"Whenever I'm in Scotland doing a film, I'm always playing a bit of a wrong'un," reflects Jack Lowden of his role in gripping new thriller Tornado, written and directed by John Maclean.
Lowden's character in the movie, Little Sugar, is a world away from Slow Horses favourite River Cartwright. Little Sugar is a right piece of work, who'd do anything to steal all the gold from his gang's recent heist, which has been stolen away by Tornado (Kōki).
Little Sugar would even go against the gang's leader Sugarman (Tim Roth), who just happens to be his father, and kill any other gang member who gets in his way.
Little does he know that Tornado has learned deadly samurai skills from her father, so when Little Sugar thinks he can use her to get the gold, he might get learn the hard way that you can't always get what you want.
Ahead of Tornado's release in UK and Irish cinemas this Friday, Digital Spy sat down with Jack Lowden to talk about learning from Tim Roth, weirdly loving the cold and why it's always more fun to play a villain.
Of your previous movies and roles you've played, which one do you think has the most in common with Tornado?
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I think it's probably most suited, strangely, to Dunkirk because it's quite sparing. Dunkirk's very sparing in terms of dialogue, scope and the landscape plays a massive part. The setting plays a massive part in Dunkirk as it does in Tornado. It's really the last character.
Tornado is visually striking, but shooting in the remote Scottish landscape can't have been the most enjoyable filming experience you've ever had?
No, but then I'm weird and I'm from that part of the world so I'm a creature of the cold. I love the wet and weather, and so it was freezing and it was a logistically very difficult shoot for the crew. But when you do films like that, you pick the right people and they're all up for it.
It was definitely the cold that I remember and just constantly on those small budget films, you know the weather can kill you, but John's ability to adapt very quickly to the time that he had was amazing.
It's rare to see you in a villain role, except in Mary Queen of Scots, but is it more fun to play a villain?
It's way more fun. Unless you are a very strange dark individual anyway, and I don't really think I am, that's what feels most like acting. To get to play something as far away from yourself as possible is the dream, really, but still managing to find some kind of heart and soul in him that means you feel for him, as in I feel for him.
As bad as Little Sugar is, his father Sugarman is even worse, especially to his son, but it did mean you got to play alongside Tim Roth. How was it working with him?
It's fantastic. I mean, whenever you get to work with guys like that, you do spend most of the time just soaking up as much as you can and asking them questions about all the great films that they've done and sort of boring them to death.
But Tim was great. He was a great team player and such a nice man off-camera, but as soon as the camera goes on, he's completely different.
What do you hope people take away from Tornado when they see it at the cinema?
I would love that people come away with knowing that we can do samurai movies too, any film genre is not specific to just one part of the world and the collab of that can be really, really exciting.
It's pushing the boundaries of what certain nations are known for, and I really love the fact that [John] chose to set a samurai film in the Scottish Hills. It's just really exciting to me and I hope it broadens people's minds about a certain part of the world.
Tornado is released in UK and Irish cinemas on 13 June.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
