MAX IRONS ON A PSYCHOLOGICALLY-FOCUSED 'CONDOR’ SEASON 2, SOCIAL MEDIA AND ACTING

English-Irish actor MAX IRONS stars as ‘JOE TURNER’ in the second season of the MGM political thriller series CONDOR, . Inspired by Sydney Pollack’s 1975 film Three Days of the Condor. Iron’s character is based on Robert Redford’s iconic protagonist in the film.

Max’s Engaging portrayal of the character draws the audience not only into the ever-shifting action-packed settings, but also into the inner psyche of Joe Turner.

Irons deliver performances that keep getting better and better each episode that will absolutely keep you on the edge of your seat.

Max’s recent credits include: noir thriller Terminal opposite Margot Robbie and Dexter Fetcher, award-winning independent feature The Wife with Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce and Frances McDormand and BBC/AMC series Little Drummer Girl opposite Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Shannon.

In this exclusive interview, we talked about acting, cycling, social media, all things CONDOR, season 2 of the show, playing Joe Turner, and the challenges he faced while filming.

What’s the best part about playing Joe Turner?

I think the writers did a very good job with instilling conflict into Joe. Joe recognizes America's economic success partly comes at the price of the suffering of others who are out of sight and out of mind. Joe believes, as i do for that matter, that what goes around comes around. When it comes to terrorism, which is Joes area, perhaps work to treat the source of the problem, as opposed to bombing the shit out of the symptoms. In season 1 Joe finds himself complicit in this self-perpetuating system, and therefore reinforcing it. I think a lot of viewers identify with the this. I think a lot of people recognize that America has done business with the world, often using underhand and forceful tactics to ensure economic success at home. Just take a look at the CIAs involvement in South America during the 20th century.

How would you describe Joe Turner’s evolution throughout the seasons of the show?

This sort of connects to the first question. I think when you first meet Joe, he has a strong idealistic streak verging on naivety. He has that youthful instinct to want to burn the broken system down, as he sees it, and rebuild. While this is definitely a cathartic way of thinking, its also highly unrealistic, ineffective and actually unachievable. His idealistic position is one that has been formulated in relative safety of the classroom or round the dinner table, benefiting with the benefit of hindsight. Once Joe enters the field himself, he releases that things unfortunately are not that simple and real life consequences make tough real world decisions less binary and far more complicated and nuanced. Sometimes you've got to do a bad thing to stop a worse thing from happening.

What does season 2 have in store for the audience?

In Season 2, the iris gets smaller. While Season 1 was far more kinetic, season 2 is more psychological. Far more of a chess game.

How would you describe the show to those who haven’t seen it yet and what’s unique about the show?

Oh god, I'm the worst at summing up shows in a succinct way .

Far too self-centered. I always forget everyone else’s story lines!

Each episode title is a part of a quote. Do you remember any of these quotes/ episode titles and if you do, do you have a particular favorite among them?

I'm afraid these quotes were different on the scripts than the ones that ended up being used in the show. I also am one of those actors who doesn't take much pleasure watching his own work, and so I’m afraid i don't know any of the quotes off the top of my head.

Which episode resonated with you the most and why?

Again, a slightly difficult question to answer. When you make a show like this you shoot all the episodes out of order and I’d rather pull my own teeth than sit down and watch myself for hours on end. A broader answer would be that Joe's frustration with American foreign policy and politics, and the UKs for that matter, resonates with me. We've seen illegal wars, we've seen disproportionate response, we've seen the toppling of democratically elected leaders, we've seen our country selling arms to deplorable regimes that use them against civilians. This resonates with me. We can't be surprised when these things inevitably come back to haunt us.

How was it to get into your character’s psyche? How was that process like?

Usually the process for getting your head inside any character is similar. What motivates them, what they’re scared of, where do they come from etc etc etc. But in this case, it was the history of the CIA and broader American history and foreign policy. Didn't have time to become a god tier computer programmer unfortunately.

What are the challenges and the highs that you experienced during filming?

The main challenge was the sheer amount we had to get done. When you're working on a feature film, a day can be spent focusing on 2 or 3 pages. Television is a different animal. Often a day can be more than 10/20 pages, all of which you have to get done before the day is out. This means you don't get much time to anticipate or reflect. In between scenes you don’t necessarily have time to breathe and prepare as you're being rushed through make up and costume changes and then you’re on to the next one. This, however, while a challenge, can in fact be freeing. You just gotta do it, with no time to stress or overthink. Learning the lines day in day out can be tough, but that’s the job. It’s actually interesting how you develop this quite effective short term memory while working like this. One day you have to learn 10 pages, which you do and you do quickly, you use them, and then the following day you can't remember a single phrase. I find you stop having this skill as soon as you stop working like this.

How did you manage to rise above the challenges?

Use your free time wisely. Be antisocial and don’t give away your free time without asking yourself 'is this actually what i need right now'. Boring, I know. But necessary.

Also take lots of baths.

What’s your dream project?

I'm not sure about dream project, but dream character would be a politician. I did a play once called 'Farogate North' which was written by Beau Willimon (who adapted House of Cards). The play eventually became 'The Ides of March'. I that I played a spin doctor of the republican nominee. The ways these guys use subterfuge and doublespeak is amazing. I think we find ourselves in the bed we all made as far as trusting what he read and hear. We've diluted the classification of news that we're now questioning the relevance of 'facts' and struggling to distinguish fact from fiction. I think this reverberates with most people these days.

What kept you busy during the global lockdown?

Cycling. London is like a playground for bikes right now. In this regard, i'm certainly gonna miss lock down.

Will you ever try and dip your feet on social media at any point in the future?

I'm afraid not. I kinda hate social media and I feel it’s cumulatively doing a lot of hard to our society and people generally. When I was younger, I had high hopes for the internet. I thought it would be democratizing force, but instead I think it just dividing us and then is an awful forum for conflict. I like Reddit because its users are anonymous. Takes away a lot of the dishonest motivation you sense on social media.

What’s a valuable lesson that you’ve learned from your career that you think is still universally relevant?Don't believe you own hype, have a sense of humour and don't take yourself too seriously. Also don’t determine your value based on your work or what people think of you. It's a road to nowhere.