{"id":58194,"date":"2025-10-06T21:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T21:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/58194\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T21:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T21:52:12","slug":"alistair-petrie-on-sex-education-hamlet-and-playing-the-villain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/58194\/","title":{"rendered":"Alistair Petrie on ‘Sex Education,’ ‘Hamlet’ and Playing the Villain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAlistair Petrie is no stranger to villains. The British star has played some of television\u2019s most notorious, especially as the stone-faced, unfeeling headteacher Mr. Groff in smash hit series Sex Education<\/a>, which saw his icy glare pierce through screens in over 55 million households worldwide across its four seasons.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut as hardcore fans of Netflix\u2019s sex-positive teen dramedy might remember, Michael Groff\u2019s redemption arc was undeniably one of the show\u2019s more moving plot points. Petrie\u2019s character, once practically vibrating with resentment and shame, learns to shed his steely exterior and make amends with his son Adam (Connor Swindells), with whom he had a fraught relationship. It\u2019s an ending only made possible by the work of Petrie who, unlike the men he often portrays, is attentive, warm and softened by a palpable adoration of the craft.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think the villainous roles are hugely fun to play, but a lot of a lot of them can be underwritten from time to time,\u201d confesses Petrie, also known for roles in Star Wars spinoff Andor<\/a> and the BBC\u2019s Sherlock. \u201cThe hero\u2019s journey needs to be figured out and the villains can sometimes [fall] by the wayside. That\u2019s what I find so entertaining when I read them \u2014\u00a0certainly the ones I take on \u2014\u00a0because you think: \u2018Who is the human being? Where\u2019s the villainy come from?\u2019 It doesn\u2019t just appear,\u201d he continues to The Hollywood Reporter over Zoom in late September. \u201cAnd in that sense, you\u2019re being asked to elevate the material from where it was originally conceived. Every good story needs a villain, and how do you fulfill that? You try and find the human being within it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s this search for humanity that makes Petrie the perfect fit for theater\u2019s biggest baddie: King Claudius, uncle to Shakespeare\u2019s Prince Hamlet. The 55-year-old leads a mighty ensemble cast currently performing at the National\u2019s Lyttelton Theatre until November, with Life of Pi\u2018s Hiran Abeysekera embodying our protagonist with a mischievous sense of frenzy through Robert Hastie\u2019s sharp, contemporary take on the classic.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat I love about playing Claudius on stage is that he has such main character energy,\u201d says Petrie about the king-slayer, whose act of fratricide in a bid for the Danish throne sends his nephew spiraling. \u201cWhen the curtain goes up, Claudius firmly believes that he\u2019s in a play called Claudius. He\u2019s not in a play called Hamlet. This is his moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAlistair Petrie, above left, plays King Claudius of Denmark in Robert Hastie\u2019s Hamlet at the National Theatre.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSam Taylor<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s something that Petrie finds brilliantly inspiring on the stage, a place he describes as \u201can amazing actor\u2019s medium, whereas film and television are much more of a director\u2019s medium.\u201d Hamlet marks his return to theater after 11 years, and the Brit casts his mind back to a stint in Declan Donnellan\u2019s West End production of Shakespeare in Love, in which he played Lord Wessex.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s not an experience he thinks back on entirely fondly, as Petrie found himself pulled between the painstaking demands of theater and family life. \u201cI\u2019m certainly not frightened of hard work \u2014\u00a0I revel in it \u2014 but I value my other real-life roles as a partner and a husband and a father,\u201d he explains. \u201cI blithely thought that you can live slightly out of London and still commute in and quickly do a West End Show in front of an audience and then just pop home and carry on as normal. But you can\u2019t. It requires extraordinary reserves of energy, really, and something had to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPetrie, married to actress Lucy Scott with whom he shares three sons, also admittedly found himself a little bogged down by the expectations placed upon the cast in the stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning film Shakespeare in Love (1998). \u201cIt was a very big-budget show. It had very grand plans. It was sort of Disney-backed,\u201d he says, \u201cand I think the expectations were so high and that was slightly thrust onto us. \u2026 When we finally finished, I had no desire to step on stage again. It wasn\u2019t so much the doing of it. It was more [about] how it collides with your life, and I just wasn\u2019t prepared to give that up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith his theatrical mojo rediscovered, Petrie finds himself back in front of a live audience. And after over a decade away, he\u2019s relishing the thrill. \u201cAs an actor, I love the sense of being part of of a group, of an ensemble,\u201d he says. \u201cI do think if we search for anything in life, we do look to belong somewhere \u2014\u00a0I mean, a psychologist could have field day with me,\u201d he jokes, \u201cbut I think it\u2019s very much tied into the notion of being brought up as a military kid and moving around a lot. You\u2019re desperate to fit in, and as soon as you find yourself as a part of something, you\u2019re on to the next thing. There\u2019s a certain masochism to being an actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne set that Petrie found himself immediately at home on was the fan-favorite Sex Education, an experience that he continues to feel the ramifications of to this day. \u201cIt permeates throughout everything in the most glorious way. Sex Education is a gift \u2014\u00a0not was a gift. I put it in the present tense,\u201d the actor says about his time as Mr. Groff.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the early throes of production when fellow cast members Asa Butterfield, Emma Mackey, Ncuti Gatwa, Aimee Lou Wood and Connor Swindells were yet to reach the dizzy heights of stardom, he admits there were concerns about how the show would land with Netflix audiences. \u201cGiven the explosion of all the streamers and all the platforms and all the curation that people could do,\u201d says Petrie, \u201cwould we find an audience? Or would we be buried in some kind of algorithm, in the bowels of Netflix? And it was just the most glorious reverse,\u201d he smiles about the show, which debuted to critical and audience acclaim. