Liam Cunningham talks to Miriam about his role in sci-fi thriller 3 Body Problem, his pride in fellow Irish actors like Cillian Murphy and his passions for great screen-writing and Formula 1 racing. Listen back above.
The creators of Games of Thrones met while studying Irish literature in Dublin's Trinity College, as GOT star Liam Cunningham tells Miriam O’Callaghan on Sunday. The same writers, David Benioff and DB Weiss, along with showrunner Alexander Woo form the creative team behind Cunningham’s latest venture, Netflix sci-fi thriller 3 Body Problem.
3 Body Problem is based on the novel The Three-Body Problem by Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin. Liam Cunningham plays the enigmatic former CIA agent Thomas Wade in the series. He’s joined in the cast by Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange, The Martian) as well as his Game of Thrones co-star Jonathan Pryce. Liam says he was in talks about another project, when Benioff and Weiss jumped in and nabbed him for their new series. Having worked with the pair for years, Liam says he took the offer on trust and thought about it later:
"The phone call lasted about a minute. They said 'You’re not going with them, you’re coming with us.’ And I went OK. I basically hung up the phone and my professional head kicked in and I said, I don’t even know what the project is - it could be a week’s work. And then these glorious scripts for 3 Body Problem landed on my hall floor."
The script was a joy to read, Cunningham says. The writers morphed the character of Wade into a Dub especially for Liam, so he uses his own accent throughout. Liam says the writers both have a grounding in great Irish writing:
"I don’t know if you know this, but David and Dan met in Trinity College. They were doing post-grad work there. And essentially, David and Dan, one of them’s a bit of an expert on Joyce, the other one is Beckett – they know their words."
3 Body Problem begins with a cascade of deaths of prominent scientists; followed by the gradual breakdown of technology - the kind of technology which humanity depends on for survival. These disasters are happening for no apparent reason, and the fate of the planet is now in the hands of Liam’s character Thomas Wade, as well as Da Shi, played by Benedict Wong:
"It’s an existential threat to the human race. And myself and the magnificent Benedict Wong are a team - I’m his boss – and when we find out what it is, we end up that we’re in charge of saving the human race, just a small job, Miriam, a small job."
There’s plenty of science in the series, including the actual ‘three-body problem’, which is an unsolved problem in quantum mechanics. The three-body problem is defined by the attempt to predict the movements of three objects whose gravity interacts with each of the others. Liam says the science is a seamless part of the story - it adds to the drama, he says:
"It’s a thriller, I think, if anything. We’re dealing a lot with science and quantum entanglement and theoretical physics and that sort of stuff. It’s really cool. It’s not boring – as in educationally – we’re not there to educate anyone, we have to rope in this stuff to try and place the threat of what’s coming."
Cunningham reveals that he wasn’t the biggest fan of fantasy before getting involved in Game of Thrones. He says while some people say they don’t like science fiction, Liam thinks 3 Body Problem will appeal to people, even those who are not normally fans of the genre:
"It’s a glorious story, and I know there’s people out there who go, ‘Science fiction’s not really my bag’. And I was one of them, on Game of Thrones - fantasy was not really my bag and they burst that genre open. And this is a really human story."
Liam talks about his career as an electrician, including spending 3 years maintaining electrical equipment at a safari park in Zimbabwe, and how he turned to acting - at first as a hobby - when he came back from Africa. Part of the joy of it is the process by which the written word becomes pure emotion, as he describes it:
"Getting these pieces of ink off a page; and doing it so that people laugh and cry and run along with your character and all that. I just love that magic. If that ever stops being magical to me I hope I have the wherewithal to just walk away and let someone else have a go."
Cunningham takes pleasure in the success of fellow Irish actors, from Gabriel Byrne and Brendan Gleeson, to Cillian Murphy, Jessie Buckley and Andrew Scott. Having first worked with Cillian Murphy decades ago, Liam says he was never in any doubt about his potential:
"I tell you something, as soon as I saw him, I nearly eloped with him. The man is gorgeous. He’s incredibly talented."
As a high-profile actor, Liam gets sent a lot of scripts. But he says the ratio of excellent scripts to duds remains the same, no matter how many of them come his way, as he tells Miriam:
"I can only get those juices going if the writing is good. It’s like a knife in the heart when it’s not good and it’s a joy when it is."
Liam talks more about his career, his passions for motorbikes and Formula 1 and that time he caught a fainting superfan before she hit the floor in the full interview - listen back above.
For the perfect soundtrack to your Sunday morning, listen live on the RTÉ Radio app to Sunday with Miriam and catch up here on more great stories and interviews.