Demon Player
Philip Glenister takes on America as an exorcist – but will we ever see him again as Gene Hunt?
Philip Glenister is no stranger to the supernatural. His most famous role – in BBC1’s Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes – saw DCI Gene Hunt ultimately revealed as a long-dead copper whose calling was to usher recently deceased officers into the afterlife. He then unsuccessfully hunted the undead in ITV’s Demons. And now, in the American series Outcast, he plays a hard-bitten, West-Virginian clergyman who – between sermons – performs the occasional exorcism.
“I didn’t’ really think too much about the whole exorcism side of things,” says Glenister, cheerfully. “What really drew mw to Reverend Anderson was the scene where you first see him. He’s smoking, drinking, playing cards – in the back room of the church.” As Glenister sprawls on a sofa in a trendy London hotel suite, mind you, he is vaping from one of those things that looks like a sonic screwdriver. Perhaps, at the age of 53, that’s the most hell he wants to raise.
But Outcast promises greater sins than poker and whisky. Like mega-hit, The Walking Dead, Outcast is adapted from a Robert Kirkman comic book. It comes with the slogan, “Possession is just the beginning.” The eponymous Outcast is Kyle, a troubled young man who, along with the Reverend, battles demonic possession in violent scenes that could be straight from The Exorcist.
“People like to be scared, I think, in the comfort of their own homes,” says Glenister. “They get cosied up, and then get a nice little horror flick on.” Glenister was himself in bed watching TV – though no the supernatural kind – when he found the inspiration he needed to play Reverend Anderson. It was a Sunday morning last year and the shoot for Outcast was already under way in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Glenister’s wife, Beth (Goddard, also an actor) was visiting him from London with their two daughters.
“Beth and I were sitting in bed watching this TV evangelist. He was cool, good looking, had ripped jeans on, the T-shirt, legs draped over the edge of the stage,” recalls Glenister. “I thought, ‘It’s rock star time. He’s the rock star. This is his domain.’ That power he wields over people, that brainwashing thing, the celebrity that rock stars have, especially over young impressionable kids. Look at One Direction and all that.”
Filming a three-page sermon scene for Outcast the following week, he broke out of the pulpit and roamed the aisle, eyeballing his congregation and roaring that the devil was behind them. By the time he’d finished, even his fellow actors were convinced. “One little old lady came up to me and went, ‘Well I’m converted. I’m converted, Reverend. She started calling me Reverend!’”
Despite his melodramatic immersion in American Christianity, Glenister remains an unbeliever: “I respect people, each to their own, who have a faith. I’d like to think I’ve got a spirituality, but I don’t think that’s anything connected with religion – certainly organised religion. I’m quite anti-religion. I just think that starts so many wars. What’s fascinating about playing the Reverend is that he really starts to seriously question his own faith.”
As a native of West Virginia, the Reverend also makes Glenister speak with a full-on Southern drawl. “I know I can do an American accent, I have an ear for accents,” he says firmly – despite the fact that last time he played an supernatural American type, in ITV’s demons, his accent was roundly criticised. “That show was not one of my career highlights,” he says, dryly, then adds: Journalists aren’t dialect coaches. And I was still in Gene Hunt mode. People were just like, ‘No, no, he can’t be playing an American – he’s’ Gene Hunt.’”
Ah yes, Gene Hunt. Even though the final series of Ashes to Ashes aired more than six years ago now, the old-school copper is still Glenister’s defining role. Is there any chance that the Quattro could ever be fired up again? “Oh, well, never say never – but that’s something you’d need to speak to Ashley Pharaoh and Matthew Graham about,” says Glenister. “They’re the writers who created the show and character.”
Well, now. Matthew Graham once did an interview in which he said that maybe, if Hollywood came calling… “Oh yeah, I’d do it. Yeah, you bet,” says Glenister. “[Co-star] John [Simm] and I were talking about it a while ago and I think he’d be up for it. Maybe do a Life on Mars movie in some form, if we could find an angle – I think we’d be up for that, for sure.”
Finding another project after Outcast isn’t top priority for Glenister though. When this interview takes place, he has another two months of shooting on Outcast to finish in South Carolina – and then he’s looking forward to spending some much deserved down-time at home in South West London, with Beth and their daughters, Millie, 14 and Charlotte, 11.
“They understand what Dad does and 80% of my job is going away. The one who finds it hardest is me, because as I’ve got older it’s got difficult being away from home for long periods. That why I thank FaceTime – the connection is so clear that I can be in my apartment 4000 miles away in the US and Beth’s at home getting dinner ready and I’m making breakfast. We chat as if I’m there in the room.
This trip to London for the press junket is Glenister’s first visit back since filming started. He sped from the airport to Charlotte’s school, arriving just in time to see her take part in an assembly, dressed as an Egyptian. “She saw me when she came out. I thought, ‘Maybe I’ve screwed her up now. She’ll forget her lines.’ But no, she was fine,” he says. “That was a nice little moment. Very Waltons.”
And what do Millie and Charlotte think of Dad playing a very un-Walton’s exorcist? “I don’t think they know too much about exorcists,” says Glenister. “It’s another acting job, basically. Dad’s away for a bit.”
