Tobias Menzies talks The Crown, Outlander and the woes of aging

Tobias Menzies has played prominent roles on Game of Thrones, Outlander and The Crown. He opens up about his career high.

Tobias Menzies first came into my life as Edmure Tully in the third season of Game of Thrones. And while his reputation proceeded him, most people really began to take notice when he took on a double role in Starz’ Outlander as the horrendous Black Jack Randall and the loving Frank Randall. Never has there ever been such a stark difference between two characters being played by the same actor.

More recently, Menzies has been playing the role of Prince Philip in seasons 3 and 4 of Netflix’s The Crown. And doing a marvelous job, if I might add. Suffice to say, he’s been busy and killing it in his career — and we can’t get enough of him!

In a recent interview with The Herald, Tobias Menzies talked about his career, which is flourishing right around the time he’s getting older and looking back wistfully on his accomplishments. “I’m starting to hit an age where you are really very conscious that, at best, you have the same again,” said the 46-year-old actor. “Maybe less. So, I think it does make you very aware of what you’ve done with your life.”

"I’ve a naturally kind of contemplative, nay neurotic, mindset. So, yeah, that stuff can be hard to deal with. But maybe there are upsides to it. I guess as you get older you get more willing to accept yourself as you are and just go from there. So, maybe there are fewer expectations on you."

At the same time, with Menzies only growing in notoriety right now, there may actually be more expectations on him, not less. I know that I’m interested in seeing what he does next, particularly after watching him as Prince Philip in the most recent season of The Crown. He’s helping me recognize some of the royal family members I’ve seen in the news for years.

Menzies does a tremendous job playing Prince Philip, giving us a character at once timid, tight-lipped, and oftentimes intimidating.

"I think the benefit of the show is that it gives a serious-minded consideration of an institution that is either deified and hero-worshipped or is ridiculed and satirized. And what I think is good about the show is that it sits in the middle of all that and doesn’t try to do either. It tries to look at the institution as it fits into the whole and looks at these people in it and give them due consideration. And so that, I think, is a really interesting contribution to the conversation."

The fourth season of The Crown brings Princess Diana into the series, which marks the start of a tumultuous era for the royal family. Unlike some of the earlier seasons, a lot of viewers may actually remember this period. Prince Philip is at the heart of it, playing the patriarch while also respecting his wife’s superior role as Queen.

"So, yeah, the kids are starting to grow up and have their own lives, and again the personal is bumping up against the structural, the institution, which is obviously a regular theme of this show. How do you live? How do you be a dad? How do you have a marriage inside the crown?"

And then we have Menzies’ time on Outlander to rant and rave about. Back in season 3, Menzies took his final bow in the series, but his absence is still felt. Well, his absence as Frank Randall, anyway; we can definitely do without Blackjack Randall!

Menzies was with the show from the start, alongside Caitriona Balfe (Claire) and Sam Heughan (Jamie). No one knew then that it would go on to be such a success. “It was an important stepping stone in my acting career,” Menzies said. “We all arrived there in Cumbernauld. Sam and Cait were relatively unknown. I was still finding my way too. And Starz was a relatively new company as well. A lot of money had been invested, but no one was waiting for this show to come out.”

"We headed off to Scotland and what was exciting was to be at the ground level of a show like that. There is a real artistic conversation between the showrunners, the writers, and the core cast as we tried to work out what the show is. So, it was a really creative and engaged period. We were all setting off together. I made some really lifelong friends, made some really good work, I think, had a blast doing it. I loved spending the time in Scotland. Glasgow is a really warm, vibrant city. I loved spending time there, so I only have good things to say about it."

Menzies’ work on these all of these shows has been incredible. It couldn’t have been easy to play Blackjack Randall and then switch to Frank, all while playing a fake nobleman on Game of Thrones and then a real on on The Crown. The guy has range.

I think it’s fair to say we are all very excited for whatever Tobias Menzies does next. He’s bid farewell to Outlander, Game of Thrones, and The Crown. But given the extreme success of all of these shows, I have all the confidence in the world that he’ll be taking on some amazing roles in the future.

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