Netflix's Bodies: Jacob Fortune-Lloyd explains the time-travelling twists

20 Oct 2023

British GQ

Warning: spoilers ahead for Bodies.

Bodies is an exercise in endurance, both in terms of its central crime drama and all of the time travel surrounding it. The Netflix series, which is based on the graphic novel by Si Spencer, follows four detectives – one in 1890, one in 1941, one in 2023 and one in 2053 – discover the same body in the same location decades apart. Somehow, one person has lived and died across history, and it's on these detectives to work out how that happened how a mysterious prominent figure, played by Stephen Graham, is a part of it.

The detective on the beat in the blitz is DS Karl ‘Charlie’ Whiteman, played by The Queen's Gambit's Jacob Fortune-Lloyd. Charlie is a duplicitous cop operating in the shadows of East London, unaware of the fact that his underhanded behaviour sits at the centre of a century-spanning mystery. “It's high-concept and it requires concentration," says Fortune-Lloyd about the series which, in all honesty, is almost impossible to distil into any succinct synopsis. “But these characters are relatable, despite time period despite, despite the procedural aspect, despite the mystery, despite the the time travelling. It's a very emotional experience.”

Top L-R 1890, Kyle Soller as DI Hillinghead, 1941 Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as DS Whiteman, Bottom L-R 2023 Amaka Okafor as DS Hasan & 2053 Shira Haas as DS Maplewood Cr. Matt Towers/Netflix © 2023.Matt Towers/Netflix

Secretly Jewish and living against the backdrop of the Second World War, his story, though absolutely imperative to the way the convoluted mish-mash of stories starts to take shape, sits the most isolated in all of the interconnecting timelines we're given in Bodies. That is, until the show's fifth episode, when the tangled thread finally starts to unspool off the back of (another) murder that shakes the strength of Charlie's expertly crafted mask. Here, Fortune-Lloyd breaks down the show's most emotional moment, the journey of Charlie and whether we can ever really understand time travel stories.

With a show like this, do you get the whole script or just the timeline that you are in?

I remember growing up, in drama school, someone told me that with Shakespeare's plays, the actors just got their lines to save paper. And I was like, that would actually work quite well on a show like this for the actors if you just didn't tell them anything. But no, we did get the whole thing and I think I understood it as far as I could without the visual imagery, which makes it harder. But then I quite quickly was like, 'I actually just can't think about it. I need to let it take care of itself and just focus on Charlie.'

How long did it take you to get to grips with all the various timelines and time jumps?

I'm not sure I ever did! For Charlie, it never really became necessary to know, and it was actually quite useful to be ignorant about it and let it sort itself out. Because that's kind of what he does. Time travel stuff does tend to break my brain, and I can't actually think about it too hard, otherwise, it gets harder.

Something I was quite interested in watching the series is that the different time periods shape the police officers in different ways, which affects their storylines and their ability to do their jobs. So, in the 1800s, it's shame, in the present day, it's racial tensions. How do you think WWII moulds Charlie?

He's a character that sort of thrives in war. He's not cowed by it and he's got a bit of a psychotic edge. I think there are some people who sort of thrive in conflict, and others who sink in it, and Charlie is definitely a thrive. He's grown up in East London, he's had to fight his whole life and it's interesting what he contends with in terms of prejudice, because the Second World War was a time when anti-semitism rose in this country, not declined. The first image of Charlie is him seeing a poster on the wall saying ‘Jews Out’ in East London, where lots of Jews lived. So it's a very complicated picture of what he's grown up in.

What was the most surprising thing to you that was revealed about his character?

Given what we see in the beginning, with this tough, cynical, lone wolf, stylish, arrogant, narcissistic guy – but with a twinkle in his eye – it's surprising and moving to watch the relationship that blossoms with the young girl, Esther, because there is a parental instinct. That father instinct that kicks in in a man you're not expecting it to.

I think the most tragic part of the series is the moment when Esther (Chloe Raphael) is killed. Was that scene actually emotional to shoot?

Yeah, definitely! I mean, I'm on the ground holding a lifeless child's body, and in that moment, it's his fault. So, I found that scene really difficult to film. Marco (Kreuzpaintner, the director) wanted it to be very raw, to literally hear him roar with pain and it was really tough to do. Also, it's also a sort of technical concern because if you were really doing that to someone you'd squeeze the living daylights out of them, but you obviously can't. I had to be very careful to hold Chloe in such a way that she's not hurt because she's completely limp and she's totally trusting me to handle her with care. So you have to have that energy in your body but none of it to go into her.

That scene with Esther is the first time, as the viewer, we realise how all these different timelines connect as Polly, who kills her, is from the 1800s and carries into your story. What was your reaction to finding out that Charlie sits at the heart of the series in that way?

It was brutal. Because you've met Polly as a younger woman, and that relationship with her father is really beautiful, and then suddenly she's become this old woman who's capable of this. Like, what the hell! How could she? But I think it's super satisfying. But, again, at that moment in time, Charlie has absolutely no clue. He's the most in the shadow. So is that weird mix, for me, of knowing more than him and trying to, sort of, forget it so that I can be ignorant and just have him react in the moment.

This show gives us a few endings for our characters as the time loops shift and change, but Charlie's first few endings are death – first by hanging and then by a police chase. How was it shooting that climactic pub shootout?

I love dying on screen. It's really fun! I've always thought that dying on screen, or on stage, is the closest you get to that childish glee of what drew you to acting in the first place. Because children love pretending to die. It's just really fun in a basic, childish way. [The pub death] we filmed with Haolu (Wang, the other series director), and I remember the moment that my back was going to explode with the blast pack and I was going to fall to the ground. I had one go at it because it was so late and it took so long to reset. I definitely felt the pressure.

In the last ending, we see all three detectives back at where they started, but they change the initial decisions we saw them make, almost as if the timelines they didn't actually experience still have left some mark on them. How did you feel about that redemption for Charlie?

I love that moment, filming with Chloe where we bump into each other and there's this flash of recognition and a smile. You get this coolness [with Charlie] in the beginning and then this increasing warmth, but then that gets shut down again because of what happens and he goes on a bloody, vengeful rampage. So then you're left, finally, with the warmth again, and you're left with the real Charlie, the real Karl, the real human being rather than this cool detective persona. I think it's a lovely way to end on a character that could just be a noir caricature.

Bodies is out on Netflix now.

**SAG-AFTRA members are currently on strike.This interview was conducted in accordance with union rules and is in line with Jacob Fortune-Lloyd's agreement with Netflix. **