Joseph Mawle: 'I've played some despicable characters'

You're in the forthcoming BBC production of Women in Love. It's quite a cast isn't it? Yourself, Rosamund Pike, Rachael Stirling, Rory Kinnear …

Oh yes, they're a classy lot… but you know, people are people when you get down to the bare bones of it.

Gerald Crich, who you play, is a tormented and ill-fated character. How did you get to his bare bones?

Well I didn't read the book, I'm a very slow reader. I got all my information from Billy [William Ivory who created the script by adapting both Women in Love and its prequel, The Rainbow]. He took me through his whole script word for word, moment for moment, and he explained it all. It's a very rich text. As much as it's rich in its vision it's also very rich vocabulary-wise, so I think it's quite a treat to the senses.

Did you watch Oliver Reed playing Crich in the Ken Russell film from the late 60s?

We watched it when we got back from shooting in South Africa, but the touchstone is the book. We're not trying to do a version of the Russell film.

But are we going to see you and Rory Kinnear wrestling in the nude on a bear skin à la Reed and Alan Bates?

Yes is the answer. Well, in a completely different location… we're in Namibia, in the sea, and I'm petrified of sharks, so to be honest nudity wasn't particularly on my mind. Nudity and sex scenes are fine though, as long as you know why you're doing them. If you sign up to be an actor, you can't be prudish if it's important to the story.

You're dyslexic aren't you?

I am – which has been both a curse and a blessing. Obviously, it hugely affected my schooling and it has shaped how I work. It makes me thorough but not as fast as many. I don't know whether I much enjoyed education. I was not academically gifted. I didn't go to university and there's always a part of you that thinks: "Shit, I wish I'd gone" but equally, there are other routes.

You're also partially deaf as a result of a viral infection at 16. Was it painful?

No, just fucking annoying. The tinnitus came first, incredibly loud. I use a hearing aid – this one has just come back from having a retune so it's a bit loud at the minute. It's picking up a bit too much. I think in a funny kind of way it gave me an identity. Who knows what I'd be like if I could hear perfectly and learn at speed. It's very possible I wouldn't be in this job at all! Reading and learning scripts takes time so I can become a bit of a social recluse.

You grew up on a farm…

We've got nine generations of farmers in my family, in Warwickshire. And I do feel connected to being a farmer's son. There was a time when I didn't, when I rebelled against it, but there's certainly that sort of work ethic within me. The sense of wanting to actually do a day's work and then get to bed knackered, to feel like you've earned your time off. Do I find acting hard work? Yeah, absolutely.

I can see it would be hard work playing Jesus (in The Passion on BBC1) and Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, (in the TV adaptation of the Red Riding books by David Peace)…

When I played Sutcliffe, I travelled to Leeds and Bradford, drank in pubs he went to, spoke to people who'd worked with him, even walked around sites where he had attacked and killed women. Bizarrely, the friend who showed me the sites had been working on a house, so he was carrying a hammer and tools, which made us both feel extremely uncomfortable. Research can do that. I've played some despicable characters.

Including a racist chef in an episode of The Street by Jimmy McGovern. Is it hard to play someone hateful?

Not really, once you try to understand them. Ultimately, the idea of acting is to understand the people you're playing and then where they're coming from is not so mystifying. You've got to detox a bit after though.

You've recently done a thriller, The Cold Light of Day, with Bruce Willis. What was he like?

He seems like a lovely man but I can't say I've really met him. We shook hands! Sigourney Weaver [also in the film] was very warm. She talked about her career really openly and it's nice to meet someone who's so revealing about how they got where they are and just has a laugh. I probably take everything far too seriously.

Do you hang out with actors in your spare time?

Not really. I share a flat with a teacher, let's put it that way. My girlfriend is an actress, though. I'm not saying her name, no.

Weren't you a teacher at one stage?

I worked for a while as a teaching assistant, while I was struggling. I really enjoyed it, working with kids with special needs, autism. It takes a hell of a lot of concentration and you've got to focus on the child properly for seven hours a day.

What do you do when you're not working?

I've become a huge fan of Desert Island Discs. It's absolutely brilliant and it has improved my music taste no end – it was terrible before. I've deleted my entire iTunes now. I like walking and hiking. I need exercise actually. If we start filming at 6am, I'll get up at 5am and go for a run. Today, I've been for a run. You need that moment of release, get in there, wipe out everything that's in your brain.