Exclusive: Richard Madden on the mind-bending action of Citadel and working with Priyanka Chopra

Between the wildly popular Robb Stark in Game of Thrones, David Budd in Bodyguard, Lieutenant Blake in 1917 and Ikaris in Eternals, Richard Madden seems to be steadily making a space for himself as the go-to blue-eyed action drama star. He gets to fully flex those action muscles in his next – Citadel. In the Russo Brothers-backed show, the Scottish actor joins Priyanka Chopra Jonas on an action-filled ride. As elite agent Mason Kane, he throws punches, knives and fires his way through some mind-bending fight sequences.

In an exclusive in-person interview with Filmfare, Richard Madden opened up about playing on the delightful duality of Kane, crafting the palpable onscreen chemistry with Priyanka and more.

You’ve played fan-favourite characters in Game of Thrones and Bodyguard. What do you usually look for in a role and what made you pick Mason Kane?

My process of picking scripts that I have worked on over the years is kind of simple. If I make it to the end of the script and I immediately want to go to page one and read it again, I kind of know that I want the job. That’s rare, I know I’ve found my next job when that happens. I get excited to go back and start working on it. With Mason Kane, I had never done something like that before. I’ve never played multiple characters in the same body. It’s the same man and I really wanted to explore the psyche of that. What parts of a man who has lost his memory completely still remain? What parts are built into your soul or your genes I suppose and what parts are from learned experience?

The show has a non-linear narrative. How did you keep track of the events while filming?

I had a lot of clippings stuck up on my trailer noting the timeline – what character I’m playing, what do I know at this point and what do I not know. As filming went on it became quite organic, I realised that I had two paint brushes to paint one image. And where one would fill in a part, the other would compliment it in another way. In lots of ways, the two sides of the character I play are extreme versions of myself and very opposing versions at that. Together they make a whole. It became quite an organic process of fleshing out these characters by playing the opposite of what I had done with the previous one.

What went into getting the physicality right for such an action-heavy role?

That was something that happened beautifully with Priyanka. The show is so fast-paced and we have so little time to let the audience get to know us. In particular, the first episode has this train sequence. It wasn’t just about how these people fight in action scenes but how they do it together. How do they hand things off to each other and connect and complement each other? That gave us an opportunity to not only show how much they care about each other but also how instinctive they are with their backs to each other. They know what the other person is going to do. That for me was how we got into the physicality of the characters where one leans forward and the other leans back. There was a synchronisation to it.

What went into creating that sizzling chemistry with Priyanka Chopra Jonas?

The thing about the show is that it’s an original concept. It’s a completely built-from-the-bottom IP that gave me and Priyanka the opportunity to build these characters together and flesh them out. Luckily, we had David (Well) onboard writing and bringing the characters to life. He did that on a daily basis. So we were constantly adapting, interpreting and bringing the best out of it. And when you’ve got someone like Priyanka to work with, who is so present, responsive and doesn’t miss anything, it gives an opportunity to really keep each other on our toes and really elevate each other and spar together.

What kind of discussions did you have with the Russo Brothers?

We had lots of conversations about straddling the villain element and the innocent version of these men. That’s what was most interesting to me – this grey zone of each of us as human beings, this area where you’re making decisions that are sometimes selfish and sometimes selfish. That moral judgment is clouded all the time, nothing is black and white and everything is complicated. Having the Russos there to help me judge that journey that I was on and understand when to dial up the selfishness and selflessness. You need an outside eye for that and they’re the best judges of that. They had a vision that allowed me to go down the rabbit hole of these two characters and know that they will get me out.

You’ve also worked in the superhero genre with Eternals, how much did that experience help and inform your work on Citadel?

I think every job you do is useful in informing your next job. But in terms of action, I’m not naturally coordinated. I’m very clumsy. So when it comes to these fight sequences, it’s a departure for me. But doing things like Marvel’s Eternals, I’m learning these fight sequences with these amazing stunt teams and the language that you learn of how to fight on screen. So, by the time you come into Citadel, you’re already at a great starting level, you gotta learn how to dance the way this team dances but you aren’t starting from scratch, just building from that. And hopefully, I’ll get my coordination better each time. 

Citadel will release on April 28, 2023 on OTT. 

See Also: Priyanka Chopra reveals Citadel character details: “I have a scar”