What is The North Water about?

The North Water follows a young man, Sumner, a surgeon, and it’s his journey, slightly rites of passage, but also trying to find himself and what he is running from; him facing his fears and the ghosts of his pasts and also seeing where he fits into this new world. It’s a very dark piece, which is partly why I was attracted to it.

It’s also the end of an era in many respects, that new age of machinery and steam engines that are about to take over from the manual labour of what it was like back in those days to be a whaler. Every character has a different motivation or intention. They’ve each got their own thing going on, which is great. That’s where the complexities of the writing come in, which feed through from the book.

Who is Captain Brownlee?

He’s a man of integrity. He’s a whaler by trade, it’s in his blood. The character we created was that his dad was a whaler so he was always going to be a whaler. He always wanted to captain a ship and he did, and his first ship set sail and sank, so after not doing it for a while he comes back to captain The Voyager.

What attracted you to the show?

I thought that the script was fantastic, the character was great. I’d watched Andrew’s work and thought he was a wonderful director. Colin’s fantastic, he’s a wonderful actor. I’ve always admired and looked up to him. And Jack O’Connell, who I’ve known from when he first started on This is England. I’ve watched his career flourish, he’s a marvellous actor, so those two alone, and obviously Sam, who is a brilliant actor.

How did you prepare for the role?

I did a lot of research about the period and about the men of the time, read some poems by whalers, had a look through the history books and the archives. Obviously, we’ve got the internet these days, so you can find anything out, and I did quite a bit of research on the man and what he’s about.

How was working with Andrew Haigh?

He has a lovely atmosphere on set, his sensibilities, allowing us to create stuff and really finding the moments. He’s got time for everyone, he’ll have a little word in everyone’s ear and guide and steer us, he’s a joy to work with. Andrew has done an amazing job, all these completely rounded characters, yet every single one with something different going on in every scene.

How was filming in the Arctic?

They said, “three weeks filming in the Arctic”, and I was like, “well, not really the Arctic, not the Arctic Arctic?” but they said: “It’s three weeks in the Arctic on a ship, sailing”. We ended up 22 miles away from the North Pole. We pulled into this massive glacier and there was this feeling of being on another planet. It was unbelievable. We saw polar bears, walruses, seals, all these beautiful creatures in their own habitat, that was amazing.

You immediately form bonds and relationships because it is so intense. Obviously, everyone likes to have time to themselves, go back to the cabin, where the lads played a lot of chess. We played a good few games of Uno, we’d sit and have little chats, it was nice, there was a real feeling of solidarity, which in certain aspects would overspill on to the screen.

What were your highlights?

There’s one bit where Brownlee is going across to another ship, and I’ve got this great, massive fur coat, with my hat and gloves on, and obviously the big wig. They are rowing me across to this boat and I’m out in the open water, and all the ice, the glaciers are right there, and the lads are throwing out the oars and it was one of those moments where you just think. what’s going on? What am I doing?

Another amazing thing was that we did a first take, then a second take, the lads are rowing out, I’m there being Brownlee, all serious, then all of a sudden, a massive bit of ice just fell, and you can see it falling. I was looking at it and thinking, oh my God. Then it hits the water and I’m thinking, I hope that they’ve got this on film as well... The lads are rowing, then you heard shouting and we had to stop, all of sudden, because there’s a massive wave is on its way to us in this little boat, and I’m thinking, I’m going to die in the middle of the Arctic in a fake fur coat! The lads are paddling as fast as they can to get away from it, and everyone’s a bit worried and a bit panicked, and we just missed it, but it was high. The whole experience was unbelievable.

How was the polar plunge?

Being honest with you, it is the most exhilarating thing I have ever done in my life, and I have done skydiving, I’ve snorkel dived really deep, seen some magical things, but that was absolutely unbelievable. There was nothing like the feeling. It was great because quite a few of us did it together. A few wimped out but most of us did it, and believe it or not, there was a massive jacuzzi on the boat, and it was boiling hot, so we ended up with almost third-degree burns after jumping in there and then going into a big hot jacuzzi, but it was great, a really lovely experience. I never thought I’d get to do something like that.