Fabien Frankel understands the task

Alliterative names rarely cut the Hollywood mustard — unless, of course, you were the late, great (and first-rate) Robert Redford. By and large, Tinseltown has long thrown its tongue-twisting toys out of the pram when confronted with similar-sounding initials. Take Marion Morrison, for instance. Never heard of him? Of course you haven’t. In 1930, studio bigwigs decided that the alliterative moniker sounded too “soft” and not “serious” enough for a man destined to ride tall in the saddle — and promptly rechristened him John Wayne.

Fabien Frankel, unlike the rebranded cowboy, has kept his given name firmly holstered; straight-shooting, double-effing and all. Fittingly, the name of his most recognisable alter-ego — House of the Dragon’s commanding kingmaker, Ser Criston Cole — shares the same repetitive, rhythmic kick. And when that show debuted in 2022, it became the most-streamed debut in HBO history. Take that, John Wayne. Who’s the “serious” one now?

“Have you ever seen Mark Rylance do Shakespeare?” asks Frankel — as we're speaking of serious. The actor has recently returned to London after a brief stretch in the US, and is explaining the tricky pseudo-medieval lyricism of his House of the Dragon dialogue. “When Rylance does Shakespeare,” he continues, “even if you’ve never read it, or aren’t that academically inclined, you can still understand the story and everything he’s saying. Great actors can do that. But I find it really hard to access that language.”

Derek Rose dressing gown, £185, derek-rose.com; Sunspel vest, £39; boxer shorts, £45, both sunspel.com; New & Lingwood socks, £25, newandlingwood.com

It has become easier, Frankel admits, with every return visit to Westeros. Each time the actor dons his armour and gets back in the saddle (looking every inch as heroic on horseback as Wayne ever did), he feels more comfortable in his character. “But until I set foot on set, and get into costume, the character is never fully there. People often say: ‘Oh, I found my character three months before filming!’ But I don’t get that at all. I find it much later.”

An aptitude for accents also helps. Born in Chelsea to a French-Italian mother and English father — who was also an actor — Frankel’s vocal cords are finely tuned and versed in dozens of dialects. (Another point to Frankel in the Wayne-off: the western star was famously flawed at accents.) “You know, I don’t know if I’ve ever spoken in my own accent on screen,” says the actor. “But I find that really liberating. I’m much more comfortable using another person’s accent. It’s like going to a meeting and wearing a suit — it’s a protective layer.”

"I don’t know if I’ve ever spoken in my own accent on screen..."

Frankel’s family history also hangs something of a safety net beneath his verbal gymnastics — an ancestry that sprawls from Russia to Poland, India to Iraq. He’s had formal training, too. Frankel attended two of Britain’s most prestigious drama schools, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA), where he was required to master four distinct accents. He chose Spanish, Southern US, and French — which he deployed to great effect in his first TV appearance, The Serpent.

“For my fourth, I chose Italian-American,” Frankel adds, “which obviously came in very handy for Task.” The actor’s latest small-screen role saw him embody Anthony Grasso, a conflicted taskforce detective in the recent HBO crime drama. In the show, Grasso’s FBI supervisor is played with rumpled exasperation by a terrific Mark Ruffalo.

“Mark wrote me the most beautiful message after we finished filming,” says Frankel, “ about art and letting go. But the best piece of advice he gave me was: ‘Don’t be too attached to the outcome of a scene.’ You can prepare, but you do that work so you can forget it once you’re on set. You want to be living in the moment once you’re there — and trying to control things stops that. Control, I think, is the death of art.”

New & Lingwood jumper, £195, newandlingwood.com; Sunspel boxer shorts, £45, sunspel.com

Initially, this seems like an odd observation from Frankel, as he is also a budding director. But you must only watch the two music videos he’s already directed (one for Memory of Speke, a band made up of his childhood friends, and another for New York-based jazz musician Peter Zummo) to see how deftly he pairs raw, unstructured abandon with a meticulous eye for colour, lighting and symmetry. Frankel’s brother, Max, is a producer, and the pair recently formed MarcelMonique Pictures, a production company named after their grandparents. “It just puts our claws out a little further, you know?” says the actor. “It makes things slightly more accessible — we want to be involved with really great filmmakers.”

