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Ian McShane makes a startling return to TV screens in the gritty new drama, Deadwood. The critically acclaimed HBO series throws a brutal new angle on the violent, treacherous and profane days of the Gold Rush in the lawless town of Deadwood, and is from revered creator David Milch (NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues)
As the town's vicious and merciless saloon owner Al Swearengen, McShane's performance is an unforgettable display of cold-hearted tyranny laced with black humour - a far cry from his earlier days as the loveable antiques dealer Lovejoy. Intelligently scripted and powerfully performed, the show is already up for an incredible 11 Emmys and has been described as "brutal, passionate, heroic, tragic, blanketed by coarseness and always fascinating. There are many fine performances to relish, particularly that of Ian McShane, who is incredibly evil as the bullying, ruthless, sadistic owner of the town's saloon, brothel and hotel." - Hollywood Reporter. How did you come to be involved in Deadwood, and what was it about the show that made you want to take part? It was a couple of years ago, I'd just finished a series here with Robson Green called "Trust", and I got this call saying 'Do you want to go and videotape for a show in America?' I said 'No way'. But my agent said 'Wait a second - it's HBO and it's directed by Walter Hill and written by David Milch'. And I said 'Well that's a different story'. Walter Hill has done many fine films and David Milch created "NYPD Blue". So they sent the script over, and "Deadwood" arrived - this extraordinary script. I went down the following day and did a half-hour video, the next minute I was flying out to LA. I met with them all at HBO on Monday and Tuesday, it was a done deal on Wednesday, and three weeks later I found myself on a ranch out in California, filming the pilot. We finished the pilot at the end of November 2002, then in 2003 we started filming the series - we did 11 more episodes. And then it opened this year, and got these extraordinary reviews, became this huge hit, and there you go! I always knew it was going to be a good show; you felt like you were doing something original and good. But when I saw it I was blown away, like everyone else, by how just how good it was. Have you been to Deadwood yourself? No, a lot of the cast have, and say it's extraordinary. I think Deadwood itself before we started the show was sending out about 250 tourist flyers a month, now it's like 250,000 a week, 2 million hits on the website. It's been very good for the town. So obviously we're very welcome to go out to Deadwood. A couple of guys have been there and they were treated very royally. It's also a beautiful part of the world. Al Swearengen is a real character from Deadwood history. How concerned were you with keeping the character historically accurate, and what kind of preparation did you do for the part? I wasn't really, because there's no photograph of him. I just go on what Milch does. There were a lot of saloon operators there at the time - for example Nuttall, but I think Milch has taken Swearengen and made him an amalgam of a lot of people. He ran the biggest saloon in town, the Gem, and he was in charge of the dope, the girls and the alcohol. He was a businessman, the smartest guy in town. Swearengen's always looking out for how this town is going to grow, looking out for his business interests, with the Indians on the warpath, and the Government coming in. Don't forget, Deadwood was an illegal camp on Indian territory, so they couldn't pretend that they had their own jurisdiction, and he's constantly worried about the Government coming in and taking all their claims, because it was a huge, huge gold mine. And for every legitimate settler that was there, there were five people who were hustlers, conmen, whatever, a bit like downtown Baghdad! Really, it's about 'How can we make money?' Also, it's the genesis of law in America. The show is about America and how capitalism started there. It's a sort of post-industrial revolution: the late 1870s and how it grows. And I think that's what Milch has planned for the future of the show - how the town grows up and how these individual people come to form a community. You know it's very interesting: in 1880, the Mikado ran there for 150 performances, so it's an interesting town. It slowly became civilised - up to a certain point! The show seems like a bit of a boys' club at the beginning… No, it develops in another way and it's fascinating. I think the women get stronger. In the first few episodes you've got the widow and you've got the whore, but then you realise the relationship between Trixie (the whore) and me is much more complicated as it goes on, and it's not just one-sided. It's not just my control over her, it's the relationship between the two of us.  Is working with David Milch an interactive process?
