Until he was cast as the lusted-after antihero in the Disney+ adaptation of Dame Jilly Cooper’s 1988 bonkbuster, Rivals, Alex Hassell had never even heard of Rupert Campbell-Black. Sitting in Repton Boxing Club in Bethnal Green, after dancing around the ring in a variety of high-fashion outfits for our shoot, the 45-year-old actor tells me he’s glad he had no idea of Cooper’s ardent, engaged fandom. Her saucy novels have sold 11 million copies in the UK alone and there was minor uproar when the dark-haired Hassell was cast as Cooper’s flaxen lothario. “The thing that made me nervous is the level of potency that Rupert is meant to have,” he says. “I thought I’d be really uncomfortable in that skin. I didn’t get that he had loads of other levels to him.”
As the host of Rivals: The Official Podcast, this is my fourth time interviewing the actor and I am always struck anew by the extraordinary cloak he pulls on to play RCB: showjumper, politician, TV executive and epic slut. In person, Hassell, who has been married to fellow actor Emma King for 15 years, is thoughtful, curious, witty and low-key, while as Rupert he is 100 per cent distilled arrogance: all laconic, leonine prowl and dismissive, crystal-cut RP.
