When people approach Eddie Marsan in public, they do a wobbly two-step: forwards, in recognition, and backwards, unsure. They know his face, but where is it from? “I’m not really a celebrity; I’m never me. So it takes some time to work it out, I think,” he says, grinning ear to ear on a video call from his home office. He’s been in more than 150 films and TV shows to date, so it’s no surprise people find themselves stumped by the man before them.
The cheery 56-year-old Londoner was almost pigeonholed as a professional Cockney, but after fighting to break out of typecasting, he became widely admired as a character actor – an actor who can play any character. The uninitiated would assume that’s just what an actor is. Not always, Marsan has concluded after decades in the business. “Some people want to be famous rather than be an actor. They think they love acting, but they love the idea of fame more. That never appealed to me – not because of any great moral strength on my part. My whole purpose in life was to earn a living as an actor, and the best way to do that was to be as versatile as possible.”
