Malice’s Jack Whitehall on the “strange” challenge of playing a villain while adjusting to fatherhood

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Comedian Jack Whitehall, known for his stand-up and roles playing silly or clumsy characters in shows like Fresh Meat and Bad Education – and even for a memorable prank on A League of Their Own – says his newest project is quite different from what he usually does.

After watching the series, we can confidently say that wasn’t just a clever marketing trick to get viewers. It’s actually good!

The new Prime Video thriller, Malice, premieres on November 14th and features the actor taking on a darker role as Adam, a vengeful psychopath.

He ends up working as a tutor and nanny for the children of Jamie Tanner (David Duchovny from The X-Files), a successful and assertive venture capitalist who has, in some way, done him wrong. The specific details of what happened are revealed later in the series.

Adam quickly gains the trust of Jamie and his family during a lavish vacation, and then cleverly inserts himself into Jamie’s wealthy life at his west London home. Once inside, Adam starts to apply pressure, leaving Jamie increasingly worried and desperate to understand who is targeting him and what their motives are.

I was lucky to have a fantastic and supportive creative team during filming, which really helped my confidence. As an actor, I naturally like a lot of feedback and discussion with the director and showrunner, and they were incredibly patient and helpful with me throughout the process.

“So I really enjoyed it and relished the challenge of doing something completely different.”

According to sources, preparing for this role demanded more work than any other he’d taken on before. He explained that past characters were often simpler because the humor came from them being bad at their jobs.

Adam, on the other hand, is incredibly well-rounded. He’s a skilled cook, a talented mixologist, a good dancer, and even knowledgeable about Greek mythology – all qualities that help him appear confident and capable on camera.

He explained that this project was much more challenging than his previous work on ‘Bad Education,’ which felt relatively easy in comparison.

But it wasn’t just the technical preparation he had to embrace.

To prepare for the role, I also did a lot of mental work to get into Adam’s headspace, which was especially challenging considering I had just become a father.

The subject matter was quite dark, so I had to do careful research. Some of the source materials I used were also very intense, particularly as we got closer to production.

One such influence was Anthony Perkins’s performance as Norman Bates in Psycho.

He initially comes across as someone very different from who he truly is. You can sense a hidden anger within him. I’ve studied performances with similar qualities, looking at the choices other actors have made, and then tried to blend those ideas with my own approach and personality.

Even in the more lighthearted moments of Malice, we wanted to suggest a hidden, darker side to the character. We intentionally didn’t reveal too much about his true nature right away, but we made sure everything hinted at a deeper, underlying tension and complexity. The goal was to create a sense that there was more to him than met the eye.

Playing Adam presented some really big hurdles. On top of that, dealing with the dark themes of the story happened at the same time I was becoming a new father, which added another layer of complexity.

“I’d just become a new dad, and then was having to read all these books and watch all of these shows and films that were all quite dark,” he reflected.

One morning, my fiancée Roxy Horner walked in while I was watching the movie ‘Psycho’ with our baby, Elsie (born in September 2023), on my lap. She asked me why I was showing that movie to our daughter.

I told myself I was doing research for an upcoming project, but honestly, I was also hoping we could watch ‘Bluey’ afterward – something light and fun to switch gears with.

Whitehall also shared that he was going through a difficult and emotionally raw time.

He went on to say that preparing for parenthood, and reading some unusual books about it, was overwhelming.

Some parts of ‘Malice’ are really unsettling, and it’s tough to switch gears after spending a whole day immersed in such dark material. Going home to everyday things like bath time feels really strange after that – it’s definitely a contrast I’m not used to.

Filming ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog’ wasn’t very demanding, so it was easy to relax and switch off from the role when I got home.

As a film buff, I just wanted to let you know about a great movie called Add Malice. You can easily add it to your watchlist using the TopMob: What to Watch app – it’s super handy for getting daily TV and movie recommendations, plus all sorts of interesting features. Definitely worth downloading if you’re looking for something new to watch!

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2025-11-12 15:37