Jack James Ryan

One of the stars of ITV’s mysterious drama Passenger, Manchester actor Jack James Ryan tells us about what to expect from the show and his character, how he prepares for a role and what he believes is the most important thing for young actors starting out.

When did you begin acting? When did you realise it was what you wanted to do?

From quite a young age - I guess it stemmed from being around my older brother and sister, who are both actors, so growing up and seeing them both on stage and screen was just insane to me. I think as well, being from quite a working class background, the arts and acting in particular wasn’t something that I’d really been told I could do at school, but seeing my brother and my sister do it, as a reality, was amazing and incredibly inspiring. They’re both still my biggest inspirations!

What was your first job as an actor?

I actually did a bit of child acting - I think my first gig was when I was about 8 years old. I did a feature film called The Building Of The Titanic, it was basically about the lives of the people who went on the Titanic - I played this little Irish lad called Ruddick Miller, and my mum actually is Irish and I’d spent my childhood copying her accent, so that gave me some good practice for that character! A did a few more bits afterwards, then there was a big gap where my mum was like “OK, you need to go to school and focus on your education now”, so I had a bit of a break. I went to drama school and came back to acting when I was 18, but even in those years out I was still super passionate and I knew it was what I wanted to do.

Where did you go to drama school?

I went to the Guildford School Of Acting, which was nice as moving from Manchester to London felt so daunting, so I guess moving to Surrey was a bit more chilled. It was close enough to London that I could go on the weekends. I’m based in Manchester mainly now, but I work a lot in London. I love Manchester - it’s my happy place!

Is there anything that you look out for in characters or stories when you’re given a script?

Drama is the main genre I’m interested in - specifically working class stories, something gritty or emotional. I think as an actor I sit better on roles with high emotional stakes. Every actor hopes they’ll have a really varied career and do lots of different exciting things, but I guess you always want to bring a certain amount of authenticity to a role - when I see a brief I want to be able to feel that I can bring it something authentic from potentially my own life, or feed in something that I think will be helpful to the role.

You’re currently starring in ITV’s new drama Passenger - what can you tell us about it and who you play?

It’s a six-parter, and the crux of it is basically that it’s a northern-set crime drama but with a kind of unnatural element. It’s a really exciting move for ITV, I think - it feels more like a Netflix or Apple show. It’s headed up by an amazing cast - Wunmi Mosaku, David Threlfall from Shameless, Jo Hartley. My character is called John Trowbridge, who’s the boyfriend of one of the Wells girls, and the Wells are the main family we follow throughout the series. When we first meet John he’s quite a conventional stereotypical “bad boy”, and over the series he has a really nice arc and we get to discover more about him, that maybe he isn’t what he first appeared to be.

Was the show shot in Manchester?

It was shot in west Yorkshire, mainly in a village called Cornholme. It’s got some absolutely beautiful scenery - we were out in quite rural parts, some really remote, gorgeous areas.

Do you have any specific method for approaching a character?

It varies, but I think homework is always massively important - I try to delve into the world of the person. The great thing about Passenger is that there is so, so much in the script - because our writer Andrew Buchan is also an actor, he does such a great job of writing human connection and conversation. Even characters who just come in for one scene are fully-formed and thought through, everyone feels three-dimensional when you’re reading them on the page. Sometimes you get a script and you think “OK, I’m going to have to make a lot of choices, I’m going to have to pull a lot myself”, but with Passenger it was all there. Andy really understands actors, being one himself, and he knows what that kind of journey is when you first get a script. It sounds biased to say our casting director Sonia has done an incredible job because I’m in the cast, but she has genuinely picked actors who have so much life experience to bring to their characters.

Several of Passenger’s episodes are directed by Lee Haven Jones, a TV veteran who’s also worked on shows such as Doctor Who and The Bay - what’s he like to work with?

Lee is amazing - with a director you just want to feel safe, and that’s exactly how I felt with Lee. He has such a great command of the set and the space. He’s quite selective with who he likes to work with, so when you get on set he just sort of lets you do what you need to do - obviously he’ll come in and tweak things if he needs, but we’d done the rehearsals and had all the conversations, so by the time we got on set it was so nice to feel like you have that kind of freedom. He’s genuinely such a lovely guy. We had Lee for the first three episodes, and then Nicole Charles took over for the final three - again, just such a fantastic person. I’d done a play several years ago, which Nicole was the director of, and when she came on to Passenger neither of us knew the other was working on it!

Have you done much theatre?

I’ve done a little bit - my first job out of drama school was theatre, down in Cheltenham. I’ve performed at the National Theatre a couple of times, and with the Royal Shakespeare Company, so yeah, I have done a bit. For me it feels important, especially when you’ve done a lot of TV, to go back to theatre, because with TV you don’t sit down and work through a script for a month or two like when you’re doing a show on stage. I love flitting between the two mediums, it’s always great training.

Have you ever acted alongside either of your siblings?

As John in Passenger

I have - well, me and my sister did a show together for a little while, but we were never actually in the same scene! My brother and sister did a stage show together though - they did A Taste Of Honey, and obviously the chemistry was insane!

As a working class actor from the north, do you have any advice you’d give to aspiring actors from similar backgrounds?

It sounds so generic and I guess so many people say it, but being yourself and not shying away from who you are. When I went to drama school I felt like there was a bit of pressure sometimes to dull down myself and who I was to fit into a mould of what the industry needed, but when I graduated and started having meetings I realised that people wanted me, people were interested in what I had to offer, and all the things that made me special were the things that attracted other people to want to work with me. I think just to be your most authentic self, that’s always gonna win people over in the end. I’ve been really lucky, I’ve been able to tell stories that I’m passionate about since I graduated, and that has been down to because I haven’t been afraid to be myself. But it’s not easy, and I think this industry is hard if you’re from a working class background because you have no safety blanket to fall back on. There will be months where you have no work, there will be times where you don’t know how it’s going to be possible. Luckily for me I have the most amazing family who support me mentally, financially and really keep me in check, but you know it is hard. We need working class voices though, on screens, behind the scenes - we need those stories and we need those people to tell those stories, so keep doing it because we need you in this industry!

Words: Scott Bates

First two photos: David Reiss Photography

Stylist: Michael Miller

Groomer: Emma Small

Thanks to representation CLD Communications

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