Jack Lowden: “I’ve dreamed of being good at what I do”
In his career so far, Jack Lowden has tackled theatre, film, television, and video games, and has recently diversified into producing, most notably with co-writer and director Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun, which earned a Bafta nomination for ‘Outstanding British Film’, so there’s clearly nothing he won’t try at least once.
As for his on-camera exploits, Lowden’s ongoing role as Slow Horses‘ River Cartwright earned him Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy nominations in the supporting actor category, while he’s also won an Oliver Award for a production of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and has worked with names like Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Florence Pugh, Christopher Nolan, Steve McQueen, James L Brooks, and more.
What was his next port of call? Careening around in a car under the direction of a filmmaker who made their name in R-rated action cinema, obviously. MINI’s ‘Agents of Fun’ may not be his first detour into advertising, but it’s the first time he’s been the focal point of a campaign. As he explained to Far Out, the chance to try something new and work with Hardcore Henry and Nobody‘s Ilya Naishmuller was an opportunity he couldn’t resist.
“Getting involved in the MINI advert was a sort of no-brainer,” Lowden explained. “I’ve only ever done one advert before. I didn’t want to do too many of those in my career, but this one was just very, very cool and instantly up my street. The fact that it’s car-oriented, I love cars. I’ve always loved MINIs. I think also, MINIs have played, obviously, a huge part in film in general.”
As anyone who’s ever seen a movie knows all too well, the cars have been associated with action cinema for decades in everything from The Italian Job and James Bond to The Bourne Identity. Lowden hasn’t yet made a full-blown action movie, but the thought didn’t cross his mind, even though he was being directed by a filmmaker who’s made their name in the genre.
“It never entered my thoughts that I would become part of that,” he clarified. “But I did enjoy the idea of contributing to that car’s… I’d say it’s life throughout film. Instead of trying to reinvent something, or the sort of high-class-ness of that car’s involvement in film was something that I really enjoyed, because it moves in a very specific way, a MINI, I think.”
Even though Lowden declared that he’s “never dreamed of being an action hero,” he’d happily collaborate with Naishmuller on another project. “I would work with Ilya again, for sure. He works very fast. He had to, because he only had one day. But he’s fantastic. He’s got great energy. The fact that he’s a complete film buff, something like this was perfect in his hands.”
Action stardom may not be in the actor’s immediate future, then, but he hasn’t completely ruled it out: “I’ve just dreamed of being good at what I do,” he offered. “And if action plays a part in that, then yes, so be it.” What can’t be argued is Lowden’s seemingly unstoppable ascent, and he’s come a long way since an early stage review described him as, and this is a direct quote, a “perky-nippled Tintin lookalike”.
“It’s always stuck in my head, that quote,” he shared, completely understandably. “It’s a lot of tape needed in the early days to counteract the perky nipples, but I’ve grown to love them.” As well he should, with Lowden going on to describe how he feels about his current trajectory.
“I’m very proud of where I am at the moment, and nominations and things like that, it’s not why I do it, but it’s never not nice to get a bit of a nod from your peers that what you’re doing is being enjoyed by them. And to be honest, awards and things like that, I think if they have any benefit, it’s just that it makes you easier to cast and people to put money behind you. And if you ever want to make your own stuff, it helps people feel more secure in their choice.”
The slow-burning spy story, Slow Horses, has brought Lowden his widest audience and acclaim yet. His co-star, Gary Oldman, has suggested that he’s happy to keep playing Jackson Lamb until the wheels fall off, but does he feel the same way about his character, or is there such a thing as too much of a good thing?
“Would I do it forever? I don’t know,” came the honest answer. “I mean, it’s still really exciting. It’s such a great character and a great bunch of people, and obviously getting to work with people like Gary and Kristin [Scott Thomas] and Jonathan [Pryce]: huge, just huge. Just soaking up their experience is always great. And being part of something that is both critically well-received and loved by audiences is a really nice feeling, so that keeps it going.”
With the fifth season premiering in September 2025, and Slow Horses already being renewed for a sixth and seventh run, it’s a decision he won’t have to contemplate for a while yet. “I have no problem with that,” he said of the show’s future. “If it’s going well, and everybody’s still making it with the same amount of energy.”
As mentioned, Lowden has added an advertising campaign to an eclectic assortment of roles on stage and screen, but he knows where his heart will always belong. “I’ll always be a stage actor, first and foremost,” he acknowledged. “It’s how I started. It’s where I feel most comfortable. It’s where I enjoy it most, because of the rehearsal period rather than the performing; you truly get to work stuff out.”
“There’s not as much time on film and TV to do that,” he continued. “I feel more creative on stage because of that time. It does really depend on what the material is. I’m at a stage in my career where I’m very lucky that there’s a certain amount of choice allowed to me, and it’s all I’ve only ever really wanted to get to in this career is having choice. So I’m very lucky that I do get to choose, and I can’t wait to do another play.”
Some of Lowden’s recent credits have touched base with biopics, conventional drama, dramatic comedy, animated sci-fi, and even a samurai-tinged Scottish western, and that last one allowed the actor to dip his toes into a genre that he hasn’t yet explored, but it nonetheless whetted his appetite for more.
“I would really like, I did get a real taste for it with John Maclean’s Tornado, but I would like to do a proper western, like an old school western,” he shared. “One of my favourite films growing up was Butch Cassidy, and I love the tongue-in-cheekness that’s often found in westerns. I wouldn’t want to do like a dark, dark western. I think that would be fun, but I would love to bring some of the tongue-in-cheek back into it that people like Paul Newman and Robert Redford found in that film. But yeah, a western for sure.”
Having taken on several executive producing and executive producing credits on films like The Outrun, Kindred, and Benediction, Lowden’s aspirations behind the camera extent further than developing projects from the ground up. “Yeah, I ultimately really want to direct,” he confirmed.
“So, falling into producing, a couple of things was me sort of pussying out of doing that, and I learned a shit ton from those two projects, in working in that capacity. And I did really enjoy it. Everything about it, I enjoyed, and I ultimately think I’ve realised as well that I liked being good at what I do, but I also really enjoy being surrounded by the best, and also being part of the reason that somebody can flourish.”
Lowden’s “favourite thing in our industry is great actors,” and when he’s given the platform to “create an environment or help in a scene or even a schedule to help an actor be as good as they can be when they’re brilliant, I get a real kick out of that.”
As mentioned earlier, it’s not Lowden’s first ad campaign, but it’ll take some beating for his appearance in a 2009 Irn-Bru skit to be dislodged as the greatest role of his career, which definitely isn’t coming from a place of Scottish bias. However, if there was any part he could play, whether it was past, present, future, or entirely hypothetical, he plumped for one each from film and television that couldn’t be more different from each other in every way.
“I think I would love to have been in one of my favourite films of all time, which is Master and Commander,” he stated. “I’d like to have played what Russell Crowe played in that; just hanging off a rope on a boat would be a dream come true.” If he couldn’t hang off a rope on a boat, Lowden dreams of headlining a beloved British sitcom from the 1970s.
“I’d also like to play the lead character in Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em,” which is fair enough. “I started watching that the other night. Yes, that’s what I’d love to play. Frank Spencer. I’d like to play that character in something. Doesn’t have to be Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, but Frank Spencer, his physical comedy was amazing.”
Most people who’ve been following Lowden’s career would raise at least one eyebrow if he was announced as the star of a Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em reboot, remake, offshoot, spinoff, or whatever the current buzzword is. He’s let it be known, though: Frank Spencer is the ultimate dream role.
