For at least a couple of months in 1998, Steven Mackintosh looked destined to be our next great leading man. In August of that year, he had an eye-catching turn as head chemist Winston in Guy Ritchie's smash hit Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Then in September, he was the strapping love interest in The Land Girls opposite Rachel Weisz and Anna Friel. He was heralded as "the new Gary Oldman", even compared to a young Peter O'Toole.
It didn't play out that way, but while his Lock, Stock co-stars invariably burned brightly and faded, the 44-year-old Mackintosh has built a more singular and enduring career. "There were so many bad scripts around at that time that involved London, gangs and geezers," he says, as we sit at his kitchen table in Camden, north London; you can just make out his two kids rattling around upstairs and later on his wife Lisa will return from walking their disobedient greyhound.
"We'd just made something that really hit a nerve with people; I didn't know how I was going to improve on that. So I decided to go in the opposite direction."
Playing the long game is starting to look like a smart strategy for Mackintosh. His next project is the BBC's nerve-shredding new four-part thriller, Inside Men, about a crew of everymen who decide to pull off a high-stakes heist on a cash-counting depot. Mackintosh is John, the manager of the depot, who, from his beleaguered countenance to the humdrum sex he has with his wife, is a definition of mediocrity. One day, however, he decides to shake it all up.
"Inside Men's director, James Kent, told me, 'You just know this guy,'" says Mackintosh with a smirk. "I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or not. But I think a lot of people will relate to John. That thing of assessing your life and going, 'OK, I'm here, everything's fine, but is this what I want?' Then he has this moment of awakening. He finds that darkness inside himself and he quite likes it, which is a great thing to be able to play."
Later in the year, Mackintosh returns as an internal-affairs stiff in Nick Love's updating of The Sweeney, opposite Ray Winstone as Regan and Ben "Plan B" Drew as Carter. "There are some classy people involved," he says. "My character's called in to rein in Regan and Carter, and predictably Regan can't stand him, so I had some fantastic moments facing off with Ray. It's very much its own film, but the attitude is the same as the original, which is what's good about it."
Mackintosh looks set for another period in the spotlight, though he continues to get frequent reminders of the last one. "People still come up to me and say, 'Chill Winston' or, 'Copious amount of ganja'. I love it."
