Times Magazine 2001

'Alan Jackson Calls Steven Mackintosh'

Steven Mackintosh lives in North London with his wife, the actress Lisa Jacobs, and their daughters Martha, seven and Blythe, 3. He stars in a new film The Criminal, a thriller that also stars Eddie Izzard and Bernard Hill, which opened yesterday.

The Times Magazine, Saturday 13th January 2001

Alan Jackson: This CV of yours could make many a veteran actor weep. For a start, to be in your early thirties, yet to have been performing for two decades....

Steven Mackintosh: Well, I didn't turn professional until I was 16. But, yes, I got my first job at 13, and then another, and then another. that's how it went, right up to the point when I was wondering whether to go to drama school or just carry on with my ordinary education. Along came the offer of a further part and I though, "I might as well do this full time."

AJ: Since when it's an unbroken series of good and sometimes excellent roles across television, filmm and theatre. No propping up the bar in Emmerdale. No being Mr Cheesy in a Daz commercial.

SM: Nowadays, I'm fortunate to be in a position to avaiod the tackier things. But earlier on, I was definately lucky not to get stuck in, say some dodgy series that caused people for ever to associate me with a particular character.

AJ: Always, it's the person you're playing I see first. I never find myself thinking "Oh, there's Steven Mackintosh pretending to be whoever."

SM: Thank you very much! I imagine that's what every actor strives for. And if I do achieve it at all, it's perhaps due in some degree to the fact that, in real life, I'm not a particularly extrovert individual. I don't have one of those larger than life personas that can bleed into your work.

AJ: In The Criminal, this noir-ish, London-based thriller, you're a kind of everyman's figure. You get caught up in events beyond your control, are framed for crimes you didn't commit, and find it impossible to make anyone believe your truth. It's the stuff of nightmares isn't it?

SM: Terrifying. It put me in mind of something that used to happen a lot, but doesn't so much now, what with me being more of a Dad-type figure. Coing through customs, I'd always be the guy that ot picked on. "Is that your bag, sir? Woul.d you mind opening it up, please?" The thing was that, knowing people thought you looked guilty, you started to behave as if you were guilty.

AJ: The film opens with you picking up Natasha Little, playing a Woman Who's Not What She Seems, in a late-night bar. You can't believe she falls for lines like "What's a nice girl like you....?" Was it with similar poetry that you swept Lisa off her feet?

SM: (laughing) Good lord, no! For us it happened gradually. We were appearing together in Brighton Beach Memoirs at the National and, of course, it helped that my character was in love with hers. After a while it happened for real.

AJ: You married when you were just 21. Not many people do that any more.

SM: I know. It's funny that what used to be th norm has become almost, an act of rebellion. I hadn't been looking to get married, but suddenly I wanted to. It hit me smack in the face, and when I least expected it. I felt, and still do feel, that I was just incredibly lucky to find someone who suited me so well.

AJ: And what's on the cards for you now?

SM: Major upheaval! We're moving house, so everything else is on hold. there were a couple of parts I could have taken, but with ten years of garbage to clear from the cellar....

AJ: A lesser man would just seize the excuse to clear off on location, leaving his partner to cope alone.

SA: A lesser man might come back to find that all the locks had been changed. It's not a risk I was prepared to take!