At 76, Bill Nighy is eyeing a belated action career, having recently joked he could play James Bond's grandfather. In a new interview, the veteran actor expressed enthusiasm for more action roles after starring as The Director in Amazon Prime's Ride or Die.
Nighy Returns to Action Genre
Sixteen years after playing a hitman in Wild Target, Nighy returns to the world of contracted killers in Ride or Die, opposite Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer. He portrays The Director, head of a mysterious assassination agency. 'I'm so pleased when anybody talks about Wild Target, because nobody talked about Wild Target when Wild Target was Wild Target,' Nighy told Metro. 'I played a hitman. It was the only other time I've ever used a gun, I think, until I got to this one, where I do actually shoot a pistol at one point. I'm always pleased for that, and I'm looking to do more of that. I want a very belated action career.'
Character Insights and Research
Nighy explained how he pieced together his character: 'The directions within the script were quite specific about how he should be: quiet, collected, steely, merciless. Then when you see the office, which is the size of the average cathedral, and you see my desk is the size of Devon, you think, 'Well, I think I know how to do this.' They put you in the right suit, and it's just a case of keeping a straight face.'
Asked about research, Nighy was refreshingly honest: 'I've got to this point, you get to my age, you can answer those questions honestly, and you don't have to bulls**t. When you're younger, you have to lie, but if you ask me how much research I've done, the answer is absolutely none whatsoever. Any information I require is actually in the script, which it actually was, because the stage direction and the character descriptions within the script were very, very specific.'
On Method Acting and Typecasting
Nighy dismissed the concept of being 'in character': 'I have never knowingly been in character in my life. I've heard great things about it, but it's outside of my experience. I understand the word 'character'; it's the word 'in' I don't grasp. I know what they mean, but I kind of don't know what they mean, because I think it's sort of mythical to a large degree in my experience. Not in other people's experience, other people I know have different experiences.'
He also expressed a desire to be typecast: 'People often say, 'I don't want to get typecast.' I'd love to be typecast. It would be so great to go to work and just walk and talk and not have to put on a battle skirt or put on 250 dots on your face and wear cosmic pyjamas.'
Ride or Die Plot
The series follows Judith (Hannah Waddingham), a dangerous assassin who has kept her profession a secret from her best friend Debbie (Octavia Spencer) for 20 years. Debbie is the wife of an MP who has put her own aspirations aside. They are forced to go on the run when Judith fails to assassinate criminal Billy Donovan (Ed Skrein), while The Director tracks her every move.
Ride or Die is available to watch on Amazon Prime.
