After an impressively quick turnaround, Apple TV+’s new hit series, Slow Horses, returns fans to the Slough House for Season 2. Based on the best-selling novels by author Mick Herron, Slow Horses’ first season introduced us to a team of M15’s disgraced agents, including their disheveled and disillusioned leader Jackson Lamb, played by Academy Award-winner Gary Oldman. Following the explosive finale, Season 2 picks up with Lamb’s team toeing M15’s good graces and will see them tackling a new mission on an even larger scale.
When long-buried Cold War secrets begin to surface, and Russian sleeper agents threaten London – and, perhaps, the world – Lamb and his Slough House team may be the only ones in a position to stop those in power. Season 2 will see the return of Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish, Jack Lowden as River Cartwright, Kristin Scott Thomas as Deputy Director-General of MI5, Diana Taverner, and more.
Ahead of Season 2’s premiere on Apple TV+ on December 2, Collider’s Steve Weintraub was able to sit down with stars Oldman and Reeves to discuss the advantages of shooting on location in London, filming in the building author Herron’s Slough House was inspired by, and where they are with the production of Season 3. Oldman also share what it’s like eating 20 bowls of noodles a day, previous projects they’re proud of, and when Slow Horses Season 4 will begin filming. You can watch the interview in the video above, or read the full transcript below.
COLLIDER: For both of you, if someone has actually never seen anything that you've done before, what is the first thing you'd like them watching, and why?
GARY OLDMAN: You know, I'm awfully proud of JFK. I have a pivotal role, but not a huge role, in the film. But I thought what Oliver [Stone] did with it was just really quite something. And it was, I think, the first movie that I saw... I was invited to a small screening of it, and it was the first movie that I was in where I thought, “I can't believe I'm in this film, that I'm involved and that I'm part of it.” To me, it's one of [Oliver Stone’s] masterpieces, actually.
SASKIA REEVES: I agree.
OLDMAN: So I think that would be a good one for me.
REEVES: Yeah. I did, I think it was my third or fourth film, an independent small-budget film that Michael Winterbottom directed called Butterfly Kiss, which I loved doing that. And made some lifelong friends after that film. But that was really exciting for me, and I love the way it developed. Yeah. That'll be a good place to start.
Gary, I want to ask you an individual question. When you read the scripts for Season 2 and you saw how much you would be eating in every scene, did you say yes or did you say, "I need a rewrite?"
OLDMAN: Oh no, no. There's certain things that come with the job. Certain things that come with Jackson [Lamb]. He smokes. I have these herbal pretend cigarettes, but nevertheless, he smokes. He drinks. He eats. And these are all part of the character.
I was saying to Saskia, I don't like that thing when actors pretend to eat. When they have a scene with a meal and you can see them cutting, and then moving their food around the plate. It's like when people pour tea, and they pour it like that, and you know that they've only poured that... Little things like that really irk me. You know what I mean? Pour the tea. Eat the food.
So, yeah. Jackson Lamb would just devour those noodles. The only thing is, of course, you don't do it once. You do it 20 times. I think I had about 20 bowls of noodles that day.
I have a lot of friends that are actors and they're like, "Yeah, when you're shooting a food scene, that could be hours and you're eating, and eating, and eating, and eating."
OLDMAN: Yeah. That wasn't so bad. But I have been in scenes where it's at the end of a meal and there's leftovers on the plate, and you keep coming back to it. Have you ever had that, where it's really rancid? Where it sits under the lights. If you are staring at a half-eaten lamb chop for three days under the lights, it's not good.
In Season 2, you both get to do stuff out of the office. I love the production design of the sets that have been built, but there has to be something that's great about shooting on location in London, it just adds so much to the show.
REEVES: Well, I live in London, so this job is just a gift for me. I went to drama school very near where we film the outside of Slough House. And it's just such familiar territory. It's very nice to be pretending to be this secretary woman who goes to work at Aldgate near the Barbican. It's great. And I think they've chosen some wonderful, unusual locations in London. They're not the cliché images that we see of London. I think that's great. There's some great choices.
OLDMAN: We shoot where he–
REEVES: Conceived?
OLDMAN: Conceived that building that is Slough House, it’s the building that Mick Herron used to walk past, or travel past on the bus, every day to work. So he set it in that building, in that location, and that is where we film. And in Season 3, where I have a meet with Ben Chapman in a launderette i – I don't think we could get it with the first season, we couldn't lock in the location – but in the third season, I meet Ben in the launderette, which is at the launderette that is in the book. So we're very fortunate that we... All these different landmarks-
REEVES: The Russian house where she goes and plays chess, that was in the most extraordinary location. I didn't know it existed. It was a house right on the riverside in the East End of London. And it was like an oasis in this huge housing estate. And it was a very old river master's house, and I think it was a commune for a while. It was an incredible old Georgian building. The set design and the artistic design on this program is exceptional, I think. They really bring out so many details, and they don't hold back on dust and grime, and it's just wonderful.
OLDMAN: Yeah.
Pardon me for not knowing, but I guess you have filmed Season 3? Are you filming 3 and 4 right now?
REEVES: We're still making it at the moment.
Three or four?
REEVES: Three.
OLDMAN: We're done in a bit. They're finishing off Season 3 as we speak. And then-
REEVES: In fact, I think Jack [Lowden] flies back soon to finish. He's got a whole section of stunt stuff.
OLDMAN: Yeah. Jack flies in, lands at 7:30 in the morning, and goes straight to the set. So yeah, they're still shooting. And then we're back in, hopefully, we're told, sometime in February to start Season four.
If I'm not mistaken, you shot one and two together, or did you take a break?
OLDMAN: There's a small break. We shot back to back. Yeah?
REEVES: Yeah.
OLDMAN: Yeah.
I was wondering if you were going to do that for 3 and 4, but apparently not.
REEVES: Well, they need time to prep. So the heads of department, everybody, needs time to prep. I think their time has been squashed a bit, because... Yeah. There's an exciting beginning for Season 3, isn't there, Gary? But no spoilers.
OLDMAN: No, there is. A very good one. And we're fortunate, also, that we are one of the few shows, if not the only show, where we have one director for the six episodes. So, in a sense, we get a director who is, for all intents and purposes, making a six-hour movie, rather than a lot of shows where you have a director who comes in for two, and then they switch out, and then they shoot... I love the familiarity of it and the-
REEVES: The continuity of it.
OLDMAN: – the continuity of it. Yeah.
Slow Horses Season 1 is available to stream on Apple TV+, with Season 2 premiering on December 2.