JUST eight minutes into his new drama, Fear, and Martin Compston is already stripping off for his first sex scene.
It’s fair to say that he still looks as good as he did 13 years ago when he started playing detective sergeant Steve Arnott in cop series, Line of Duty.
Actor Martin Compston always puts in the work to look his best for sex scenes[/caption]
His love of football, running and the gym have certainly helped — and in recent years, he says he has become “obsessed” with Krav Maga — the martial art that helped Jennifer Lopez get in shape.
But since turning 40, Martin admits it is getting tougher to combat his love of takeaways and Tennent’s to stay in shape.
The actor, who lives in Las Vegas with wife, Tianna, and four year old son, Brodie, understands that steamy moments are often key to a TV plot, so he always puts in the work to look his best.
Martin said: “With all the sex scenes and nudity, I always think, ‘Does it further the story?’. And when it furthers the story, I’m all for it.
“But it is hard graft to prepare. I live on takeout food when I’m not at home.
“When I’m about to start filming, I’ll cut right back and start eating right — granola for breakfast, soup for lunch and a nice steak at dinner — instead of going to McDonalds and Dominos.
“You can’t wait to get your topless scene out of the way so you can go straight to KFC.”
In Fear, which drops on Prime Video today, Martin plays aptly-named architect Martyn, who moves into a stunning home in the poshest part of Glasgow with his two kids and wife, Rebecca, played by Anjli Mohindra.
At the outset, they are very much in love, which is why they are rolling around naked on the living room floor before they have even unpacked the crockery and ornaments.
Martin has always been pragmatic about filming these racy scenes — which have often popped up in his TV shows and movies over the years — but reveals he gets self conscious if he does not feel like he is in the best shape.
He said: “There is a lot of pressure, especially if you’ve got a topless scene.
“Now you can’t just be slim, you have to be f***ing ripped.
“The idea of what used to be somebody in shape has changed dramatically from what we used to think was in shape.
“People can be quite cruel, and I don’t even think they mean it. People come up and they go, ‘Oh, you look quite heavy!’.”
Despite the challenge of buffing up, Martin has vowed he will not be resorting to so called fat jabs, such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, that so many of his showbiz acquaintances rave about.
He said: “It’s very weird, that stuff.
“I don’t want to criticise anybody that’s on it, but I remember from a distance seeing somebody and I went, ‘Wow they look great’.
“But then I got close and their eyes were, like, black.
“I just don’t trust it.
“I feel like people can get hooked on stuff like that pretty quick and I really don’t think it’s a healthy way to lose weight.
“A couple of people have said to me, ‘Why don’t you just do that instead of going to the gym all the time?’, and I’m like, ‘Because it’s not good for you, man!’.”
Martin, who stars in new drama Fear, admits it is getting tougher to combat his love of takeaways as he gets older[/caption]
Martin Compston and wife Tianna Chanel Flynn live in Las Vegas together[/caption]
Martin does not obsess over his looks, however.
In fact, he was the first to laugh when he returned to film the last series of Line of Duty in 2021 and noticed that DI Arnott’s waistcoats were fitting a little more snugly.
Now he would probably need them taken in if, or when, series seven came to fruition.
It’s a subject the actor remains cagey on.
The fact he is often spotted with co-stars Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar, not to mention the show’s creator Jed Mercurio, doesn’t do much to quell speculation something new could be on the horizon.
Martin said: “I was with Jed last week, actually.
“He was out in LA doing a show he was working on, so he came to Vegas for the weekend, and I saw Vicky at The Brits on Saturday night.
“It’s just a case of….one of the great benefits of that show is that it’s given us great careers outside of it.
“I just started my new show yesterday (the thriller Red eye) so I’m filming in London and Vicky’s working on Trigger Point.
“So we’re all working and there’s nothing coming soon.
“It will be a sad day when people stop asking about Line of Duty.
“I appreciate that people want it back.”
The team better get their fingers out, though, because AC-12’s boss, Superintendent Ted Hastings — played by Adrian Dunbar — is now 66 and should be getting retired any day now.
“Don’t f***ing say that to Ady if you talk to him!” says Martin, laughing his head off.
“To be fair, Ted Hastings has been retiring since series three.
“Believe me, there’s life in the old dog yet.
“He’s one of my great friends and he’s one of the most energetic people I know.”
Martin still looks as good as he did 13 years ago when he started playing detective sergeant Steve Arnott in cop series Line of Duty[/caption]
In terms of a seventh series, the question on most fans’ lips is when it will come back, rather than if.
But for all their wishful thinking, Martin insists the shows fate rests entirely in Jed’s hands.
He said: “I trust Jed implicitly and, if he decided it wasn’t right for it to come back, then so be it.
“If he decided to kill any of us off, we’d be gutted.
“We’d only do it for what’s best for the show, and if that was his decision, then that would be it.
“What’s great about it at the moment is we’re not planning on doing it, but it’s nice knowing it’s ‘out there’.
“That’s a lovely feeling.”
Does Martin think it might be easier to bring back the characters in a movie rather than a series, just like that other titan of BBC drama, Peaky Blinders?
He said: “In theory, it would be great to be in cinemas.
“But in practice, you’d need to do a five-part movie and release them all at the same time.
“You need a six-hour set up for our show, you need to find the story, it needs to last.
“You couldn’t do it in two hours.
“Line of Duty’s series finales alone are usually 90 minutes, and that’s just one out of six episodes.
“A movie for us just wouldn’t make sense.
“With Peaky Blinders, you can get away with it.
“But we need to set up the new characters, what’s going on, and dive into the new case.
“I just dont think it would work.”
But don’t expect Martin to be a Steve Arnott-type hero in his new drama.
Fear sees him play a man who initially seems like the perfect husband and father, but is, by the actor’s own reckoning, selfish at heart.
I’m really proud of Fear, I feel like I’ve been due a drama like this for a while.
Martin Compston
Just as viewers start to realise he isn’t quite the man they thought he was, we are introduced to the family’s downstairs neighbour, Jan, played by Solly Mcleod.
He is a bit of a loner who develops feelings for Rebecca and, when they are not reciprocated, he takes drastic measures that terrify and infuriate them.
Martin says: “Its three episodes, but we pack a lot in because you have to keep people on the edge of their seat.
“What’s good is that there’s elements that everyone can relate to in it.
“It’s like if their neighbours moved their bins, or if they’re in your parking space, those things in your world can be massive to you.
“So when you throw the situation in there with the neighbour we have in Fear, you can see how things can spiral.
“It asks the question, ‘How would you react if your neighbour was doing things to you? How far would you go to protect your family?’. And you’d get wildly different answers from people.
“Even on set, we’d have arguments about it, and people had very different opinions.”
Fear sees Martin return to leading man status in a contemporary British drama set in the real world, just like his Line of Duty days.
For the actor, it’s a stark, but welcome, contrast to his other Prime Video show, the fantasy thriller The Rig, which saw him appear in an ensemble cast over two series, the most recent of which dropped earlier this year.
He said: “I’m really proud of Fear, I feel like I’ve been due a drama like this for a while.
“It’s great to be flitting around in fantasy worlds and doing all these big shows, but this is doing something really grounded that I think people can get their teeth into.
“I’m chuffed at how it’s turned out.”
- All three episodes of Fear drop are available on Prime Video today.
