In fact, this isn\u2019t even the first time they\u2019ve played a romantic duo.<\/p>\n
They first met and played boyfriend and girlfriend in 2010 film Never Let Me Go, shot in 2009, and Gleeson was immediately entranced by Riseborough\u2019s way of working.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was this one moment where I was listening to some music to get myself ready for quite an emotional scene,\u201d he explains. \u201cI was opposite all these actors that I thought were amazing \u2013 Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield and Andrea. Myself and Andrea were boyfriend and girlfriend and it was our big scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was listening to music just trying to get myself in the place where I could go in and be really emotionally vulnerable, and Andrea came over and asked me what I was listening to. I told her, and she said, \u2018Oh, do you mind if I listen too?\u2019 I said, \u2018Of course,\u2019 and she took one of my earpods and we just sat together, sat next to each other and didn\u2019t talk, and just listened to the same seven-minute song before we went to set.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason that works or doesn\u2019t work, it just really worked. And I just felt on the same wavelength, I felt in the same emotional place. I felt very connected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next, the duo went on to collaborate in Shadow Dancer, a 2012 political thriller from director James Marsh, in which they played brother and sister.<\/p>\n
Now, here they are, collaborating in a series for the first time, and as co-leads for the first time. The project to bring them together is Alice & Jack<\/a>, a six-part show which charts a 15-year relationship between two people who seemingly can\u2019t be together, but can\u2019t be apart either.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an epic love story, and one which Riseborough notes has a deeply personal origin.<\/p>\n \u201cVic Levin, our creator and writer, this is based on something very close to him, to an experience that he had,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s a celebration of a love that he experienced in his life. He\u2019s lived with this story for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n The project went through multiple iterations over the years, with the first and last scripts first being sent to Gleeson some time ago, but it came and went. It then came to Riseborough in 2019, and she came on board, after which Gleeson re-entered the project.<\/p>\n Unusually for TV, it was produced and shot by production companies Fremantle, Me + You Productions, Groundswell Productions and De Maio Entertainment before a distributor had been confirmed.<\/p>\n According to Gleeson, this meant that there were \u201cno notes from whoever, it was just allowed to be\u201d, and that the team could try \u201cto make the best version of what we could, and then sell it afterwards\u201d.<\/p>\n This model of production is more in line with the independent film world with which Riseborough is better acquainted, noting that she and Gleeson \u201cknow cinema a lot better than we know television\u201d.<\/p>\n Both have, of course, got experience with both: Riseborough has appeared in the likes of National Treasure and Black Mirror<\/a> on TV, while her film roles have included The Death of Stalin, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and To Leslie, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Gleeson, son of Brendan, has also appeared in Black Mirror and recently starred in The Patient, while his film roles have included parts in the Star Wars<\/a> and Harry Potter<\/a> franchises, as well as one-off productions such as Ex Machina and Calvary.<\/p>\n However, Riseborough says that this production model meant that they could keep the project \u201cas true to Vic\u2019s original vision as possible\u201d, while it also meshed well with the directors they brought on board, Juho Kuosmanen and Hong Khaou, both of whom are known for their indie films.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first read the script, and loved its rhythm and its wit, and really how heartbreaking it was as much as hysterically funny, I imagined what it would be like to see it through a more cinematic lens,\u201d Riseborough says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pairing of Vic and Juho and Hong, it gave us this really interesting combination of mainstream television and independent cinema. And I think the thing that was then created, and the feeling as we were making, was very unique.\u201d<\/p>\n When we first meet Alice and Jack, they are on a date, which seems not to be going well, but which still leads into a one-night stand.<\/p>\n Alice is clear that she doesn\u2019t want the relationship to go any further and the two part ways. However, despite being two very different people (he\u2019s an optimistic, hopeless romantic working in biomedical research, while she\u2019s guarded, pragmatic and working in finance) they find themselves drawn together time and again, unable to ignore the love that is burgeoning between them.<\/p>\n Gleeson sees this as being something \u201cinexplicable\u201d, a realisation for Jack, in the moment where they first kiss, that Alice is now his \u201chome\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have parents,\u201d he explains. \u201cFrom what I understand, orphans a lot of the time, or if you lose even just one parent, there\u2019s a loss of feeling home, the feeling of having a home can go. He kisses this person and he goes, \u2018No, this is my home.