Few devices in film and television are as enduring as the \u201codd couple handcuffed together\u201d. Think Hitchcock\u2019s The 39 Steps, Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones, or Bob Hoskins sawing cuffs off a cartoon Roger Rabbit. It has been parodied and recycled \u2013 and yet, as Sky\u2019s new show Prisoner makes clear, the idea of being stuck with a stranger still packs a punch.<\/p>\n
In Prisoner, the odd couple are Amber Todd, a prisoner transport officer played by rising star Izuka Hoyle (Boiling Point, Big Boys) in her first leading role, and Tibor Stone, a contract killer played by French star Tahar Rahim (The Serpent<\/a>, The Mauritanian<\/a>). It is Todd\u2019s job to get Tibor to his high-profile court hearing at the Old Bailey. But when their convoy is ambushed, they\u2019re forced to flee a relentless crime syndicate. The result is a propulsive six-parter with plenty of twists, turns and handcuffed fight scenes.<\/p>\n Ambushed \u2026 Amber (Izuka Hoyle) and Tibor (Tahar Rahim) in Prisoner. Photograph: Stephen Barham\/Sky UK<\/p>\n I meet Hoyle and Rahim at a hotel in London, and immediately confess I\u2019m disappointed they\u2019re untethered. \u201cThat would be good, wouldn\u2019t it?\u201d Hoyle laughs, her warm Scottish accent instantly disarming.<\/p>\n The pair tell me that shooting Prisoner involved eight hours in handcuffs each day (mercifully not during lunch). Alongside filming, they had to rehearse stunts. Or at least the ones they didn\u2019t learn in \u201cthe week that got out of hand\u201d, as Hoyle calls it. That week \u2013 the one before filming began \u2013 was the first time the pair met.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no getting-to-know-you dinner, no sit-down,\u201d says Hoyle. \u201cJust a hello, now let\u2019s put the resistance band on and try to roly-poly together. That\u2019s what they made us do!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe bonded,\u201d Rahim smiles. \u201cWe have no secrets now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had to figure out how my character moved,\u201d Hoyle says. \u201cTahar\u2019s character is a contract killer, so his fighting style is informed by his training. Amber is not a fighter.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather, she is a new mum, six months postpartum. I tell Hoyle that as a new mother myself, I couldn\u2019t help but nitpick: how has this character got so much energy, and why isn\u2019t she leaking breast milk? (\u201cI did suggest that!\u201d Hoyle adds.) But Amber\u2019s rage? I recognised it. I expect many new mothers will.<\/p>\n \u201cI called up all my friends who were new mothers and interviewed them until we were blue in the face,\u201d Hoyle says. \u201cThey\u2019re tender talking about their kids, but as soon as I asked them to put themselves in Amber\u2019s scenario, separated from their child, they changed. This animal turned up, and I\u2019d wonder: \u2018Where did my friend go?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cYou hear of women lifting cars to protect their children. That was the anchor for my character.\u201d<\/p>\n The handcuff device feels so potent right now. All over the news, we hear that social media has left us unable to connect. Experts say that if we were forced to spend time with a stranger, we\u2019d learn to get along. Handcuffing is the most extreme version of that.<\/p>\n \u201cVery good point,\u201d says Rahim, in his low, controlled voice and soft French accent. \u201cMy character is reshaped: he changes from a bad man to \u2026 I wouldn\u2019t say good. But a different man.\u201d<\/p>\n Tahar Rahim \u2026 \u2018I didn\u2019t feel represented in French films.\u2019 Photograph: Gareth Cattermole\/Getty Images<\/p>\n This feels like a suitable moment to mention that Rahim can be quite intense. He\u2019s not rude or cold; far from it. But you can tell when something truly speaks to him. He can turn on a dime: one minute chuckling with Hoyle, the next stopping you in your tracks with a look. He does it in his films, and as I learn, he does it in real life, too.<\/p>\n The first time I see it is when we turn to his career. We\u2019ve covered his first co-executive producer credit on Prisoner (\u201cIt all started with a frustration \u2013 I would talk with directors and when it comes to the editing room, bye-bye\u201d); and his decision, given his Algerian heritage, to refuse stereotyped terrorist roles. But, I tell him, it seems to me every generation has a crop of French actors making the crossover to the anglophone world. In my teens the names were Vincent Cassel, Audrey Tautou and Marion Cotillard. But that seems to be happening less. Rahim is probably the most notable, alongside L\u00e9a Seydoux<\/a>.<\/p>\n Leaning forward and almost in a whisper, he explains his opinion on success: \u201cYou just got to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n He recalls the moment he decided he would indeed take it. He was at Cannes, surveying the room. \u201cI can\u2019t explain it, but I just felt it was time to try it abroad.