Max Beesley – Tom Price
Max Beesley hit the acting jackpot when writer Adrian Hodges decided to start from scratch with the character of Tom Price in his re-imagining of Survivors.
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Hodges agrees that the 2008 version is best described as a "charming sociopath", which is another way of saying Price is a very, very dangerous man.
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"Acting-wise, he gives me a kind of head-start in Survivors because people are going to like watching him," says Max. "He's dark, he's mysterious – unfortunately, he's also psychopathic. There are a lot of possibilities to play with."
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The audience first meet Price in prison as the virus strikes, and the circumstances of his escape leave them in no doubt about the kind of man he is.
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"He's serving a life sentence, and while the viewers know what he's capable of, the rest of the characters have no idea, at least not for a while," Max explains.
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"I've played this kind of dynamic before but only in low-budget films that not a lot of people have seen, so I thought it would be good to do it on TV.
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"I spoke to Adrian, who's a writer I respect immensely, we spoke about the character, and I told him it was something I really wanted to get my teeth into.
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"What interests me is how a man like Price behaves – they go from 0 to 100mph, bang, just like that without any qualms or sense of morality holding them back.
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"He's the sort of guy that, when push comes to shove, whereas you or I might have an argument with someone, he could quite easily kill them.
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"I've done research into sociopaths, and they're all action and no introspection. Price is not at all inward-looking or self-aware, and that makes him a bit scary.
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"The most extreme case I looked at was the American mafia hit-man Richard 'The Iceman' Kuklinski. He killed hundreds, did some really dark stuff, and yet he was very eloquent, seemed very together, and that's what is so terrifying."
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Burnage-born Max, who shot to fame as the lead in the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s 1997 adaptation of Tom Jones, adds that the post-virus world in which Price finds himself doesn't necessarily bring out the best in him.
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"It's a fresh start for him, but only in the sense that he's now a free man. I play him with a lot of ambiguity."
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The only thing that affects Price's equilibrium is being around women again after several years in jail, and he finds himself attracted to the enigmatic Anya (played by Zoë Tapper).
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"He's certainly very interested in Anya so he obviously wants a relationship, which might be something he's not had much experience of in his life," says Max.
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"We decided that he'd been inside for about eight years, so he would be a bit weird around women, he wouldn't quite know how to handle them.
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"Anya is someone who gets hold of his emotional psyche. Sociopaths are control freaks, and she intrigues him because he loses control of his emotions with her.
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"So he wants some kind of emotional comfort, but I'm not sure what else because he doesn't want anything from anybody. He's very independent, very capable, but I wouldn't want to be him."
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Max, whose credits also include Hotel Babylon and the acclaimed medical drama Bodies, has vague memories of the original Survivors despite being only four when the first series aired in 1975.
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"I can remember little bits and pieces, people's faces and stuff, so my mum and dad must have watched it, but I'm sure I was more interested in sweets at the time."
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Max is currently in Los Angeles editing his own film script for a Sixties-set Manchester crime drama called Mr Goodnight.
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"I'm working on it with Gub Neal [Cracker, Prime Suspect, Hillsborough, Moll Flanders], and planning to make it through my own company," he explains.
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"We're hoping to start getting the money in before Christmas and go into pre-production next year. I'm really pleased with the script – it's right up there in the top five things I'm most proud of."
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That list also includes playing live with James Brown and Stevie Wonder.
Max is also a talented percussionist and keyboardist who has written film scores and played with Paul Weller, Take That, Jamiroquai and his good friend Robbie Williams.
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"I've not played properly since working with James Brown, which was a wonderful honour, just before he died a couple of years ago," he says.
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"The most musical thing I've done recently is have a dream that I'd written a number one hit song and I woke up at 5am to write the tune down in the dark.
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"I've since bumped into the lyricist Don Black and he asked me to send him the music so he can have a listen, so I'm hoping it turns out to be more than just a dream."
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