EXCLUSIVE: There was a top-secret code name on the sidesRuth Bradleywas sent to prepare for an audition.
Bradley immediately emailed her agent: Who wrote this stuff?
Smiling, Bradley recounts: They said, Well, actually, itsSlow Horses.
Ruth BradleyPip Bourdillon
Those troubles are for Flyte to sort out.
Bradley couldnt be happier.
When she was a little girl, she saw a trailer for Francis Ford CoppolasBram Draculastarring Oldman.
Ruth Bradley as Emma Flyte in ‘Slow Horses’ (right). Courtesy Apple TV+
I was always drawn to really Gothic dark things, and then I was obsessed with Gary Oldman andDracula.
As time went on, Bradley would see more and more of Oldmans work.
I was like, Oh, I cant believe thats the same actor in that.
Theyve got a different accent.
They look completely different They move differently.
Bradley decided that when she became an actor I never kind of wanted to be known for me.
She didnt attend acting school.
Piling on the pounds was the easy part.
The production had hired a criminologist who rehearsed Bradley and another girl.
He told me to grab her by the neck and wring her like a fish.
I was like, I cant rehearse this.
I promised that I could do it on the day of shooting, but I couldnt rehearse it.
It took five days to shoot the murder scene.
Bradley remembers waking up in the middle of the night with her head full of outlandish thoughts.
Thats what happens to your brain.
You kind of lose yourself and then you come out the other side.
When the film wrapped she took a long , hard look at her increased girth in the mirror.
I had just completely disappeared.
Roles that followed werent quite as extreme, but she reveled in becoming unrecognizable.
Similarly, withThe Fall, Humans, The Gold, Doctor Who: Dark Eyes, and others.
That was Bradley in those as well.
The actor was excelling in all these roles but it was like she was hiding in plain sight.
I also watched her give an extraordinary performance as a sexual surrogate in Christian Cookes filmEmbers.
That was the plan, she responds.
However, she remarks that initially withSlow Horsesshe was a bit uncomfortable.
Usually, Im like, lets do something wild.
Lets change my hair, lets do a mad costume.
But physically, I dont look that different in that.
Its the first time that shes looked more like herself.
For a long time, she didnt seek out roles set in her native Ireland.
There was no Derry Girls and all these cool things.
Bradley and Oldman are well-matched.
In their first scenes together, Lamb ends up running rings around Flyte at a grisly murder scene .
Shes like, This stupid, unkept, old man passing wind.
You take no notice of him.
But thats Lambs genius, isnt it?
His behaviours so distracting.
What a great character.
Flyte has a real through line of truth and good morals.
And that moral compass she has overrides everything else, says Bradley in a perceptive summing up of Flyte.
How Flyte navigates these conundrums and her loyalties is fascinating, and Bradley captures her discombobulation superbly.
Bradley is enjoying her time on set working with Oldman, who she fondly describes as a consummate professional.
They say never meet your heroes but with Gary thats absolutely not the case.
He couldnt be a nicer person either, says Bradley.
He likes a cup of tea and he likes a Hobnob biscuit.
But whats immediately apparent is the overarching brilliance of Nina Golds casting.
One marvels at the comic timing.
Thats whatSlow Horsesstands for, and Bradley fits well into such stellar company.
The beauty ofSlow Horsesis its dark British humor laced with show-runner Will SmithsTheThick of Itsensibility.
Wills the secret sauce, Bradley declares.
Its so perfectly pitched, she says.
Wills there every day.
If somethings not quite working, if a jokes not quite landing, hell come in and help.
Before signing on forSlow Horses, Bradley completedEmbers.
The story explores how sexual surrogacy can work as a form of therapy.
Cooke adapted his play for the screen, renaming itEmbers.
She was attached to the film for two years while Cooke and his producers raised funding.
Christian rang me when I was about to go into labor, saying, Weve got the money.
Lets do it.'
Four weeks later she brought her daughter on set.
Her mother-in-law came every morning at 5am so my daughter was in the next room.
I was like, whoa!
My whole body is just my art.
Its real gorilla filmmaking.
Its certainly one of her best roles.
Im ready for season 5.
