#I understand why Jean Valjean went to prison for stealing a loaf

[septembercfawkes]

3 Redemptive Character Types

I love a great redemption story, but not every character who finds redemption is the same. So today I've outline three types of redemptive characters and what to watch for and consider when writing each.

Type 1: Characters Who Think They Are Worse Than They Are

If you are familiar with the story of

Les Mis

and you are like most people, you were probably thinking that stealing a loaf of bread to save your starving family is really not that bad of a sin. (And certainly having to spend 19 years in prison is waaaay too much, whether or not you tried to escape.)

Yet throughout the story, Jean Valjean consistently feels that he is falling short, even though most of his mistakes and sins are actually rather minor and understandable in comparison to his trials and accomplishments. Time and time again, Valjean sees himself as far worse of a human being than the audience does. In fact, he can't bear Cosette, the one person in his life he can love and who loves him in return, finding out about his sins, and in his death scene, asks her not to read his letter about them until he has passed away.

Valjean is not a terrible person. He's an amazing person! But nonetheless, his story of redemption is perhaps one of the most powerful and moving.

You can write redemptive characters the same way. However, like everything in writing, you need to be balanced. One of the easiest mistakes to make with this character type (or really, in any redemptive story) is to become too sentimental or melodramatic. If you go overboard about how wretched your character feels about herself, it can become annoying. If the gap between what the sin actually was vs. how awful she feels about it, is too big without an explanation, it can become more annoying. To be honest, there is a rather large gap between what Valjean commits vs. how awful he feels about it, but the gap is explained in how his society and other human beings (such as Javert) treat him for it--which further enables him to feel wretched.

A third problem can arise when you render the character's emotion improperly or poorly, particularly by having it all illustrated through the character on the page instead of allowing the audience to feel it first. Unless you are in a denouement where you want to release and validate all that emotion, usually less is more.

Characters of this type tend to have a lot of inner turmoil and conflict, so getting the emotion right is key. (You can find all my tips on rendering emotion in my Writing Tip Index.)

Watch out for: Sentimentality, melodrama, repetitious emotions, too wide of a gap between the sin and the poor self-esteem (without an explanation), and poor rendering of emotion.

Consider: Inner turmoil/conflict and how it is portrayed, how others and society may view the character and how it compares or contrasts with how he views himself and also how that affects his relationships, how shame and guilt and the sin motivate his actions or dam his progression.

Other Examples: In the movie DragonHeart, Draco thinks less of himself and is harder on himself for having given half his heart to save a boy who grew to become an evil king--what was meant to be a noble act, even a holy act, ends up haunting Draco for the rest of his life. In Disney's The Lion King, Simba blames himself (thanks to Scar) for his father's death, which leads to him turning away from his place in society and even his true identity.

Type 2: Characters Who Give into a Moment of Weakness

Before the Reynolds affair even started, Hamilton discloses to the audience that he is in a state of weakness--exhausted, overworked, and lonely. Despite being popular with the ladies, he is not out and about looking to be promiscuous. He's minding his own business, trying to save his job, when a woman seeks him out.

Essentially, the entire song "Say No to This" is about Hamilton literally praying to God that he can resist temptation, and out of weakness, giving in again and again and again, and being mad with himself about it, but . . . giving in again.

Like I talked about at FanX, I think this is a human experience we can all relate to (though ideally ours isn't about an affair). We all have weaknesses, whether it's a brownie, impulsive spending sprees, or even lust.

This type of character needs redemption because she actually did do something pretty bad. She might have gotten caught in the moment, experienced powerful temptation, given in to a weakness, or felt overwhelming desperation. Any of those particular things can be powerful motivators--leading people to do things they would not typically do.

I once had someone tell me that all human beings really have personal boundaries rather than personal standards. We may think we would never do X, but when we get pushed enough--from being stuck in shortsightedness, powerfully tempted, overworked, or desperate--and Y situation happens, we might.

One thing I love about this type of character, is that the experience is so human, and even if we may hate it . . . relateable.

And I think that is key to this type. Even if we completely disagree with what the character does, think they were stupid, or anything else negative, we have to understand it. We have to be able to relate to it on some level, or at least see how it could have happened. If not, it will be annoying, it will be a fail. I would say most of the time, the sin is not going to be something premeditated--exceptions to this are when pressures are ongoing and intense (ongoing exhaustion, ongoing temptation, ongoing desperation). The character will probably feel bad or, like Hamilton, angry with himself ("How could I do this?!")

Watch out for: Situations and setups that aren't relatable to the audience--or rather, are not rendered in human, relatable ways, are not properly explained. The sin should probably not be done flippantly; it's done in a moment of weakness not laziness--there is a difference.

Consider: These powerful components--being caught up in the moment, experiencing personal weakness, powerful temptations, desperation, and ongoing trials and hardships and what that does to a person. Think in terms of boundaries rather than set standards. Explore how your character reacts and feels about what she has done, to capitalize on the human experience.

Other Examples: In Lord of the Rings, Boromir as well as a number of other characters experience moments of weakness when confronted with the Ring. These are great examples of individuals dealing with limits--the edge of their boundaries and capacities.

