Calam Lynch: "I don’t have a UK passport, only an Irish one, which was important to my parents"

For all of the film industry’s supposed wokery, I’d say the chances of the new 007 introducing themselves as: “The name’s Bond, Jane Bond” are somewhere between none and feck all.

If that’s a dagger to your heart, let me point you in the direction of Judith Burton, the deadly but oh-so-debonair hitwoman in Prime Video’s new action comedy, Ride Or Die.

As comfortable wielding a machete and thwacking people with tin trays as she is squeezing the trigger of a high-velocity assault rifle, Burton is played with considerable glee by Hannah Waddingham who’s 6ft 2 in her heels and could likely go the full distance with Katie Taylor.

Trying to keep her somewhat in line – whatever the rule is, you can bet on Judith breaking it – is her long-suffering controller Sam who’s brilliantly brought to life by Calam Lynch.

“One of the great things about the show is that it has so many different things going on, including the spy action sequences which Hannah is so good at,” the 31-year old tells us when we track him down to his Brixton, South London lair. “She has so much presence as a performer and looks so awesome doing all the killing.”

Asked to describe his own character, Calam says: “Essentially Sam is Judith’s boss – although she’d probably have an issue with him saying that! He coordinates her missions and there’s some tension because he’s a young, officious man and she’s been doing it for years and doesn’t fancy taking orders from him. There’s a closeness between them, though, which you sense early on and becomes more apparent in episodes 3, 4 and 5 when we go into Sam’s back story and understand a little bit more about him.

“The show might be funny and silly and there’s loads of action stuff, but he is working for an assassination agency and ordering people to be killed. He’s young and hasn’t actually considered what he’s doing. As the show progresses, we see both Sam and Judith reckoning with their jobs and learning things from each other.”

Calam Lynch and Savannah Steyn in
Ride or Die

Also delivering a bravura performance as Judith’s less murderous best friend Debbie Claybourne is Octavia Spencer, the Alabaman thesp who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Minny Jackson in The Help. BTW, we haven’t been able to look at chocolate cake since.

“The first thing that struck me about Tessa Coates’ script for the Ride Or Die pilot was just how genuinely funny it was,” Calam resumes. “Her writing occupies that same British comedy world as Alan Partridge and The Office whilst being its own thing. Octavia and Hannah were already attached by the point I read it, which made me even more determined to play Sam!”

Having initially told Debbie that she’s a forensic accountant – “A job so confusing sounding and potentially boring that no one ever asks any follow up questions,” she notes  – Judith is forced to admit her real occupation when some very bad Albanian men start firing machine guns at them. Needless to say, they’re terminated with extreme prejudice.

The chemistry between Spencer and Waddingham is electric as they switch into Thelma & Louise mode – albeit with a far higher body count.

“Ultimate, that’s what the show lives and dies by,” Calam reflects. “Ten days before shooting started, the core group of us went out to Prague for the read-through in front of all the execs who were over from Amazon. We were being live-streamed around the world to the people who couldn’t make it.

“It was all very tense until Octavia and Hannah read together for the first time, and then you felt this massive exhalation – ‘Oh my god, it’s going to be brilliant! Without any rehearsals or sets, it works.’ It was such an exciting moment.”

What has Calam learned about Hannah Waddingham and Olivia Spencer that he didn’t previously know?

“I got to work with Octavia towards the end as well and they’re both such great people and very, very funny,” he enthuses. “They love having a laugh on set and go out of their way to make everyone feel comfortable. Off her own bat, Octavia did little things for crew members numerous times.

“Hannah likewise. One of the first things we shot was Judith meeting Sam to find out what her next hit is going to be. It was a five-page scene at a dinner table and we were both really nervous. Hannah went out of her way to make me feel relaxed and that her and I were a little team. It made the whole thing so much more fun.”

That laughing on set had its occasional downside.

“I don’t want to dob Hannah in but she’s as shocking a corpser as I am, and when we did scenes together it was an issue,” Calam admits. “It’s funny at first but not when you’re delaying everyone having their meal-break. There are moments in the edits where they’ve cut away just before that moment, and actually it’s quite nice to have a little bit of twinkle in there before the full laugh ruins the take!”

Ride Or Die –  which also manages to squeeze Spain, Switzerland and Monaco into its all-action itinerary – is accompanied by a thumping soundtrack which includes the likes of Doja Cat’s ‘Boss Bitch’, My Bad Sister & Major Upset’s ‘Keep It Down’, Dua Lipa’s ‘Don’t Start Now’ and Gin Wigmore’s ‘Kill Of The Night’, which serves as the theme tune.

Is Calam a big music fan?

“I’d never found another creative outlet since becoming an actor,” he says. “I’ve tried writing bits and pieces but it’s not really me. I don’t have an impulse to direct but I love electronic music and I produced and acted in a video for one of my best friends, Nimino, who’s signed to Ninja Tune.

“Nine months ago I downloaded Ableton and, via-YouTube really, have slowly been learning the ropes of how to make little beats. It’s too actor-y to make the transition into DJ-ing but I’ve been having a lot of fun.”

It’s never put Craig Charles, Elijah Wood or Idris Elba off manning the 1s and 2s. What was the last gig Calam went to see?

“I was in Ibiza a week-and-a half ago and saw an Australian DJ called HAAi who was excellent.”

While anxious not to come across as a ‘Plastic Paddy’, Calam has a harp on his passport; has discovered Croatian, Ghanaian, Panamanian, Congolese, Mexican and Norwegian heritage during the World Cup; and cites performing at the Abbey Theatre as one of the biggest thrills of his life.

