Steve Coogan has revealed he went to extreme lengths to portray Jimmy Savile in The Reckoning.
The actor said he ‘dove into’ the role entirely – even wearing the disgraced entertainer’s real shoes.
Speaking to Louis Theroux on the season six premiere of The Louis Theroux Podcast, the actor and comedian opened up about his emotional process behind the chilling role.
It’s one of Coogan’s most intense performances to date – and one that took a toll both on set and off.
‘This is something I’ve not said before,’ he told Theroux. ‘I wore his shoes, his actual shoes. So I was walking, literally, in his actual shoes.’
The 58-year-old actor said the wardrobe team offered him the pair while filming, asking if he wanted to wear them.
At first, he hesitated: ‘They asked how I felt about it, and I paused for a long time.
‘Then I thought, well, if I’m going to go there, I’m going to go there. I dived into it without thinking too much,’ he added.
Coogan explained that the decision wasn’t about shock value, but about authenticity – and a desire to portray Savile as truthfully as possible, without turning him into a caricature.
‘My job is to execute this character in the most accurate way possible,’ Coogan said.
‘To help tell a drama that is truthful and not do a pantomime villain, because that would be a disservice to the survivors.’
The filming process, he admitted, was ‘very strange’ and ‘intense.’
‘We were doing it for months,’ he said.
‘I shaved my head twice a week before they put all these wigs on. There was humour on set, but it was gallows humour – never about what Savile did, of course. You needed it because it was so heavy.’
Coogan said he took great care to ensure sensitivity on set, particularly when filming scenes with survivors or actors portraying victims.
‘I’d meet the actresses before shooting, ’he explained. ‘I’d say, look, I’m Steve, we’re going to work together today, and in a couple of hours you’re going to see me looking very different. But we know what we’re doing. It’s a job.’
Despite the professional distance he tried to maintain, the psychological weight of the role crept in.
‘I remember one morning going to my trailer and feeling like I wanted to burst into tears,’ he said.
‘It was like I had this huge cloak on me. Very sad. Towards the end, I just wanted it to finish.’
Coogan recalled how surreal it became when they filmed at Bolton Courthouse – the same site Savile himself once entered.
‘The only way to avoid the press was for them to put a blanket over my head and take me in through the door where they took the accused in,’ he said. ‘Up those same steps, into the courthouse, and through to the set.’
Away from the darkness of The Reckoning, Coogan also reflected on the character who made him famous – Alan Partridge – and the complicated feelings he’s had towards his own creation.
He admitted that, at one point, he ‘hated’ Alan.
‘I sort of hated Alan because of his success,’ Coogan said. ‘I’d been typecast. Everyone was going ‘Aha!’ and it felt like an albatross.’
He compared his situation to that of his collaborators, like Veep creator Armando Iannucci and writer Peter Baynham, who could reinvent themselves while he was stuck playing the same character.
‘They were the men behind the curtain,’ he said. ‘They could go off and do other things, but I was left with Alan.’
At times, that resentment even spilled over into how he dealt with fans in public.
‘I went from ignoring it to walking right up to the person who said it to me and screaming, ‘Aha!’ in their face,’ he laughed.
‘Not in a friendly way – I wanted to disturb them.’
The actor previously revealed to Metro that he had some fun ideas when it comes to killing off Alan.
‘We might kill off [Alan],’ he told the audience at a Q&A to promote his new show, How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge).‘Some part of me wants to kill him off by actually deliberately jumping the shark in a really bad way.’
‘Like making a film where I fight with Alan Partridge and kill him, but he kills me… in America.’
‘Just really bad, don’t end with dignity or on a high. Just drive it off a cliff.’
The Philomena star has also been frank about his battles with addiction. He told Theroux that sobriety had been life-changing – though it took time to adjust.
‘When you’re self-destructive, small things become big problems,’ he said.
‘Slowly, the cloud lifts and you realise it’s not worth it.’
He added that the best part of sobriety was the relief of no longer having to lie.
‘The worst thing about drinking and doing drugs is you have to lie,’ he said.
‘When you’re liberated from lying, it’s like a huge weight off your shoulders.’
These days, Coogan says he no longer chases wild nights or industry accolades.
‘At a certain age, you can’t have a fantastic evening and a fantastic morning,’ he joked. ‘I just choose mornings.’
The full interview is available now on The Louis Theroux Podcast via Spotify.