Type 3: Characters Who Discover Wickedness Never was Happiness

Another perhaps particularly powerful redemptive character is Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series. In fact, he was so redemptive that a lot of people seemed to forget what a total jerk he actually was. Snape dabbled in the dark arts when in school and actually even invented lethal spells. While he is a rather gray character, I think we can all agree he was once a "bad guy"--Death Eater and supporter of Voldemort, et al.

. . . until that journey became particularly personal in that Voldemort was going to kill the love of his life.

It may have been all about Lily, but ultimately Snape was true to the Order of the Phoenix, to Dumbledore, and to Harry.

In this type, the character is intentionally doing wrong. It may be that they are a villain or a "bad guy," or it may be that while once goodhearted on page, they went down the wrong road, but whatever the case, they are committing sin left and right and purposefully. If we had the power to grant one person absolution, I think most of us would pick someone of the other two types before we considered this one. In fact, in the story, this type may not even seem like she is going to get a redemptive arc at all.

In some stories this character may be an anti-hero, in which case they will be handled a little differently than a bad guy or villain.

Unlike the other two types, we may not relate to this type as easily, at least not until later--likely when they begin the redemption process, or at least when we get a better understanding of why they are the way they are. Snape, for example, was easily hated by most people for most of the Harry Potter series. A slight exception to this is that in some cases, this type may do things that people privately wish they could do--wouldn't life (seemingly) be easier if we didn't care about doing wrong things? They may also have a cool factor because of it.

However, if they are a redemptive character, at some point they will realize, that in some ways, wickedness was never happiness. In some cases these types embody more of a theme or a lesson than a relatable emotional experience, like the prior two.

An important part of this character type is validation. The audience needs to see--have it validated to them--that this character truly does evil things. Then during, or after the redemption, the audiences needs it validated that they are truly a changed person.

The contrast between how wicked the character is and how much redemption she receives can create a very powerful storytelling effect. Often in highly powerful examples of this trope, the character sacrifices his life--either literally in death or figuratively in how he chooses to live out the rest of his life.

Watch out for: Glorification of wrongdoing in the overall story; failure to validate wickedness and redemption; flat redemption where the redemption isn't "earned," developed, or adequately explained.

Consider: What led the character to choose wickedness, what caused them to change, how that change will affect their circle of relationships and whether the change will be accepted by others (will they be tolerated or forgiven?). Also watch the breadth between their bad deeds and the extent of their redemption. What of their life is sacrificed?

Other Examples: In Star Wars Anakin Skywalker turns to the dark side but ultimately dies saving his son from Emperor Palpatine. In How the Grinch Stole Christmas, after trying to destroy Christmas, the Grinch learns to appreciate it, and his heart grows two sizes.

In the future, I may expound on these three types and talk about writing the story arcs.

#nanowrimo #writing tips #writing tips and tricks #writeblr #hamilton #harry potter #severus snape #Les Miserables #jean valjean #writing editing #writing help #writing helps #writing a book #writing advice #fanfic #fanfiction #author #editor

[bbclesmis]

Los Angeles Times: Dominic West on the near-erotic bond between Valjean and Javert in ‘Les Miserables’

Since the original publication of Victor Hugo’s novel “Les Miserables” more than 150 years ago, the brutal conflict between the convict-turned-savior Jean Valjean and ruthless pursuer Inspector Javert has been dramatized countless times on stage, screen and even radio.

Although most of the versions have been dramatic, the most dominant and popular adaptation of the 1862 novel is musical. The Tony Award-winning “Les Miserables,” launched in Paris in 1980, has been featured on stages around the globe, and its colorful characters, luscious ballads and rousing anthems have been embraced by millions of theatergoers.

Dominic West is not among them.

The actor who came to prominence in the landmark HBO series “The Wire” and is starring in Showtime’s “The Affair,” has never seen “Les Miserables” on stage. And he didn’t make it all the way through the 2012 film version starring Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe.

Still, he understood how immensely popular the musical is. Which is one reason he had doubts about taking on the role when he was approached about playing Jean Valjean in a new dramatic six-hour adaptation of “Les Miserables.”

“I thought, ‘What’s the point?’ ” West said as he sat in the front courtyard of a boutique hotel in Santa Monica recently. “They’ve made a very successful film, and the stage musical is so successful. Then I read the script, and I realized there was a lot more to it. In living memory there’s been no six-hour version, no long-form version of the novel. The story you’re familiar with and the characters you’re familiar with are seen in greater depth.”

The miniseries, which debuts April 14 on PBS’ “Masterpiece,” also stars David Oyelowo (“Selma”) as Javert, Lily Collins (“Rules Don’t Apply”) as the doomed seamstress Fantine and recent Oscar winner Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”) as the abusive innkeeper Lady Thenardier. Andrew Davies, who has written adaptations of everything from “Pride and Prejudice” and “Bleak House” to “House of Cards” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” adapted Hugo’s novel for the project, which was co-produced by “Masterpiece” with BBC Studios.

