Russell Tovey has played a wide range of characters in projects like Being Human, Him & Her, Looking, Quantico, Years and Years, American Horror Story: NYC, and Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, to name a few. The actor, who's set to star alongside Tom Blyth in Carmen Emmi's upcoming film Plainclothes, delivers yet another home run with his performance as Charlie on The Fortress — a TV series from Norway that features a mainly Norwegian cast and crew.
"I've been to Oslo a few times," Tovey tells Out in an interview. "I went to Svalbard one New Year's Eve a few years back, saw the Northern Lights, and slept in the igloo. Like, 24-hour darkness. That was wild and amazing."
He goes on, "I've always been fascinated by Norway. I went there when I was 12 years old and did a commercial for their 'Coca-Cola,' a drink called Solo. (…) I remember I flew there on my own business when I was 12 years old and being like, 'Mum, mum, we're at the business level! There's free food!' She was like, 'Don't take too much. They'll tell you off.' And I was like, 'God, this is wild, what a lovely life.'"
Besides having great memories of Norway and being impressed by the production of The Fortress, Tovey is also excited about starring in a foreign-language show. "I can't wait to see myself subtitled in Norwegian," he says. "But it's a real honor to be invited into other countries and film industries. It's a real honor. I felt very privileged to be a part of it."
The Fortress is set in a future in which Norway becomes a self-sufficient utopia by 2037. But as Norwegian citizens live out a sheltered experience that disregards the rest of the world, a global pandemic breaks out, which forces the country and its people to reevaluate the walls that have been "protecting" them.
"Normally, I can read the first four pages of something, and what my character's doing, and I know. I don't know what it is," Tovey muses. "It can be a simple conversation, two characters saying hello to each other… but there's something about it that I'm like, 'I want to say that hello. I want to say those words. I want to be that person.' It's a real instinct. And it's something — I've been doing this since I was so young — that I trust now."
He adds, "Everything I try and do is character-driven. The Fortress is this dystopian situation, which isn't actually that dystopian anymore, but it's about these characters surviving. (…) It's about people trying to stay alive, connect, remain open-hearted and authentic, care about people, and have empathy. That's really compelling for me."
Tovey's character, Charlie, loves his wife and daughter and does his best under these world-ending circumstances. "He's a very regular guy who gets caught up in something that ends up making him extraordinary," the actor says. "I related [to this story] in a way that, at any moment, what we think is safe and secure can be taken away from us. We're seeing the state of the world at the moment… it's a terrifying place."
Tovey recalls joining The Fortress during the actual, real-world pandemic that broke out in 2020. "I think everyone was in discussions about what was going to be made, what art was going to come out of the pandemic," he says. "This was one of the first things that came my way. I was like, 'This is fascinating.'"
Beyond his acting career, Tovey cohosts a podcast entirely dedicated to the world of art, Talk Art, alongside Robert Diament. When asked about past Norwegian artists and the overall art scene in the country, Tovey reveals how he got to meet the Queen of Norway. Y'know, no big deal!
"The Munch Museum in Oslo is phenomenal. I had the privilege of meeting Queen Sonja, the Queen of Norway, there," he says. "It was an opening, and I ended up chatting to Queen Sonja. She is an artist herself. She makes prints."
Tovey's love and excitement for the arts runs deep — an incredibly inspiring side to the actor that isn't as well-known as his work in film and TV.
"As an art collector in the U.K., you have to play VAT [value added tax]. In America, you have to pay state tax, or whatever," he explains. "But Queen Sonja set up that all of [the tax you pay when buying art] goes back to supporting artists' studios, artist industries, and art schools. And that, to me, is just this beautiful feeding system established by the top of the country."
Tovey remarks, "It really makes people consider the importance of art and what art can do for society. What art can do for communities, how important art is, and how art is pushed politically to a place of being other than superfluous. She's really made Norway absolutely appreciate how important it is."
Watch Out's full interview with Russell Tovey below — and make sure to tune into The Fortress, now streaming on Viaplay!
