Last Seen star Patrick Brammall has opened up about the show's action scenes, revealing that his "hunger" for on-screen fights has waned in recent years.
The actor, best known for Colin From Accounts, steps into a different light for the suspenseful thriller, in which desperate father Ian Ridley attempts to track down his long-missing daughter.
In addition to tackling heavy themes, such as the impact of alcoholism and the gut-wrenching uncertainty of losing a child to abduction, the series tasked Brammall with a handful of action sequences.
The first of these occurs in the opening episode, seeing Ian intervene when an abusive man intimidates his partner and young son at a fairground. An altercation ensues, which took Brammall far out of his comfort zone.
"It's a dream [to do action scenes] as a younger lad. I love that sort of stuff," he began. "But man, I just turned 50. Like, that stuff just feels like hard work.
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"So, I was really fortunate in that fair scene that the guy I was playing opposite was a really generous actor; he was a bit younger than me and very happy to throw himself around. And he did a lot of the work, I've got to say, physically."
Brammall continued: "He threw his body on the line, which really helped the whole scene. It certainly helped me."
Of course, in the years following Liam Neeson's Taken, an entire subgenre was born in which older men wreaked violent revenge on those who had wronged them.
These days, similar 'tough man' roles have proven wildly popular in the likes of Prime Video's Reacher and Paramount's Yellowstone. Could Last Seen pave the way for Brammall's take on this proven formula?
"Give me the right stunt double and I'll do it," he responded. "I love to have done it [but] I don't love the doing of it because I've got creaky joints and my knees aren't what they were. I do enjoy it, but I'm not as hungry for it as I once was."
Although his pivot from a hit comedy to a hard-hitting drama might raise eyebrows, Brammall credits his classical theatre training and guidance from casting director Kirsty McGregor for his smooth genre transition.
He also drew on his own life experience to help bring Ian Ridley to life so vividly.
"I think the wellspring that sustained me throughout the shoot was the fact that I'm a father myself of two little girls," he explained.
"I didn't have to project this story onto them or anything like that... [but] I think becoming a parent opened me in a way that I can't ever close up again. And so I think I just lent into that a bit more."
Brammall added: "Ian is like a raw nerve, and so I allowed myself to be that. It wasn't as big a stretch, creatively, as it would have been if I weren't already a father."
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