The bleakness and brutality of Hugo’s vision is vividly depicted, alerting viewers immediately that there will be no catchy songs or light moments in this “Les Miserables.” “Masterpiece” executive producer Rebecca Eaton said there are compelling differences that should appeal to fans of the musical and devotees of Hugo’s work.

“The musical is great, the songs are great, but sometimes it covers up the story,” Eaton said in a phone interview. “What we’ve done is the narrative, with all its intricacies and subtleties that you just don’t get in the musical. We’re going much deeper. I love how Andrew humanizes and animates these 19th century tomes. He really went for the highs and the lows, and is making a political statement about poverty and class.”

The depiction of the virginal Fantine’s fall into degradation and prostitution, for example, is explored in chilling and horrifying detail. One of the highlights of the musical is “Master of the House,” a comic ode to the crooked operation of the inn run by the Thenardiers; in the “Masterpiece” version, the couple is much more menacing and manipulative.

And viewers who remember West as detective Jimmy McNulty from “The Wire” or are used to seeing him in various states of undress and in steamy sex scenes in “The Affair” may be startled when he is introduced as Prisoner 24601. He is almost unrecognizable, shorn of almost all his hair (“They cut my hair off with a knife and fork”) and wearing a lengthy and unkempt beard.

But it’s his performance, along with Oyelowo’s, that is at the center of this “Les Miserables,” and Eaton maintained that viewers will be captivated by how the two actors play out the life-and-death battle between Valjean and Javert: “To watch these two is just mesmerizing, My weakness is actors, and when I’m in the presence of first actors, it’s just wonderful.”

Among the most prominent film adaptations was a 1935 Oscar-nominated film starring Frederic March, a 1998 film starring Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush, and a 2000 French miniseries starring Gerard Depardieu and John Malkovich.

West became a believer in this latest version after reading Davies’ adaptation, and Hugo’s novel.

“Reading the book was the most pleasurable reading experience I’ve ever had,” he said. “I think it’s the best book ever written. It’s even greater than Tolstoy. Valjean is the greatest hero in literature. His story of redemption and the battle he has against his adversaries and against himself make him such a compelling hero.”

As Valjean, West had to connect with both his brutal side and his tenderness: “He’s been imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving nieces and nephews,” he said. “He knew when he went to prison that they would all die in starvation.”

He added, “What’s central to the book is Javert’s view of the criminal, which is they are born and cannot be redeemed, and Hugo’s more enlightened view, that you’re a product of the way people treat you. If you’re brutalized for 19 years, you will be a brute. His evolution from violent brute to pillar of the community and then romantic hero is what’s so extraordinary about his character arc. Behind this beast is this great compassionate soul.”

Then there’s the core of “Les Miserables” — the clash between Valjean and Javert.

“There’s an almost erotic bond between Valjean and Javert,” West said. “Javert is nuts about him. We kind of hint at it. In these things, you always look for the strongest impulse, and that’s always sex and love.”

However, there was not much love between West and Oyelowo during the shoot.

“I kept trying to get to know David; I kept asking him out to dinner, and he was very aloof,” West said with a laugh. “I thought, ‘Boy, is he unfriendly! He’s a bit snooty.’ And then at the end, we finally went out — it was his birthday — and we had this great night. I said, ‘Wow, we should have done this months ago,’ and he said, ‘No, no, I was deliberately avoiding you.’ It was very clever. You do have a rapport with someone you hang out with on a set, and he didn’t want to have that. He was bloody right.”

He laughed again. “He has everything I lack. He has immense discipline, whereas I’m incapable of not wanting someone to be my friend. He’s perfectly able for the benefit of the work to keep his distance. I admire him hugely as a person and as an actor.”

Both he and Oyelowo are executive producers of “Les Miserables.” “I had never done it before,” West said. “David was good at it. He’d watch stuff and come out with useful notes the next day. I had a lot of opinions about the production until we got into the shoot. Then the only notes I had was, ‘Could you hold on me a little longer? I think you’re missing a bit of magic.’ ” He burst into a loud laugh. “Of course they ignored me.”

West credits his role in “The Affair” with being a crucial tool in helping him prepare for “Les Miserables.” The Showtime drama, which explores the impact of an extramarital affair from different perspectives, is in the midst of filming its fifth and final season.

“There was never a light moment on ‘The Affair,’ “ he said. “It was always emotionally expensive stuff. Lots of grief and emotion. It taught me a lot. I don’t think I could have done Valjean without being on that show.”

Even then, it took time for West to understand Valjean. “What I found so difficult to understand is why he surrenders himself to Javert. Why does he feel he’s a bad guy when all he did was steal a loaf of bread? That took me a very long time, to realize what sort of psychology Hugo was anatomizing there,” West said. “He’s been so brutalized, told that he’s an animal for 20 years. He believes he’s not worthy of love, he believes he’s not worthy of living in normal society, he believes the only thing he deserves is the brutal life of the prison.”

As happy as he is with “Les Miserables,” West is also coming to grips with wrapping up “The Affair.” which also stars Maura Tierney and, until last season’s plot twist, Ruth Wilson. ”Five years is a long time for television, and I’m ready to move on, for sure.”

