Richard Madden plays decent men holding themselves still, and the interest is always in what the stillness is costing them. It made Bodyguard; princes and franchises have had less use for it. We rate him higher than most of the films that hire him.
Fi1m perspective
Watch him listen. As Robb Stark in Game of Thrones (2011), a boy handed a war before he had finished being a son, Madden spent three seasons doing sums in his head while a room full of older men waited for the answer. The jaw sets, the eyes keep moving, and the voice comes out a shade calmer than the man behind it. It is a small trick, and he has built a career on it: the good man who cannot afford to let anyone see what he is thinking.
He was a child actor in Scotland before he trained at the Royal Conservatoire and played Romeo at the Globe in 2007, and there is still something of the stage in the way he holds a position. After Robb Stark came Cinderella (2015), Prince Kit for Kenneth Branagh, opposite Lily James, and for a while it looked as if he would be the handsome boy in the doublet indefinitely. He has said himself that he was done with princes. Bodyguard (2018) was the turn: David Budd, a soldier carrying his damage into a job that requires him to feel nothing on duty, in a drama that seemed to have the whole country watching. Then Rocketman and 1917 in 2019, Eternals in 2021 and Citadel from 2023.
Bodyguard is where the stillness pays. We watched him stand at a shoulder saying almost nothing and found our own shoulders going up, because Madden lets you see the effort of appearing calm without ever letting the character see it. In Rocketman he does something harder to like and does it well: John Reid, Elton John's manager, played with weight and no wish to be forgiven. He has said that "Likable is the actor’s flaw," and Reid is the proof he means it.
The trick fails when there is nothing underneath it. In Eternals and Citadel the scripts give him nothing to hide, so the held stillness reads as blankness, and adequate is the kindest word. In 1917 he arrives as Lieutenant Blake in a film built around its own camera, and there is little room for anyone to leave a mark, which is not his fault. On Game of Thrones we did not single him out either, in a cast we found without a weak link, and that is the fairer measure of where he stood: one of many, doing his job.
What he needs is a director who gives him a secret and a co-star who makes him keep it. Franchises want a face; Madden is better at a face that is lying. If you are new to him, start with Bodyguard and work outwards, and do not be surprised if the best of him is still on television.
Biography
Richard Madden is a Scottish actor. He made his screen acting debut in 2000 and trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 2007 he toured with Shakespeare's Globe as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, reprising the role in the West End in 2016.
He rose to prominence portraying Robb Stark in the series Game of Thrones (2011–2013). Subsequent roles include Prince Kit in Cinderella (2015), David Budd in Bodyguard (2018), for which he received a Golden Globe Award, John Reid in Rocketman (2019) and Lieutenant Blake in 1917 (2019). He later played Ikaris in Eternals (2021) and starred in the series Citadel (2023–).