“I did the Henrik Ibsen play Ghosts in the Abbey in 2023,” he recalls. “Mark Rowe directed and I loved working there. I had a funny moment just after we’d opened. I was walking down the stairs to leave the theatre and saw this portrait of my grandad, Cyril, who I never met. I was like, ‘Is it him? Yeah, it is!’ The walls really were speaking to me that night!

“If there’s another city in the world that feels like home, it’s Dublin. I spent pretty much every summer there from when I was four to about sixteen or seventeen. Some of my mum’s family are in West Cork as well.”

Has he picked up cúpla focal?

“Little bits here and there. Since Kneecap it’s cool to be a Gaeilgeoir whereas when I was young it wasn’t really. I don’t have a UK passport, only an Irish one, which was important to my parents. I really do feel Irish but I also really feel like I’m from London. England doesn’t resonate with me but London does.”

Calam also got to spend some quality time recently in Limerick city.

“I did a gorgeous film there called Once Upon A Time In A Cinema,” he resumes. “I loved hearing about the heady ‘90s rave days in the Theatre Royal where we filmed. Oscar Wilde performed there, as did The Cranberries who were obviously from up the road. The building, which I don’t think is in full-time use anymore, has such a history.”

Indeed, during his Limerick days little Stewie Clark also saw Black Grape, House Of Pain, The Prodigy, Boyzone, Billy Connoly and Father Ted shooting its 'A Song For Europe' episode in the Royal.

“I’d heard people say Stab City and those sorts of things, but Limerick was great,” Calam insists. “The writer-director David Gleeson and a lot of the other people on the job were from there, so we had some great nights out. My mum was in that film as well, which made it a particularly special one.”

Calam’s mum being Niamh Cusack, which means that Finbar Lynch is his dad; Sorcha, Sinéad and Catherine Cusack his aunties; Max Irons and Richard Boyd Barret (yep, the People Before Profit one!) his cousins; and the aforementioned Cyril and Maureen Cusack his maternal grandparents.

When did he realise as a kid that his wasn’t your typical family?

“We lived in Manchester when I was three and went back to London when I was seven. During that time, my father was in New York for a year-and-a-half doing a play. There was always a question mark about the future and where we’d be. It probably didn’t drop into my conscious brain until I started secondary school and was like, ‘Wow, no one else’s parents are going out to do a show in the evening. Their mums and dads are home and have dinner with them when they get back from school.’  Then in the summer holidays, they might both be around for three weeks. It was that thing of comparing myself to my friends.”

Was going to Sommerville College, Oxford to read Theatre and Classics as posh as it sounds?

“There were ninety Eton boys in my year at Oxford, which gives you a sense of the clientele,” Calam laughs again. “It was a mixture, really. Obviously there’s a grandeur to the architecture and the courses. I’d done Latin at school which was why I applied to do Classics, but I’d never studied Ancient Greek before and had to do three hours of it every morning which was brutally difficult.”

Respite came when Calam got cast in Christopher Nolan’s 2017 war epic, Dunkirk.

“I had to ask my principal at college for a couple of weeks off. It was pretty intense because we were shooting it in Dunkirk with two thousand French extras. These authentic World II Stukas that Christopher had bought were flying overhead and everybody was dressed up in the gear. Not to be flippant but having all these young men on the beaches where it happened was pretty poignant.

“One of the ways Christopher works is that there’s not too many scripts on set. Me and the other guys didn’t know what little pieces we’d be doing until someone told us on the day. I was twenty and like, ‘Can’t believe I’m here, this incredible!’ but there were a few actors three or four years older than me and they were a bit pissed off not knowing.

“It was my first film and I got to meet Christopher Nolan which was one for the bucket-list! My next screen job was a BBC mini-series called Mrs. Wilson with Ruth Wilson who’s such a pro and a lovely woman. I remember getting to set there and thinking, ‘This is tiny!’ because my only yardstick was Dunkirk.”

Is it still the biggest production he’s been involved in?

“The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of The Power with Amazon was a massive TV production. Bridgerton was another one where you’re pinching yourself because it’s all so lavish, but I don’t think anything will ever out-scale Dunkirk.”

Calam Lynch in Bridgerton

Next up in 2019 was the role of young heartthrob John Paul O’Reilly in 'The Prom' episode of Derry Girls.

“I was literally there for two days but it was so nice and they were all so lovely,” he coos. “The scene starts with them all sat at one table and me at another with the sweet girl who was playing my girlfriend. Just before the camera rolled, they turned to me and said, ‘You’re going to do great, Calam!’ They were trying to big me up and make me feel relaxed and comfortable. Obviously, I’ve worked since on Bridgerton with Nicola Coughlan who I’m a massive fan of. Success really hasn’t spoilt her. I don’t think I quite realised the cultural impact Derry Girls was going to have, but I’m delighted to have been a small part of it.”

Another series that’s had a massive cultural impact and gone global is What It Feels Like For A Girl, a coming-of-age tale which finds the gender-questioning Byron escaping their oppressive northern English hometown and discovering what life really has to offer.

“I’d read the Paris Lees memoir it’s based on and was really moved by it,” Calam concludes. “It was important to honour what Paris had written about this amazing group of friends. From the moment I went into the casting room to do a chemistry test with Ellis Howard who plays Byron, I was like, ‘These people understand the importance of Paris’ words.’ I knew they were going to get great work out of us and, like Derry Girls, the show captured something significant.”

• Ride Or Die is out now on Prime Video