“It was fucking brilliant”: the role Ian McShane called “the best gig I ever had”
Proving that it’s never too late to find the role you were born to play in Hollywood, Ian McShane didn’t land his greatest gig until he was in his 60s.
For a certain generation, the stalwart British thespian will forever be known as the loveably roguish antiques dealer Lovejoy in the BBC series of the same name, which ran for six seasons between 1986 and 1994. That gentle, cosy series was beloved by grannies all over the nation, but McShane may have become so synonymous with the character that it stunted his career in unexpected ways, predominantly in terms of cracking the American market.
After Lovejoy ended in 1994, McShane made another couple of British series, but his attempts at working in America were limited to a Babylon 5 TV movie and one episode of The West Wing. However, during these wilderness years, his turn as the vicious gangster Teddy Bass in Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast stuck out like a terrifying sore thumb, and perhaps demonstrated to Hollywood that this old dog still had some new tricks up his sleeve. Four years later, he took Bass’s foul-mouthed, dangerous energy, turned it up to 11, and started playing the part that would define him for a whole new generation.
As the aptly-named Al Swearengen in David Milch’s potty-mouthed HBO western epic Deadwood, McShane was a revelation. The character was based on a real-life figure who ran a saloon and brothel named the Gem Theatre in Deadwood, South Dakota, in the late 19th century, and was notorious for the brutality he utilised to strongarm women into prostitution. In the show, Milch refused to pull any punches, and Swearengen quickly became one of the most despicable villains in TV history. Suddenly, McShane, a man previously known as a charming antiques dealer, had the opportunity to redefine his entire career, and he attacked the role with gusto.
According to the star, Deadwood was a unique project from the get-go for two reasons: Milch’s unusual working method and the cast’s lodgings. This was no cushty job shot on a backlot with the actors retiring to their luxurious trailers between takes. Instead, McShane revealed, “We were all in the one location on this ranch where we filmed it, and we were all there every day – the writers were there, the wardrobe, the costume, we were all on this amazing set on this ranch.”
This naturally led to an incredible camaraderie among the cast, but it also allowed Milch to adjust his writing on the fly. Ultimately, rewrites could come in at any time, but the creative atmosphere embraced this unpredictability and ensured it wasn’t a burden; it was liberating. “David Milch, who was the creative genius behind Deadwood, could change anything he liked at any time because we were all there, so it was like doing a workshop, it was like doing theatre,” McShane recalled fondly. “But at the same time, like doing a movie. It was very exciting. If you like doing your job, which I do, it was the place to be.”
During three seasons of Deadwood, McShane went from a virtual unknown in the US to one of the industry’s most sought-after character actors, picking up a Golden Globe award and a Primetime Emmy nomination in the process. Sadly, the show was abruptly cancelled in 2007, something that still sticks in McShane’s craw to this day, but his memories of the job that changed his life will forever stick with him.
“Three years of doing Deadwood was, I think, the most satisfying creatively…I’ve ever had over a professional career,” McShane told Entertainment.ie in 2017. In other interviews, he gushed about the irascible, domineering Swearengen being “the best gig I ever had” and admitted to The Guardian that he still finds himself inextricably drawn to the show if he catches it while channel surfing.
“It was not good,” he noted, before delivering a perfectly Swearengenian punchline: “It was fucking brilliant.”
