“I don’t really believe in evil, as such,” says Bertie Carvel. “I think there are evil actions. Evil stuff happens, and people cause it. But I don’t believe in good people and bad people. I think people are a composite of their character’s circumstances or decisions. And your job as an actor is to sort of … walk in those shoes.”
Carvel seems attracted to a certain moral murkiness. His résumé includes roles as Rupert Murdoch in James Graham’s play Ink; Miss Trunchbull, the monstrous headmistress in Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical, whom he played on stage in both London and New York; and Simon Foster, the sociopathic, financially reckless love rat from BBC One’s Doctor Foster. In the past, he has said that he likes portraying questionable characters and having “a damn good try making you like them”. His interest in politics and power led to him portraying that Faustian antihero Nick Clegg in the Channel 4 drama Coalition; he is about to play Tony Blair in The Crown. But on the morning we meet, he is deep into rehearsals for a role that fuses politics with ethics – or the lack of them – and marks his most daring career move to date.
