Tom Ellis: Lucifer is like the lovechild of Mick Jagger and Noel Coward

Toby Earle talks to Tom Ellis about who inspired his Satan, what Miranda fans will make of this, and if we’ll feel sympathy for the devil
New look: Tom Ellis as Lucifer
Toby Earle22 January 2016
The Weekender

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An inhuman amount of control must be exerted to resist mentioning a Rolling Stones track when writing about Old Nick – control I’ve managed to summon by making a pact with Beelzebub. The ignominy of referencing the opening track on the Beggars Banquet album is far worse than a soul jumble sale.

The urge was even stronger when talking to Tom Ellis about his new Stygian-black comedy drama Lucifer and playing the Lord of the Flies, who tires of life in Hell and retires to Los Angeles. In time, like all infernal retirees, he finds a new hobby – solving crimes.

Oh, for crying out loud.

You were in a drama called Messiah and now you’re in Lucifer. You’ve covered the spectrum.

[laughs] And next year I’ll be in the Dalai Lama movie… [laughs] It’s weird. What people like to comment on a lot is that I grew up in a religious family; my father is a pastor and now I’m playing the Devil. Thankfully, my family see the humorous side of the job. We’ve been confronted by certain groups during filming who feel playing around with the Devil is dangerous, but I would be naïve to think if we were making a show like this in America that we wouldn’t have some kind of resistance.

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So how have you approached this character?

What really leapt out at me in the script was the humour and it is a big saving grace, because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. We can get away with a bit more. I didn’t want to make him arch and gothic. I wanted to make him as human as possible, but because he has this aura of invincibility and the cockiness of immortality, there’s a swagger and charm which comes with that. I wanted him to almost be your mate. He’d extract from you what you didn’t even know was there, without you even realising.

Might he be the ultimate frenemy?

Exactly [laughs]. Yes, I am. There’s an air of mischief. During the pilot director Len Wiseman and I discussed how Lucifer views humanity and we can came up with this notion that he sees them as lab rats.

By making him human, is he acting how we would like to behave ourselves, if we could forget about consequences?

Yeah! What’s interesting is that Lucifer never lies, which jars with his reputation. He has an issue about how he’s mis-represented…

It’s bad PR…

That’s exactly what it is and that’s at the heart of the show. He’s having an existential crisis because he knows he’s meant to be all these things, but he feels like he’s none of them. So Lucifer checks into therapy, which was one aspect that sold the show to me – the notion of the Devil in therapy. The comedy is that it’s obvious what he’s feeling, all these human emotions that he’s picked up by osmosis, but he’s never felt them.

But to make him more human, did you model ol’ Satan on anyone?

This guy is rock’n’roll in the truest, 1960s style, coupled with the fact he talks like he’s in a Noel Coward play. So I had this idea that if Mick Jagger and Noel Coward had sex, their lovechild would be the incarnation of Lucifer I’m going for.

That’s a bit of a departure from Gary in Miranda. What do you think fans of Miranda who tune in to see what Gary’s up to will make of this?

Weirdly, I know they’re very different characters, but one of Miranda’s reasons for success was that it embraced fun and silliness. It was carefree. And whilst we’re not light and fluffy, there’s certainly a big element of fun in this show.

When you have hardcore fans of something like Miranda, people can’t see you any other way than Gary Preston, which is fair enough. I just hope people will quickly shed that Gary Prestonness and buy into this. I hope they won’t have much trouble doing that, because they’ll be swept along with the fun.

Lucifer is available on Amazon Instant Video from January 26.

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