Although he is looking forward to new projects, he is also constantly reminded of his past — particularly “The Wire” which has only gained in reputation since its original five-season run, which started in 2002. The multilayered series about the narcotics scene in Baltimore is regarded as one of the most significant and compelling dramas in recent TV history.

“It’s really extraordinary how it’s grown in stature, and I feel very lucky to have been involved,” West said. “People always come up to me and say they’ve just watched it. If it came out now, I think it would have been lost in the sheer volume of great projects. But in some way, it can be said it catalyzed this golden age of television and to have raised the bar. For me, it’s been the gift that keeps on giving.”

#les mis bbc #bbc les mis #Jean Valjean #javert #valvert #dominic west #david oyelowo #Interviews #articles #los angeles times

[hahafucksewingmachines]

Just made bread, all my problems are solved

#freshly baked bread can change the world #I understand why Jean Valjean went to prison for stealing a loaf #medieval peasant brain moment #maddies thoughts

[bbclesmis]

Town & Country: Why Les Misérables's Dominic West Thinks Jean Valjean Is a Better Hero Than Spiderman

Plus, why he thinks the world could use some good old-fashion revolutions.

Dominic West laughs easily, smiles warmly. His character in Masterpiece PBS's Les Misérables, the long-suffering ex-convict Jean Valjean, does not.

If anything, Valjean is West's idol, rather than his counterpart—and so is Victor Hugo, the author behind the original 1862 novel, which West declares is "the best book I've ever read." Here, West opens up about why the story remains resonant today, his character's many haircuts, and the debatable value of the Les Mis musical.

What it’s like playing a character that changes so much physically during the show?

Yeah, this is a performance mainly based on hairstyles. I have a big wig and a ponytail and then I have my own hair. And then we planned it so that at the end I could shave off all my hair and film the start of the the show at the end. So I start in prison with chopped-up hair, and then I die with the same chopped-up hair.

It’s funny how things like hairstyles do actually dictate your performance... In some ways that affects the way you play it, because Valjean returns to what he’s most comfortable with, and where he thinks he belongs, which is in prison. I think so much of his psychology is about his guilt of an institutionalized person, who’s been brutalized in an institution, and believes that’s the only place he belongs. So all that comes from hairstyle.

Did you have to lift some weights for the role?

I did a bit of boxing training, which is the most brutal. But I did a bit of that because it’s difficult when you read the script and it says “this is the toughest guy in the world,” and you go, “Christ, I think they’ve miscast it.” So I did a bit of that, yeah. Inevitably, you have to beef up, try and be tough. But at my age it gets harder.

I know you’ve played a lot of bad guys. What it was like to play one of the most famous good guys ever?

Heaven. Heaven, heaven. Such a relief. You spend a lot of time with these characters and you have to live with them and you have to think the way they think. For whatever reason, the way I look or something, I get to play a lot of assholes. And it’s interesting, because the devil has the best jokes, but eventually it becomes wearing, and evil, and… Bad people are ultimately empty. They’re ultimately not nourishing. Not interesting. And good people are.

[Valjean] such a great hero. He’s such a strong man, who’s been through hell, and is constantly fighting with his bestial nature to be a good guy... And that’s why this character has survived as long as he has and been central to people’s affections for 150 years or whatever. He’s the greatest hero in literature, and he’s amazing. You know, he climbs the side of a building like Spiderman, he can beat anyone up as well as Ironman, but not of those guys did 20 years hard labour in a 19th century jail. So he’s tough, but he’s a deeply compassionate guy.

What was it like working opposite David Oyelowo as Javert?

The first question I had was, what is Javert’s problem? Why is he so obsessed with this guy Valjean? He crosses the whole of France in order to become his head of police in the town that Valjean has moved to. And to me, it was obvious that, I mean you always go for the strongest impulses, and the strongest impulses are usually love, hate, and sex. So I said, he’s obviously in love with him, he’s got some thing for Valjean. And the director didn’t want to make that too explicit, because it slightly narrows the interpretation of the book. But we did manage to get… When I strip off, when I’m leaving prison and I strip naked to be dressed as a citizen, David Oyelowo who plays Javert gave me a slight sort of sideways glance, and in that glance I think you see a certain, I don’t know, maybe a sexual attraction between them.

It’s very, very odd, and I couldn’t understand it for ages. Valjean surrenders himself to Javert two or three times. He keeps going back to him and saying, ‘Okay, you can take me back to prison now.’ You go, ‘Why?! You’ve got out, you’ve done 20 years for stealing a loaf of bread!’ Why does he want to keep going back. And it’s key to Valjean’s psychology that this is a man who’s been institutionalized and brutalized and believes that that’s the only place he deserves. He doesn’t deserve to be loved or be in the outside world. And that therefore there is a sort of, longing, and an unbreakable bond between the prisoner and the jailer. I’s a very interesting psychology that Victor Hugo analyzes, and it took me a while to get a handle on it.

Is that part of the reason you think it’s interesting to see this elongated version of it onscreen today?

A guy I was speaking to, he was in our show actually, who played Thenadier in [a musical production of Les Mis]. And he said, it’s extraordinary. This story has an incredible effect on people. It really touches people very deeply. Victor Hugo said that as long as there is poverty in the world, this story will have meaning. And I think people respond to that very much.

