Loving the Word and World of Actor Daniel Ings

Classically handsome, a face more often known for comic roles or period pieces actor Daniel Ings is currently starring in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentleman on Netflix. We got a little close-up and personal with him and asked about his craft and process. Find out more in Loving the Word and World of Actor Daniel Ings

Daniel Ings for .Cent Magazine  Creative Direction Jo Phillips Photography: David Titlow.com Styling: Lily Lam Www.lilylailam.com Grooming: Nohelia Reyes using www.fjor.life  and Merit beauty Styling assistant: Elyse Mcauliffe Daniel Ings @ CLD Big Thank you to Clair at CLD Communications  and ARK Studios London. Retouching frisian.co.uk/

Shot One on left-hand side White Shirt, by Louis Vuitton 

Daniel Ings is a British actor best known for his numerous roles in film, television and stage. You may well have seen him as Matt Taverner in the hit BBC Two comedy W!A; Mike Parker in The Crown; Luke in Lovesick with Johnny Flynn; and Dan in Netflix’s Sex Education, to name but a few. Regarding his film credits, these include Pirates of the Caribbean: On Strange Tides or most recently in The Marvels as Ty-Rone alongside Zawe Ashton. Daniel starred in the main role of Cob Betterton in the popular award-winning HBO/Sky Atlantic series  I Hate Suzie opposite Billie Piper.

So Daniel What is your initial process when you get a script, and how do you go about ’embodying the character?

It tends to be instinctive if a script comes in and maybe I’m looking at it or I’ve been offered it, or with a view to putting myself forward. So it tends to be an initial response to the rhythm of the language. There are certain scripts where I think it’s a great part or script but I can’t hear myself saying it. So that tends to be quite distinctive

So, the words are very important to you?

Yes, one hundred percent: Definitely.  In the past few years, I’ve been able to branch out and play characters that are more of a reach from myself if that makes sense, and sometimes I get sent things and I can kind of see why I’ve been sent it in terms of work that I’ve done before. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a turn-off but it slightly depends on that. Say, if it’s a comic role then almost always it’s about the rhythm of how the character speaks.

Ok, so you like that ‘patter’, the pathos and up and down of words? So how do you take that and turn that into something physical as an actor?

I don’t do a lot of back story stuff it tends to be walking around talking the lines to myself and mumbling and I kind of figured that if I can sit and just mumble the words, say, whilst my wife is sitting on her laptop next to me or if I can walk around the streets where I live mumbling, it kind helps ‘expunge’ the character for me.

It sort of helps with the potential of what is called take tension, that is when you get on set and you are presenting to other people. So I just kind of walk around and mumble it a bit. Sometimes physical things will develop gradually, and I will generally tend to base these on someone.

For example, I did a part in the TV series ‘The Gold’ last year, which was about the Brink’s-Mat robbery and the character I was playing was in part was very different to me he was a ‘numbers’ guy.

Very in his head, he didn’t have massive social skills and I sort of realised I needed things to embody that. So I picked up things, I selected these glasses which were way too big for my face and I knew I would need something else, like clothes that were slightly dowdy.

And I kind of based his mannerisms on this guy who is a good friend of mine. He is also an actor and novelist  (he won’t mind me saying this as we joke about it all the time) but he has a slight physical tick, and so I came with that as an extra thing, like blinking, it felt like a necessity, to actually help me, if that makes sense?

To make it physical, the character’s physicality, not yours?

Yeah because there is another mode to some of the work that I do where I play much closer to a version of myself, and then with the more character parts I think how can I drop this person into the world and not turn the character into me

Shot Two White Shirt, Wool Napolitana Jacket and Drawstring Wool Trousers all by Louis Vuitton 

Do you think there are certain things you look for indicators to make the character 3-D?

Wardrobe is a big opener, hair and make-up especially as I get older and less vain, not so worried about looking good on camera, which is also in part to do with playing fewer character parts as well.

 I’m always trying to think about what can I do differently. I  don’t want to do something just for the sake of it. If someone is making a TV show, they are not massively interested in what I looked like in my last production. It’s the here and now, hair, make-up and wardrobe are hugely important.

But I guess I’m quite a physical actor so in a sense, each time I’m trying to come at it from the perspective of, what does this character bring to the story?

So, I was doing ‘The Winter King’, a big ‘sword and sandals’ epic and my character in the book was described as a beast, six foot 8 tall, a huge guy.   Well I thought at the time, there is nothing I can do to make myself taller, and they were not going to cast other actors shorter than me around to make it look that way.

So we had to work with the costume to build it and bulk it out, there were loads of layers in order to try and walk like I was packing loads of muscle that wasn’t there.

So thinking about the physical and how you move your body how do you decide how a character moves or holds themselves?

Again it tends to be quite instinctive I don’t tend to see something and think, yeah I’m going to steal a little of that when I was doing The Winter King.

Funnily enough, one of the things I stole, I was watching Love Island of all things we were way deep into, two seasons ago I think? and there was a character one of those men in anutyshell one of those men that is quite sweet in his heart but has a hair trigger and he had quite distinctive physical ticks he would stick his jaw out so I tend to like, steal from things like that.

So you just absorb what going on around you, and you cherry-pick from others? Talking about your current series The Gentleman you play quite a baboonish narcissistic character, how did you come to put that together because you are quite physical in it? You watch it and it feels like quite a visceral physical character, it doesn’t feel intellectual…

Yeah, he is definitely not up in his head. It’s all about the physicality. It has to do with something that Guy Ritchie does, he rewrites so much on the set that it means it needs to be created ‘on the fly’.

