A Town Called Malice

“It’s the first time I’ve genuinely read a script and thought, ‘I’m going to be really fucking miserable if I don’t get this!’ The quality of writing is that good.”

Richard Dormer is recalling his September 2013 audition for Fortitude, the new pan-European Sky Atlantic drama which is by far and away the most ambitious – and at £25 million, most expensive – original drama series Murdoch’s mob has ever attempted.
“Fortitude is a place like nowhere else,” reads the sales pitch. “Although surrounded by the savage beauty of the Arctic landscape, Fortitude is one of the safest towns on earth. There has never been a violent crime here. Until now. In such a close-knit community a murder touches everyone and the unsettling, mysterious horror of this crime threatens the future of the town itself.”
“I was up in Scotland at the time of the audition and almost didn’t go, which would have been the biggest mistake of my professional life,” the 49-year-old Lisburn actor laughs. “Anyway, I travelled down to London where they wanted to see me for one of the other characters. I came in and they liked me so much they said, ‘Would you read for the lead?’ It was a lengthy, drawn-out process trying to convince all the Americans I was the right guy. It’s a huge project and there’s a lot riding on it, but eventually they went, ‘Yep, you’re our local Head of Police, Dan Anderssen.’ He’s Norwegian, but I decided to give the accent an American twist because he’s of the generation that would have grown up watching American movies and MTV when he was learning English.”
Normerican accent perfected, Dormer returned to London in January 2014 for the first ensemble read through of the script.
“There were about a hundred people sat around a very big hotel table. I’m beside Christopher Eccleston, Michael Gambon, Stanley Tucci and Sofie Gråbøl – make sure you get all the vowely bits in her name right! – going, ‘This is the crème de la crème of character acting.’ I mean, Michael Gambon...”
Top of my list of questions, in bold and underlined is, “What is Michael Gambon, a native of Cabra and holder of dual-Irish/British citizenship, like in real life?”
“He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, a real joker,” Richard enthuses. “Michael’s got so many anecdotes, you could write a book just listening to the man talking about Olivier and O’Toole, the old school. He’s from the golden era of television, The Singing Detective and all that.”
It won’t have gone unnoticed by fans of The Killing that Fortitude is a first jumperless, English language TV runout for Ms. Gråbøl whose name does indeed require considerable keyboard dexterity.
“Sofie’s a gem. She’s got a very wicked sense of humour, which made it almost impossible to do our scenes because we kept corpsing each other. It’s like being the kid at the back of the class; you’re not allowed to laugh so you want to laugh.”
Did Richard have any buddies on set from his previous projects which, lest we forget, include that other big budget TV blockbuster, Game Of Thrones?
“No, none of us had worked together before so it was all in at the deep end!” he resumes. “It was a very happy set, no one was playing the star and we bonded like a big family. It was incredible.”
That familial closeness was evident last week when, in Dublin for Fortitude’s Irish premiere, Christopher Eccleston cooed, “Richard is a mate for life, he feels
like a brother to me. This will make him a star and rightly so.”
“Ah, bless him. I’m not going to name names but I’ve worked on films and shows with far less high-profile people who’ve been absolute pains in the arse. I can’t believe how egoless Fortitude was.”
With Sofie Gråbøl on board – she plays scheming hotelier Hildur Odegard – Fortitude is understandably being seen as a Sky attempt to muscle in on the Nordic Noir action.
“A lot of people are comparing it to The Killing but once they get into it they’ll realise it’s nothing like those shows. It’s an incredibly original idea. I can’t give anything away but it is unique. It’s on its own. It may look familiar – you know, the ice and stuff – but where this thing goes, you couldn’t dream it up. It’s crazy, really ambitious.”
I won’t give away any spoilers, other than to say it’s dark, dark stuff.
“Absolutely, yeah,” Sheriff Dan nods in agreement. “There’s a savage heart beating through it all. I’d love to expand on that but more so even than with Game Of Thrones, we’ve all been told, ‘Give anything away and we’ll have your balls!’”
Shooting of Fortitude was split fairly evenly between London where all the interiors were done and Iceland which, Richard proffers, “Felt like being on the edge of the world. We flew into Reykjavik but then got on another plane to Egilsstaðir on the east coast, which is where the real beauty is. All you can see out the window is glaciers and fjords. You get a vivid sense on screen of the wildness and extremity of the weather. Although that said, for most of the shoot I was too hot because I had this survival gear designed for minus thirty and it was only about minus two. I had to stick ice-packs inside my costume, which is pretty surreal when you’re standing on permafrost.
“It was my first time going to Iceland and I really miss it. Everyone’s desperate to get back to the place.”
Which looks like happening later this year.
“On pre-sales alone, I'm pretty sure there'll be a second season. This thing is really going global.”
The last time Hot Press and Richard got to gabber was in January 2013 when the 1960s NYC organised crime romp he’d penned, Drum Belly, premiered in
The Abbey.
“What with Creedence Clearwater and the Stooges blaring out between scenes, it was an unusual play for The Abbey but audiences loved it,” he reminisces. “They wanted to get younger people who’d never usually go to the theatre in, and in that respect it was definitely ‘mission accomplished’.”
A man who likes to bring it back home whenever he can, Richard followed up his superb turn as Terri Hooley in Good Vibrations – “Terri’s in hospital at the moment awaiting heart surgery, so get well soon, my friend,” he ventures – with a part in last year’s hard-hitting Troubles-era drama, ‘71.
“Yann Demange, the ‘71 director, saw Good Vibrations and said, ‘I don’t want to do it without you. I need a moral compass and you’re the man for it.’ My character, Eamon, is the only person in it who doesn’t take sides. He’s a moral man, a philanthropist if you like, trying to do the right thing. I’m very glad I did it but, fuck, it was harrowing. I’d come back every night from filming and collapse on to my bed because it was so psychologically intense and close to home.”
Before we let him catch up with his zzzzzzzzzzzzing today – “There were a few celebratory drinks after last night’s premiere,” Richard admits – what does he make of plans to cut in half Northern Ireland Screen’s funding?
“It’s absolute stupidity,” he barks. “Can they not see that one of the biggest industries in the North is film and TV? The amount of people from overseas who visit because of Game Of Thrones alone is huge. They’re cutting off their noses from their face, you know? I don’t understand it. Whoever’s pulling the strings there should wake up and smell the coffee.”
And so say all of us!