Acting is all in the head for McMafia star James Norton

James Norton in McMafia (Cuba Productions / Nick Wall)

HAVING played the saintly cleric in Grantchester and the psychopathic killer in Happy Valley, James Norton is well used to different characters.

But he literally shopped around to get the feel of Russian Alex Godman in the BBC’s big new drama McMafia.

“I did this bizarre thing where I spent time as Alex doing really mundane stuff, such as buying milk or brushing my teeth, in his headspace with his demons, his conflicts, desires and passions,” explains James.

“It meant when I was on set and they called action, the headspace became quickly familiar to me.

“I think it freaked people out when I walked about as a schizophrenic Russian banker and then would go back to being me, but that’s my process.

“I’d limit it to people I didn’t know – for examples the shopkeepers who saw me from day to day near my house.

“One day I would go to their shops as me and the next day I’d be someone really different.”

James learned a martial art for the eight-part series and also had to deliver lines in Russian.

“I learned them phonetically with the Russian translators on set,” says James. “It’s a beautiful language even though I had no idea what I was saying.”

Like The Night Manager, McMafia is a glossy, globetrotting affair.

But filming round the world, out of sequence, meant keeping the continuity right was a constant concern.

“It was a huge challenge,” adds James. “In the morning we could be in Tel Aviv, in the afternoon in Moscow and in London in the evening, so we were really careful to keep in control of that.”

McMafia, BBC1, tonight, 9pm.