Stephen Graham Reveals Why ‘Nocturne’ Was His Perfect Post-‘Adolescence’ Project

At this time last year, Stephen Graham was sweeping the Emmys. He won for acting, writing, and producing the chilling and heartbreaking limited series Adolescence, in which he played the father of a teen boy who killed his female classmate. “I wanted to make sure I found the right project after Adolescence, so I took my time,” Graham says. He landed on the 10-episode thriller Nocturne, based on two bestsellers by Lars Kepler. In it, Graham plays serial killer Jurek Walter, who repeatedly eludes and outwits a homicide detective, Jonah Lynn (Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan), in a small Pennsylvania town.

“One of the main reasons I chose to do this project was the fact that it was a character I’ve never played before. It was someone that was really intriguing and interesting for me,” says Graham, who first received the script, written by John Hlavin (Shooter, The Shield) via email from director Tim Van Patten (The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire). “Primarily, I wanted to do this because of Tim Van Patten — that was my main pull, if I’m really honest. The script was phenomenal.”

Detective Lynn stays on Walter’s trail but is constantly frustrated by his quarry’s ability to slip away. “The main thing that makes Jurek difficult for Jonah to catch is his upbringing and lifestyle that he had with his father. He’s been hiding all his life, so he’s a master at not being seen. He had to exist in the world separately,” says Graham.

For research, Graham had an at-home consultant. “My wife, Hannah, is obsessed with crime dramas and watches loads of documentaries,” he says. “I spent a week with her on the couch watching documentaries after we’d finished our daily work.”

Apple TV

To continue to build the character, “It was lots of collaboration with John. We’d meet up every Sunday and go through the scenes for the week. It was vital to have that resource of John to tie in the research I’d done. You come to work with an idea and offer that up and then listen to your director.”

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With someone like Jurek, you never know quite how far he will go. The stakes get even higher when the desperate search for Jurek’s last missing victim forces the detective to send his surrogate daughter, FBI Agent Saga Bauer (Zazie Beetz), up against the killer. Graham says, “To get into that mindset, the psyche, that makes these people what they are was really interesting.”

Nocturne, Series Premiere, October 30, Apple TV