Nathan Stewart-Jarrett on finding ‘Muscle’ for Culprits

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett has knocked our socks off this year. Seriously, is there any better rising star around? Well, we tell you there is not.

And you will agree with us, if you watch the film, Femme. It’s on Netflix and is one of the best films of the year according to not just us, but cult directing legend John Waters.

It tells the story of a homophobic attack in which George McKay’s aggro git Preston beats up Nathan’s drag performer Jules. But after Jules bumps into Preston in a gay sauna, he begins to seek revenge, by way of a disturbing cat and mouse love affair.

Femme is one of those rare films that is viscerally affecting, such is its ability to put you through the emotional wringer. And while George is incredible, it’s Nathan that is the heart and soul; truly, one of the best performances seen for ages.

Now backing up this idea of ‘Nathan Stewart-Jarrett Is The Greatest Thing Ever’ comes an appearance in Black Doves, and also a new show on ITVX called Culprits, which is, well, we’ll let him tell it…

“It’s a heist series about a group of criminals who commit the robbery. Three years passes and one by one they start getting popped off. So they didn’t quit get away with it. But what’s really amazing is that it plays over different timelines. It’s pretty amazing.”

It is indeed. Directed by J Blakeson it is split into Before (the heist), Then (during) and Now, and has a colourful noir sensibility that brings Bullet Train or Reservoir Dogs vibes, but with Nathan bringing a happy dose of John Wick to proceedings.

His character, Joe, is now a stepdad with two children in a small town in Oregon, a lovely responsible parent trying to start a business despite locals’ racist hostility.

“He is a nice person. He definitely wants to be a good person, though he does bad to get to that good. The tragedy of it is that he just wants a family, and his partner and his kids and a house and a small business, but he has to do something really extreme to get that.”

Yes because in the past he used to be called Muscle, and was the enforcer at the heist, and might well have to kick butt again now that the gang is turning up dead.

“The name Muscle, I’ll be honest with you, scared the fuck out of me,” says Nathan.

Why?

“It’s like if you read something where the character is ‘exceptionally good-looking’. It’s a lot of pressure. And actual muscle? There was no such thing as that, I had to go and put on some muscle. Every meeting with J Blakeson before shooting, I’d wear huge jumpers to trick him into not firing me.”

Under the watch of stunt coordinator Julian Spencer, he grew in confidence with the fighting sequences – which are exceptional – although it’s certainly not his usual bag: “It’s a string to my bow, when before it wasn’t even my orchestra. I constantly want to do scenes in bed. Really long dialogue scenes in bed. And this was the exact opposite of that.”

This is very Nathan as it turns out, the kind of engaging wit that offsets his searing talent.

He says, “There were so many things required of me as an actor, just physically and emotionally as a person. I mean, J isn’t know for his brevity. Let’s just say that. These dialogue scenes can go on. It’s meaty. And then you turn the page and its cars and stunts. That was the big challenge of it, and the joy of it.”

One of the stand-out moments in the series comes early, and is something of an instant classic. Without giving away spoiler, at one point Joe has a large bag of money in his car but gets in a minor accident. He has to dump the bag in a dumpster while he’s taken to the police station. Later he returns, only to find the trash men have just put it in their vehicle. So he has to climb in and fetch it out; the whole thing plays out like Hitchcock doing Jackass.

“That was Groundhog bad day,” he says, “Whirling around in a trash can like I’m in a washing machine. Yes it is an instant classic scene. But it wasn’t instant for me. It was constant.”

Nathan went straight off to shoot Femme after Culprits, and after the Tarantino dialogue and high kicking, this was another challenge indeed.

“It was a shorter shoot, and harder. To go that place emotionally on a daily basis was exhausting and terrifying and was actually really hard to shed. The initial attack was so hard. And it was night and it was brutal. The crew were just so wonderful and covering me up and being with me. I was just in a state.

Any actor that attempts to go there, you find your body really thinks it’s actually happening. You’re going through shock and breathing in a weird way. I always felt emotional at the end of those days. People would ask me if I was alright and I’d realise my face was streaming. I was crying, but like, ‘No, I’m fine!’. That must have looked insane.”

George McKay was a huge support for him – “a really good actor and a really good person” – particularly when they were doing the carefully choreographed sex scenes. “Femme is about personas, and persona meeting persona, and what they’re hiding behind. And we took that into the sex scenes.”

Which isn’t to say that the shooting didn’t have its amusing moments.

“There was one day when we were having a sex scene and were quite far away from the crew. We were going at it and we just heard this screaming from them, and George thinks they’re saying ‘harder’, and he’s like okay, cool, this is what you need, and I’m like, okay, fine.

We’re going at it, my head is banging against a wall, but they keep screaming and only then do we realise they’re saying ‘stop’! Funny things can happen in that situation if you are comfortable and you have trust in each other.”

Stepping way from the film was hard, and he remembers having a moment on the final night where he walked around the streets:

“It was a night shoot and it must have been five in the morning. I knew I was going to be heartbroken, so I put on a song and walked around the neighbourhood and let it all out. Emotionally as the character, but also as an actor, to let out the regrets to move on.”

Any trauma was not just worth it, but a vital part of it:

“Every artist in every medium is exploring something about the human condition. And if you’re not exploring the depths of yourself, you’re just doodling a picture. It has to be more. The most successful things is when someone goes to the essence of something, which would be the truth.”

That then is why Nathan Stewart-Jarrett is hitting the big time.

He insists he was a somewhat reluctant actor to start with, he went to a comprehensive in London where he was bullied, before going to the Brit school – “because you could wear your own clothes” – and went on to be a poor drama student who barely scraped by – “I was terrible, I failed every assessment” – before catching a break in Brixton Stories at the Lyric in Hammersmith.

Since then, the stage work has been plentiful, the screen work building, and with Femme and now Culprits making 2024 the biggest year yet for him, the future looks very bright indeed for this brilliant man.

I ask him if he’s ready for fame and fortune?

“In this economy, I think I speak for many of us when I say I’m always ready for more fortune.”

Culprits is on ITVX from 19^th December.