Now as much as any time in the past, there is an underclass, people who are neglected or forgotten in society, and are despised. And in America, we know very well who they are. They’re the immigrants; they’re the poor; and it’s as true now as it was in Hugo’s day.  I think that’s why it still has incredible resonance.

When you were preparing for the role, was there anything you looked to aside from the script and the book to figure out how you wanted to play the character?

The thing is about the book is, for every scene we did, I would just open the book and be able to read exactly what Valjean was thinking... But what else did I do? I looked at Victor Hugo’s paintings and etchings that he did. He was an amazing artist as well as a writer, and he made some very dark, sinister paintings. And I looked at the paintings from that period. And I hung around Paris for a bit and went to the revolutionary museums.

It’s just an endlessly fascinating topic, that period in history, when people had proper riots and proper demonstrations and died for what they believed in. My daughter, who’s 20, is very much involved at the moment in the protests in London against climate change. And you know, she has a really funny badge I saw the other day that says “riots not diets.” And I sort of said, if you want to see what real student protest is about, you go to Paris in '68. But where [the protesters in 1968] got it from was around [the time of Les Misérables], the 19th century, when young people stood up for what they believed in and were prepared to die for it. That’s so romantic and so compelling.

Yeah, definitely. When I was watching it, I was like, "hmm, not sure if I’m ready to take up arms."

"I think I’ll just watch TV."

Yeah. Just a bit safer.

But it’s true! I mean, we have become anesthetized, we have become dumb, we watch TV and smoke pot where our ancestors built barricades and said, “Fuck this, we’re not standing for it.” And it’s time we did it again.

I think it is starting to bubble up again.

I hope so. It certainly fucking needs it. It’s been a long time coming.

What would you tell someone who has seen the musical, loves the musical, but is obviously preparing for a different experience with this TV show?

Oh, they’ll love this! They’ll absolutely love it, because it’s the characters and storyline that they love, and you just see it more in depth. I don’t think you miss the songs. Lily [Collins] was saying the other day that, you know, in one song lyric, in one line, she has a whole episode. You know, what happened to her? Where did she come from? Who did she fall in love with, how did he treat her? How did she end up a prostitute on the street? And we get to see all that. And so I think that anyone who loved the musical would really love this.

As a person who’s not really obsessed with the musical…

You’re obsessed?

No, not at all.

I can’t stand it. [Laughs.] Don’t say that! I haven’t seen the musical, actually. I just saw the film and I couldn’t get through it. Oh, God.

Did you see, Michelle Obama, in her book, she said she and Barack when on a date to see Les Mis and left at halftime.

Like, “we got the point.”

She said, [Barack Obama] turned to her and went, “This is awful.” And they left! Which is a shame because it’s an amazing book. If you haven’t read it, I really recommend it. It’s an amazing experience.

What is it about the book that struck you?

Well, he’s just such a great storyteller. He finds a story in a doorknob. He says, “this is the doorknob made from a tree in the forest where there was the battle of the…” You know, he has a three chapter digression on the Paris sewers. And you sort of go, “I don’t want to fucking read that,” and then you start reading it, and it’s utterly compelling!

And it’s not difficult to get into like Tolstoy can be. You get straight in there with interesting characters, and I was incredibly moved reading the book. And I think it’s just one of the most accessible masterworks out there. Have you read the book?

I haven’t. Clearly I need to.

Only because it’s deeply enjoyable. And nourishing. And really, like any great work of art, you just benefit hugely, but we don’t have enough time in the day to take in all these great works of art. I’d like to read Shakespeare’s sonnets every day, but instead you just end up reading your phone.

But if you get a chance, do. It’s really great. You won’t get it from the musical, that’s for sure.

x

#les mis bbc #bbc les mis #dominic west #Jean Valjean #Interviews #articles #town and country #pbs

[bbclesmis]

LES MISERABLES: Dominic West on the new PBS drama – Interview

The actor talks playing Jean Valjean

When most people think about Victor Hugo’s sprawling novel LES MISERABLES, originally published in 1862, they associate it with the hugely popular stage musical and its film adaptation. However, LES MISERABLES has been adapted as a straight drama on a number of occasions.

The newest version of LES MISERABLES, a miniseries originally produced by and aired on the BBC, begins airing in the U.S. on PBS MASTERPIECE on Sunday, April 14. Dominic West stars as reformed criminal Jean Valjean, trying to live a good life as he is pursued over decades by obsessed law officer Javert (David Oyelowo), with revolution in France looming in the background. The miniseries was adapted by Andrew Davies.

Actor West, originally from Yorkshire, England, spent four years in the U.S. on THE WIRE. More recently, he’s starred in the Showtime series THE AFFAIR, which airs its fifth and final season later this year. West’s AFFAIR character, the adulterous, substance-abusing Noah Soloway, is a far cry from LES MISERABLES’s self-sacrificing Jean Valjean. West has played a number of other conflicted souls – Valmont in LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES (the National Theatre Live production), Hector Madden in THE HOUR, Richard Burton in BURTON AND TAYLOR – as well as outright villains, including the rapacious Spartan noble in 300.