I suppose one of my big first scenes was The Will Reading scene in The Gentlemen. That was probably 1st scene with everybody (except Kaya) all of us, as a gang.

The words were there but there is no way you can plan the physicality of that because you don’t know the layout of the set or what the other actors are doing and you have to be live to it.

A lot of that physicality came from Guy, like the throwing of papers in the scene. It probably looks improvised, but those were things through the takes, we would actually build up to.   He would be like, ‘on this take, I need to leave there and come back ranting and raving’. I think the character, is always in such an extreme mental reaction to everything.

Shot Three The Soho – Tailored-Fit Navy Wool ‘A Suit To Travel In’ by Paul Smith Men’s White Tailored-Fit Cotton Shirt by Paul Smith, Men’s Gold and Green ‘Hugon’ Sunglasses by Paul Smith

Was that hard to play? Interesting to be that explosive/ emotive always reacting?

Yeah, I loved it, I often will gravitate to parts that are not necessarily a lead.  Sometimes with those lead roles, it becomes a much harder job, for example, the work that Theo does in the show is incredibly complicated because the audience has to be able to live through his character, you can’t be a vacuum, you need to be enigmatic and hold the frame in a sort to ‘still manner’. And so it’s a much easier job, to be honest, to be the guy next to him that can ultimately, pull focus away from him because that’s what the story needs.

And then beyond that, it’s up to the creators to figure out how much of the different flavours you want in a scene and modulate it. A balance of, what does show need? We worked on that because a lot of my scenes are with Theo; these two brothers.

So we worked quite hard the two of us on the scenes in the script to make this scene one where they are sitting down and talking quite calmly, and this one an argument. It can’t be a repeat of an argument that we have had before it has to feel slightly different. The emotive ups and downs, of pathos; evolve the story.

I’m not a proper writer but I do a bit, and I really enjoy it, and since I started writing scripts I try to think of things in terms of what does this scene need? What does the story need? Rather than just what do I want to do.

Has writing allowed you another insight into your own acting?

One hundred percent. It definitely helped my acting, it helped my mind to get rid of some of my ego and vanity as an actor. Because the whole process often starts with just an audition tape, therefore all you ever think about is showing what you can do with a character.

But the moment you set foot on the set there are a million different elements to draw together so you can’t think of it in terms of what you want to do, it has to be not just what is right for the character but what is right for the scene and the rest of the ensemble story.

You are working as a team once on set?

One hundred percent. You have to be ready,  this was quite a unique process, quite different from anything I had done before and ultimately it became clear a week or two of working with Guy that it was a waste, it was counter-productive to learn your lines.   Because they would all change so you have the old lines in your head and you are sort of attached to them, and then they change.

So basically it becomes about knowing your character, knowing the story, understanding the blueprint of the character and show and then ultimately showing up and being open to the elements and going with it

It’s free form; a different energy.  It was this energy … and I thought ‘I just have to go with this’, like when I was doing the ‘chicken thing’ in the show. You know that’s a completely different scene from how it was in the script but ultimately you can’t be half-arsed that you have to dive in and let go

I think you have to let go, channel the energy and accept, that it’s not your thing unless you are the producer, director, or creator so you have to hand over the power to those people making it. It is important to keep one eye on the lines, but I just don’t want to create, a form of acting that doesn’t represent me as an actor.   There were a couple of tiny moments…

For example, Theo’s character Eddie comes back and I see (as my character) him for the first time and I remember Guy really wanted me to do something. And I just couldn’t, what ever he had imagined I just knew it would be shit acting from me.  It wasn’t a shit idea, I just couldn’t configure it.

I couldn’t make it work you know, but I do try to be as accommodating as I can be because, well, it’s their vision if you can’t  ultimately get to the place they need you to get to then it probably won’t end up in the show.

Shot Four The Soho – Tailored-Fit Navy Wool ‘A Suit To Travel In’ by Paul Smith Men’s White Tailored-Fit Cotton Shirt by Paul Smith, Men’s Gold and Green ‘Hugon’ Sunglasses by Paul Smith Colour Burst Bamboo socks by Sockshop Chambeliss lace up Patent calf leather shoes by Christian Louboutin. Beige Gabardine Short Trench Coat by Versace 

So what do you prefer as an actor, film TV theatre? What’s your real passion? or do you love to move across all of them?

I mean I would love to get back on the stage, Theo and I were saying we should do a play together actually. I think we both would enjoy working together but I don’t know if this is something we will end up doing, but I definitely would like to get back on stage. I feel like I do love feeding off the audience and that sense of having something locked in place and trying to find new angles within it each night; I enjoy that.

Also, I do enjoy films, because you make the thing and put it out and then you just see if people enjoy it. It can sometimes be a bit of a pressure with TV. You launch yourself on this journey of telling a story, but nobody really knows at what point that story is going to end. I like the completeness of making a film and putting it out.

Finally, would you say the producers and directors influence the decisions you make? On the parts you choose?

Absolutely. It’s still my job and it’s still something I’m passionate about. I love watching stuff, I always loved watching movies and TV when I was a kid and it’s a privilege to be able to contribute to that thing I loved when I was young.

Shot Five Men’s The Soho – Tailored-Fit Navy Wool ‘A Suit To Travel In’ by Paul Smith, Men’s White Tailored-Fit Cotton Shirt by Paul Smith, Men’s Gold and Green ‘Hugon’ Sunglasses by Paul Smith

Daniel can now be seen in Guy Ritchie’s Netflix’s series adaptation of his 2009 film THE GENTLEMEN alongside Theo James and Kaya Scodelario. It has peaked as the No.1 series on the site for multiple weeks since its release.

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