Chris O'Dowd on working on 'iconic' Black Mirror: 'It's like playing for Liverpool for a season'

Chris O’Dowd stars alongside American actress Rashida Jones in the first episode of the series, titled Common People.

Irish actor Chris O’Dowd has described working on the show Black Mirror as “like getting to play for Liverpool for a season”.

Charlie Brooker's dark, satirical anthology series Black Mirror returns to Netflix today for a seventh series of six brand-new episodes.

O’Dowd stars alongside American actress Rashida Jones in the first episode of the series, titled Common People.

Describing the show as “iconic”, O’Dowd commended Charlie Brooker’s creativity and approach to the storyline.

“He doesn't get stuck in a mold. He's constantly trying to create something new all the time. Even this show, which has gone on for years, it's different every week. He's so adept at comedy and so extraordinarily adept at drama and tragedy,” he said.

“He has a lot of strings to his bow and he treats people well, and that can go a long way. He's a very talented f**ker.” 

Speaking about what attracted him to sign on and play the role of Mike in episode one of the Black Mirror series, O’Dowd said he had watched a few of the episodes from last season before he knew it would come his way and thought it was “really strong”.

“I had seen ‘Joan is Awful’ a few weeks before, and I just thought it was so clever and funny. So, the initial draw was to be part of a show like that, it's an institution already and almost like its own style of television, which is cool,” he said.

“I've known Charlie, just to say hello to, since we were both working at Channel 4, 15 to 20 years ago. I love what he does. Then I read it, and I thought it was gorgeous. It's such a brilliant arc. It's very unusual to have so much to play with.

“You get to do all of the happy rom-com stuff with Rashida, and then this dystopian world with Tracey Ellis Ross. It was a bit of a no-brainer in terms of getting involved. It's an incredibly dark episode. Charlie described it as a “jet black comedy”.” 

Speaking about working alongside Rashida Jones, who plays his on-screen partner, Amanda, O’Dowd said: “We had worked together before, so we knew each other going in, which made it much easier. But I really loved working with her this time.

Chris O’Dowd stars alongside American actress Rashida Jones in the first episode of the series, titled Common People.

“It’s funny when you haven't worked with somebody in years, and you realise you still just trust each other. She's such a talented performer, but also a very easy person to be around. That made it feel very easy, I suppose.

“Nobody's trying to impress each other or anything. It's just trying to make everything feel real. I think it comes across like we're close, and that's all you want to get across. She's beautiful and it's such a gorgeous performance.” 

Speaking about her time working with O’Dowd, Jones described him as “such a fantastic actor” and said that while people love him from his comedy, “he’s a trained, deep, and complex actor – and he gets to do all that here”.

“He’s so great to work with because he's emotionally available to whatever's happening. If somebody was just playing the comedy, you wouldn’t care as much, because you have to really believe these people love each other and that they're willing to do the worst things ever for each other, that they're both stuck in this intractable situation together,” she said.

“But they never turn on each other, and that's so romantic. Their lives are completely upended and yet they never betray each other, and he really does sell that devotion.” 

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Speaking about the cast of series seven, writer of the show, Charlie Brooker, said: “The cast is sensational on this. When actors are asked what attracted them to the project, the stock answer is ‘well you don’t say no to Black Mirror’.” Brooker described it as “gratifying and thrilling” that many of the world’s best actors want to work on the show.

“From my perspective, it’s great because a great actor always makes the writing seem better. It elevates the writing,” he said.

“Once you know who is cast, you can tailor what you’re writing to the actor. I see the characters in my head before anyone else does, so when I am writing, I have things floating around and sometimes you sort of cast someone, you imagine someone.

“Sometimes you’re not sure. But I find that once we cast someone, I can’t remember who it was I was picturing when I sat down to write; it’s like it was always them.

“Dorothy has always been Emma Corrin. Paul Giamatti was always the lead in ‘Eulogy’, even if I couldn’t have known that when I sat down to write. 

"It never ceases to amaze me how much they bring those characters to life in a way that retrospectively goes back and overwrites what I thought in the past.

“It’s a thrill working with great actors, it makes everything better.”