Spoilers for Slow Horses season-four finale “Hello Goodbye” follow.
The fourth season of Apple TV+’s Slow Horses concludes with a big ol’ reveal: Frank Harkness, the rogue intelligence operative our titular bargain-bin agents have been chasing the whole time, isn’t just the head of a mercenary cabal staffed with men he’s brainwashed since childhood. He also happens to be the biological father of River Cartwright, the show’s centerpiece MI5 reject played by Jack Lowden. In a series that primarily revolves around a dysfunctional found-family group, and in a season thematically defined by father figures, there’s something sweet and tragic about watching River reconnect with his long-lost father — even if the two meet under antagonistic circumstances, with Frank ludicrously trying to recruit his son into his now-depleted team on threat of death. Honestly, the whole situation is rather on-brand for River, the perpetually striving and stumbling failson, to find out that his dad is actually a terrorist actor.
Played by a reliably sneering Hugo Weaving (known to most viewers for his portrayals of Agent Smith in The Matrix films and original-recipe Elrond in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings franchise), the actor brings his signature intensity and an electric sliminess to Harkness. He’s a weird villain figure, equal parts malevolent force of nature and hyper-chatty salesman. The season ends with the mercenary getting away scot-free after successfully pulling off a gambit that forces the MI5 to release him via blackmail. Harkness returns for more books in Mick Herron’s Slough House novels from which Slow Horses is adapted, so you can be pretty much certain that you’ll see Weaving share the screen with Lowden again.
You’ve spoken elsewhere of tiring with playing Hollywood villains. Frank Harness isn’t really a Hollywood villain, but he does feel somewhat adjacent to the archetype. What’s interesting to you about Frank?
I don’t really see it as returning to playing a villain, though it might appear like that. He’s this complex human being operating in the shadowy world of intelligence. The things these people do are extreme, and that’s one of the reasons intelligence agencies exist — to do the things our societies don’t want any of us to be a part of, but they need to be done. My role is to make him as real as I can. He’s someone with a team of operatives who are also his sons. He’s a father figure. He’s a nurturing figure. He’s an indoctrinator who’s carrying out killings for agencies around the world. Yet when he’s talking to you, you can’t know any of that. He’s gotta be a polite man who listens and doesn’t reveal a lot about himself. He can be charming, I suppose.
I was also drawn to the construct that the series sets up with our hero, River. He has a father figure in David Cartwright, who’s his grandfather, and another father figure in Jackson Lamb, who he rubs up and rebels against. So the appearance of Frank, who is River’s actual father, creates this fabulous focus on the idea of dysfunction within the family. That really is what Slow Horses is all about, I think. It’s about us as individuals feeling unloved. “We’re not worthy.” “What can I do to make Lamb love me?” “What can I do to get back working with MI5?” So you put someone like Frank in there, who’s River’s real dad and the “villain” of the season, and you get sort of a Darth Vader dynamic. The person River has been chasing all along happens to be his father, you know?
That comes to a head in the scene with both of them at the bar where Frank is revealed to be River’s father. How was working with Jack Lowden on that sequence?
I didn’t know Jack, really. We’d met and talked about the characters in that scene, but we didn’t really know each other. Then again, neither did Frank and River, so in a way you’re starting from scratch, which is what they were doing. I love working with Jack. He’s got great comedic timing and self-deprecating comedy chops. Frank’s got a sense of humor, kind of quirky with a sense of wryness about him. I think Frank’s very aware of the preposterous nature of his proposition.
Did Frank actually believe River would turncoat? It’s not like River would be making the choice of his own accord.
There’s a line where Frank tells River, “You are not appreciated in Slough House at all. In fact, you don’t even want to be there.” And he doesn’t want to be there, shoveling shit everyday. Frank knows that. So from that perspective, River might’ve taken a job offer under other circumstances. But after the killing of all those civilians and the realization Frank is behind it all, that’s the thing that makes it so preposterous. But that also makes it funny to me. There’s humor in the fact he even makes the offer. He doesn’t really think River’s going to accept it, but I think it comes from some genuine desire.
Does Frank actually possess paternal feelings?
We don’t really see a lot of that, but I had to assume that, yes, that’s there. There’s a little scene with Patrice earlier where Frank is holding him and whispering in his ear and talking to him in French, instilling something in the son and the warrior. There’s an archetypal quality to the character: a father-warrior figure treating his princely sons, who are also warriors on the battlefield, with an unsentimental sense of commitment to the cause. Frank thinks of his sons that way. He’s got his own sense of what love is, or what fathers and sons do and are for each other. It’s just slightly different from most people.
