[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the season six finale of Slow Horses, “Judgment Day.”]
Before Ruth Bradley filmed any episodes of Apple TV’s Slow Horses, she read all the books in the Mick Herron series that had been published to that point. That is to say, she already knew exactly how much things would change for her character, Emma Flyte, who was introduced in season four as the first female head of MI5’s aggressive security task force, the Dogs.
Knowing where things were going ahead of time helped her decide to “lean into a superiority that Flyte would have over the Horses” in her first season. She adds, “It just meant that there was so much further to fall, which is fun to watch, isn’t it?”
But there were also drawbacks, mainly a fear of accidentally spoiling certain events that occur in season six. Now that the season finale has finally dropped, however, Bradley tells The Hollywood Reporter she’s relieved to no longer have to speak in code.
Below, she dishes on the just-released season, including the evolving “mother-daughter” dynamic between Flyte and MI5 boss Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), their “expletive-laden” midseason confrontation and the climactic events of episode six.
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Your character is the head of the Dogs, which always seemed to be a very aggressive, male-dominated specialty. What interested you about playing a woman in that type of role?
I guess what interested me would be what interested Flyte, that this is a male-dominated world. She’s come from the Met [London’s Metropolitan Police], which is also pretty male-dominant, and she’s the trailblazer. She’s going to be the first woman in this position, as head of the Dogs, and she’s going to change it for women coming up behind her, she’s going to set a precedent, and in season four, she feels that Taverner has her back. She thinks she’s been hand-picked by Taverner, which turns out to absolutely not be the case. When she arrives in season four, she’s like, “Wow, maybe when I grow up, I can be like Taverner.” Her career is on this massive upward trajectory, which turns out to absolutely not be the case.
She does deserve to be on that trajectory; she’s an extremely competent person. In the earlier seasons she didn’t really seem to care for the Slow Horses. Is that because she’s so competent and they’re not necessarily?
What was so great is that I knew what was going to happen because of books four, five and six. So I could really play into and lean into a superiority that Flyte would have over the Horses. She’s thinking, “These are not the cool kids. I don’t want to be associated with these guys. They’re a joke, and I’m so much better than them.” So it just meant that there was so much further to fall, which is fun to watch, isn’t it? I thought the further I could push that, the better. And then by season five, she’s a little bit more wary of them.
Early on in this season, you have a lot of good scenes with Kristin Scott Thomas where Taverner has been doing some things that seem out of character, like talking to the media, and you’re questioning, “Are you OK? Do you need some help?” And then it evolves to Flyte calling her out. Were those scenes fun to play?
So fun to play. Some of that dialogue is lifted straight out of the book, like, “With a lack of respect, fuck you and fuck your job.” That is literally in Mick Herron’s book, and it really, to me, felt like the pinnacle of this kind of subconscious mother-daughter thing in the dynamic between Flyte and Taverner, so that felt like the culmination of that storyline, being caring and taking care of her, but then a total flip when she realizes what she’s going to do to her.
When you think of it that way, it’s even more of a betrayal when Taverner throws her in Slough House.
I think Flyte would have preferred to be fired, because being sent to Slough House is such a personal slight, when Taverner has made no bones about how ridiculous she thinks they all are, and she thinks that’s all you’re worth. I think it really hurts Flyte as well, as opposed to just being terrible, it’s also really, deeply hurtful that she’s doing this to her and shocking, which is why Flyte’s response is so expletive-laden.
And when she has that response, you wonder: Is she just going to quit? But when the Slow Horses show up at her door, she does decide to help them.
She helps them, but that’s such an interesting point, because she never officially joins the Slow Horses. It’s just the night she’s been fired and she’s laying into her whiskey. She’s not expecting them to call around, so who knows what she would have done had she made it to Monday morning?
Eventually they all make it to the safe house, and that setting looked so beautiful. Was it really as remote and idyllic as it looked on the screen?
Totally amazing, that whole sequence. We were like a school class on tour. We were in this beautiful, idyllic part of Suffolk, on the coast in England, and when we’d wrap, we’d go for walks in the sunset and we’d go for dinner in each of those barns. It was just a gorgeous place to be. One weekend in the middle of it, we all flew to L.A. for the Actor Awards, and it was really kind of wild. We got on the plane right after wrap and then we went straight back to work on Monday morning. It was great.
All the glamorous things about acting at once.
And the crew were like, “Have a good time! See you next week!”
You also have some other upcoming projects. Have they been a change of pace from Slow Horses?
Yeah, they’ve all been films, which has been really exciting. An amazing, beautiful film called Walk the Blue Fields, which is based on a Claire Keegan book, with Emily Blunt and Andrew Scott and another gorgeous bunch of actors. That was really gorgeous. John Crowley directed it, and it’s a really tiny love story, really amazing. He’s an incredible director.
And then this great film called Bender in the summer, with Bill Burr and Chris O’Dowd, and that’s like a comedy, which is totally the other side. And this thing I’m shooting now, which I don’t know if I can talk about it yet, but it’s very art house and totally different for me. It’s been really exciting, but yeah, totally different characters to Flyte, which is how I like it.
That’s probably the exciting thing about being an actor, is getting to play all these different types of things.
