Timothy Dalton opens up about Penny Dreadful, leaving James Bond, and the demon in all of us

"Actors, sometimes, they look for a character and they just want to play one thing. But human beings are so multifaceted, you know? We carry with us our good and our evil."

Penny Dreadful
(Image credit: (Facebook.com/Penny Dreadful))

I answer the phone and am immediately greeted by a warm, polite, and unmistakably British voice: "Hello. This is Timothy Dalton."

Dalton quickly launches into a string of apologies, as he's calling several hours after our scheduled interview time, which he forgot because he was driving his children to school. "I'm mortified," he reiterates, repeatedly, throughout our conversation.

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.