West says of being cast as Valjean, “[David Oyelowo] gets people to approach him when they want a great, good man to be played. And people approach me when they want the opposite. And so I get a lot of villains. It was so refreshing to play a hero, who is a profoundly good man, and I only want to do that from now on. Living with Jean Valjean is a wonderful experience. Living with Noah Soloway is not. A few years ago, in one year, I played Fred West, the [real-life] serial killer [in the miniseries APPROPRIATE ADULT], Iago [in OTHELLO], and some other assh*le, and it was a really depressing year. These people get to you. And I’ve discovered that although making evil is more dramatic, it’s more easily made. The Devil has the best jokes, and it’s much easier to make evil interesting. It’s much more interesting to make good interesting. It’s much harder, and I think it’s well worth it, because at the end of the day, I really realized with this, that if you believe in the subject matter, and if you really believe it’s a story that needs to be told, and that will benefit people, it really makes a difference to your day, and getting out of bed, and your motivation.”

ASSIGNMENT X: In 2014, you played a real-life good guy in PRIDE, a gay rights activist who was also a workers’ rights activist. He seemed like a very warm character who did not seem to have a bad side. Did playing him sustain you for any amount of time, or …?

DOMINIC WEST: [chuckles] Actually, yeah. The guy I played is a good friend of mine now, so he’s real. My guy, Jonathan, was the second guy in the U.K. to be diagnosed H.I.V.-positive, and he’s still very much with us.

AX: Do people you seek you out for the darker parts, or do you seek out those characters? And were you surprised to be offered Jean Valjean?

WEST: No, I don’t seek out the darker parts at all, no. But I suppose once you play one, then that’s how people see you [laughs].

AX: 300 is hard to forget …

WEST: [laughs] Yes, exactly. It is tricky, especially with a part like that, where you have to be the villain for other reasons in order to make the hero more heroic, I suppose. But no, I wasn’t really surprised to be offered Jean Valjean. I don’t know what I thought. Well, I suppose I thought, “Well, it’s been done, in the musical and the film, and why are we doing it again?”

AX: Did you come up with a satisfactory answer for LES MISERABLES to “Why are we doing it all again?”

WEST: Oh, absolutely, yeah. To my amazement, it’s only ever been given a two-hour outing for the [most part]. I think the BBC did an adaptation in the ‘60s, but even that was only five half-hours. This is actually the longest adaptation of LES MISERABLES, I think, I don’t know about French television, but I think that’s probably ever been, and therefore there’s every reason to do it, because of the scale of the book, and because, as people have said, people think of it as a musical. And as wonderful a musical as it might be, there’s more to it.

AX: Had you read LES MISERABLES as a novel before you became involved with this version?

WEST: No, I’d never read it. I didn’t really know it. It never really crossed my radar. I did try and watch the film and didn’t get too far [laughs]. So no, I didn’t know it. I read it once I read Andrew’s scripts, which got me into it.

AX: Did you see yourself in the character, or the character in yourself, right away?

WEST: I suppose in any great, very well-written part, you respond to something in it that chimes with you, and a lot chimed with me in this, because the writing’s so great, it’s universal. It’s why it’s lasted this long.

AX: How do you see Valjean?

WEST: Well, apart from the physical – he’s got to be the strongest man in the world, and the greatest superhero ever – apart from that, the psychological difficulty for me was his guilt, the level of his guilt and his feeling of unworthiness. For a long time, I couldn’t understand how you could feel guilty about stealing a loaf of bread and being in jail for nineteen years. But of course, his psychology is so well-charted. It’s the psychology of someone who’s been incarcerated and believes they don’t deserve anything better, that they’re not worthy of being loved and giving love, they’ve been so starved of love and gentleness that they feel that they’re only worthy of prison life. And that’s why he surrenders himself to Javert three times, I think, and I could never understand why. You have to get into that different mindset.

AX: Valjean starts out with a beard of Biblical proportions. Did you have difficulty dealing with the beard?

WEST: [laughs] Actually, it did most of the work for me. Sometimes great hair and makeup does that for you, and costume. And it really did do a lot, that beard. You don’t really have to do anything with that, except that, with your eyes. The wig was far more trouble. The beard, I loved.

AX: How was it working with Derek Jacobi, who plays the Bishop of Digne, the first person to show kindness to Valjean? He’s not in it for very long, but …

WEST: Well, it’s a tricky part. If you hadn’t read the book, it opens with him, and what you realize is that Hugo has written the nicest, greatest man, the most virtuous, the most wonderful, the most compassionate human being who’s ever lived, in the Bishop of Digne, and you think, who the hell can play that? And there’s only one person who could possibly do it. He was actually supposed to be played by Max von Sydow. He was cast, and we were all going, “Max von Sydow, amazing.” But unfortunately, I think he broke his arm just before [shooting, and had to bow out]. Amazingly, we got Derek Jacobi, and you think, it couldn’t be anyone else. He’s a human being who exudes goodness in some way, and it was just wonderful acting with him. And watching him off-set as well – completely contained, slightly detached, not wasting his energy. It was a real education. He’s been a hero of mine for ages, but it was just bliss, acting with him.

