Interview: Dylan Brady on ‘Mary & George’
Following a stint on groundbreaking series Ralph & Katie, which was helmed by a writing team made up predominantly of people with disabilities, and a supporting role in six-part thriller series, The Diplomat, in which he portrayed a young British consulate worker residing in Barcelona trying to reckon his political views and beliefs with the realities of his job, Dylan Brady can next be seen in historical drama series Mary & George, which has already garnered critical acclaim following its UK debut and premieres on Starz today.
Mary & George tells the story of the Countess of Buckingham (Julianne Moore), who molded her son George (Nicholas Galitzine) to seduce King James I (Tony Curran) and become his all-powerful lover through intrigue, making her family richer, more titled, and more influential than England had ever seen. A sharp, heady and surprisingly nuanced look at the intricate webs of power, ambition, and manipulation woven within the corridors of England’s royal court, the series explores the timeless themes of ambition, desire, and the pursuit of power against the backdrop of a turbulent era marked by political intrigue, religious tensions, and shifting alliances.
Asked if he had known about the actual Mary and George prior to landing a role on the series, Brady says he “didn’t know the history, actually.” “It makes me feel a bit like an imposter,” he elaborates. “But it sounded so exciting and I knew I was just going to do one episode, so I tried as much as I could not to ask questions. Even though it’s obviously an incredibly famous story, I wanted to witness it and experience it firsthand as an audience member just because I really love this world and this cast. So when I was on set, I had to stop myself from asking questions about what certain things meant and where they were going because I just wanted to watch it as much as I could.”
While Brady only appears in a single episode of the seven-part miniseries, the Alex Winckler-directed episode 4, titled The Wolf & the Lamb, he still manages to make a strong impression as Peter Carr, cousin of the Earl of Somerset (Laurie Davidson), with whom George had a longstanding feud over the King’s affections. Initially drawn by Peter’s charming, confident nature, the two eventually become closer as George and the King face several hurdles in their relationship. However, Carr seems to have ulterior motives – his apparent affection for George masking a deeper, more sinister agenda. As the intricate dynamics of the court unfold, it becomes clear that Carr is not merely a pawn in the game of power but a cunning player in his own right, attempting to manipulate events behind the scenes to further his own ambitions.
“The scripts are super strong and because they were so strong, there was also a lot of freedom given to play around and make bold choices,” he says about his experience on-set. “When I arrived on set, Tony [Curran] and Nick [Galitzine] were doing that immediately and I was like, ‘Okay let’s catch up.’ But it was great. I’ve always been a big fan of Tony’s work and so it was really nice to watch him work. He made me feel incredibly welcome, as did Nick and Jacob [McCarthy] as well. It’s always a bit difficult, I think, coming into an established cast. I’ve not really had to do that before; you’re usually at the beginning, setting up a show, you have guest roles joining your own cast. It was a new experience and it was daunting. But those boys are absolutely delightful and super supportive, and really detailed in the way that they work. So if something isn’t working for you, they’re really happy to hold space while you figure it out, you know? It was super playful. Lots of laughs, good chats and silliness, which you need on a job to keep the spirits up.”
In addition to acting, Brady is also an up-and-coming writer in his own right, having participated in the writers’ rooms for acclaimed shows such as Ripley Parker‘s Netflix series Everything Now and Mawaan Rizwan‘s surreal comedy series Juice, which recently garnered three BAFTA TV nominations. For the former, he penned a haunting, searing capsule episode that has become a favorite amongst the show’s fanbase. “I connected with Sian McWilliams, who is the creative director at Left Bank Pictures,” he says when asked how he became involved with Everything Now. “She had just recently taken on the project and I sent her a script which was sort of tonally in a similar space. It was another young adult show. We got on really well and hit it off. I was living in Manchester at the time and she’s from Manchester, so we started developing a show together. She called me about 6 months later and said, ‘Look, I’ve got this show. We’re doing a writers’ room for it. It’s just to help the lead writer get some ideas. Do you want to do it?’ And at that point, I hadn’t done many writers’ rooms so I was really keen and I jumped straight in. I fell in love with Ripley and fell even more in love with the show. We did that room and then a few weeks later, they called me and offered me an episode. It’s still to this day the best writing experience I’ve had. I’ve done other writing rooms and they don’t always gel so well, but there was something about that show and Ripley’s voice which felt really freeing and playful, and therefore safe to be quite vulnerable. And that cast was amazing so to write for them was just such a joy.”
Focusing on the often-sidelined character of Alex (Sam Reuben), the younger brother of lead character Mia (played by Talk to Me star Sophie Wilde), the episode sheds some much-needed light on the struggles and inner turmoil Alex endures as he navigates life in the shadow of his sister’s consuming illness. Brady’s writing delicately explores the complexities of sibling relationships, the weight of familial expectations, and the profound loneliness of being overlooked. Through Alex’s perspective, the episode paints a poignant portrait of the silent struggles of those who are often forgotten, offering a powerful reminder of the resilience and quiet strength that can be found in the most unlikely of places.
