The 1917 actor stars in I Came By, a new Netflix thriller, alongside Hugh Bonneville. He speaks to Ella Kemp about the film's theme of class, the Tory leadership and why he won't be putting on a superhero suit anytime soon
, MacKay plays feverish graffiti artist Toby. Something of an ode to Alfred Hitchcock’s– as one mystery gives way to a sudden shock, then change of perspective halfway through the film, before shifting once again – but updated for the London of today, the film follows Toby and his best friend Jay as he targets the homes of the elite, only to uncover a dark secret in a hidden basement belonging to a retired judge .
The film finds MacKay at his most vibrant and violent, wrestling with just how to make the most of the time we have. “Toby feels like Mercutio, or Tybalt even,” MacKay says of the Shakespearean theatricality of his character. “You’d rather be Mercutio than Romeo – those are the fun ones.” Much of Toby’s loudness comes down to his dissatisfaction with the status quo, and with the power a small percentage of rich people in London hold over everybody else. But, MacKay says, finds a lot for the character – and the actor – to question in themselves as well. “It’s not purely a takedown of the rich guy. There’s this class element looking at where privilege and power lie, and how we hide secrets. There are a lot of great extremes and a world full of compromise.
Since filming took place a couple of years ago, MacKay has observed infuriating parallels between the elitism on display in the film and modern politics. “The Tory leadership is being passed around with another prime minister we technically didn’t vote for,” the actor says. “It feels like for some of those people in power it’s more of a career choice than a betterment of civilisation and society.”
MacKay isn’t blind to how being an upper-middle-class white man himself has helped his career. The actor grew up in Barnes, South London, exposed to the arts from a young age. His mum is a costume designer, his dad a lighting technician and stage manager. He attended the private Harrodian School and was spotted by an acting scout there in 2002, which led to his first role as Lost Boy Curly in P.J.
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