does the darkness of your characters ever stay with you?
It doesn't have enough time to stay with me because I'm always going on to the next thing. Major film stars tend to do a film and then have a couple of months off. I'm not a major film star, I'm a jobbing actor. By necessity, you have to let go. Having said that, I was paid to be angry for six months forHappy-Go-Lucky. That stayed with me. I had a few bad temper tantrums before my wife said to me: "I think you should get out of character."
Do you think actors make too much of a fuss about their work?
I see all these people talking about acting as a great spiritual thing. It's not. There's no great mystery to acting. It's a very simple thing to do but you have to work hard at it. It's about asking questions and using your imagination. The trick to acting is not to show off, it's to think the thoughts of the character. I was lucky because when I started acting, it was doing jobs above pubs. I learned to act in anonymity so by the time people saw me, I knew what I was doing. I was crap for years but no one saw me being crap. It's a trade you learn.
Apparently you like to listen to different kinds of music to get you into character?
Yeah, very much so. With Tughan [Marsan's role in Sky1's Thorne], it was Phil Collins and Spandau Ballet. My job is not to be Eddie Marsan. You pay to see me disappear.
What did you listen to for Happy-Go-Lucky?
He was into Depeche Mode. His hair, his jeans and jackets were all stuck in the mid-1980s because he was a man terrified of change.
Is it different from what you listen to on your own iPod?
Yeah. I listen to a lot of jazz. I'm a big Sinatra geek. I love Chet Baker.
You grew up on a council estate in east London, the son of a lorry driver and a teaching assistant. Did your family understand why you wanted to become an actor?
They didn't at first. A lot of it was due to financial reasons. I had a good job as a printer in the East End. Before the unions destroyed it, that job was very lucrative. But my family were very good about encouraging me.
What I love about the East End is that there's a great perseverance, determination and courage. What I dislike about it is that there is sometimes a celebration of ignorance. In my family, there was no celebration of ignorance. They'd come and see Chekhov or Shakespeare. I've got a sister who got a first in her degree. We don't sit around watching TV all the time. The depiction of working-class families on council estates you see in films and on television, the idea that people are somehow lazy spongers – that's not my recollection. David Cameron talks about "broken Britain". Well, I lived on a council estate for 25 years and if I misbehaved, someone knew about it. He's talking a load of crap.
There's an assumption, isn't there, that people who live on council estates should aspire to leave?
Yeah, people don't want to escape. The only reason they would is if you tell them there's something better to escape to. Don't get me wrong – I have a very middle-class life in Chiswick in west London but I don't think I'm happier here than in Bethnal Green.
So do you take exception to the supposed "social realism" of films such asFish Tank?
Certain moviemakers don't patronise the East End but there is – it may be well-meaning – a lot of desire to rescue people. With 90% of people on a council estate, you go into their house and it's spotless, the children are going to school, their sons are learning to be plumbers. Maybe 5% are dysfunctional – alcoholics and drug-takers. And then you get people saying: "Right, that's what we're going to make a film about." But if you look at the class that left Eton or Harrow, 10% of them aren't fine either. You've got to be careful you make a film about people, not about social issues.
How much of your professional success has been dependent on the quirkiness of your face?
Loads of it, because a lot of actors who are good-looking get people saying: "We love the way you look – you would have to be the lead part, but we've already got Brad Pitt." With me, the way I look, the money people don't care who plays that part. Now I try to hide my face most of the time, to be honest with you. I don't want to look like me on screen.
Are you recognised on the street?
Yeah, sometimes I do get people coming up to me. They're always very nice. I went swimming the other day and my wife was watching and she said: "You know, it's funny, it's when you've got no clothes on, no one recognises you." I said: "What are you saying? That I should do more love scenes?"
Atomic Blonde review: Charlize Theron's ice-cold super-spy makes Bond look arthritic
Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde
Dir: David Leitch. Cast: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones. 15 cert, 115 min
“I take pleasure in the details,” says a startlingly attractive French spy (Sofia Boutella) to Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde, remembering the latter’s drink of choice – Stoli on ice – as they rendezvous in a Berlin nightclub. Details are everything in this lusciously appointed retro-noir action romp: it gussies up every element of décor and dances its violent way around the furnishings. When the two women repair to bed, it isn’t shy, either.
Eddie Marsan: ‘I don’t demonise. If I did, I’d be a terrible actor.’ Photograph: Matt Holyoak
The New Review Q&A Interview
Eddie Marsan: ‘My wife says Twitter is my midlife crisis’
The British actor, who stars alongside Christian Bale in the forthcoming Vice, talks about politics, playing baddies, and doing the kids’ homework Killiam Fox Satyurday 19 January 2019
E
ddie Marsan, 50, is a prolific British character actor who has played roles as diverse as Shimon Peres, Heinrich Himmler and Bob Dylan. Born and raised in east London, he left school at 15 and apprenticed as a printer before becoming an actor. It took a decade before he started getting regular work, helped by Mike Leigh casting him in Vera Drake(2004) and as a volatile driving instructor in Happy-Go-Lucky (2008). In the US, where he now mostly works (though he lives in Chiswick), he is best known for his role as Terry, an ex-boxer with Parkinson’s, in the Showtime series Ray Donovan. For his latest film Vice, exploring Dick Cheney’s insidious role in the last Bush administration, Marsan plays deputy secretary of defence, Paul Wolfowitz.