“We had slightly talked about this idea of an Alex episode and whether it would be just for half an episode or an entire one,” he says when asked about how the episode came together. “I was really, really gunning for this idea of a whole episode from his perspective because we had spoken a lot about the ripple effects of eating disorders onto the family and the support network around the person who’s suffering. So it was really organic, it just kind of happened. One of the things we wanted to do was to not treat it rationally. We didn’t want to treat it with an air of righteousness or moral correctness. We wanted it to feel honest. It was something we workshopped for a long time and it went through many iterations.”
While Everything Now is not returning for a second season, Brady reveals several episodes were already written, including an episode that he worked on himself. “I had written a script for season 2,” he says. “We had some great ideas but we are at the mercy of the algorithm, I’m afraid. It’s really difficult because historically, TV has worked in one way, which is a slow, consistent growth over several seasons as opposed to this kind of mentality we see now, where it’s like, ‘If it doesn’t get 16 million views in the first 28 days, it’s not worth anyone’s while.’ It’s really disheartening to see because I think there’s also a lot of people who refuse to invest in a new show with the knowledge that it might just end up getting canceled. I hope that landscape will change and I hope that we can stop treating art and television as a commodity that’s at the mercy of an algorithm because an algorithm isn’t people, and things often just do take a bit of time. When they’re given the space to grow, they can turn into really wonderful things.”
As for what’s next, Brady appears in a supporting role in Mikko Mäkelä‘s Sebastian, which premiered to rave reviews this past January at the Sundance Film Festival. The film stars up-and-coming actor Ruaridh Mollica as Max, a 25-year-old aspiring writer living in London who begins a double life as a sex worker in order to research his debut novel. “That was a beautiful, beautiful project,” he says. “In the age of discourse about sex scenes and the necessity for them, as if any art is really necessary, it was so refreshing to see a script which beautifully explored sex and intimacy, and the currency of that and sex work in a modern way. We live in this kind of gig economy where nobody’s just a writer, nobody’s just one thing because you can’t afford to be, so I really loved the script and working with Mikko and Ruaridh was a dream.” Brady appears as another aspiring writer in Sebastian who crosses paths with Max throughout the duration of the film. “Without giving too much away, I play another writer who is part of a writing group with Max and is quite fond of him,” he says. “So we sort of interact at different points throughout the film, which kind of echoes where he’s at on his journey.”
In addition to acting and writing, Brady, who counts acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Haigh as a mentor, is also set to make his directorial debut with upcoming short film Anon, for which he is crowdfunding ahead of the film’s production. The film centers on a closeted taxi driver who is working a busy Friday night shift, going largely unnoticed by his drunk passengers. But after an encounter with a young man which pushes him over the brink of his desires, a shocking revelation leads to a frightening exchange with life-altering consequences. “I felt like there was this wave of queer stories that hit our TV and cinema screens in the last few years,” he says of the inspiration behind the project. “Which is obviously excellent, but it felt like a lot of them were trying to paint a new picture for queerness where things felt aspirational, hopeful and safe, which is well-intentioned and lovely. I think it’s really important that those stories exist for younger audiences and whatnot, but I was feeling slightly starved of anything that felt truly interrogative and actually reflective of what my experience was growing up.”
“I’m from a small city in the East Midlands, which is not a super metropolitan, liberal city,” he reveals. “The area in which I’m from is a super working class, quite conservative neighborhood, kind of a melting pot of all these different cultures from all over the world from other more conservative communities. It got me thinking about the freedom of queer people and how me being the age that I am, in my 20s, living in London, I have access to the currency of queer identity in a way that is super freeing. But that’s not always the case for everyone and I wanted to explore that and look at that. I wanted to interrogate the freedoms that queerness gives you and the constraints of living outside of that identity bracket. I wanted to explore that through a genre lens so it’s kind of a thriller. It’s all set in a taxi, so it’s super claustrophobic and we’re shooting the whole thing on dash cams to ramp up the sense of voyeurism and to muddy the clarity ever so slightly. I’m really excited. We’ve raised a decent bit of money and we’ve got a little bit more to go. We’re hoping to shoot this coming winter.”
Brady says he’s also been receiving feedback on the Anon script from Haigh, who he says has “always been a hero of mine.” “He’s been super busy with All of Us Strangers, obviously,” he says. “But he’s been really helpful. He read the screenplay and he’s been really complimentary about it. It’s been really great to pick his brain about the early processes. Obviously, the industry’s changed a lot since he was starting out, but he’s been really good at helping me feel like I can take ownership of my work. He’s also been giving me some really great tips for working with actors and just trusting myself to go through that process [of filmmaking] and come out the other end of it. I feel really fortunate to be mentored by him.”
Dylan can next be seen in Tell Me Everything series 2, arriving on ITVX this summer, and Andor season 2, coming to Disney+ in 2025. Mary & George is now streaming on Sky in the UK and Starz in the US.