The many faces of Cyril Nri. Photo credit: Mark Douet
Cyril Nri is one of this country’s most versatile actors. From the start of his career in the early 1980s with the Royal Shakespeare Company, acting opposite greats like Max Von Sydow, to burning up our TV screens as Superintendent Adam Okara in The Bill, Graham in the acclaimed BBC series This Life, and most recently as Lance in Russell T Davies’s groundbreaking Channel 4 drama Cucumber. Currently touring in the David Hare classic The Absence of War as Oliver Dix, Nri talks to Joy Francis about politics, how he dealt with the public outpouring of grief at Lance’s murder, and why he believes there needs to be colour blind casting.
You are appearing in David Hare’s The Absence of War as chief political adviser Oliver Dix. What appealed to you about the part and the play?
The play appealed to me as I saw it years ago when it was first on at the National. The part of Oliver was played by Oliver Ford Davies who I worked with when I started at the RSC. The writing is great and I knew I would have fun with the director. There was also a bit of nostalgia involved, and I wanted to tackle what I thought was a great role. The sad thing is that the play is quite prophetic as we are in election mode and not much has changed in the way the media and politicians react. We have a TV interview in the show which you could have almost taken verbatim and put into the mouths of [Jeremy] Paxman, [Ed] Miliband and [David] Cameron. It’s really sad that nothing has changed.
People largely know you for your TV work, but you started your career in the theatre. You studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and played Ariel opposite Max Von Sydow’s Prospero in Jonathan Miller’s 1988 production of The Tempest. What was it like to act opposite such theatre luminaries, especially as a young black actor?
It was fantastic to be in this position, but this all happened just after I was thinking of giving it all up. I had gone to Nigeria, which is where my dad is from, and I was thinking of giving up acting, partly because of the way things were cast in those days. I would never be cast in the central theme or idea of a play. I was always the guy on the outside; that’s just the way it was for black actors at that time. When I came back from Nigeria to complete a job, my agent asked me to go up for two auditions. One was for Jonathan Miller at the Old Vic. The other was a David Hare film. I got both jobs. It was unreal to play opposite Von Sydow. I say to aspiring young actors, don’t give up. Keep going because if you stick to your guns, it will all come good – eventually.
What attracted you to acting and the theatre, and was TV part of your career plan?
Yes, it was. When I was at school it was stage work that attracted me. I wanted to miss double math on a Friday so when I was told that if I did the school play I would have to miss half of the lesson for rehearsals I was happy. Also the drama teacher Tony Fegan, who went on to run the BAC, was just brilliant. He inspired a lot of people. I auditioned for the school play and got the lead in The Threepenny Opera. Convincing the parents was more difficult – my mother is Bajan and my father Nigerian. They thought I was wasting my time. I was doing my A levels in the sciences and maths, and I switched halfway through to do art and English. My father was an engineer and wasn’t best pleased. He thought I was just going through a phase, for a long time, before he eventually thought, well at least he can support himself.
You have had such diverse roles over the years in classic TV shows such as This Life and The Bill, but the role of Lance in Russell T Davies’s Cucumber was both daring and captivating. What made you say yes to playing a central gay character?
It was the writing. They sent me the script and the first episode, where Lance’s marriage proposal to Henry was cruelly turned down, was my audition piece. The way Henry rejected Lance with such casual cruelty is something that only people who have been together for a long time can do to each other. It was a searing and stunning series. I have worked with Russell before, including on The Sarah Jane Adventures. I wanted to do it and luckily I got the part. Also this show was different. I back away from playing roles which a lot of us are forced into playing. I don’t want to represent that. The black community in this county is vast and varied and I want to represent the people I know. It isn’t all rapping and singing and stabbing. There are black gay men in this country. Some of them are your brothers and friends, and I thought it would be interesting to show that.
Were you surprised at the overwhelmingly positive response to the show and the outpouring of grief at Lance’s brutal murder?
No, I wasn’t surprised, partly because Lance was one of the few sympathetic characters in the show. He was longsuffering and compromised because he knew what he wanted. He had been through a life where he remained optimistic. He lost his mother at a young age and he still strived. You have to remain optimistic in a nine year relationship without the sex you wish for. I don’t care who you are, I would have left. Even after Lance was killed and was no longer in the programme, he was still present in the last two episodes. The reaction directly after the episode in which he was killed was amazing. I was doing this play and came off stage just before 10pm and watched the last few seconds of the episode. Then my phone started ringing and it didn’t stop. It took me over two hours to get out of the theatre. That has never happened to me before.
I saw you perform in Walk in the Light, showcasing the black contribution as part of the National Theatre’s 50th anniversary celebrations. The National’s new artistic director Rufus Norris and others have been openly critical about the treatment of acting talent of colour in this country. Do you think opportunities have improved in TV and theatre for actors of colour or not?
Things have changed, maybe not enough, but I do think things have changed. I read a Time Out interview with Chiwetel Ejiofor recently and he was quite snappy about being asked questions about playing characters from disadvantaged backgrounds. He said he had played a lot of characters who were world leaders and who were strong. We are still not in an age where we there is colour blind casting. We’d like to think we are, but we are not. The great thing about writing like Russell’s Cucumber is he had always intended that Lance would be at the heart of the programme, and that’s fantastic. That is the way it should be. Things are slowly changing. You can’t ignore the brilliance of [playwright] debbie tucker green. Maybe she will be get an artistic director position.
What next for you?
There are a couple of TV shows I’m up for. I’m looking forward to a little rest for a couple of weeks. My mum is in Barbados at the moment so I will spend a little time with her.
The Absence of War ends its current tour on Saturday 9 May 2015.