Bill Nighy has “done as much dying as I really want to do”
Iconic British actor Bill Nighy is tired of being typecast, claiming he’s “done as much dying as I really want to do” as an actor.
Nighy, whose latest role is in The First Omen alongside Ralph Ineson and Nell Tiger Free, has shared plans to embark upon a surprise career as an action star. While the comment was likely somewhat made in jest, despite his insistence otherwise, the actor explained why he wants to try something different and expand upon his repertoire of characters.
Naturally, as actors age, the roles they accept flirt with mortality and they become accustomed to their characters reaching their conclusion.
In the 2022 film, Living, Nighy won plaudits for his performance as Rodney Williams, where his character receives a terminal cancer diagnosis, plans to take his own life but ultimately can’t go through the action and starts savouring every last second on earth before his impending departure. For his part in the movie, Nighy was nominated for ‘Best Actor’ at both the Academy Awards and the Baftas.
Despite being an elder statesmen of the acting establishment, Nighy is now ready to defy ageism in the world of action movies.
During a new interview with readers of The Guardian, Nighy was asked, “Is there any particular role you have yet to be offered that you would still like to play?”
In response, the Bafta-winner surprisingly revealed: “I want my action career to begin. I’m not kidding. I looked at a film of mine on Netflix or Prime the other day. They give you ‘five other films you might like if you like this one’ and they were all about people dying. I thought: ‘I think I’ve done as much dying as I really want to do.'”
While Nighy did leave his door open to future characters meeting their demise, if they are to bow out, he wants them to do so in style, noting: “I’m grateful to be the guy they come to for dying, but from now on, if I’m going to die, I don’t want to die on a drip in my pyjamas – I want to die in a hail of machine gunfire or jumping out of an aeroplane at 30,000ft.”
Nighy concluded: “When there’s a scene where you are required to wear pyjamas, I always try to get some funky alternative, because I always feel too exposed. It’s a terrible thing for an actor to say, but there we go.”
Hopefully, Nighy is offered the opportunity to realise his ambition in the action realm. However, his next venture following the release of The Bad Omen is Joy, which explores the true story behind the first-ever IVF baby. In the film, Nighy portrays Patrick Steptoe, who, in 2010, was posthumously awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his pioneering work.
Watch the trailer for The First Omen below.