Totally, that’s the dream. Be big or go home. They’re completely opposite to each other, so it’s great.
I’ve seen some other interviews where you said Gary Oldman was one of the reasons you wanted to be an actor and that was one of the most exciting things about joining Slow Horses. Did you learn anything specific from being on set with him?
If I look at my career, even what I was just saying about those next films, I’m always wondering, how can I go completely to the other end of humanity in this next character, Completely change everything? That is definitely based on watching Gary’s career as a kid, and Peter Sellers, these actors who were completely different in different things, so professionally I’ve definitely kept that in mind.
But I think he’s so kind, and he knows every member of the crew’s name. He knows everything about their family and life, and he treats everybody with the utmost respect, and he knows all his lines and he’s worked out everything. He’s open and generous as an actor, so I think that [is what I learned]: There’s no reason to be anything other than that, even if you happen to be one of the greatest living actors on earth, you can still be kind.
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(Writer’s note: MAJOR spoilers for the season finale start here.)
You mentioned that you already knew from the books that your character was going to die, so that wasn’t a surprise, right?
I knew before I shot any frame of season four that this was going to happen. It was never a surprise.
Before Flyte gets shot, she does get to be kind of a badass. (She runs across the beach and shoots and kills a henchman to save three of the others before being shot in the back.) Was there a lot of preparation that went into that lead-up?
Not really, because by the end of six we’d done a lot of stunt work with [stunt coordinator] Paul [Kennington] and gun work, so I was pretty comfortable with all that. And [director] Adam [Randall]’s great with, like, “Let’s just try this,” so I knew that was the case. I had been running a lot. I did a half marathon before, because I was like, “I’d better be in shape for this stuff.” I was sprinting on a beach.
That was great, all the stuff beforehand. What’s great about the show is all the plot happens through the characters. When there’s danger, Flyte’s like, “I’ll go, don’t worry,” even though she knows it’s crazy, but [the Slow Horses] can’t go. They’ll be killed. So when she hears these gunshots when she’s in the long grass, her instinct is just to go and save them — even though there might be people around, she’s in full view, she’s not sneaking, she’s sprinting on an empty beach. Her instinct as a human is to save people who need to be saved. So it’s great that she gets to do that before …
And that adds to the tragedy, because she is the person who’s most equipped to deal with this.
Totally, and it is a pretty dirty move to shoot someone in the back, isn’t it?
Do you remember anything in particular about filming the part where Harkness (Hugo Weaving) shoots her?
Yeah, it was kind of huge. I’ve never played the moment of death before, actually. I’ve played after and before, but that actual moment isn’t really something you can plan or rehearse for, because it’s going to happen to us all at some stage. It was really big and moving, and we didn’t really rehearse it. We didn’t really talk about it. We discussed the moves, like, “I’ll go over on this shoulder because that’s where she’ll be shot, I’ll crawl back on my hand.” Adam was like, “Maybe you throw the gun at him,” I said, “Yeah, sure, I’ll throw the gun at him.”
There was a line in the stage directions, “She realizes this is her final moment,” but that was just on the page, we didn’t talk about it. We just shot it. I think it’s one of those things. Luckily, Adam is such a brilliant director. I wouldn’t want to over-shoot those things, because it’s going to happen to us and we don’t know what it’s going to feel like, so you’re better off just jumping off and seeing what happens.
It definitely came across that she knows this is it, and there’s nothing else she can do. And thinking back to the confrontation that she had with Taverner, if I were Taverner I would feel pretty guilty about Flyte dying in that circumstance. But do you think that she will?
I hope so. (Laughs.) I don’t know, after all the stuff that went on with Sid Baker [Olivia Cooke], I don’t know if she would feel remorse about Flyte dying, because she’s done some pretty awful things to other agents. And just because Flyte has held her in such high regard and such high esteem, I don’t ever think it was reciprocated, which is what’s so great. (Laughs.) I don’t know, you’d have to ask Kristin, but I don’t think Taverner would give her a second thought.
That’s so sad.
(Laughs.)
And it’s probably true. I was going to ask if it was hard to keep it a secret since you film so far in advance, but you’ve really known since the beginning.
Yeah, it has been hard. Also, I’m shooting something right now and they’ve dyed my hair dark, but purposely everything else I’ve worked since, I’m purposely like, “Let’s keep it blonde,” because I didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag since we shoot so many seasons back-to-back. People would ask me, “Are you still doing Slow Horses?” and I’d be like, “It’s still going,” you know, speaking in code. So I’m glad that I can give that up now.
Is there anything else you wanted to say about Flyte, as you officially say goodbye to her?
I’m so sad she’s gone! It’s strange to be talking about it because I haven’t really spoken about it ever because we’ve been keeping it under wraps. But I’ve totally fallen in love with her over the course of it. Something about being able to lean into how haughty and entitled she was in season four, and then how vulnerable and off kilter she was in five, and then being able to be her genuine self in six, feels like a real life journey, and I fell in love with her over the course of it.
She definitely evolves and grows, and it’s a fun thing to watch.
It’s like real people, we all do.
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Slow Horses season six is available on Apple TV. For more THR coverage of the show, see our interview with Christopher Chung (Roddy Ho) and season six director Adam Randall.