\u201d His agent tried to dissuade him, telling him he was doing very well in France. \u201cBut the biggest inspiration I\u2019ve ever had is the New Hollywood,\u201d he says (the 1970s movement that gave us Scorsese, Kubrick, Nicholson, De Niro). \u201cI grew up with these movies, and that happened because I didn\u2019t feel represented in French films.\u201d And so Rahim packed a bag and headed to Los Angeles. He did meetings for a few weeks, and then, just when he was telling himself it was never going to work, \u201cthe next day, literally, I had two different offers. Mary Magdalene\u201d \u2013 the biblical drama in which Rahim plays Judas Iscariot alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara \u2013 \u201cand The Looming Tower\u201d, a political drama about the FBI-CIA rivalry.<\/p>\n After that came his role as the serial killer Charles Sobhraj in The Serpent; an innocent Guant\u00e1namo detainee opposite Jodie Foster in The Mauritanian, which earned him Golden Globe and Bafta nominations; and, more recently, a part in Ridley Scott\u2019s Napoleon<\/a>.<\/p>\n I see Hoyle listening intently. Alongside the Bafta-winning Big Boys and the acclaimed Boiling Point \u2013 in which she plays a French chef despite not speaking a word of French \u2013 her CV includes Mary Queen of Scots<\/a> opposite Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan, and Persuasion<\/a> alongside Dakota Johnson. Which is why last year she was named Screen Daily\u2019s Star of Tomorrow<\/a>. In an interview she gave at the time, she said she could \u201cfeel herself getting braver\u201d. What did she mean?<\/p>\n \u201cYou need vulnerability to be brave on set, to put yourself out there,\u201d she says. \u201cThat took time. I\u2019m finding my voice more. Trusting my instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n Being handcuffed to Tahar Rahim all day certainly helps that education, I say.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I talk about getting braver, he\u2019s a prime example. He\u2019s fearless,\u201d she says. \u201cHe completely surrenders to his work. His eyes change when the camera rolls. To be handcuffed to that, to watch it up close \u2013 I learned so much, and felt it too. It was like a spiritual experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Rahim looks moved. \u201cThat\u2019s \u2026 that\u2019s so nice,\u201d he says, taking her hand.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t speak to the bravery of acting, but having followed Rahim\u2019s career for some time, it is a word that comes up in discussions of his work. Particularly when it comes to his stance on Palestine. Rahim has signed several open letters in support of Palestine, including for Artists4Ceasefire \u2013 an initiative that has proved contentious in Hollywood. Some say it oversimplifies the war and risks veering into antisemitism; others that it is too cautious.<\/p>\n \u201cCan I just say, it\u2019s not about politics or ethnicity or religion, it\u2019s just \u2026\u201d he pauses, choosing his words carefully.<\/p>\n \u201cI just think: go back to that little piece of flesh in your chest, and talk to it,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019ll have the answer. It\u2019s all about humanity. It\u2019s just not right.\u201d<\/p>\n I turn to Hoyle to talk about life off set. She speaks about taking a break after Prisoner, something she had to give herself permission for. But Rahim is staring at me.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry, I just want to come back to Palestine,\u201d he says, \u201cthat it\u2019s brave to speak about it. It\u2019s absolutely wrong to support a genocide. We\u2019ve talked about Hollywood but there are other places where it\u2019s controversial. One day I heard an important man say, \u2018humans give awards, God gives rewards.\u2019 That man was Denzel Washington. People need to be truthful.\u201d<\/p>\n The room is quiet now. I break the silence and turn to Hoyle. I ask her about her name: it\u2019s listed on Wikipedia as Chantelle Izuka Hoyle.<\/p>\n Rahim as contract killer Tibor in Prisoner. Photograph: Robert Viglasky\/Sky UK<\/p>\n Her upbringing was quite different to Rahim\u2019s. She is of mixed heritage, Nigerian and Scottish. \u201cI was raised in Edinburgh. With the exception of my mother, all of my family were white, and at my school it was just me and a few others who weren\u2019t,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n But, she says, dropping Chantelle to go by Izuka was never meant as a statement. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand the gravitas; I just thought it was a beautiful name.\u201d<\/p>\n This seems to have tickled Rahim and he is now laughing away. \u201cYou mean I have played next to Chantelle?!\u201d he jokes, making Chantelle sound as French as possible. Now the pair are exchanging the sort of French phrases someone might learn on Duolingo (\u201cComment \u00e7a va?\u201d).<\/p>\n And now our time is up. Turns out they didn\u2019t need the handcuffs after all, I reflect as I leave the hotel. Some pairings just hold all on their own.<\/p>\n Prisoner is on Sky Atlantic on 30 April<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few devices in film and television are as enduring as the \u201codd couple handcuffed together\u201d. 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