Philip Glenister is no stranger to the supernatural. His most famous role – in BBC1’s Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes – saw DCI Gene Hunt ultimately revealed as a long-dead copper whose calling was to usher recently deceased officers into the afterlife. He then unsuccessfully hunted the undead in ITV’s Demons. And now, in the American series Outcast, he plays a hard-bitten, West-Virginian clergyman who – between sermons – performs the occasional exorcism.
“I didn’t’ really think too much about the whole exorcism side of things,” says Glenister, cheerfully. “What really drew mw to Reverend Anderson was the scene where you first see him. He’s smoking, drinking, playing cards – in the back room of the church.” As Glenister sprawls on a sofa in a trendy London hotel suite, mind you, he is vaping from one of those things that looks like a sonic screwdriver. Perhaps, at the age of 53, that’s the most hell he wants to raise.
But Outcast promises greater sins than poker and whisky. Like mega-hit, The Walking Dead, Outcast is adapted from a Robert Kirkman comic book. It comes with the slogan, “Possession is just the beginning.” The eponymous Outcast is Kyle, a troubled young man who, along with the Reverend, battles demonic possession in violent scenes that could be straight from The Exorcist.
“People like to be scared, I think, in the comfort of their own homes,” says Glenister. “They get cosied up, and then get a nice little horror flick on.” Glenister was himself in bed watching TV – though no the supernatural kind – when he found the inspiration he needed to play Reverend Anderson. It was a Sunday morning last year and the shoot for Outcast was already under way in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Glenister’s wife, Beth (Goddard, also an actor) was visiting him from London with their two daughters.
“Beth and I were sitting in bed watching this TV evangelist. He was cool, good looking, had ripped jeans on, the T-shirt, legs draped over the edge of the stage,” recalls Glenister. “I thought, ‘It’s rock star time. He’s the rock star. This is his domain.’ That power he wields over people, that brainwashing thing, the celebrity that rock stars have, especially over young impressionable kids. Look at One Direction and all that.”
Filming a three-page sermon scene for Outcast the following week, he broke out of the pulpit and roamed the aisle, eyeballing his congregation and roaring that the devil was behind them. By the time he’d finished, even his fellow actors were convinced. “One little old lady came up to me and went, ‘Well I’m converted. I’m converted, Reverend. She started calling me Reverend!’”
Despite his melodramatic immersion in American Christianity, Glenister remains an unbeliever: “I respect people, each to their own, who have a faith. I’d like to think I’ve got a spirituality, but I don’t think that’s anything connected with religion – certainly organised religion. I’m quite anti-religion. I just think that starts so many wars. What’s fascinating about playing the Reverend is that he really starts to seriously question his own faith.”
As a native of West Virginia, the Reverend also makes Glenister speak with a full-on Southern drawl. “I know I can do an American accent, I have an ear for accents,” he says firmly – despite the fact that last time he played an supernatural American type, in ITV’s demons, his accent was roundly criticised. “That show was not one of my career highlights,” he says, dryly, then adds: Journalists aren’t dialect coaches. And I was still in Gene Hunt mode. People were just like, ‘No, no, he can’t be playing an American – he’s’ Gene Hunt.’”
Ah yes, Gene Hunt. Even though the final series of Ashes to Ashes aired more than six years ago now, the old-school copper is still Glenister’s defining role. Is there any chance that the Quattro could ever be fired up again? “Oh, well, never say never – but that’s something you’d need to speak to Ashley Pharaoh and Matthew Graham about,” says Glenister. “They’re the writers who created the show and character.”
Well, now. Matthew Graham once did an interview in which he said that maybe, if Hollywood came calling… “Oh yeah, I’d do it. Yeah, you bet,” says Glenister. “[Co-star] John [Simm] and I were talking about it a while ago and I think he’d be up for it. Maybe do a Life on Mars movie in some form, if we could find an angle – I think we’d be up for that, for sure.”
Finding another project after Outcast isn’t top priority for Glenister though. When this interview takes place, he has another two months of shooting on Outcast to finish in South Carolina – and then he’s looking forward to spending some much deserved down-time at home in South West London, with Beth and their daughters, Millie, 14 and Charlotte, 11.
“They understand what Dad does and 80% of my job is going away. The one who finds it hardest is me, because as I’ve got older it’s got difficult being away from home for long periods. That why I thank FaceTime – the connection is so clear that I can be in my apartment 4000 miles away in the US and Beth’s at home getting dinner ready and I’m making breakfast. We chat as if I’m there in the room.
This trip to London for the press junket is Glenister’s first visit back since filming started. He sped from the airport to Charlotte’s school, arriving just in time to see her take part in an assembly, dressed as an Egyptian. “She saw me when she came out. I thought, ‘Maybe I’ve screwed her up now. She’ll forget her lines.’ But no, she was fine,” he says. “That was a nice little moment. Very Waltons.”
And what do Millie and Charlotte think of Dad playing a very un-Walton’s exorcist? “I don’t think they know too much about exorcists,” says Glenister. “It’s another acting job, basically. Dad’s away for a bit.”
