NY TIMES – After three seasons as Robb Stark in “Game of Thrones,” Richard Madden thought he knew a thing or two about television blockbusters. Then the British thriller “Bodyguard” came along and blew his mind.
Written by Jed Mercurio (“Line of Duty”), “Bodyguard” stars Madden as David Budd, a PTSD-afflicted Afghanistan war veteran assigned to protect the home secretary, Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), whose hawkish politics he loathes — and icy allure he can’t resist.
When it debuted in late August, the numbers were staggering: According to the BBC, 41 million (and counting) watched the six-episode set, making “Bodyguard” the highest-rated drama since “Downton Abbey.” Then in October, “Bodyguard” moved to Netflix and was widely binged, leading to Golden Globe nominations for both Madden and the series, in the best television drama category.
“People asked me, ‘Did you know it was going to do so well?’ And no, I didn’t have a clue because it was about surviving quite a grueling shoot,” Madden said. “And to think this little British TV show that we all worked really hard on had such an impact is a bit overwhelming for me. I think one in four people in Britain watched it, which is crazy.”
It also solidified Madden, a 32-year-old Scotsman, as leading-man material and cast him as a front-runner to replace Daniel Craig as the next James Bond. Make what you will of reports that he favors a vodka martini. But if Madden knows anything, he’s not saying.
In a phone interview from Los Angeles as he prepared for awards season, he talked about the alchemy of “Bodyguard” and keeping his cool under the paparazzi’s glare. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Those ratings! What was the magic formula?
I wish I knew because I could recreate it on every job I did. [Laughs] It’s something to do with this gray zone that we all live in, this moral ambiguity. Things can sometimes be so clean-cut in who’s the bad guy and who’s the good guy. And this straddled the lines of both, and played with the audience’s perception.
Then there’s Budd’s steamy relationship with his powerful boss. I understand that’s not such a far-fetched story line.
Actually, we worked closely with a lot of men who had been in that position — looking after foreign dignitaries and members of Parliament and royalty — and said, without naming names, that these bonds do get made and the lines do get very crossed. Because this person that you live with all the time, you see them a lot more than you do your own family, and you go through extreme situations. And thus, that kind of intimacy does happen.
What was so grueling about the shoot?
It was six-day weeks, and we were filming 14 hours a day, and the camera was always on my character. And I had this bulletproof vest on the whole time, and that’s physically uncomfortable. But it was more down to the mentality of someone who’s struggling very much with mental health issues while trying to keep his life together.