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t have predicted how people would receive it, of all age groups and demographics all over the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tSex Education is a part of his life Petrie would never abandon in the face of snobbery, notably because it\u2019s provided him with some of the strongest off-screen relationships of his career. In particular, Petrie is close with his on-screen son and Barbie actor Swindells, and last year officiated his wedding to fellow thespian Amber Anderson.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI talk to Connor literally every day,\u201d says Petrie. He pauses, recalling his first few days on the Sex Ed set. \u201cI am absolutely a 50-something-year-old man trapped in a 22-year-old person\u2019s body. There\u2019s no question I\u2019m a complete labrador when it comes to working in this industry. And within seconds, I thought, \u2018Oh, this is going to be great.\u2019 We were just one happy gang. I couldn\u2019t give a rat\u2019s ass whether I was comfortably nearly double their age \u2014\u00a0watching them all soar as they are, I look on it with almost a parental pride.\u201d He\u2019s working on a new series with Sex Ed alumn George Robinson, Petrie tells THR, who fans will know as Isaac Goodwin.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFrom left: Petrie and Connor Swindells as father-son duo Michael and Adam Groff in \u2018Sex Education.\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBut 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 behemoth: The Crown. The part eventually went to Tobias Menzies, but disappointment was soon eclipsed by a phone call asking him to read for a thrilling new show about the sex lives of eager teens.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe scripts were obviously so good,\u201d Petrie says about the material crafted by The Crown mastermind Peter Morgan. \u201cI thought, \u2018Gosh, this is a character I really want to to investigate. Tobias and I are different, and it was either going to be him or it was going to be me. And he was magnificent \u2014\u00a0he\u2019s a mate and a wonderful actor \u2014\u00a0and when I saw it, it made perfect sense to me.\u201d Within an hour of being told Menzies nabbed the role, Petrie got the call about Groff. \u201cSerendipity hovers over my being quite a lot,\u201d he says, \u201cand I will accept that. If serendipity is my God, I\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother serendipitous development that\u2019s got Petrie excited is the upcoming second season of The Night Manager<\/a> with Tom Hiddleston, the British spy thriller adapted from John le Carr\u00e9\u2019s 1993 novel. In the first season, which had us gripped all the way back in 2016, Petrie played Lord Alexander \u201cSandy\u201d Langbourne, financial director to the cunning Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie).<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was supposed to be a miniseries is now returning on Amazon Prime Video for a hotly anticipated second installment that, at certain points, didn\u2019t involve Petrie at all. \u201cI would get a phone call probably about once a year: \u2018We think we\u2019re on,’\u201d says the Briton. \u201cI was like, \u2018Great.\u2019 And then I get a phone call about a year later, and it would be like, \u2018We are going to do it, but you\u2019re not in it.\u2019 I went, \u2018That\u2019s totally fine. All good.’\u201d He remembers phoning up good pal Laurie, who serves as an executive producer on both seasons. Laurie said something to the effect of: \u201c\u2018If you\u2019re standing on set one day and the camera\u2019s on you and I\u2019m standing behind the camera as an exec producer, then I guess we\u2019re doing it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEventually, after hours-long conversations about how to \u201ccrack\u201d a le Carr\u00e9-esque story that isn\u2019t entirely based on any of the author\u2019s work, season two of The Night Manager was a go, Petrie included. \u201cEventually, [writer] David Farr was available,\u201d explains the actor. \u201cI think he sat down and said, \u2018OK, this is what I would do\u2019 and presented it. There was a general sense of, \u2018Oh, OK, this is a story worth telling.’\u201d He also sings Laurie\u2019s praises: \u201cHe\u2019s so wise and brilliant about le Carr\u00e9\u2019s work. As an exec producer, he\u2019s always going to be creatively involved. I think read it and looked at it amongst everyone else and there was a decision: \u2018This is the one. I think this is it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Night Manager is expected to return to screens imminently. Petrie also says the cast is supposed to be filming a third season next year. \u201cDavid has delivered a Shakespearean tragedy, I think it\u2019s wonderful,\u201d he teases. \u201cThis is just based on what I\u2019ve read, but it\u2019s going to be enormous. We\u2019re supposed to be doing a third one next year and I really hope we do, because the people in it and around it are just wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Shakespeare in Love, Hamlet and now a Shakespeare-adjacent season of The Night Manager ahead, Petrie can\u2019t help but think about the bard\u2019s artistic impact on his career so far. \u201cHe wrote about all the great themes that run through our emotional lives,\u201d ponders Petrie. \u201cHe wrote about power and love and madness and revenge and mortality and jealousy and the fear of God, and he did it pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis time around, with his sons all grown up, Petrie\u2019s got the work-life balance a little more figured out. What remains is sheer pride. \u201cIn amongst the crash bang of this industry, we raised three well-adjusted, decent human beings,\u201d he beams. \u201cWe\u2019ve managed to figure it out, my wife and I, because we are such a team. So the emotion of doing all this is running beautifully high at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHamlet is on at the National\u2019s Lyttelton Theatre until Nov. 22, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alistair Petrie is no stranger to villains. The British star has played some of television\u2019s most notorious, especially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[43466,146,85,399,46,43467,43468,1299],"class_list":{"0":"post-58194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-andor","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-international","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-sex-education","14":"tag-the-night-manager","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}