\u2019 That\u2019s a connection that goes deeper than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, for Alice, Gleeson thinks she is similarly \u201cblindsided\u201d, while Riseborough says it\u2019s \u201cinevitable\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI think their inevitable collision is the world being put to rights,\u201d she says. \u201cI think with any great love, that is how you feel inside of it. There\u2019s a rightness about it \u2013 even if it\u2019s painful, and it\u2019s confusing, and it\u2019s tragic, and it\u2019s unpredictable, and it\u2019s elating, there\u2019s still a sense of rightness that comes with being in love or finding a mate. They are two halves of a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n Following their initial meeting, the episodes then chart their stories over the following 15 years, as they move in and out of each other\u2019s lives. Early on, he meets someone new (Lynn, played by Aisling Bea) and moves on with his life. But still, that pull towards Alice remains, with Gleeson calling her Jack\u2019s \u201csoulmate\u201d.<\/p>\n Both Riseborough and Gleeson note how crucial their own working relationship was in helping to craft their on-screen romance.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically, as long ago as the relationship between Alice and Jack spans in the series, I\u2019ve known and worked with Andrea that long,\u201d Gleeson explains. \u201cWe\u2019ve washed in and out of each other\u2019s lives in much the same way as Alice and Jack have, in a funny sort of way. It\u2019s work as opposed to romance, but it\u2019s mattered to me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Riseborough adds: \u201cThose first two experiences were film, so really, in many ways, a different world. But to have a history with someone and a trust and a mutual respect creates an environment where you feel that bit more bolstered to be really vulnerable when telling a story like this.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a very, very vulnerable story for both of the characters. It\u2019s as raw as it is funny. So it was wonderful to have that history with Domhnall.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout our discussions, there are a couple of words which keep recurring when it comes to these two characters \u2013 \u201cflawed\u201d and \u201cmessy\u201d.<\/p>\n Riseborough says: \u201cBoth Alice and Jack are quite extraordinary characters and very human. Flawed, well-meaning, but their relationship is catastrophic in so many ways, and hopeful and full of joy in so many others.\u201d<\/p>\n Gleeson adds: \u201cI really loved it, seeing where it began and how messy they could be, and how they could both mess each other up, and then seeing how it ended, which obviously I don\u2019t want to spoil, but it was just one of the most beautiful, profound things I\u2019ve read.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd knowing that we were going to get there with a lot of f**k-ups in the middle\u2026 I was like, \u2018This is incredible.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThey really hurt each other over the course of this series, and really hurt other people as they try to figure out whether they can be happy together, whether they should be happy together, whether they should just be apart, whether they should live in silence, whether their lives are better without each other, or whether they can only live together. I just think that\u2019s amazingly fertile ground.<\/p>\n \u201cI also think that, normally, romance is presented in quite an idealistic, naive way. The notion of a romantic story, it normally means a few laughs and loads of love, and a wedding, and then that\u2019s it. I feel like romance is a real thing in life but grown-up romance, real romance, is messy, and people get hurt, and it can take a long time. And I think that\u2019s what this is. That\u2019s what makes me love it.\u201d<\/p>\n Riseborough concurs. She sees the moment that they come into one another\u2019s orbit as \u201ca moment of a circle being closed in the most inevitable way\u201d, but notes that this type of story has often been told on-screen in a conventional manner, one which she doesn\u2019t see as truthful.<\/p>\n \u201cI crave seeing real human behaviour reflected on screen,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd I think I\u2019m drawn to projects that do that. We are, I think, often misrepresenting the human experience for the sake of what has become quite conventional storytelling. And that\u2019s its own language, but it\u2019s not necessarily reflective of life.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s very refreshing to see human behaviour on screen. And it\u2019s strange, we\u2019re strange creatures. And I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s been a preconceived notion of us as audience members having an aversion to seeing that, but I know, as an industry, we\u2019ve certainly perpetuated telling the same sort of story.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so I\u2019m always interested in being part of telling a story that deeply resonates with the disappointment and hysteria of life, rather than one focused on a protagonist who may have an impossible set of moral standards that we none of us can attain.\u201d<\/p>\n This \u2018messiness\u2019 didn\u2019t always make for the easiest or lightest of shoots. The characters frequently hurt one another, something Gleeson found \u201creally difficult\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI kind of struggled with all that sort of stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to live in the love zone because it\u2019s a nice place to be, it\u2019s a nice thing to be creating love on set, it\u2019s a nice thing to be finding pure moments of happiness and contentment.<\/p>\n \u201cIt does affect the way that you feel, in the same way as if you read a novel that\u2019s romantic or watch a film that truly has love in it and makes you feel it, at the end of it you feel differently than if you\u2019ve watched a horror movie. Your body feels different. So if you\u2019re acting that stuff all day, it makes you feel different too.<\/p>\n \u201cSo yeah, it got on top of me. I didn\u2019t like it when Jack is being cut loose or feels useless or feels like he\u2019s hurting people. It\u2019s not nice, but that\u2019s the job.