Welsh-born actor Tom Cullen has built a career on seeking out discomfort. Known for his shapeshifting work across projects as varied as Downton Abbey, Knightfall and Black Mirror, Cullen has earned a reputation as an actor drawn to characters who live in moral grey zones; men whose flaws make them discomforting yet intensely compelling to watch. His latest role, as solicitor Michael Agnew in the drama Trespasses, may be his most personally significant yet.
Based on Louise Kennedy's acclaimed novel and adapted by Ailbhe Keogan, Trespasses is set in 1975 Belfast, where Michael defends Catholic youths accused of terrorism related crimes while conducting a dangerous affair across sectarian lines.
It's a story steeped in the textures of a divided city, and one that Cullen says stopped him in his tracks from the very first read. "You know a good script almost immediately," Cullen says, speaking to SBS. "The texture of the world building felt so rich, nuanced and the characters complex. These kind of scripts rarely cross your path."
Cullen admits the role initially felt beyond his reach, but fear, he says, has become something he's learned to interpret as a signal that he’s going the right way, ”Fear is an essential ingredient in any good work. There was a time where it used to win and crush me, but these days I try to embrace it and use it to push me. Being afraid makes you feel alive."
Central to bringing Michael Agnew to life was an intensive period of dialect work, a process Cullen describes as inseparable from finding the character's inner world, alchemising what sounds at first like a mere technical exercise that’s required to perform the character faithfully, into something resembling a portal into said character’s very marrow.
"I tend to try and let the character emerge slowly, without making cerebral choices as to what I think they should be," he explains. "I've come to realise my job as an actor is to just get out of the way as much as possible. It's all there on the page, just let it flow."
Trespasses is a distinctly female-driven production, with a female novelist, director Dawn Shadforth, female producers and a female protagonist at its centre. While Cullen says that dynamic didn't alter his approach to Michael (“my job is to embody a character without judgment”) he's proud of what it brought to the finished work.
"Watching Trespasses, you can feel the feminine," he says. "Don't get me wrong, I love the male POV, but we've had a lot of it. Trespasses has a poetry and nuance to it that maybe if it had been in a male's hands, would have been missed.”
That poetry extends to David Holmes' score, which Cullen calls the best he's ever been involved in. "David understood exactly what Dawn Shadforth was trying to achieve. His score, like any good score, doesn't just work, it elevates."
Cullen's research into the period and the weight of what his character was navigating had the actor in a position of grit and fascination as he prepared for the role. He recalls watching a documentary on war photographer Don McCullin about a decade ago and being overcome by a wave of grief at humanity's capacity for violence: feelings that revisited him during his research for Trespasses.
An image offered by Cullen’s partner, musician Alison Sudol, crystallised the characters Michael and his lover Cushla (played by Lola Petticrew) for him: two dandelions growing out of a slab of concrete. "Two people who strive for more than the narratives that surround and separate them," he says. "An image that challenges us all to try and remove ourselves from the narratives that try to divide us."
That impulse threads through much of Cullen's work; he's drawn to morally complex characters, he says, because he believes none of us are simply good or bad. "We make choices that are informed by our circumstances; sometimes altruistically, sometimes selfishly. I love characters that ask questions of their audience. What would you do?"
Michael Agnew's vulnerability, Cullen says, came through his capacity for love in a landscape defined by pitiless, ferocious cruelties. "His choice to be soft in the face of hardness is a quiet rebellion that moved me deeply." It's a quality that resonates with Cullen's own journey. "Circumstances throughout my youth rendered me a tough, hard-edged young man," he says. "It's been years of trying to strip away the self-protective armour; to recognise that the real strength of a man is the bravery it takes to be vulnerable."
Away from acting, Cullen continues to write and direct through his company Undeb Theatre, and counts his 2019 film Pink Wall among his most formative creative experiences. He speaks with conviction about the value of making your own work, particularly for those starting out.
"I learnt more about acting for screen by learning to edit than anything else in my career," he says. "If there are any young or aspiring actors out there reading this, my unsolicited advice is to get out there and make stuff. Don't wait for anyone, be the master of your own journey."
Trespasses is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Trespasses
series • Drama
MA15+
series • Drama
MA15+
