We are used to seeing Jack Lowden in front of the camera, currently holding his own as minister 5 agent River Cartwright opposite Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb in Season Four on the hit Apple TV + series Slow Horses.

But for his current project, The Outrun, a film based on Amy Liptrot’s 2016 harrowing memoir, he takes on producing duties.

Lowden’s wife, four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan stars as Rona, an addict who returns home to the remote Orkney Island after completing an alcoholics' rehabilitation program in London.

As she tries to reunite with her well-meaning but emotionally distant parents, Rona decides to take a job with a bird conservation charity, before traveling further to Papa Westray, one of Orkney's North Isles. Instead of losing herself in a bottle of vodka, Rona immerses herself in the wild waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Bonnie Laufer spoke with Jack Lowden about why he wanted to take on this project as a producer and cast his wife (who once again is garnering Oscar buzz) in the lead role.

Watch Bonnie’s interview with The Outrun director Nora Fingscheidt HERE.:

The Outrun opens October 4 across Canada,including Toronto (TIFF Lightbox)

ORIGINAL-CIN: The film is based on Amy Liptrot’s heartbreaking memoir about mental illness and her journey with addiction. It's very raw and real. When you read it, what initially stuck with you and made you think Saoirse could pull this off?

JACK LOWDEN: I read it during lockdown and we were in Edinburgh. I was trying to find a book that was about the outdoors and about somebody that had endless amounts of space, the complete opposite of the situation we were all in at that time.

I found it and it was the sort of perfect book for lockdown. It had been on my shelf for quite a while, and I'd been to Orkney Island in Scotland about two, three years before that, researching a different story, and fell in love with Orkney.

Orkney's the most magical place. It's very separate from Scotland, very much its own thing. Orcadians are very much their own people.

So, I always had a fascination with Orkney, and then when I read this book, Amy does two things very well that sort of helped during that period. The writing about nature was wonderful. She manages to write about nature in a very unpretentious way, a very accessible way. She paints pictures with words beautifully, without being pretentious.

And then the second thing was the sort of overwhelming message in the book of hope and overcoming adversity. Saoirse and I were in lockdown together and she sat near me the whole time whilst I was reading it. I couldn’t stop thinking about Saoirse being in this role with every page turn. It's a very unique role, and she's one of the most unique actors in the world, so it just made complete sense to me to throw it into her hands. I just said, “You’ve got to read this,” and we sort of went from there.

O.C: Saoirse really gives everything she’s got in this role. It's very raw, and consuming. It had to have been difficult watching her go to places we’ve never seen her go before. So I wanted to know from you, not just being her husband, and the producer, what challenged you watching her go through this experience?

LOWDEN: Both her and I are incredibly similar in how we approach our work. We do take the work very seriously, but we've never taken ourselves seriously at all.

So even though she goes through a lot of things in this film, a lot of dark moments, and like you say, compared to her other work, it's certainly a lot darker and a lot more raw in what was asked of her, I was still able to sort of disseminate between her and the character. I didn't feel that she was actually going through it, because we've just never thought of work like that. I think that's why we've always gotten on so well.

I will say one of the challenging things, which is always a challenging thing, something you can say sounds slightly facetious, is whenever an actor has to play drunk, it's always quite a challenge because being drunk is a completely outer body experience by nature.

And so, it can be tricky the way an actor chooses to play it. With Saoirse, one of her many skills is that she has seemed to all combine it into doing that so beautifully but so horribly at the same time.

Everybody's able to do that sort of drunk falling over, kind of acting. But the thing that really made the difference with what Saoirse did and what she wanted to look for was that sort of meanness that can happen when someone gets so drunk. And that is the thing that can sort of ruin relationships and really tear life down.

Those were the only moments I found that were very difficult to watch, in a way, because it's sort of seeing her in that light, which is not her at all. But she managed to do it so effortlessly and so believably. So that moment in particular was probably the only one that was a bit difficult.

O.C: We love seeing you on screen, of course. But for this, you came on board as a producer. You've done it before, but working on The Outrun is on a whole other level. Are you enjoying this side of the business?

LOWDEN: I do love it. There's no getting away from it. I'm obviously still learning all the different aspects of the job, because it's a job that I have now done a couple of times and I’m obviously learning from a ton of other producers.

It's a job that I still can't quite put my finger on what it is that they absolutely do, because you do everything. (Laughs)

With The Outrun, I was involved in every single aspect. It wasn't a tiny budget film, it was a sort of mid-range indie film. So, everybody sort of had to pull their finger out at different moments and do things that they weren't necessarily there to do. A lot of that was to do with the logistics of where we shot. It's not the easiest place in the world to shoot in Orkney. It's quite remote.

Nora, the director, was very patient and wonderful with me in particular, because like I say, I am still learning. We got on very well, and we established a very good working relationship quite quickly.

One of the great challenges of this film was the fact that the director Nora Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot, both co-wrote the script. Nora likes to create an environment of improv and have everything be sort of organic, which is quite a difficult thing to do.

I've discovered as a producer and especially in this case, everything's based on the script. Yes, there's the names and the bankability of who's involved and whatever, but when it comes down to it everything is about the script. So, we had to work very hard to sort of try and protect Nora from sort of rushing through the script just because certain people need that.

Certain people don't have the same amount of imagination as directors and actors do. They need to see it, understandably so, because there's always money at stake.

So that was one of my favorite things, was protecting that and I think you can see it in the film, that line we had to dance along of having solid things, but then having the ability for things to happen out of nowhere.

O.C So are we going to see you take on directing soon? Is that your next goal?

LOWDEN: Yeah, in all honesty that is quickly becoming all I really want to do. I love acting. I love doing it and I do love producing. Producing is very difficult, and I have learned so much. I'm definitely more on the creative side of things. So, directing seems to be the perfect job for me. I just need to take the leap and do it.

O.C. Your series, Slow Horses, is still going strong on Apple TV+. Working so closely with a veteran like Gary Oldman for all these seasons, what was your biggest take-away?

LOWDEN: I have learned so much from Gary, but I think my main take-away from him is that the constant aim needs to be, particularly as an actor, to just get better. Never be complacent. Just keep getting better at what you do, because it is one of these jobs that if you're lucky, you can do it until the day you drop.

First of all, it needs to be enjoyable, that comes from Gary. There's no point doing it unless it's enjoyable. It's a very privileged job when you do get to do it, so you've got to enjoy it.

And then with that comes the great responsibility of constantly trying to improve. Even Gary, with all the awards he's won, all the great roles that Gary's played, working with him on a daily basis in Slow Horses, the guy is just constantly trying to still get better at what he does.

And it's amazing. He will still turn to me or other members of the cast and say, “Was that all right?” And you're like, “That's mental Gar.” But that's my favorite thing to take away from working with people of his caliber.

Original-Cin Q&A: Slow Horses' Jack Lowden on Producing The Outrun and Casting His Wife Saoirse Ronan

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