It's all very orchestrated. He'll say to me, 'Make something up', and I say 'Well I'll make it up but I'm sure you'll improve on it' because he always does, he's that kind of a guy. What's terrific is working with someone like that - it's always great to have someone in the room who's smarter than you! And he is, he's our intrepid leader, he's great to work with, and there are a lot of fabulous actors. In terms of the colourful language in the show, when you first read the script, was that something you felt uncomfortable about? No, not at all. Totally comfortable. People swear in everyday life. And the words become meaningless themselves after a time. It does get even more colourful, but it's part of it. I mean, it's been around since Chaucer, as Milch talks about himself. Language is language. Especially when he uses the vernacular in the midst of these long, complicated 19th century monologues - because it's almost like Shakespeare in terms of the complexity of the dialogue and the thoughts behind it - and that's from his days as an English professor. So it's a constant surprise, and it's a pleasure to do it. Given the brutal, violent nature of the show, do you find it hard to unwind once the camera stops rolling? Part of what's nice is that you have the drive home. You're driving against the traffic, so it's a nice half-hour drive up the freeway, and it's fabulous, because by the time I've driven that nice drive down to the beach (I live in Venice Beach), get out, park the car, sniff that sea air… it's great! What's the atmosphere like on set? Is there a camaraderie between the cast - perhaps the odd game of poker between scenes? No, never any time for that! We're usually working on the stuff ourselves before make-up. So usually, you're hauled off in the middle of make-up for the rehearsal. David sits there, talks about the scene, we rehearse the scene, set the scene, the camera crew comes in, sets the camera positions, we all go off, finish off the make-up, come back, David watches the first rehearsal on camera, makes the adjustments, then we go and do it. And that's the way it goes all day! There's no time. Except, well, you know, American sets are always full of food, never seen so much food in your life, it's like the supply never stops! Is the food good? Do you know, it's not bad at all. In the evenings they usually bring out an extra meal, like Death Wheels - those huge 18 inch pizzas - they're feeding one or two hundred after all. Then one night it'll be Thai, then one night fried chicken. They look after you very well. If Al ever had a day off from the Gem, how would he spend it? If Al ever had a day off from the Gem, he'd go up to his balcony, and still be looking down the street! You know, Al's always looking - what's happening in this town, what am I missing? So that's why you never see him out of the town. They threatened us one day - it was very funny - some cowboys came in: 'Ian, we hear you'll be riding in episode five, you wanna have a little ride?' I said sure. So every month I'd go on a horse, but then of course I never actually got to ride it in a scene because Al never leaves town!  Were you a fan of the western genre before Deadwood?
Yeah, as a kid I was brought up with those one and two reel shows that you saw on Saturday afternoons in the '50s. You'd get a bit of science fiction and a 20-minute western, a movie Mum and Dad would take you to see. But when I grew up, you'd get the soft westerns with the kindlier, gentler heroes, and then you got the westerns that I really liked, like Peckinpah's westerns, "The Wild Bunch". I loved the spaghetti westerns, you know, Sergio Leone's movies, and then you get the real great westerns, like "Unforgiven". Which I think this is in the vein of… when the West was changed, there was no law. That's the thing about "Deadwood", it's very violent, and there's no law. And if they tried to pretend there's law then they'd have the government coming down on them, and that's what they're fearful of. But they know it's got to change, it can't stay the same way. So it's a question of who wants to be mayor, who wants to be fire marshal… In Deadwood at that time, there was a murder a day - mostly through drinking and stupidity. Back in your days in "Lovejoy" you were a producer and a director. Is that something you'd like to bring to Deadwood? No, not at all. When I started "Lovejoy" in the late '80s I was a bit bored with what I was doing, and I wanted to do a show for me. I found "Lovejoy", I did it with the BBC and it was a great six years, I very much enjoyed learning about the other side of the business. I'd usually direct one a year - the first one so that it'd give me time to go out and work on it, but I don't have any pretensions. I've got enough on my plate playing Al Swearengen. No I don't want to direct the show, we have some terrific directors. It's very different when you're involved with the show on that level of "Lovejoy". But on "Deadwood" it's quite enough playing this extraordinary character. Kiefer Sutherland once said that one of the worst things about working on 24 was having to wear the same outfit for the entire series. Is there anything about your 19th century garb that you're not comfortable with? No, I think that's the first thing you do. If you're going to do a series, I think the most important thing is that you pick an outfit… I always saw Lovejoy as the ultimate outsider, living in East Anglia, but he dressed like he was from the East End of London, with his leather jacket and cowboy boots. And then you're set and you don't have to change at all - you just change your T-shirts every other day! And Al doesn't change at all. The costume designer had lots of ideas, and we went to the costume place before we started and she had all this stuff lined up and but we just kept thinking 'That's not right', and then we found this pinstripe frock coat suit, I put it on and she said 'That's it', I said 'That's it' and she just had about six copies made of this suit. I don't even wear the shirt anymore, just the suit. Long johns, boots and this frock coat, and that's Al's idea of high fashion! Are you enjoying living and working out in LA? Is there anything you miss about London or England? Oh yeah, I miss the restaurants, I love London. I always have. I keep a place here and I love London as a city. LA is great if you're working there. If I wasn't working there I'd probably be back in England or in New York, or doing other things. LA is great though, the weather's terrific, it's beautiful. There's great bookshops, great record shops, great movies. If you're a theatre buff I wouldn't recommend it… but if you're an actor and you're working there it's fine. And when you're not working there, like when I finished this in February, we went to New York for a couple of weeks then I came back here to see my kids and my grandkids for about a month. Then I went back, and we started filming in July, and I'll be there until February. But it's nice, what's to complain about? Deadwood plays Tuesdays at 22.00 from 21 September on Sky One.
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