True Blood alum Stephen Moyer dishes on his role as DI Mick Palmer in new whodunit Art Detectives
Stephen Moyer has never been happier. Surrounded by murderers in charming English villages, the 55-year-old True Blood actor has found his sweet spot in Art Detectives as Detective Inspector Mick Palmer, the head of the Metropolitan Police’s Heritage Crime Unit, tasked with investigating art-related crimes. “I wasn’t looking for a cozy crime drama,” he insists. Nevertheless, when the idea of heading up the smallest police department in the whole of the U.K., Moyer was fascinated. “I was rather ecstatic, honestly, when it came along.”
He may not have known it, but art forgery would soon become something of an obsession for Moyer. “If you Google ‘art fraud,’ there are thefts every day. There are forgeries discovered every day, all over the world,” he says. “One of the things that I think is really fascinating about art fraud is if you choose to paint something from a hundred years ago, you have to have a canvas and paints that are a hundred years old. The varnish has to be a hundred years old. The wooden frame that’s holding the canvas has to be from a hundred years ago. In many respects, you have to be a detective in your own right in order to paint them. I just thought it was a fascinating concept.”
That the lead character appealed to Moyer didn’t hurt either. Mick Palmer is a genius at sussing out suspects at work, but when it comes to his personal life, the relationships are a mixed bag. “He’s a little bit broken, while brilliant at what he does, which is not a trope that we haven’t seen before, but I’d never seen it set in the art world,” says Moyer. “His dad is a famous art forger, who Mick has reacted against by becoming a policeman.” His new partner, DC Shazia Malik (played by Nina Singh), presents Mick with a different kind of familial relationship. “Nina is about two years older than my oldest daughter, same age as my eldest son, so by its very nature [her character] became almost like a surrogate daughter,” he says. “And I absolutely adore Nina. I had chemistry reads with three brilliant actresses and Nina, and there was just something about her. She is such an infectious and funny person. Nina and I just laughed and laughed and laughed.”
If his professional partnership is one that puts him at ease, his romantic life does the complete opposite. Early in the series we are introduced to archeologist Rosa Conaghan (played by Coupling actress Sarah Alexander) who turns the detective into mush. “They’re useless together,” laughs Moyer. “They’re completely rubbish at relationships, but brilliant at the thing that they do.” While the series takes the episodic crimes quite seriously, Mick’s dating life gets a more comedic treatment. “I really leaned into the bumbling idiot part, and they cut a lot of it,” says Moyer. “We did a lot of slapstick, banging into doors and tripping over things, and even though it was funny, we were like, ‘He can’t be a complete idiot,’ right? But there is an inference that he had his heart broken and it’s obviously something very raw for him. He’s not able to open his heart again, so when he has these feelings for Rosa, and he lives in fear of it going wrong, he tries to avoid it. And by her nature, we can see that she’s had a similar pain. So, they’re destined in a way.”
That the show’s creators — Dan Gaster, Will Ing and Paul Powell — have managed to give the show a light, humorous touch does not surprise Moyer. “The three guys who created the show come from sketch comedy,” he says. “They’ve all written for very successful comedians, so there is a nice lighthearted element within it, which I think is a nice break, sometimes, when we’re dealing with murder.” Adding to Moyer’s personal pleasure is the fact that he is surrounded by old friends from throughout his career — and even a loved one. “The picture above Mick’s piano is actually my mom,” reveals Moyer. “The art department said, we need a painting of Mick’s mum, and we wondered whether you’d like it to be your mum. And my mom didn’t know, so when the trailer came out, I was like, ‘I’ve got to call mom, she’ll have a heart attack.” It all feels like the cherry on top of an already delicious three-decade-long career. “I am so lucky I get to do what I do,” says Moyer, who recently reappeared on Elsbeth with former True Blood castmate Carrie Preston, and is next going off to do the third season of The Night Agent. “I do feel quite blessed sometimes,” Moyer observed. “I’m going to knock on wood now.”
Art Detectives, streaming on Acorn TV