Ray Donovan, 2012: Jon Voight as Mickey Donovan; Dash Mihok as Bunchy Donovan; Eddie Marsan as Terry Donovan; Liev Schreibe as Ray Donovan
When did you realise that you resembled Wolfowitz enough to play him in Vice?
I got a call saying that [director] Adam McKay would like me to play this part. I knew who Paul Wolfowitz was – I’m a bit of a politics geek – and I saw the physical similarity. It still needed a lot of time in makeup, but I’m used to that – I’m married to a makeup artist.
Did you come away thinking that Wolfowitz was a bad guy?
No. I understood him as a man who believed in promoting democracy in other countries, and I played him as somebody who thought he was doing the right thing. I don’t think anybody wakes up in the morning and says: “I’m going to be evil today.” I played Himmler a couple of years ago [in The Exception] and even Himmler didn’t think he was being evil.
But didn’t you get a whiff of sulphur as you took a closer look at the Bush administration?
No, I don’t work like that. I don’t demonise. If I did, I’d be a terrible actor, because I play absolute motherfuckers all the time.
Have you heard any Republican reactions to the film?
I heard that Jared Kushner and Ivanka [Trump] walked out of a screening – that was quite funny. I work with [vocal Republican supporter] Jon Voight on Ray Donovan, and he hasn’t said anything. Me and him do sometimes talk about politics, but we’re always very graceful with each other. I’ve got a lot of affection for him, I just don’t agree with him politically, which is fine. There’s lots of people who I agree with politically who I can’t fucking stand.
What did you make of Christian Bale’s turn as Dick Cheney?
I was blown away by it. As an actor I could see how much work he put into it – the discipline, the hours in makeup, the weight he put on. He’s a very unshowy actor who just quietly gets on with his job and I admire that.
You’re a busy actor. Do you ever panic if you see a gap in your schedule?
No, not really. I need more breaks actually, because I work too hard. I think it comes out of that fear when you’re young and there’s gaps and you never know when the next job is going to turn up. I’m still working at that level. But it’s not only to do with work: since my late teens, I’ve needed to be in control of my own life.
You would have been badly suited to a full-time job…
Yeah, I would have hated it. I love the challenge of not knowing what’s coming next and having to adapt.
Eddie Marsan
Have you ever felt typecast?
No. I think the reason I avoided that, to be honest with you, is that I was never successful enough for anyone to have a fixed idea of me. So when people began to take notice of me, my career already had that diversity. Suddenly people started going, “Who’s this bloke? He’s all over the place.”
You’ve never had a defining role.
The closest I’ve had is on Ray Donovan. I’ve played Terry for seven or eight years now and people have a lot of affection for him. They’re always disappointed if they spend five minutes in my company and discover I’m not as charismatic as Terry.
Most actors prefer to keep their political views to themselves, but you’re very outspoken. Why is that?
I was outspoken before I became an actor, so the idea that I should be quiet now, I don’t agree with. Also the things that I’m saying are very close to my heart. I have a great personal investment in a country that believes in diversity, and I find Brexit is the opposite of that.
You spend a lot of time arguing about Brexit on Twitter, often with Corbyn supporters.
If you look at the far left, they know that people were manipulated and lied to over Brexit but they don’t support a people’s vote. Rather than giving people the information and letting them make up their own mind, they would rather lie to them more because they take comfort in their ideology – it’s more important to them than the people their ideology is supposed to help.
You get a lot of flak on Twitter. Does it bother you?
I don’t mind it really. My wife says Twitter is my midlife crisis. “You never went to university so this is your debating society.” And I do find it interesting, I love debating with people, listening to different views. Usually when they say something personal, it’s very inaccurate and says more about them than me.
When you’re not working, what do you get up to?
Taking my kids to school, helping them with their homework. I read a lot, mostly politics and economics. I keep fit as much as possible. Terry Donovan is quite a physical part so I have to keep in pretty good shape. It’s well documented that I don’t really like pubs, but I have lots of friends around for dinner.
What have you got coming up?
A film called Feedback where I’m playing a radio talkshow host in London who’s obsessed by Brexit and his studio gets hijacked by terrorists. It’s sort of James O’Brien meets Die Hard.
Do your kids ever watch your films?
They do. My son was really excited his dad was in Deadpool 2. Though the boys at school were like, “Your dad’s a paedo.” [Marsan plays a perverted headmaster in the film.] Which led to: “Daddy, why do you have to be a paedophile, why can’t you be a superhero?” Unfortunately, I’ve got no control over that.
