You may remember him as Matthew Crawley in period drama Downton Abbey but Dan Stevens unleashes his much darker side in the terrific new action/horror/black comedy mash-up The Guest. He talks to Alan Corr
Alan Corr: You play David, a cool and charismatic US special ops soldier in The Guest. He arrives in a quiet New Mexico town and proceeds to raise merry hell with an unsuspecting family. He is the anti-Jason Bourne, isn't he?
Dan Stevens: “I suppose he is. I’ve heard him described as Captain America gone very, very wrong and yes, it has elements of Bourne in it, elements of all kind of action as well as thriller and horror, comedy thrown in really. You’re in the right ball park there, yeah.”
Director Adam Wingard certainly knows his 80s straight-to-video action flick clichés but The Guest really is an affectionate and self-aware love letter to that era . . .
“I guess it’s really a celebration of and a digestion of all those films we watched and loved while we were growing up and when I sat with Adam, we’re a similar age, but he grew up in Alabama and I grew up in Britain, we talk very differently, we found that we share a very similar twisted sense of humour.
"We just loved a lot of the same films growing up in all different genres and when I read the script, I could see they were trying to do in terms of sending them up but it’s not a parody, it’s not a pastiche; there’s something celebratory about the way in which we enjoyed those films, a kind of ironic appreciation of the extreme violence we were exposed to as kids.”
One of the most enjoyable roles in the movie is the one played by Lance Reddick as a completely wooden military brass named Carver. Do you think Adam was trying to make a comment about war?
“There is an element of that at play. There is a certainly a critique of the sort of mindset that a certain type of training leaves individuals with. There is an inhuman quality to David as much there is a charming human quality to him and that was fun to play with.”
David has all the good manners and mannerisms of a southern gent but he is also a blue-eyed and dead-eyed killer. How did you capture the accent so well?
“I’ve always enjoyed doing different accents and voices and it was really fun to try and nail this one properly and I had some help from people who knew where to find some good resources but at the end of the day it’s just about sitting with it and playing and repeating it. That kind of southern accent informs the character as well.
"There’s that military mind-set we were talking about, that sort of cool, calm execution of various objectives which is extremely efficient and expedient but also terrifying when you realise what these people have ultimately been trained to do.”
Stevens plays David, a soldier who ingratiates himself with a family grieving for their son who has been killed in action
The soundtrack for The Guest is very impressive. Adam says it has a “John Carpenter synth wonderland” feel about it . . .
“I’m a huge fan of the soundtrack because some of it is so obscure. Very often directors have music in mind when they are making movies and it’s so popular and it’s such a famous tune but with independent films you’ll never be able to afford to use famous tunes but with Adam and Steve Moore, the composer who is an electro genius anyway, they had such obscure music in mind because no one had ever heard of these bands there is some really cool, weird stuff there especially that track Haunted When The Minutes Drag (by Love and Rockets, 80s snyth fans), that pan shot from outside the window when David is sitting on the bed he had that track and that shot all ready from day one.
"Stuff like that, and playing a certain tune before a particular scene so that we knew exactly what kind of 'cool' was required. It’s kind of awesome and it plays a huge part in the movie - what’s happening in your ears alongside what’s happening in your eyes.”
An excellent Maika Monroe gets trapped in a John Carpenter-like hall of mirrors
You rose to fame in Downton Abbey. Do you now get irked by constantly been asked about your time on the show?
“No because I’m very, very grateful to it and it was a very valuable and momentous time and until these films come out and I get a bit further down the line, of course Downton is going to come up.”
You studied English literature in Cambridge, you have been on the judging panel for The Booker Prize, and you contribute to online literary magazine The Junket but what book would you like to see adapted for the big screen?
“There are lots and I can’t think of one. Hahaha but it is something I am interested in. I’m actively developing a few things to produce and I’ve always been an avid reader anyway, not just novels, but all sorts of things, especially long-form journalism. I’m always on the lookout for some signal from something. I write occasionally for The Junket which I edit with some mates and at the moment, I’m waiting to be disciplined enough to write for that - anything longer is a little way off but who knows?”
You have no less than six movies coming up - are you just a boy who can’t say no?
“Oh I’ve been saying no to quite a lot of things! I’m not sure if it’s quite six this year but I’ve certainly got three coming up before Christmas. It is a busy time, exploring a lot of different things in quite different genres. It’s been really fun, I’m feeling like an actor and trying lots of different guises.”
The Guest is in cinemas nationwide now. Read our review here.
