Note: This story contains spoilers from “Slow Horses” Season 5, Episode 3.
If you want to know what the inside of Roddy Ho’s head sounds like, actor Christopher Chung says you need look no further than a scene near the start of “Slow Horses” Season 5, Episode 3, titled “Tall Tales.”
As Chung’s Roddy awaits the arrival of his interrogator, MI5 veteran Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), he passes the time by flexing, shadowboxing and literally climbing the walls of his underground holding room. “Ain’t no prison built that can hold me,” Roddy tells his unseen, silent MI5 observers. “The only prison I fear is the prison of the mind, and I bust out of that years ago. I am mythical, historical and futuristical.”
It is ridiculous. It is also, according to Chung, just a taste of what Roddy’s inner monologue is truly like. “The thing about the novels is that Roddy’s character, specifically, is written almost solely in internal monologue,” Chung told TheWrap. “It is so important to the character that he is having this narrative in his head, which I get for free because I can read the books. I don’t have to make it up, which is great, because it really informs the way that he sees and experiences the world, and how he builds his own world within his head and justifies everything.”
“I mean, it’s completely pompous, his inner monologue,” Chung noted with a laugh, pointing specifically to his standout scene in “Tall Tales.” “That is a good mirror of what is going on in his head on a day-to-day basis. He’s just gotten into such a fervor in this small holding cell that it starts to spill out.”
While Chung has been an important member of the “Slow Horses” cast from the beginning, the Apple TV+ thriller’s fifth season gives his character the biggest spotlight yet. For Chung, the season has been a long time coming.
“When I was cast in the role, I went through the books to see what the storylines were. I wanted to see if there was a prominent role for Roddy in any of the novels, and that happened to be ‘London Rules,’ ” Chung says, referencing the fifth installment in author Mick Herron’s “Slough House” book series. “As the show has gained traction and gained more notoriety over the seasons, knowing that Season 5 was coming — that we would film it and that it would go out into the world — it was quite anxiety inducing.”
“There’s a lot of pressure and expectation now that wasn’t there before. When I first read ‘London Rules,’ I was like, ‘Oh, this is exciting. I’ll get to do this stuff.’ Now, it’s like, ‘Oh, no. People really love this show. I’ve got to be really great,’” Chung explained.
Below, Chung talks about exploring his character’s “garish” apartment onscreen for the first time, Roddy’s hilarious relationship with Slough House leader Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and his excitement to finally spar 1-on-1 with Kristin Scott Thomas.
TheWrap: Where did the giant, glowing sword Roddy wields in Episode 2 come from?
Chung: The sword, I believe, was [“Slow Horses” creator] Will Smith’s idea, because that comes from the script. Reading it in the script, I didn’t even imagine that or that it would be on the wall like that, let alone have LEDs flashing in the handle, which was just another brilliant flourish on something that is already so completely extra.
We always have a conversation about either the hair or makeup or the set design, if there are things that are pertaining to my office or my house. But they brought me into my apartment space and walked me around, and my mouth was on the floor because I’ve never seen anything so garish — in a good way for Ho — that was also so detailed.
Did you have any input in the design of Roddy’s apartment?
Chung: There’s so many things within that flat, and it’s a real shame that we don’t get to explore that more [on the show]. If you’ve seen on my Instagram, I did a little tour of it, so you can get to see a little bit more of the detail.
They’re always asking for my input on certain things, but I did walk into that flat and pretty much everything that I thought that Roddy would [have] in his living space was already there for me to play with, down to the the chest of drawers. There were clothes in it! There don’t need to be clothes in it, but they were there if I needed them, and they’re all specific clothes, you know? It’s an absolute gift as an actor to be able to walk on set to something like that.
This week’s episode gave you the chance to really face-off against Kristin for the first time. How exciting was that?
Chung: Getting to work with Kristin was something that, because I read the novel, I was really hoping would live up to my expectations, and it didn’t disappoint. She’s just so much fun and so experienced as well. You know, she’s as accomplished as Gary in many ways, but her acting style is very different.
She is so grounded as Taverner, but she lightens her in her scenes with Roddy because she’s trying to get through to him. Getting to deliver some of those cracking lines that Will wrote with Kristin was just such a joy. She has this glint in her eye, which is so cheeky, when you know she wants to laugh. But she’s just too professional and too on-the-ball that she doesn’t [break]. It’s amazing.
This season has also given Roddy some of his biggest scenes with Jackson since their misadventures together in Season 3.
Chung: Those moments in Season 3 remain some of my favorite scenes, because that was the first time at that point that I actually got to work really closely with Gary. We were able to develop that relationship and that rapport and that language between us as actors within that season, and then bring it into Season 5 very easily. It was just a game every day on set with him, as it is all the time. He’s such a wonderful man, and so generous with his ideas. We had a brilliant time doing those scenes [in Episode 2]. A lot of laughs were had, and he has the most infectious laugh as well.
How do you think Roddy sees Jackson? He’s arrogant and disrespectful, but he also does what Jackson says when it counts (for the most part).
Chung: I think he sees him as an equal. [Laughs] You hear in the elevator when they’re coming down from the restaurant in [Episode 2], Roddy’s like, ‘You and I have always had a mutual respect, but this is my opinion as an agent.’ So he genuinely is deluded into thinking that he is Jackson’s right-hand man and that they hold the same status within the office.
Whose idea was it for Roddy to scream “I am death!” at his attacker in Episode 2?
Chung: That used to be a different line. I can’t remember what it was. I think it was a spillover from another scene. There was one iteration of it where I yelled, ‘I am war!,’ because, in Season Three when I’m driving the bus through the house, I was screaming [at the time], ‘I am war,’ which didn’t make the cut. So we were going to try and herald that back in. But I believe ‘I am death’ was Will Smith.
We learn in “Tall Tales” that Roddy showed Tara (Hiba Bennani) how to hack into MI5’s database. In light of that revelation, do you think there is any part of him that is starting to wonder whether he was conned by her?
Chung: No. [Smirks] Not even close.
“Slow Horses” Season 5 releases new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
