John Lithgow isn\u2019t one for being typecast. He is probably best known to British audiences for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in The Crown<\/a>, but during his career he has also played, among others, a bumbling alien in 3rd Rock from the Sun and a serial killer in Dexter<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of it comes from the fear that nobody will want me,\u201d he says about his acting choices, which have included roles in films as diverse as Footloose, Shrek and Blow Out. \u201cI have a kind of restless creative energy.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest outlet for this restlessness is new Disney Plus series The Old Man<\/a>, a brooding cat-and-mouse spy drama in which Lithgow plays Harold Harper, an FBI man charged with apprehending his former colleague turned rogue CIA spy Dan Chase, played by Jeff Bridges<\/a>. The two veteran actors (both in their 70s) had admired each other\u2019s work for decades but this is the first time they have acted together.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Jeff is right up there as the biggest reason for me to do this show,\u201d Lithgow tells me. \u201cHe\u2019s amazing, and I thought it would be an interesting combination of two actors. He\u2019s got this wonderful, off-hand, relaxed and unfussed style; I am sort of brainy and come from theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n Lithgow might have been excited by the prospect of working with Bridges, but he was made to wait. The Old Man tells two separate stories that don\u2019t come together until late into the series, and not only was filming paused firstly for the pandemic, but then also after Bridges was diagnosed with cancer.<\/p>\n By the time Lithgow and Bridges were finally able to act together, almost two years had passed since production had started. \u201cIt was very disorienting to pick up after 18 months,\u201d Lithgow says. \u201cI had practically forgotten my character\u2019s name, so it was in many ways like a brand new job.\u201d<\/p>\n The drama is set in the present day but past traumas weigh down on both the lead characters. Harper, whom Lithgow plays, is reeling from the death of his son when he receives a phone call and learns he has to deal with an international scandal from three decades earlier concerning Bridges\u2019 character.<\/p>\n \u201cThe inciting event for this whole series is something that happened 30 years ago during the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan,\u201d Lithgow says, \u201cand then Russia invaded Ukraine. You just sort of felt it in the air; it supercharges the story and makes it a much more resonant series. It\u2019s like history had caught up with us.\u201d<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time Lithgow has appeared in a television drama concerned with history and war, of course. How did he feel about portraying Winston Churchill, a role played in recent years by, among others, Brendan Gleeson, Albert Finney, Gary Oldman, Simon Russell Beale, Robert Hardy and Timothy Spall?<\/p>\n \u201cYes, of course I was intimidated,\u201d he says. \u201cI sat [The Crown director] Stephen Daldry down after I\u2019d accepted the part and asked him, \u2018Why did you think to cast me?\u2019 and he said, \u2018Well, Churchill\u2019s mother was an American.\u2019 He didn\u2019t mention the fact that I was about a foot and a half taller!\u201d<\/p>\n Lithgow prepared for his turn as Churchill by doing a huge amount of reading and concluded that rather than focusing on Churchill\u2019s political views, he would explore his emotional life.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat interested me most in him was his childhood,\u201d he says. \u201cHe was such an unhappy and neglected child and couldn\u2019t have a lower self-esteem. He just grew up feeling like such a disappointment. I just got the sense of this extremely insecure man, desperate to compensate.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m talking to Lithgow just as Boris Johnson is in his final weeks as prime minister. Would Lithgow fancy a go at portraying Johnson? \u201cI remember when I was doing press for The Crown and Johnson was making a slightly earlier fool of himself,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Oh man, do I want to play Boris Johnson.\u2019 And if Peter Morgan is in charge, I\u2019m up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Lithgow was born in New York to an actress mother and a theatre producer father who staged Shakespeare festivals. \u201cI think of myself as pure American, but my formative years were all around a Shakespeare Festival, hearing an awful lot of lofty Shakespearean language. I then went to Harvard and on to England.\u201d He is also a staunch supporter of Liverpool Football Club.<\/p>\n Lithgow studied drama in London between 1967 and 1969. That must have been fun, I say, to be in Swinging Sixties\u2019 London. \u201cI loved being there during that time,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a fantastic time for English theatre. I was seeing two and three plays a week, minimum. I saw Laurence Olivier, I saw Maggie Smith, I saw Ralph Richardson. I was drunk on it.\u201d<\/p>\n Nothing stays hidden forever. Jeff Bridges stars in #TheOldMan<\/a> – out today on Disney+. pic.twitter.com\/KfryUTKFnL<\/a><\/p>\u2014 Disney+ UK (@DisneyPlusUK) September 28, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/09\/the-old-man-john-lithgow-91f3acc.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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