Steve Coogan on Why He Chose to Play the Sexual Predator Jimmy Savile in The Reckoning
100During a press tour at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, British star Steve Coogan sat down with Collider at our Supper Suite to talk about his latest comedy/drama The Lost King. The story centers around the amateur historian (Sally Hawkins) who made history by locating the remains of King Richard III, which were lost for more than five centuries. However, our own Steve Weintraub couldn’t end the interview without talking to Coogan about his next project, which is also based on a real story. Though a far more horrifying one.
In the upcoming BBC TV series The Reckoning, Coogan will play a controversial individual – to say the least. The two-time Academy Award nominee is set to embody Jimmy Savile, a British radio personality that was celebrated for raising a huge amount of money to charities… when he was alive. After Savile died in 2011, several people came forward to reveal that he was probably one of the worst sexual predators that the world has ever seen, with accounts from victims adding up to hundreds of cases of sexual abuse.
During the interview, Coogan didn’t mince his words when referring to Savile, agreeing that he was a monster and stating flat-out that he was “a pedophile.” So why take on such a horrible role?
“Well, I thought long and hard about it. Jeff [Pope] produced it, and I didn't say yes straight away. But I thought it was very well written. The supporting cast I had were exemplary, so it had all the right things in place to make it something worthwhile, and not exploitative, or prurient, or morbid. The script was very good, and there was a lot of care taken over it. I felt like I could do it. He provokes a very, very real revulsion. When I said I was doing it, a lot of people were wondering why we're doing it. [...] He was a fascinating man, and was able to hoodwink a whole nation because he was so famous and successful, and was at the time well-loved by people before they discovered the awful truth about him.”
Coogan also mentioned that he doesn’t see much sense in people giving him a hard time for playing such a horrible character, since it’s “an acting job” and “people play Hitler and serial murderers and no one bats an eyelid.” The actor also underscored that these stories need to be told in order to prevent them from happening again:
“I'm of the mind that to prevent these things happening again, you have to look at them. It's like an uncomfortable process, but you sweep things under the carpet and try and turn your back on someone like this. I think a lot of the revulsion is because people feel the whole nation was either hoodwinked or, if you're being less kind, complicit in enabling him to do the nefarious things he did. […] It's not just about him, it's about what kind of society lays the groundwork for someone like him to operate.”
BBC One has yet to reveal any further details about The Reckoning, including a trailer or an expected release window. The series is penned by Neil McKay, who previously wrote The Moorside and See No Evil. Recently, Netflix released a two-part documentary titled Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story that chronicled Savile’s career and posthumous revelations of his history of abuse.
You can check out the interview with Coogan above and look for more on The Lost King very soon.
#stevecoogan #JimmySavile #thereckoning
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