\u201d<\/p>\n However, this, to Gleeson\u2019s mind, all plays in to the 15-year time frame, as he notes that: \u201cThe more you learn, the more you hurt people, the more you become hurt, it ages you. That\u2019s part of getting older, is experience chipping away some of that puppy dog enthusiasm. And yet at the same time, Jack\u2019s life becomes way richer.\u201d<\/p>\n He continues: \u201cThere\u2019s enough time in 15 years for your life to change not just in a situational way, but for multiple aspects of everyone\u2019s life to change. In 15 years, I don\u2019t think anybody looks back and says, \u2018Right, nothing\u2019s happened in 15 years.\u2019 There\u2019s enough time there for you to change multiple times, for people to change.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s what happens in a long term relationship\u2026 by the end of that long term relationship, those two people are not the same. You\u2019ve changed multiple times. And what\u2019s interesting is to find out whether you still love each other over that amount of time, like, whether you love this new person.\u201d<\/p>\n Riseborough agrees, saying: \u201cWith any love great love story, you think back to the beginning of that relationship, and even if it wasn\u2019t so long ago, you feel like a completely different person. You feel like a child looking back. And that\u2019s how it feels for Alice and Jack.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the course of so many years in anyone\u2019s life, for all of us, so many things happen, to the point where, some of them, you blank out, some of them you skip over. You can\u2019t even retain the vastness of what you\u2019ve lived through. And the series takes you through very familiar transitions that we all of us experience throughout a long, intimate relationship with somebody.<\/p>\n \u201cThey never look ideal, those transitions or those experiences. But I think that\u2019s where the audience will deeply identify with the imperfection of this love story.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many of us have the great fortune to have a great love story, to be part of a great love story. And so few of us have the fortune to be able to actually live that out in a way that looks conventional, or in a way that looks like the way my industry has been responsible for misrepresenting it, which is this perfection.<\/p>\n \u201cRelationships are incredibly hard, and putting yourself aside to truly, truly love somebody and deeply care for their interests is a courageous act.\u201d<\/p>\n Next up, Gleeson will be seen starring in Echo Valley alongside Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney. He\u2019s playing a \u201creally, really nasty, half-psychopathic drug dealer\u201d, a far cry from sweet, suburban Jack, and calls the opportunity to work alongside Moore and Sweeney \u201cf**king brilliant\u201d.<\/p>\n He will also soon be heading off to shoot a new Guy Ritchie film, Fountain of Youth, which will also be starring John Krasinski and Natalie Portman.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Riseborough will be seen in HBO\u2019s The Regime later this year, which stars Kate Winslet as an autocratic chancellor who finds her rule starting to crumble. It was a \u201cjoyful, valuable, full experience\u201d for Riseborough, while she notes that working with director Stephen Frears was a \u201cgreat honour of my life.\u201d<\/p> But before all that, viewers will get to experience Alice & Jack, and Riseborough hopes that everyone who gets a chance to enjoy the series is \u201ccaptivated by it in some way\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps the most important thing about it for me,\u201d she adds, \u201cis that we all of us have the right to love, no matter what our circumstances were growing up, no matter who we are in the world, and that love can look like many different things. And more often than not, it looks quite extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Gleeson notes that the series was originally made up of\u00a0eight 30-minute episodes, which have since been edited into six 45-minute parts. It\u2019s a decision he doesn\u2019t understand, and says he wishes viewers had been able to see the half-hour episodes.<\/p>\n However, he\u2019s still evidently deeply proud the project, the ending of which he calls \u201creally profound\u201d. He also says that he hopes viewers \u201cenjoy the journey\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope they find it infuriating, and enlivening, and funny, and moving, in the same way that life is,\u201d he adds. \u201cI hope it\u2019s a condensed version of what real life is like, when it comes to those things. I hope the ups and downs are big ups and downs, I hope they\u2019re angry with us and delighted for us at every different stage.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I hope that by the end, they feel like they\u2019ve found out something beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Andrea](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/761912S1Ep2Alice-and-Jack-065a318.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"76191_2_S1_Ep2_Alice")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Andrea](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/01\/76191S1Alice-And-Jack-bdb14e4.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Alice")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Andrea](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/02\/761912S1Ep2Alice-and-Jack-9e8939b.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"76191_2_S1_Ep2_Alice")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Domhnall](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/02\/761911S1Ep1Alice-and-Jack-4a217a7.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"76191_1_S1_Ep1_Alice")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Domhnall](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/08\/alice-jack-domhnall-gleeson-andrea-riseborough-31a79d2.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"alice-jack-domhnall-gleeson-andrea-riseborough\\"\/")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>