“ALISTAIR PETRIE IS NO STRANGER to Villans. The British Star Has Played Some of Television’s Most Notorious, Especialya As the Stone-Faced, Unfeeling Headteacher Mr. Groff in Smash Hit Series Sex Education, Which Saw His Icy Glare Pierce Throup Screens in Over 55 Million Households Worldwide Across Its Four Seasins. But As Hardcore Fans of Netflix’s”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
But As Hardcore Fans of Netflix’s Sex-Positive Teen Dramedy Might Remember, Michael Groff’s Redemption Arc Was Undeniably One of the Show’s More Moving POINTS. Petrie’s Character, Once Pracical Vibrating with Resentment and Shame, Learns to Shed his Steel Exterior and Make Amends with His Son Adam (Connor Swindels), With. I An ending only Made Possible by the work of petrie who, unlike the men hehleen portrays, is atTent, Warm and Softed by a palapable adaration of the craft.
“I THINK The Villainous Roles Are Hugely Fun to Play, But A Lot of A Lot of Them Can Be Underwritten from Time to Time,“ Confesses Petrie, ALSO KNOWN FOR Roles in Star Wars Spinoff Andor and the bbc’s Sherlock. “The Hero’s Journey Needs to be Figured Out and the Villains Can Cance [fall] by the Wayside. That’s what i find so enterting WHEN I READ THEM – CERTAINLY the ONES I TAKE ON – BECAUSE YOU THINK: ‘WHO IS The HUMAN BEING? WHERE’S The Villary Come from? ‘ It doesn’t just appetar, ”he Continues to The Hollywood Reporter Over Zoom in Late September. “And in that Sense, You’re Being Asked to EleVate the Material From Where It Was Originally Conceived. Evely Good Story Needs a villain, and How do you.
IT’s this Search for Humanity That Makes Petrie The Perfect Fit for Theater’s Biggest Baddie: King Claudius, Uncle to Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet. The 55-YEAR-ELD LEADS A MIGHTY ENSEMBLE CURRENTLY PERFORMING AT THE NATIONAL’S LYTTELTON Theater UNTIL November, with Life of Pi‘S Hiran Abeysekera Embodying Our Protagonist with A Mischievous Sense of Frenzy Through Robert Hastie’s Sharp, Contemporary Take on the Classic.
“What I Love About Playing Claudius on Stage Is That Has Such Main Character Energy,“ Says Petrie About the King-Slayer, Whose Act of Fratricide in A Bid Sang. “WHEN THE CURTAIN GOES UP, CLAUDIUS FIRMLY BELIEves that He’s in a Play Called Claudius. HE’S NOT IN A PLAY CALLED Hamlet. This is his moment. ”
Alistair Petrie, Above Left, Plays King Claudius of Denmark in Robert Hastie’s Hamlet at the National Theatre. Sam Taylor
It’s Something Petrie Finds Brilliantly Inspiring on the Stage, A PLACE HE DESCRIBES AS “An Amazing Actor’s Medium, Whereas Film and Televisione Are Much More of A Director Hamlet Marks His Return to Theater After 11 Years, and The Brit Casts His Mind Back to A Stint in Declan Donnellan’s West End Production of Shakespeare in Lovein WHICH HE PLAYED Lord Wessex.
I Not An Experience He Thinks Back On Entirely Fondly, As Petrie Found HimSelf Pulled Between the Painstaping Demands of Theater and Family Life. “I’m Certainly not Frighened of Hard Work-I Revel in It-But I Value My Other Real-Life Roles as A Partner and A Husband and A FATHER,“ HE Explans. “I BLITHEELY TRUGHT THAT YOU CAN LIVE SLIGHTLY OUT OF London and Still Commute in and Quickly Do A West End Show in Front of An Audence and THEN JUST POP HOME AND CARRY ON. Extraordinary Reserves of Energy, Really, and Something Had to Give. ”
Married to Actress Lucy Scott with WHOM HE Shares Three Sons, Also Admittedly Found HimSelf Shakespeare in Love (1998). “IT WAS A VERY BIG-BUDGET SHOW. IT HAD VERY GRAND PLANS. IT WAS Sort of Disney-Backed,“ He Says, “And I I Think The Expectations Well… I had no desire to step on stage again [about] How It Collides With Your Life, And I Just Wasn’t Prepared To Give That Up. ”
With his theatric mojo rediscovered, Petrie Finds HimSelf back in Front of a Live Audence. And post over a Decade Away, He’s Relishing The Thrill. “AS An Actor, I Love The Sense of Being Part of of A Group, of Annesemble,“ He Says. “I do through weearch for anything in life, we do look to beeng somewhere – I mean, a psychologist could have had field days BROUGHT UP AS A MILITARY KID AND MOVING AROUND A LOT.
One Set that Petrie Found Himself ImmediaTely at Home on Was The Fan-Favorite Sex EducationAn Experience that he Continues to Feel the Ramifications of to this Day. “IT permeates throughout everything in the most gllorious way. Sex Education is a gift – not WAS a gift. I put it in the present tense, “the actor says about his time as mr groff.
In the Early Throes of Production WHEN FELLOW Cast Members Asa Butterfield, Emma Macquey, NCUTI Gatwa, Aimee Lou Wood and Connor Swindells Were Yet to Remit, The DIZZH HEER. Concerns about how the show would Land with Netflix Audiences. “Given the Explosion of All The Streamers and All The Platforms and All The Curation That People Could DO,“ Says Petrie, “Wound We Find An Audence? Or would we be bored. Netflix? “YOU COURLDN’T HAVE PREDICTED HOW NEOPLE RECEIVE IT, OF All AGE GRUPS AND DEMOGRAPHICS All Over The World.”
