Q&A with Will Mellor who plays Jack Harte

What made you say yes to A Woman of Substance?

I thought it was a great story, I loved the journey my character Jack goes on, and there’s a lot of emotion to play. I also don’t get to do much period drama, but I love roles where I can look different because I've always worried about getting pigeon holed as an actor, especially early in my career. I get excited by new challenges, so really this job was everything that I wanted from a series. Plus, I like doing things my mum will enjoy and I knew she’d love this!

It was only later that I found out how big the original series had been, which does bring added pressure, because you know it means you will be compared. But the script and characters are just so great, the story is lovely, and we just had to do them justice.

How would you describe Jack?

He’s a grafter – a man with a big heart, who just wants to look after his family. He's a proud man, and he finds it hard that his daughter goes off to work at this big mansion and sees the other side of life. Meanwhile, the Harte family lives a very simple life, they’re quite poor – Jack sleeps in a chair because they’ve only got one bedroom. He doesn’t want handouts though; Jack wants to earn his money. When he is offered a job at the Fairley factory he worries that people are feeling sorry for him and saying he’s struggling. He doesn’t want that, he can look after his family, but at the same time he can’t really turn down the money, so there’s a clash with his morals.

You face some very emotional scenes early on in the series, as Jack’s wife dies – how did you cope with those heavy moments?

There’s a lot of emotion to play – as soon as I read the first episode, I realised there was no holding back for the Harte family, we’re straight in. But I like that, it’s nice to be able to portray emotion in the right way. I used to find it harder to act those kinds of scenes, but I've been through quite a bit in the last few years after losing my dad and my sister. Grief stays with you – it sits inside you and comes out when you don't expect it, so when you’ve experienced loss you can really lean on that for a scene, I know what it feels like. I like to keep myself in that headspace when we are filming emotional scenes, but you don’t always know which angles they will shoot first, so it can be tough to make sure you contain your best stuff until it’s the right time – you don’t want to leave yourself with nothing left when the camera is on you. So it can be challenging, but hopefully I did it justice, because it was so important how we landed those emotional scenes in first episode. I hope the emotion comes across on camera.

You also have some physically challenging scenes, including carrying co-stars up Yorkshire moors – did you manage to do those in one take?!

There were a few takes of the scene where Jack carries his wife up this hill! I had a stunt double there, but 49-year old me insisted on doing it myself. The stunt double stayed just in case my knees buckled or my back went, but thankfully I could do it. I also wanted to show the fact that of course it would have been a struggle for Jack too, so if my knees were going then that’s just playing it for real, showing his exhaustion and anguish.

I was actually worried about playing Jack at first, because I thought perhaps I wasn't big enough. The script describes him as a big character and a giant of a man, but even though I’m strong, I’m barely six foot. It worked out OK because Jess [Reynolds] and Lenny [Rush], make me look taller! 

Did you enjoy creating that family dynamic with Jessica and Lenny?

Yes, we got on great straight away. I had met Lenny once before, in the toilets at a Katy Perry gig strangely enough, and that’s the first thing he said to me when he saw me on set! He’s a credit to his family – Lenny is the sweetest, most lovely person, he’s such a pleasure to have around. He’s not light though, that kid – his dad did warn me as I lift him a lot, but I was surprised! 

Jessica is an amazing actress, she’s going to have a massive career. I adore her and felt like a father figure to her right from the start. The three of us spent a lot of days shooting together on location, filming in the Harte house and I enjoyed playing their dad.

How did you find stepping into the world of period drama?

I’d just been watching a couple of period dramas before I got the offer, including The Gilded Age, which I really enjoyed. So I was really chuffed to be doing a period drama just as I was getting into them! 

Certain costumes really transform you – just like you’d carry yourself differently if you were a detective in a suit, or a knight in armour, it’s the same for Jack Harte’s gear. When I put his flat cap and moustache on in the morning, I didn't look or feel like myself anymore, which was brilliant. The set was amazing too, especially seeing all the supporting artists dressed up, and the horses and carriages, you were transported to the early 1900s. Yorkshire is a stunning place to film, and often I just felt like I was in a Hovis advert! 

You mentioned that you’ve always tried to avoid typecasting – was it a struggle to carve out such a varied career?

It was a conscious thing I started working on a long time ago – even when I was doing Hollyoaks I was so worried about being typecast as the Jack the lad zany character, and I did play that role quite a lot. Eventually I said to my agent that we need to balance it out, and show that I'm not just a comedy actor. I believed I could do it, but someone has to give you the chance to show it. Thankfully, over the years, people did give me that opportunity, and I'm very grateful to them for that. Dramas like The Street, Broadchurch and Line of Duty helped me avoid the pigeon hole the industry wants to put you in, and then it led to other things like Mr Bates… which was an honour and a privilege to do. Then A Woman of Substance was another challenge, and I'm so glad that they could trust me with this character and the emotion that he brings.

What do you hope the audience will most enjoy about A Woman of Substance?

There’s a lot to enjoy. I love that you get to see these different worlds – not just Brenda Blethyn’s Emma in 1970s New York, but the contrast of the Harte home and the Fairley household in the early 1900s too. It’s walking distance between them but the two families live completely different lives – the Fairleys have servants while Jack Harte sits eating his bit of bread by candle light. There are so many really interesting characters for the audience to follow. Leanne Best is an absolute phenomenal actress, I've worked with her before on Line of Duty, and she is stand-out as Adele. It’s a great cast and a great story that just gets better and better as the episodes go on.