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EXCLUSIVE: Mark Ryan on 'Shock & Arrr...'

Written by (Editor) on 28th December 2013

From ‘Sherwood’ to ‘Hollywood' and now to ‘Would you kindly hand over your booty?’… Mark Ryan charts the evolution of ‘Black Sails’…

Mark Ryan Black Sails interviewWhen it comes to action projects, swashbuckling Mark Ryan has form. Not many people can boast being a Merry Man (Nasir in Robin of Sherwood), a giant alien robot (the voice of Bumblebee and the Autobots on Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise), fight-choreographer to the Knights of the Round Table on Jerry Bruckheimer’s King Arthur, serenading a famous political activist (Evita) and - as 2014 dawns - getting to sail the late 16th century High Seas as a pirate.

But this ain’t your grandpa’s Captain Pugwash.

When Starz starts screening Black Sails this January in America (a UK date hasn’t been officially finalised but can’t be far behind), television will get a ‘warts, barnacles and all’ look at the life of a buccaneer.  With its earthy tones and briney hues, think of it as Deadwood-on-Sea (Driftwood, perhaps?), complete with blood, battles and more than the average ration of jolly rogering.

“The concept is based on the earlier days of some of the characters from Treasure Island… so you’ve got Captain Flint, we’ve got John Silver and Billy Bones.  So, it’s based in that mythology but what they’ve done - in a very similar way to  (harking back to my old stomping ground) Robin of Sherwood - they’ve mixed a lot of the legends and the fictional characters with historical figures and events. We have Calico Jack Rackham, we also have Charles Vane and Anne Bonny. So the show has fictional characters placed in an authentic world around 1715-1720, the ‘golden age’ of pirates. It has the duel appeal and accessibility for the audience of having one foot in the historical environment and the other in this legendary pirate arena …” Mark explains.

Black Sails starts in JanuaryWhile one can still find all-too real examples of modern day piracy in the news, there is something timeless about the traditional, old-fashioned image of a powerful sailing ship, its skull and crossbones motif and the idea of searching for buried treasure. The reality, of course, was more bleak than cheeky, pirates often being disavowed representatives of governments who abandoned them due to changing policies, but it proves a rich and fertile ground for solid drama about exotic places and conflicting agendas.

“Yeah, it IS an adult show in the sense that all the various facets of human nature, ambition and conflict go on in the show. There is sex, there is violence and it is played and written in a very intense, sincere, realistic fashion. It’s not gratuitously but there ARE human relations and clashes of wills. That’s part of this world. We wouldn’t have been honest if we didn’t add some of those elements in there,” Mark continues. “It’s got an ‘epic feel’ to it which is very different from other shows. It’s complex and rich in the detail.”

Mark plays ‘Gates’, the Quartermaster  of the ‘Walrus’ and its crew who serve under Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and he is essentially one of the pivotal characters, in one way or another an important piece in the jigsaw of arcs and stories that spin through the series.  He’s a man of weathered charm, fierce loyalty, but not a man to be crossed.

“It’s a GREAT part, an absolute gift to have fallen into my lap at this stage of my career.  Gates is Flint’s oldest friend and ally. People trust Gates because his word is true and reliable. That’s part of the relationship, which is not just a dramatic tool but also a historical reality. A lot of deals were done on the strength of a man’s word and his reputation. He has more years at sea than anybody else there  - which is a miracle in itself because in the course of one of the conversations he talks about being at sea for almost fifty years. Gates is older than I am and I had to age up (laughs) because they wanted him to be in his Sixties. They aged up my face and eyes and I put on a bit of weight to make him a more ‘rounded’ character. I make those sacrifices for my art!” he laughs. “Due to Toby Stephen’s brilliant acting and our insane British sense of humour, we got on extremely well…we’d just giggle like schoolgirls most of the time when we weren’t shooting.”

The cast of Balck SailsThe series, already renewed – prior to broadcast – for a second run of another ten episodes, shot for five months in Africa, the advances in technology and set-design allowing some attractive locales but also more interior shots than you might imagine for a show that has more than its fair share of beaches. It’s a show that Ryan agrees not only wouldn’t have been made ten years ago but couldn’t have been put together in such a way - and now with a little help from the presence of Michael Bay's production company influence.

“Making Black Sails… you are in fact making a complex eight-hour, epic movie. That’s what Michael Bay has done here.  When this was projected down at San Diego Comic-Con and at the New York Comic-Con, I was astounded by the quality of the cinematography and special-effects. The great thing about doing it this way is that you now have an eight or ten hour story-arc where you can REALLY tell the character’s stories. Now you have cinema actors doing these shows because it’s much more satisfying and rewarding to do that dramatic story arc, to build that character and see them travel over those emotional arcs. It’s more satisfying. Someone asked me at the New York Comic Con whether this would be like the Pirates of the Caribbean…  this is DEFINITELY not that. It’s not just  another pirate show, this is THE pirate show. The crowd erupted!” he smiles.

Mark Ryan and Adrian PaulPre-production on that second series of Black Sails has already begun, but before he returns to piracy, Mark will be in far more altruistic move, taking part in Combat Radio’s annual fund-raising for kids in Los Angeles, its Christmas activities now becoming legendary in themselves. It’s a project that has seen Mark team up with another tv action star, Highlander's Adrian Paul.

"I’ve done a lot of work with Adrian recently. He came onto the Combat Radio show that I do and we got involved with his charity, the PEACE Fund. He now has his own show on LA Talk Radio which has been very successful. He’s a really solid bloke. We met on a plane to New Zealand and I told him that a mutual friend, the legendary swordmaster and fight choreographer Bob Anderson had told me that Adrian was the best swordsman he’d ever worked with. Adrian hadn’t heard that and I felt he’d be chuffed to know,” Mark explains. “He’s doing good work and achieving some great things to help kids. People like ourselves have been very fortunate in life, so it shouldn’t be a big deal for us to give something back to those who haven’t been as fortunate. If you can’t use your celebrity (or ‘infamy’ in my case) to do good, then shame on you. I’m very happy to get involved and to actually see the prectical results.”

You can support the various charity initiatives at the links above and  we’ll be covering more of Black Sails in the new year.

Black Sails begins on Starz on January 25th. 

Main Portrait photo courtesy of Brian Doherty Photography.

Written By

John Mosby

Editor

John Mosby

Born at a early age, creative writing and artwork seemed to be in John’s blood from the start Even before leaving school he was a runner up in the classic Jackanory Writing Competition and began...

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