Eddie Marsan dubbed con man John Darwin a "narcissist" who "lacked empathy".
Eddie Marsan says con man John Darwin was a deluded narcissist
The 53-year-old actor - who takes on the role of real-life con man in ITV’s upcoming Easter drama ‘The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe’ - has labelled John as a "delusional " man who thought he could outsmart everyone else.
Eddie,said: "He had delusions of grandeur. In a narcissistic way, he thought he was smarter than everyone else. That’s why he had the cojones to try this. He thought he could outsmart everyone else."
The drama recounts the story of Hartlepool man John, who faked his own death as a canoeing accident to avoid bankruptcy and while he lived in a bedsit, his complicit wife Anne - played in the series by 'Appropriate Adult' actress Monica Dolan - told their sons their father was dead and collected a life insurance payout.
John was thought to be dead for five years and the former 'Ray Donovan' star went on to explain that the form of "toxic masculinity" found in his character is still common today.
He told The Sun Newspaper's TVBiz Column: "He saw other people as merely two-dimensional and thought he was the only three-dimensional person in the world. But he underestimated people’s ability to see through him. That form of toxic masculinity is quite common nowadays. These kinds of men underestimate everyone else and think they’re not as clever as they are.”
Eddie - who is known for his roles as arrogant recluse Gilbert Norrell on ITV series 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' and cynical driving instructor Scott in 'Happy-Go Lucky' - explained that he always plays "abusive" characters and quipped that he has no idea why producers always pick him to play "middle aged blokes" having a "mid-life crisis."
“I always play characters who are psychologically deluded, narcissistic or abusive. It used to be that they were on the periphery of stories. Society was the norm, and they were outside it.
“But recently I’ve been playing these characters and they are among us now. The idea of a middle-aged man suffering from self-delusion and narcissism is quite prominent. I don’t know why they keep asking me to play these roles. Producers are obviously saying, ‘We want a middle-aged bloke having a midlife crisis with a healthy dose of narcissism. Let’s get Eddie Marsan’."
‘The Thief, ‘The Thief, His Wife' and the Canoe' will premiere on Sunday 17th April on ITV and run over the course of four consecutive nights.