In All the Devils are Here, after a heist, four criminals lay low in a remote safe house, waiting for orders. As paranoia builds, one thing becomes clear—the real threat may not be outside, but among them.
Directed by Barnaby Roper and written by John Patrick Dover, the thriller stars Eddie Marsan, Sam Claflin, Burn Gorman, Tienne Simon, with Suki Waterhouse, and Rory Kinnear.
Last week, we had the good fortune to sit down with Marsan to discuss his role as Ronnie, a crook who has clearly grown tired of a life of crime. A good man who does bad things, he's surrounded by bad men who do bad things. That increases the stakes and forces Ronnie to take desperate measures as events in the safe house spiral out of control.
We started by asking the Ray Donovan alum about the appeal of playing a character like this one. "I think it’s the internal struggle, really. It’s fascinating to play a man who learned to read and write in prison," Marsan shared. "He went down one pathway and lost his way, and then tried to change. I think that’s fascinating to play."
"I left school at 15 with no qualifications, so I kind of understand what it’s like to be academically challenged. I’ve always been academically challenged in many ways, so I can understand him not wanting to be dismissed in any way," he continued. "I love the scenes he has with Royce, where he tries to impart wisdom based on his past mistakes."
Ronnie is a very reserved character, despite being surrounded by people with explosive personalities. Explaining the challenge of that, Marsan said, "Well, when you read the script, you know that violence is coming. It’s like a piece of music. John has written it like a piece of music, so you have to play the notes at any given point. It’s like an orchestration and a crescendo."
"You have to get to that point, and the way you get to that point is with a choreography of thoughts before, and words are just thoughts, really. You have to think of them at each point, because if not, the violence becomes unjustified and gratuitous, and has no impact."
You can hear much more from Marsan in the player above, including some insights into what we can expect from DC Studios' Clayface.
Back to As for All the Devils are Here for a moment, and the British actor teased, "The amazing thing when people see this film, and the response we’ve had, is that they want to go back and watch it again. They want to see the signs because there’s a great big revelation at the end."
"They find significance in the smallest of things. They can see so many things," Marsan concluded. "What this film does, is it invites people to invest in the movie. That’s a great piece of art, and a testament to Barnaby’s direction..."
All the Devils are Here arrives in Select Theatres and on Digital September 26.