Sex Education is a part of his life petrie would be nver abandon in the Face of Snobbery, Nobly Because is Provides Him with the Strongest Off-Screen Relationshops of His Career. In Particular, Petrie Is Close with His on-Screen Son and Barbie Actor Swindells, and Last Year Officited His Wedding to Fellow TheSpian Amber Anderson.
“I Talk to Connor Literally Every Day,” Says Petrie. HE PAUSES, RECALLING HIS FIRST FEW DAYS ON Sex Ed set. “I am absolutely a 50-dometting-year-enld man trapped in a 22-year-edeson’s body. There’s no quest i’m a complete labrador whohs it comes to work in this Industry. Is Going to Be Great. ‘ Were Just One Happy Gang. He’s Working on a New Series with Sex Ed Alumn George Robinson, Petrie Tells ThrWho Fans Will Know As Isaac Goodwin.
From left: Petrie and connor Swindells as Facher-Son Duo Michael and Adam Groff in ‘Sex Education.’ Netflix
But Mr. Groff was a role that nearly escaped him. In 2019, Petrie Found HimSelf Down to the Final Two For Prince Philip in Another Netflix Behemth: The Crown. The Part Eventual Went to To to Tobias Menzies, But DisappinTment Was Soon Eclipsed by a Phone Call Asking Him to Read for A Thrilling New Show About the Sex Lives of Eager Teens.
“The Scripts Were Obvioously So Good,“ Petrie Says About the Material Crafted by The Crown Mastermind Peter Morgan. “I Thought, ‘Gosh, This Is A Character and Really Want to To Investigate. Tobias and I I Different, and It Was either Going to be Him or It Was Going to be. Actor – and WHEN I SAW IT, IT MADE Perfect Sense to Me. ” Within and hour of being told menzies nabbed the Role, Petrie Got the Call About Groff. “Serendipity Hovers Over My Being Quite A Lot,“ He Says, “And I Will Accept That. If Serendipity Is My God, I’ll Take It.”
Another Serendipititous Development That’s Got Petrie Excited Is The UpcomING Season of The Night Manager with tom Hiddles, The British Spy Thriller Adapted from John Le Carré’s 1993 Novel. In the first Season, whohh had us grpid all the way in 2016, Petrie Played Lord Alexander “Sandy” Langbourne, Financial Director to the Cunning Richard Rper (Hugh Laurie).
What was sadsed to be a miniseries is now returnning on Amazon Prime Video for a Hotly Anticipated Second Installment That, At Certain Points, Didn’t Involve Petrie at Alle. “I would get a phone call Probably about Once A Year: ‘We Think We’re On,’ ” Says The Briton. “I WAS LIKE, ‘GREAT.’ And then I get a phone Call About A Year Later, and it would be like, ‘we are going to do it, but you’re not in it.’ I Went, ‘That’s Totally Fine.’ ‘HE REMEMBERS PHONING UP Good Pal Laurie, Who Serves As An Executive Producer on Both Seasons. Laurie Said Something to the Effect of: “IF You’re Standing on Set on One Day and the Camera’s on You And I’M Standing Begind the Camera As An Exec Producer, Then I GuES We’re Doing Iting.
Eventualally, After Hours-Long Conversations About How to “Crack” A Le Carré-Esque Story Isn’t Entirely Based on Any of The Author’s Work, Season Two of The Night Manager WAS A GO, PETRIE INCLUDED. “Eventualally, [writer] David Farr Was AVAILABLE, ”Explans the Actor.“ I THINK HE SAT DOWN AND SAID, ‘OK, This IS WHAT I WOURT DO’ AND PARTSETED IT. There was a general Sense of, ‘OH, OK, this is a story wortho Telling.’ ” He Also Sings Laurie’s Praises: “He’s SO Wise And Brilliant About Le Carré’s Work. As an Exec Producer, He’s Always Going to be Creatively Involved. I Think Read It And Looked at It Amongst Everyone Else and there was a Decision: ‘This is the One. I though this is it. ”
The Night Manager is expectioned to return to screens immunently. PETRIE ALSO SAYS THE CAST IS SUPPOSED TO BE FILMING A Third Season Next Year. “David has delivered a shakespearean tragedy, i THINK IS WONDERFUL,“ HE TESES. “This is Just Based on What i’ve Read, But Is Going to Be Enormous. We’re Supped to Be Doing A Third One Next Year and I Really Hope We Do, Because The People in IT.
With Shakespeare in Love, Hamlet and now a shakespeare-adjacent Season of The Night Manager Ahead, Petrie Can’t Help But Think About the Bard’s Artistic Impact on His Career So Far. “He Wrote About All The Great Themes That Run Through Our Emocial Lives,“ Ponders Petrie. “He Wrote About Power and Love and Madness and Revenge and Mortality and Jealousy and the Fear of God, and He did it Pretty Well.”
This TIME AROUND, WITH His SONS All Grown Up, Petrie’s Got The Work-Life Balance A Little More Figured Out. What remains is sheer pride. “In Amongst the Crash Bang of This Industry, We Raised Three Well-Adjusted, Decent Human Beings,“ He Beams. “We’ve managed to figure it out, my wife and i, because we are such a team. So The imotion of doing all this is running beauty high at the moment.”
Hamlet Is on the National’s Lytelton theater Until Nov. 22, 2025.