Hangmen Star Johnny Flynn on the Joy of Working with Martin McDonagh & Playing a Psychopath in London

Johnny Flynn juggles two lives—one as the singer-songwriter who has toured America with his folk-rock band Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit, the other as the fast-rising actor who has starred onscreen opposite Anne Hathaway in Song One and across the London stage. This week, Flynn leads the Royal Court company of Martin McDonagh’s thrilling new play Hangmen into Wyndham’s Theatre for a limited run. Broadway.com caught up with the charming performer to discuss playing psychopaths, his growing family and juggling dual careers.

The part of the mysterious—maybe even dangerous—Mooney in Hangmen seems a definite departure for you. Were you surprised to be offered so edgy and provocative a role?
A little bit, yes. If I’d read the play before knowing I would be involved in it, it’s definitely the kind of thing I would have on a wish list. It’s a testament to the bravery of the Court in every aspect of the way they approach new writing—which includes the casting.

It’s very different from the sensitive, sweet-seeming characters that you often play.
I did think, “I’ve got nothing to lose, really,” so I just went for it in the audition. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I could do it, but once you go into the world of film and TV, you tend to get cast in terms of what you look like. Just because I’m not a psychopath doesn’t mean I can’t play one.

Tell us more about Mooney, a Londoner who shows up at this northern English pub in 1965 and proceeds to transform the landscape in all sorts of ways.
Well, it’s not explicit in the stage directions that he is a psychopath, but I think he has certain sociopathic traits. The thing that’s fun to play is that he has utter conviction and self-belief in everything he is saying and, in the next moment, he delivers a different truth. There’s a real gasp factor to some of the things he suddenly says.

How does it feel to be revisiting the part now that the show is transferring to a commercial run?
It’s a bit like visiting an old friend. I had forgotten with this play how much I loved that old friend and how comfortable it has been to dive back in. I feel as if now I know how to play him better and in a much more instinctive and natural way.

This is Martin McDonagh’s first London play in over a decade. Were you aware of his writing before you came on board?
I knew Martin’s film work, but I only really knew his reputation in the theater. So this was a bit of a discovery for me. I guess the last time a play of his was on, I was graduating from drama school and I just couldn’t get to everything that was on.

Hangmen has felt like one of the year’s theatrical events. Does it seem that way from the inside?
It has felt with this play as if [Martin] has taken years out and returned to this country with a fresh start, and also because this is his first play that is actually set in England. What’s great, too, is that he feels invigorated by it as a new experience, and it’s been really nice to feel his excitement.

How are you juggling two careers both as an actor for hire as also as a singer-songwriter with your own band?
I’m kind of winging it at the moment, and there’s been a bit of luck in the way things fit together. In terms of me learning as an artist or whatever, they all inform one another in that they’re all forms of storytelling and I feel as if they can help one another. So they do cross over.

Now that things are working on both fronts, have you thought of marrying the two professions and writing a musical?
I’ve written music for the theater—The Heretic by Richard Bean or this past summer’s As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe. But suddenly for the first time I do find myself really interested in writing an actual musical.

You’ve been surrounded by practitioners of musical theater.
Very much so. My dad [actor Eric Flynn, who died in 2002] took over in the original West End production of Company, playing Bobby, and that’s a part I’d love to play. That for him was his seminal experience onstage and the show he loved the most of all the ones he did.

And your sister, Lillie, has been in Wicked and Sunny Afternoon, among other West End musicals.
Yes, I think I’ve seen Sunny Afternoon about four times [laughs].

What about Broadway prospects for Hangmen, which must be under discussion given Martin McDonagh’s popularity Stateside?
I spent six weeks in New York filming [Anne Hathaway film] Song One, which was a new type of experience for me, and of course if it made sense, I would go back to do a play but it would have to be something that worked with my family. We’re expecting a second child in March and my son, Gabriel, has just started school.

I can’t imagine you would surrender the part of Mooney without some regret.
You’re right. I’d be sad if I were in a position where I had to let go of it. I try not to have regrets but I think would fight for it, at least a bit.