If you think of one of today’s great actors who often goes underappreciated but is among the most hardworking around, Eddie Marsan OBE is your man.

From playing Richard III on stage to starring alongside Robert Downey Jr. in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes films, or appearing in Edgar Wright’s The World’s End from the Cornetto Trilogy, Marsan has proven himself an acting powerhouse across a career spanning three and a half decades. Despite rarely being given the spotlight, he has built an extraordinary body of work filled with blockbuster hits and acclaimed dramas. His versatility is unmatched, whether in period pieces, Netflix’s Heartstopper, the Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black, or his upcoming role in DC Comics’ much anticipated horror Clayface. Whatever the project, Marsan brings a quiet focus and intensity that makes him magnetic to watch.

In one of his latest films, Marsan takes on the lead role of pensive, remorseful thief Ronnie Blake in the psychological crime thriller All The Devils Are Here. Starring alongside Sam Claflin, Burn Gorman, Tienne Simon, Rory Kinnear, and Suki Waterhouse, the story follows a group of London criminals hiding out in the countryside after a heist. As guilt festers and loyalties fracture, tensions rise and violence looms. Directed by Barnaby Roper, the film digs into shifting codes, betrayal, and the unraveling of control.

To mark the digital release of All The Devils Are Here, Eddie Marsan sits down with 1883 Magazine to talk about the film, reuniting with Rory Kinnear, the big fight scene, and the golden rule that has guided him on all his roles so far.

You’ve reunited with Rory Kinnear in this film, someone you’ve worked with before. What’s it like to build on those existing relationships, and then fold in new collaborators on All The Devils Are Here?

I’ve also worked with Sam before on Snow White and The Huntsman. Rory, I’ve known for a while. I first worked with him about 20 years ago. One of the joys of being an actor is to grow up with actors, to see them become wonderful craftsmen. You know, to sit in a room with Rory and to see the skill and the ease with which he performs is a joy to watch.

He’s learned that craft through constant rejection going up for parts not getting it, persevering. All actors have to persevere and be stoic. So to see somebody like him, be as good as he is, you know what he’s put into it. I love actors. I do. I’ve got great admiration for them and to be in a room with people you grew up with is a joy.

Ronnie Blake is a seasoned thief, clearly tired and pensive about the consequences of his career. You’ve played crooks before, but also been on the other side as a copper in Sherlock Holmes. When approaching a role like this, what do you tap into?

Well, the first thing I did when I played this role is I tried to find a kind of visual point of reference. Like an essence of the character. My essence for Ronnie was Bob Hoskins. I imagined if I would watch this movie if Bob Hoskins was in it. So even my hair, everything was kind of a touch of Bob Hoskins, because is set in, I think, about 1981. It’s an analog age. So this is a man who ran at about the same time as they were shooting The Long Good Friday. This film is being made. 

That was my point of reference and my inspiration to do this. But also it was just great writing. I love it. I can’t stand gangster movies at the moment, because gangsters are just wish-fulfilment characters, two dimensional wish-fulfilment characters. And what’s great about this movie is it’s four gangsters in a hell of their own making. If you’ve ever spent time around gangsters, and I did when I was growing up, they are in a hell of their own making. They’re not somebody to emulate. They’re somebody to pity.

I did feel sorry for Ronnie because he’s clearly remorseful, and thinking about his family, especially his daughter. He also tries to steer Tienne Simon’s character away from a life of crime. He’s clearly done a lot of bad in his life but you still kind of root for him.

Yes, He’s a good man. A good man that had done some bad things.

With so much of the film unfolding inside that old house, so where did you actually shoot and what can you tell me about the location?

We shot the exterior in the Moors in Devon. It’s the same house that was actually the farmer’s house in War Horse. It’s the same house, just made to look worse. And then we shot the interior in Twickenham Studios. The design team did an incredible job. But even Barnaby Roper, the director, he is so aesthetically skilful that everything that was in that house helps to tell that story. It’s wonderful.

We’ve got to talk about the big fight scene — how involved were you in putting that together and what can you say about it?

Well, it was brilliantly choreographed by the stunt team. There’s got to be a lot of trust between me and Sam. We both could of hurt each other if we’re not careful. So there’s a lot of trust. I’m really a good, proficient fighter. I’m really skilful. As long as I have two weeks rehearsal and you count 5,6,7,8, before we go, I could beat anyone [laughs]. 

Wow, out of curiosity then, how many days or weeks does it take to learn the choreography to really get it nailed?

We had three days of rehearsal, and then you keep rehearsing on the day, because it changes when you have the location. You have to smash through walls and dive into mud and things. Sam had pulled a disc in his back, so he was really in a lot of pain when he did that fight sequence, he was very brave.

Over 35 years you’ve been part of so many memorable projects. What’s the through-line or golden rule that’s guided you — and how did it apply here for this film?

There’s a great quote from Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) who was a North African playwright in the Roman era, where he said: ‘nothing human is alien to me’.

And that’s how I think what an actor should be. Nothing human is alien to me. I can play anything, and anyone can play anything. It’s not about who plays it. It’s how you play it. If you do it well then you’ve got a right to do.

The title of the film instantly made me think of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. You’ve got that Shakespearean background yourself — does your previous theatre experiences shape the way you approach film roles at all?

I never had any difference in my approach between doing a theatre job and a film job. It was always exactly the same. I haven’t done theater for 25 years. I appeared recently at the Young Vic to do a one night special in a play called An Oak Tree, where I didn’t know what was going to happen.

But I haven’t done a play for 25 years, but that was just logistics. It isn’t because I don’t enjoy theatre. Although, to be honest with you, I think I never got cast as well in theatre as I did in film. Film always gave me better roles, especially American films, they gave me better roles than British theater. British theatre always had a very fixed idea of me that I didn’t enjoy really.

Finally, Do you have a particular favourite moment from just the time shooting All The Devils Are Here, anything you’d want to share from working with the cast and crew?

Yeah, there was a scene when we were all sitting around the table, and there’s all the buckets with the water dripping, and we had to do a big scene with the camera moving around us. It was just a great joy to work with an ensemble of actors. To work with Burn Gorman, Tienne, Sam and just sit there with them and appreciate how good they are.

I love actors. Honestly, I can really understand how good musicians enjoy working with good musicians and good actors like working with good actors. Art is a very generous thing. You can’t be egotistical with art. So to be in a room with a lot of people who give it 100% generously is a wonderful thing.

Just to say I know you’ve done countless interviews, and this is just another one of them, but you spending the time now, Eddie, really does mean a lot. So thanks for chatting.

Oh, thank you very much. No, it’s great. It’s really an honour to be interviewed by you, honestly.

All The Devils Are Here is out now.

Interview Cameron Poole