AX: When you realized that there’s a large population that are confused about this LES MISERABLES not being a musical, what was your reaction?

WEST: No. It’s been interesting reading the reviews and the Twitter/social media stuff on it when it was airing in the U.K. For the first episode, people were, “Where are the songs? Can you hear the people sing – no, we can’t.” [laughs] But by Episode 2, they were with us. By Episode 2, people were going, “I’m in there.” Is it Episode 2 when Lily [Collins, who plays Fantine] has her teeth pulled out? That’s the scene when everyone went, “Right. I’m here now.”

AX: When you do play darker characters, do you get try to leave it all at work and then go home and be really kind to everybody in real life?

WEST: I think you have to, yes. The worst part was the Fred West part. Anyone who was ever involved in that case, or who wrote a book about it later, had a breakdown. So you have to be very careful with these sorts of characters, and with him, I think we shot the whole thing in three weeks, and it was in Manchester, and I could go home to London and be with my kids.

AX: Now that you’ve gotten to play Jean Valjean, can you imagine yourself in your later years, playing supreme good guy the Bishop of Digne?

WEST: Yeah, I’d love to. If it works out that well, then I’ve led a good life.

This interview was conducted during PBS’s portion of the Winter 2019 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour.

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Entertainment Weekly: Dominic West on why Les Misérables' Valjean and Javert are like Mean Girls

Victor Hugo’s epic tale of redemption and revolution Les Misérables is set in nineteenth-century France — and 2004’s meme-generating Mean Girls is…not.

Yet, the two have more in common than one might think, at least according to star Dominic West, who portrays Jean Valjean, a.k.a. Prisoner 24601.

Valjean begins the series, now a six-part miniseries premiering on PBS’ Masterpiece Sunday, newly emerged from 19 years in prison. He begins his life anew, wanting to shed his past and build a life for himself — but the dogged pursuit of his former prison guard, the newly minted Inspector Javert (David Oyelowo), puts him once more on the run.

That obsession, which finds Javert tracking Valjean across France, reminded West of a key scene in Mean Girls and popular meme. “This is a massive case of Why are you so obsessed with me?,” he jokes. “Jean Valjean and Javert really are Mean Girls, and it’s not clear why Javert is so obsessed with him. To an astonishing degree.”

For West, one of the most difficult parts of the role was exploring that cat-and-mouse game and why these characters can’t let go of each other. He says his costar David Oyelowo slightly disagreed with West’s assessment, which is that the relationship has an element of something “psychosexual.”

He explains, “There is a moment in our TV series where I strip off in front of David, as a prisoner; I’m being released and he does cop a glance…There’s a certain sexual obsession. There’s something going on between these two men. And we didn’t want to play that too much. It’s not explicit in the writing, and certainly not in Victor Hugo, but I think with our modern sensibilities you’ve got to look for an impulse that strong. And there’s no stronger impulse than love and sex.”

West is bursting with pop culture comparisons for the new Andrew Davies adaptation of the tale, which is known most famously to people in the form of the Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil musical. This six-part miniseries, which debuts April 14 at 9 p.m., is not a musical and hews more closely to the novel.

In advance of the premiere, EW called up West to talk how much the musical inspired him (hint: not at all), why Iron Man ain’t got nothing on Valjean, and what it was like trying to keep his cool opposite Oscar winner Olivia Colman’s comedic antics.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How familiar were you with Les Mis when you signed on? With the musical’s popularity, it seems almost unavoidable, especially in Britain.                          DOMINIC WEST: I escaped it! I hadn’t seen the musical and I hadn’t seen all of the film of the musical, so I was pretty new to it all. I certainly hadn’t read it. If I was honest, I was slightly put off by the musical. I also thought, “Well it’s just been made into a film. What’s the point of doing it again?” Then I read Andrew’s scripts and I saw why it was a classic. Then I read a book, and then I decided I thought it was the greatest hero in literature and I had to do it, but before all that I didn’t really know much about it at all.

Something that struck me in this adaptation is how much we really get a sense that Valjean is a scary guy. He’s a hardened criminal who is reforming, and we see that in the ferocity you lend him in early episodes. For you, how did you tap into that and then how did you hammer out the journey to his gentler side?                          The problem with the story is the only thing he’s guilty of is stealing a loaf of bread in order to feed his starving nieces and nephews, who when he then gets jailed for that, they then presumably all die. This guy hasn’t done anything wrong. In fact, he’s been completely wronged. That’s one way you find how brutalized he’s been, how unfair he feels the world has been to him. There’s a rage in there which I found because he’s constantly being told he’s a beast, he’s a brute, he’s a good-for-nothing. Throughout the story, he’s constantly thinking of that of himself. So, he does need to be as brutish and as frightening as possible at the beginning. If he’s always been a nice guy, there’s not much of a journey to go on. It’s just more dramatic when the Bishop shows love to this guy if he’s terrifying.