Frank is kind of a strange character. He has this intense all-or-nothing drive while also being weirdly chatty. The scene where he nearly gets chopped up by his client is pretty funny. He’s supposed to be this terrifying presence, yet in the moment, we just see him as a slimy salesman. He’s made to be small and scampering — offering discounts, refunds. What does that moment illustrate about Frank?
It’s his introduction, isn’t it? This is the first time we actually get to see him talk and he’s in deep shit up to his neck. He’s about to lose his head. It’s this great reveal to the character everyone is after. The choice to introduce him in a weak place is fabulous because you immediately feel, well, if this is the baddie, and these other guys are out to get him, and we’re with him in this moment, it forces you to understand the plight of your “villain,” if you like. He does manage his way out of it, verbally at least. So you get a sense of him as being a fairly slippery character. Frank’s a survivor.
How did you get cast for Frank? Did they approach you?
I was approached with the scripts, yes, and an offer to play the role. I knew about it because Will Smith [the creator and showrunner of Slow Horses] is actually my cousin. You’d have to ask him, but my sense is that he was reading the book this season was based on and came up with the idea that I would be good for Frank as he was writing the adaptation. Nina Gold is the casting agent, and she had cast me in a few things before, like Patrick Melrose.
The deal was for more than one season. I can’t remember what I was doing at the time, but it wasn’t like “we’re shooting in a couple of months.” It was well down the track. They were just about to shoot season three, I think, when they reached out.
I feel like I haven’t seen you onscreen in a while, so I initially didn’t quite recognize you when you first appeared on screen with the big beard. How are you feeling about your career as you settle into your ’60s?
[Laughs.] Oh, I’ve been doing quite a lot of theater and films, but most of my films are fairly low-budget Australian films. The film industry’s pretty tough, even when you’re on a big-budget production. It’s hard to get any film seen, let alone really interesting little Australian low-budget films. But I love my profession. I’m fascinated with acting and what it actually is. Human psychology is an endless source of fascination to me — my own psychology, let alone anyone else’s. And it’s a real pleasure to be a part of a different family and travel, in this instance, to London and France and work on a project.
I’ve never wanted to do back-to-back projects. I always want some time once I’ve finished to be at home with my family, to travel, to be up in the country, to enjoy nature, to plant vegetables and grow trees and things like that. I try and keep life in balance when I’m not working, get my hands dirty by planting trees. My health’s pretty good too, which is a good thing.
I associate you with intense, harder-edged characters, but I get the sense you’re a fairly relaxed, chill person. Do you normally gravitate towards intensity with your roles?
Oh, I don’t know about that. I recently got to play a character in a series called Love Me, which is about a family — there’s a father, mother, son, and daughter, but the mother dies, and the father, who I play, is bereft because his wife’s died but then we learn they were never really properly in love. He’s definitely a nice man, but he’s not an alpha male. He’s not even a beta male, you know? He’s capable but boring. It was an absolute pleasure to play that.
I do enjoy playing a lot of different roles. We’re talking about doing another Priscilla film at the moment…
Really? The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert?
Yes! You know, revisiting that character and where he is now, what he’s up to. I suppose it’s true that there are characters I play who are extremely intense — Agent Smith, say, or Frank, in his own way — but I try to see all different levels of intensity. But in terms of your question about what’s my relationship with intensity, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just particular roles that are more intense tend to be the roles that are more well known.
It’s exciting to hear that you might revisit Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
The idea for it is really good — revisiting those three characters. Who are they now? Where do drag queens go when they get old? What are the things that they have to deal with as they get older? It is about aging in that way.
It was a big part of all of our lives. Everyone who worked on that show had the time of their life.. And it was a big hit that was embraced around the world. It seemed to be the crest of a wave for a whole movement and an acceptance of what it is to be gay. The film heralded a new way of us thinking and being with each other.
You mentioned you’re a big gardener. What are you planting this season?
I did plant potatoes. They’ll be coming up hopefully in November, December. Broad beans, lettuces, cavolo nero, chard. I was picking a whole lot of lime and our blood oranges were all coming out. We’ve got 300 olive trees, so depending on the time of the year, we’ll get people up and everyone will pick for like two and a half days. We make our own olive oil. I don’t live at this place, I live in Sydney, but we have a house on this property on the river, about 58 acres. We just love the wallabies hopping around and all the native animals. We let them be, plant trees and try to make the soil healthy. It’s a delightful place to disappear when I’m not filming.
