The following contains major spoilers for duchessnow available digitally.

duchess marks the welcome return of Philip Winchester to the action genre. Although the actor is better known for his roles on network television, such as as a trial Law & Order: SVUHis biggest and best roles have been in action-oriented projects. He has a great ability to fully develop a character while making a shootout look easy, which is one of the strengths of Neil Marshall’s gangster films.

However, Winchester’s screen time in duchess is interrupted when his character Rob is murdered – his death serves as the inciting event that sets the title character’s quest for revenge in motion. In an interview with CBR, the actor spoke about his return to the genre he feels so comfortable in. He also chatted about how he found out about Rob’s fate and the complexity of filming the all-important death scene.

CBR: You are so at home in the action genre, was your interest in duchess about making another action film? Or were there other elements of the production that also appealed to you?

Philip Winchester:
It was multi-faceted. I’ve always wanted to work with Neil and we’ve been trying for a while. He did it (the 2019 reboot)
Hellboy

; we were pretty close at that point, but then a few things happened and it didn’t work out. And we had been talking for a while because Neil is good friends with MJ (Bassett) and they’ve been out and about in the British world together, doing horror and action movies. Neil sent me a nice letter and said, “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. Read this script and tell me what you think.”

About three quarters of the way through the film, I had a pleasant surprise and thought, “Oh yeah, now I really want to do that.”
And it was in Tenerife, and it was a few years after COVID, so everything was still a bit strange… It was like it was child’s play.

It’s interesting how people forget that your career began in the action world; your breakthrough role was the role of Michael Stonebridge in the Cinemax action series Fight back.

I was talking to somebody in LA after the screening and they said, “Wait a minute, you’re Peter Stone.” (Laughs) They said, “But how does that work?” I said, “Well, I did that.”
I did that before Peter Stone and then I started doing it again.

But unfortunately, there is no saving grace in this film; Rob’s death is what drives the entire plot forward. duchess. Does it change your acting process when you know that the character in the film doesn’t go through complete development?

No, it doesn’t. The work is still the work. You have to prepare and create the character, and you have to create those relationships on camera. For him, the film ends early, but that doesn’t change how you get there. And you want all those scenes to be as solid as if there was a continuation of the character.

But let’s talk about the death scene: How complicated is it to play dead, especially in the middle of the desert?

We were here, I think it was a flood drain. It was over 38 degrees down there. We were absolutely sweltering. And if I remember correctly, Neil and (
duchess
Star) Charlotte (Kirk) both had COVID and everyone was still freaking out about COVID. And so there’s a shot of me laying there after I died; it’s my back and Charlotte is in front of me. And I had to wear a mask or production wouldn’t have let us film. (The mask) is all painted skin color around my face, so you couldn’t see it. When she’s doing the scene, screaming at the top of her lungs and stuff like that, we laughed about it. We thought it was pretty funny.

But you play dead in the heat and you’re covered in blood that’s basically corn syrup and food coloring – that had been sitting in this pressure tank all day because it had to come out of my intestines and my neck. So the blood was warm and it was pretty horrible coming out of the pump and from all the cuts they had made with prosthetics. Not only is it sticky, but it’s hot. It was gross.

It is a surreal scene because the audience is so used to seeing action shows like Fight back. In that sense, was it surreal to play and turn the tables?

A little surreal. What was funny was the stunt guy who did it.
Fight back
so we knew each other from
Fight back
. I probably shot him a hundred times
Fight back
and there he was, a main character in the show, stabbing me. It was great. (Laughs.)

How were the action scenes in duchess with what you’ve done on your previous projects? The film obviously benefits your existing skills, but it also brings other challenges.

Everyone is their own little creature, so things that may simply be for other things, like
Fight back
or
The player
could have been difficult. We had a really beautifully choreographed elevator fight that I thought was great. I thought our stunt team and stunt coordinators did a fantastic job. It was really difficult to do that because our space was smaller than the one we rehearsed in.

When we got there, we thought, okay, we need to be a little more cautious with some of these punches or throws.
Although we had more time to rehearse than on
Fight back
In the end it was more difficult because of the space.
Also, that was the day Neil got COVID, so he was sitting in a tent about half a mile away from us, talking to us on an iPad, so you lose a little bit of connection with the director.

But then other things worked out. There was the shootout in the garage that happened right before. I had asked Neil before we shot if it was really important that we use blanks in the guns. So many people do it (with) CGI and they do it later and the actors don’t feel it, I think. And then the magazine changes and you get everything – I think that really helps raise the stakes. I’m really glad Neil went that route.

But when you use blanks, the loads have to be a certain way. If they’re not big enough, they don’t work properly, and that’s why some guns jam. So you have to deal with all these things that can go wrong, and everyone is constantly learning. Even me. Especially me.

What stands out duchess for you looking back? Are there certain elements of the film that you love, or was the experience what you wanted it to be?

What I liked so much about the film, especially when I first read it, is that it had
Jack, Queen, King, GRAS
(feel) to it. It had the
Grab
element. And the main character is a tough woman, which I thought was great… We see a lot of British gangster films, but nothing with a tough female main character. I really wanted to be part of that.

And then working with Sean Pertwee and Hoji Fortuna was just amazing. I had so much fun… You want to work with people like them who believe in what they’re doing. We hung out together on set and off set. We went out to eat together, we went out to lunch together, we hung out together on days off.
Being the three amigos with Sean and Hoji was probably my favorite part of the movie.

I said this to somebody – they wanted to know what I was most (proud of) and I said, well, that the film is seeing the light of day. It’s so hard to make a film. For Neil and Charlotte and the people involved in the production, making the film and putting it out there for people on the screen is a big deal.

“Duchess” is now available digitally through iTunes and other platforms.