{"id":169517,"date":"2025-11-08T09:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T09:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/169517\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T09:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T09:47:09","slug":"robert-emms-interview-on-the-choral-ralph-fiennes-acting-andor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/169517\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Emms Interview on ‘The Choral,’ Ralph Fiennes, Acting, ‘Andor’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tYou may know him as Supervisor Lonni Jung in Disney+ hit series Andor<\/a>. Or you have seen him as Leonid Toptunov in Chernobyl or Daryl Garrs in Happy Valley. Now, you can catch rising British actor Robert Emms<\/a> on the big screen in The Choral<\/a>, which hits U.K. cinemas Friday, and in which he plays opposite Ralph Fiennes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie, set during World War I, is about the members of the local choral society, which recruits teenage boys and girls for a performance. Directed by Nicholas Hytner and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, it recently screened at the BFI London Film Festival. That meant that Emms pulled double duty of sorts at the London fest, also appearing in Jonatan Etzler\u2019s black comedy Bad Apples<\/a>, which stars\u00a0Saoirse Ronan<\/a> as a teacher finding her class of 10-year-olds disrupted by one unruly pupil.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince Emms was cast by Steven Spielberg in\u00a0War Horse, he has taken on various acting challenges. In between his different projects, Emms took time to talk to THR about The Choral<\/a>, being part of the Star Wars universe, courtesy of Andor, and what is next for him.<\/p>\n

\n\tEmms has long been a fan of Hytner\u2019s work for stage and film, so he jumped at the opportunity to join the team of The Choral. \u201cIt was really exciting, because I\u2019ve always wanted to work with Nick. I absolutely loved everything he did at the National Theater when he was there as the artistic director,\u201d Emms tells THR. \u201cThat was really my time when I came out of drama school and started acting, and I was obsessed with going to the National Theater to watch everything that was done there.\u201d The fact that The Choral was written by Alan Bennett (The History Boys) was \u201can added element, of course,\u201d the actor highlights. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie also meant a chance to work with Fiennes. \u201cHe is very disciplined and really hard-working,\u201d Emms says about the star. \u201cAnd there\u2019s such a quiet elegance to Ralph, which I really fed off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEmms plays Robert Horner, the right-hand man of Fiennes\u2019 demanding chorus master Dr. Guthrie. \u201cThe thing about my character that I loved was that he has a real independence to him, which also is a little bit of solitariness,\u201d Emms shares. \u201cHe\u2019s quite solitary, but strong-willed, and he has his defiant, valiant anti-war beliefs and is determined to be a conscientious objector.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdds Emms: \u201cWhat I found quite touching about him was that even though he kind of exists in his own world, he\u2019s such a huge part of that community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t[SPOILER WARNING: something key about Emms\u2019 character in The Choral is revealed in this paragraph!]
And the community of music lovers also provides a support system for Horner. \u201cActually finding that community for him, as a gay man in that time, was almost a safe haven,\u201d explains Emms. \u201cIt was a community to share his love for music and where he felt safe. With Guthrie, he shares a level of intellect and love for music, specifically, that created a bond and friendship between them that transcends any feelings of shame or fear he may have about his own person and sexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat relationship between the characters mirrored the relationship between the actors. \u201cThere was an element to our relationship as actors where there was a slight distance between the two of us in status, which we could use in the film as well,\u201d Emms shares.<\/p>\n

\n\tBad Apples, in which Emms plays the father of a kidnapped kid, was \u201cquite a different experience, because my character was very much isolated in his own world,\u201d the actor says. \u201cA lot of my stuff was just really being on my own. He\u2019s the sort of dad where everyone thinks, \u2018God, he\u2019s really not doing very well.\u2019 He\u2019s a single dad who can\u2019t keep up with his work.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tBut the experience was \u201cgreat,\u201d the actor says. \u201cIt was a hard role to play because it\u2019s the straight role in quite a comedic film. It\u2019s a black comedy that stretches our perceptions of reality and what we believe. But, as a character, I\u2019m looking for my son, and I\u2019m distraught. So, I had to really play that in a quite committed way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRobert Emms, courtesy of David Reiss<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was it like for Emms to be part of the Star Wars universe, thanks to his role in Andor? \u201cAll of that stuff, it being Star Wars, it having a lot of secrecy, and it being quite intimidating at times, really played into the actual scenes that I was playing,\u201d he tells THR. \u201cBecause the character I play is across the rebels and the Empire, the ISB. So, in a weird way, that tension helped. It was an amazing thing to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t[SPOILER WARNING: something key about Emms\u2019 Andor character is revealed in this paragraph!]
He also lauds Andor for its willingness to get political. \u201cIt is quite heightened, quite theatrical, but doesn\u2019t shy away from saying some political things,\u201d Emms highlights. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s amazing. I\u2019ve also loved meeting the fans over the last couple of years. They are the most dedicated group of fans I\u2019ve ever met. And they just absolutely went for my character. That was lovely. I mean, the other day, someone stopped me in the street and said to me: \u2018I\u2019ve been to the bench in Valencia where you had your last scene.\u2019 I hope I am not spoiling this for anyone. I die on that bench in Valencia. And he\u2019s been there and made a vigil, a little shrine, and paid respects to my character. People are really, really lovely about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, Andor and the broader Star Wars franchise can remind people about the passion and power that film and TV can bring to bear, according to the actor. \u201cOf course, it\u2019s also a money-making machine, but one thing we sometimes forget,\u201d Emms says. \u201cThat is how important art is and how important stories are, and how important sharing stories is. People go to watch films to change their lives. Maybe that film hasn\u2019t made the box office a load of money, but it may have changed one person\u2019s life in a very powerful way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEmms just wrapped shooting his next film, Blood on Snow, from director Cary Fukunaga and writers
Jo Nesbo and Ben Power, based on a Nesbo novel. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Benedict Cumberbatch and Eva Green, it is about a hitman who falls for his client\u2019s wife, who happens to be the target of the assassin\u2019s latest assignment.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe shot it in Latvia, and a few days in London,\u201d Emms tells THR. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of a \u201970s hitman film with a bit of an edge to it. I\u2019ve seen bits of it, and it looks fantastic. And it has some great, great actors in there that I loved meeting. \u201cOlafur Darri Olafsson, who\u2019s in Severance. And Pilou Asbak from Game of Thrones, who is also really good. We had a really great time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEmms is even looking at creating some of his own ideas, telling THR: \u201cI\u2019ve got some things which I\u2019m developing that is my own stuff. It\u2019s quite early days. I\u2019ve been developing a film with a director and also a short play with one of my best mates \u2014 she\u2019s a writer.\u201d But he needs to find the time and focus in between all his acting opportunities. \u201cThat\u2019s also going on in the background, because when I get an acting job, that takes priority. And you pick up your own ideas again when you finish an acting job, but you need to switch your brain a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You may know him as Supervisor Lonni Jung in Disney+ hit series Andor. Or you have seen him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,19,1452,17,97060,79513],"class_list":{"0":"post-169517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-international","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-robert-emms","15":"tag-the-choral"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115513448965829307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}