I was watching the first episode the day the sentencing for Paul Manafort came out here, and it struck me that Jean Valjean got 19 years for a loaf of bread and this guy got way less for something objectively worse.                          [Laughs] Yeah. It’d be great if he got 19 years hard labor. [Laughs] It was a real problem for me getting my head around that, you just sort of think, “Hang on a second, a loaf of bread?” That is just nuts. That’s crazy. But that was one of the big things that I had to come to terms with in terms of psychological things with Jean Valjean —this sense that if you brutalize people, then they believe they’re not worthy of anything. They believe they are brutish and they behave accordingly. That’s a lot what Victor Hugo was trying to talk about.

David Oyelowo is your foil as Javert. What was that push and pull like with him?                          He took the lead on it really. I kept trying to get to know him and go out for dinner with him or something, and he kept avoiding me and ignoring me. I thought, “Oh, he’s not very friendly.” And then at the end when we finished, we went out, we had this great time and I said, “It’s such a shame we’re only just getting to know each other now.” Then he said, “Oh no, that was totally deliberate. I didn’t want to get to know you. I didn’t want to feel easy with you.” And he’s right – if you socialize with people, there is a chemistry between you, there is an ease between you, which the camera catches.

Andrew Davies is so well-regarded as an adaptor, having tackled everyone from Austen to Dickens to Tolstoy. Why do you think he has such a knack for adapting these very big books by canonical authors?                          He won’t do a book that’s less than two inches thick, I think. [Laughs] But I suppose he got good at it with Pride and Prejudice. When I was looking back at the scripts having read the novel, [I noticed] almost every significant and memorable scene that I remember from the novel, he managed to somehow get into the screenplay. And when you consider how long the novel is, that’s an extraordinary achievement. He’s just very good at selecting the nuggets and finessing the bumpy bits. Because another thing that strikes you when you try to work out what happened, there’s an enormous amount of coincidence, as typical of 19th-century novels I suppose. What he’s very good at doing is condensing the important stuff, but also of unknotting the more grating bits of structure, which modern audiences don’t really buy.

You have some great face-offs with Olivia Colman as Madame Thenardier, and you’ve both been praised for your dry wit and sense of humor on set, so what was the funniest moment you shared together while making this?                          [Laughs] Oh god, well the trouble with her is she’s so damn good that she can be roaring with laughter right up to action and then suddenly she’ll do the most devastating scene of sadness. I thought I could do that, and I thought I could run with the big leagues, but I couldn’t…There’s a big fight scene where they all pin me down on the table, [and] she gets me by the hair. She did pull my hair quite deliberately I think. Then I get a red hot iron bar out of the stove and I burn myself with it to show them how it’s nothing to me. But anyway, it’s a serious scene for Valjean. As we were preparing before action, she and Adeel [Akhtar], who played Monsieur Thenardier were doing this impression of this couple who are on British TV [on] a thing called Goggle Box, which shows ordinary people watching TV. Everyone’s crying with laughter listening to their impression of this couple. She was constantly doing impressions and cracking jokes, and I just remember that one scene where I realized I had to stop listening to her and concentrate on the work at hand.

In some ways, this story is more religious than modern audiences often see – was that an aspect you tapped into? How do you feel about Hugo’s assessment of God in this story and God’s power in Valjean’s life and destiny?                          It’s obviously central. Hugo does a three chapter dissertation on the state of the Catholic church, nunneries in particular. He’s not a great fan of Catholicism, but he’s definitely a believer in God. You can’t really do Valjean without having that dimension to him. He believes in God; he believes he’s been saved and can be redeemed. That’s fundamental to him. You can’t understand him without that. The candlesticks become a symbol of that belief in God. This Archbishop, who gives him the candlesticks, is a wholly good person and the power of that virtue is what turns Valjean into a hero. That virtue does not come divorced from his God. That does not exist in a vacuum. My faith is less certain, and more modern skepticism, but there’s not really any room for that with Valjean. Without being specific about a religion, he has to believe that there is a higher power and that that higher power has saved him.

Valjean is a very physical role in a lot of ways. Did you have to do a lot of training for it?                          Yeah, that was a nightmare. He’s essentially described as the strongest man in the world, who can fight ten men at a time. He climbs up the sides of buildings rescuing children, and in the book, he climbs up the mast of a huge tall ship and rescues a sailor who’s trapped on a yard arm and then jumps off it into the ocean and stays underwater for a full five minutes so everyone thinks he’s dead and then escapes. He’s a superhuman; he’s the original superhero. I’d like to see Iron Man do 19 years hard labor in a 19th-century prison. He’s tough as nails. That was quite daunting for me. I did a lot of boxing training; that’s the toughest training I know.

Would you be up for playing him in the musical version should the opportunity ever arise?                          I think there’s a reason you haven’t heard me sing much. [Laughs] I think I’ve got a lovely voice, and all I’ve ever wanted to do is musicals. The only one I’ve ever done is My Fair Lady. I played Professor Higgins, which is a part that’s written for a non-singer. I was constantly trying to put songs into Les Mis. As much as I would love to play Valjean in the musical, I don’t think anyone’s going to ask me too once they hear me sing. [Laughs]

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