J
ack Davenport has a story about
Pirates of the Caribbean, but is
not sure that he should tell it.
The actor played an admiral in
three of the Disney blockbusters
that starred Johnny Depp and
the gist is that he still has not been on
the theme park ride that was the film’s
source material. “I may tell you,” he
says through a grin. “Or not. You have
got to be careful about biting the cor-
porate hand that feeds you.”
Not that Davenport seems to mind.
We meet for coffee in New York, where
the 49-year-old London-born actor
has lived for years. He and his Scottish
wife, Michelle Gomez, an actress best
known for Green Wing, and their
12-year-old son, Harry, have an apart-
ment in Manhattan. It is going well.
His voice booms — Davenport is a
fantastic, gossipy, honest interviewee.
He moved to America because he
admits he was a “terrible cliché” who
devoured US culture and assumed it
was interesting out there. His son is
“totally American”. He is totally
delighted — a man who went to the
moon early, as Miles in This Life, before
picking up a pension from Pirates and
enjoying a comfy career on mostly
smaller orbits since. The UK sitcom
Coupling, The Talented Mr Ripley, the
US series Smash and The Morning
Show — he is an example of how to be
successful, despite always being
defined by one thing.All of which is suitable conversation
given Davenport’s role in Ten Percent —
the UK remake of the French sitcom
Call My Agent!, the show that dealt with
the moods and mishaps of actors. As in
the original, there are cameos from the
great and good poking fun at pomposity.
Top of the bill? Helena Bonham Carter
and Dominic West.
It is Davenport’s biggest role for
years, playing Jonathan Nightingale, the
de facto boss of the agency. For This Life
fans, be still your heart as Miles, sorry,
Davenport, once again walks the streets
of London.
“I don’t harbour grudges about the
country I’m from,” he says of his career.
“It just worked out this way.” But the
well-spoken Davenport went to Chel-
tenham College public school and
counts the former Tory MP Jonathan
Aitken as an uncle — surely roles got
more varied since he ditched our class-
obsessed nation? “Undeniably.”
“There are enough colonial overlords
on my CV already,” he continues. “But
all actors have a certain bandwidth.
There’s only one Gary Oldman and
Daniel Day-Lewis, then the rest of us.
And most are not real shapeshifters.
We do what we do. I know my place inCOVER STORY
‘I KNOW MY
PLACE IN THE
FOOD CHAIN’
For a generation Jack Davenport will always be Miles
in This Life. He talks egos, escaping Britain and his
biggest role in years, in the British Call My Agent!
the food chain. But I wanted to
play Americans in America
and nobody will ask me to do
that from London. The move has
allowed me to extend my — ha ha
— range.”
Self-deprecation suits Ten Per-
cent. Like the French original, the
plot is about an agency coping with a
death. The UK take, though, is sadder.
Less joie de vivre, more kitchen sink,
largely thanks to the Blackadder stal-
wart Tim McInnerny’s washed-up
thesp — a character who, unlike Dav-
enport, failed to navigate the downs of
a cut-throat profession.
“Oh my God, it’s devastating,” Dav-
enport says with a gasp about that
storyline, which moved him so much
he read it to his mother, Maria, an
actress. Davenport’s father, Nigel,
who died in 2013, was also an actor.
When he was a boy the family lived in
Ibiza and had John Hurt as a house
guest. That past is why he was so
taken by John Morton’s script for
Ten Percent. Morton (W1A) is the
master of the comic pause and
mutter. “But there is a tenderness I
was taken aback by,” Davenport says.
“It’s easy to take the piss out of showbiz.
Of course. But it does matter to people.
“Sometimes, when one gets asked to
audition after 30 years in this business,
you go, ‘Watch my f***ing showreel!’
But I understood why I had to audition
here. If the writing is this good, they
need to see if you can handle it.”
What is his own auditioning story,
most suitable for a Ten Percent plot?
“I’ll have to be unspecific,” he says.
“But there was one particularly
drawn-out process where the jobThere’s only
one GaryOldman —
and then therest of us
JONATHAN DEAN
INTERVIEW
4 24 April 2022