In his television work, Frankel has already worked with several award-winning directors, and he credits them with teaching him about what the job entails. “I’m sure I have many failings as a director,” he laughs, “but I always think you need to make it a contagious process — to make people as excited as you are.”

Brad Ingelsby may not be a director, but his was the mind that created Task (a Neo-Western of sorts, the seven-parter features more moral ambiguity and true grittiness than any Wayne-starring shoot-‘em-up). And, while its story is almost unremittingly bleak, Frankel says the set was a joyful place. “There was nothing like it! Because no-one is more excited about the work than Brad. He’d be smiling, excited and filling everyone with confidence. Never stressed, always in a great mood — and that meant other people had that same passion.”

Derek Rose dressing gown, £185, derek-rose.com; Sunspel vest, £39; boxer shorts, £45, both sunspel.com; New & Lingwood socks, £25, newandlingwood.com

“In England, we’re not great at that,” Frankel continues. “We’re not particularly effusive in general. There might be the odd pat on the back, but I think it’s something Americans do very well. It’s probably why they’re so incentivised to work hard — all the excitement and positivity. I’ve learnt, as an actor, that the more self-belief you’re given, the more you can give in turn. If you’re scared, it’s so difficult to take risks.”

As he gets older, Frankel says, he’s becoming more risk-averse. “My desire to do high-adrenaline activities has waned substantially over the last few years,” he admits. “I just don’t want to be in life-or-death situations anymore. No part of me is going to enjoy that.”

"Control, I think, is the death of art..."

Rather, Frankel says he is keen to achieve something. “I don’t exactly know what,” he adds, “but something. A feat I can say I’ve accomplished. Maybe something physical, like climbing a mountain or running a marathon?”

His latest burst of physical exertion came when a friend invited Frankel to a yoga studio in London. A few days after the class — “Exhausting! I couldn’t believe how hard it was!” — the actor ran into his yoga instructor in a local café. “He recognised me from Task and told me he’d had an overwhelming evening the night before, as he’d just watched the season finale.”

New & Lingwood jumper, £195, newandlingwood.com; Sunspel boxer shorts, £45, sunspel.com

Task's climactic episode is indeed a study in nerve-shredding — a taut 58 minutes during which even the most experienced, deepest-breathing yogi would likely struggle to maintain their inner zen. Frankel attended a cast screening of the episode himself last month, in Philadelphia. “That’s obviously where it’s set,” he says, “and we had the screening at the Philadelphia Film Society, an amazing old building that looks like a cinema from the 1950s”. Back in Britain, Frankel and his brother try to visit the cinema at least once a week (next up: Frankenstein). His cinema of choice is the Everyman in Maida Vale.

“I know that’s a slightly awful thing to say,” he laughs, “because it’s not cinema in the old-school sense. For older films, I’ll go to the Prince Charles in Leicester Square. Because that just feels right, you know? 35mm screenings! Popcorn! You feel like you’re in a proper cinema.”

As luck would have it, next month the Prince Charles will screen The Searchers — John Wayne’s 1956 masterpiece and, by many accounts, his finest performance. By then, the man born Marion Morrison had long traded his softer syllables for a harder, hero’s name. Yet, ironically, The Searchers saw him stride into the spurred boots of protagonist Ethan Edwards — followed swiftly by characters including Joe January and Matt Masters. It seems the cowboy could outride many things, but not the lure of alliteration. Fabien Frankel, for his part, has never shied away from his own distinctive, double-beat name. So, in the end, perhaps the mark of a “serious” actor isn’t what you’re called — but rather how confidently and competently you answer to it.

Want more acting insights? Charlie Rowe talks Quadrophenia, Tony Soprano and working with Ralph Fiennes...

Become a Gentleman’s Journal member. Find out more here.