Steve Coogan Reveals Chilling Secret Behind His Portrayal of Jimmy Savile
Have you ever heard the phrase, “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes?” Well, Steve Coogan apparently took that cliché so literally, he actually laced up Jimmy Savile’s real kicks for his unsettling turn in The Reckoning . Now, as someone who spends their days dissecting TV shows for fun—and, let’s be honest, for SEO glory—I have to ask: is there ever such a thing as too much method acting? Coogan, the man known for making us howl as Alan Partridge, suddenly found himself going full chameleon for one of the BBC’s darkest biopics, and let’s just say, the emotional price wasn’t just the cost of shoe polish . Curiosity piqued? You can’t make this stuff up—even if you accidentally typo “Savile” as “Saville” (it happens, OK?). What does it really take to crawl into the skin (or sneaker) of one of history’s most vile TV personalities, and come out the other side, still smiling? Maybe the answer is hiding in plain sight—or perhaps, just under a sweaty pair of vintage loafers . LEARN MORE
Steve Coogan took the phrase ‘put yourself in someone else’s shoes’ very literally when preparing for his role in The Reckoning.
Released in October 2023, the four-part series dramatised the sordid double life which disgraced TV star Jimmy Savile led, while delving into the sickening abuse he inflicted on hundreds of adults and children.
Coogan is best known for playing the comical Alan Partridge, among other humorous characters, so he was extremely conscious of the ‘serious subject’ matter when starring as Savile.
He had explored the sex offender’s psyche before the BBC series, though, having performed an impression of Savile in 1988 while also voicing him on the satirical puppet show Spitting Image.
Coogan previously defended his decision to take on the role in The Reckoning after receiving a fair deal of criticism, explaining that he believed it allowed viewers to ‘get under the skin of Jimmy Savile’.
“And the reason that that’s a good thing to do, to bring him to life again, is to learn about how this has happened, to stop it happening again and to see how he operates,” Coogan said. “To illuminate things that you can’t with witness testimony or public inquiries and all the rest of it.”
Steve Coogan portrayed Jimmy Savile in The Reckoning (BBC)
Coogan has now doubled down on his stance on The Reckoning during an appearance on Louis Theroux‘s podcast, telling listeners that the BBC show was produced with ‘proper diligent application’.
“I made sure we met the survivors,” the Manchester-born star said. “It was important that we did it in a very grown-up way, with proper diligent application.
“There was humour on set, certainly, but I had to be very careful – I couldn’t start goofing about in public, because it’s a very serious subject.
“But sometimes, there was a gallows’ humour…not to do with what he did, [but] because it was so heavy.”
Reflecting on the ‘very strange, intense period’ of filming the show, Coogan confessed that he was shaving his head twice a week while shooting The Reckoning so that the Savile-style wigs would fit his napper nicely.
But the biggest bombshell came when he revealed that to help him craft his character, he had strolled around in a pair of shoes which once belonged to Savile.
“This is something I’ve not said before, I wore his shoes, his actual shoes,” Coogan said. “So I was walking, literally, in his actual shoes. It was just…it was there and the [wardrobe department] said, ‘How’d you feel about this?’ I paused about it long, and I thought, ‘Well, if I’m going to go there, I’m going to go there.”
Disgraced TV star Savile died in 2011 and was posthumously unmasked as a prolific sex offender (Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
“I felt like I should be in for a penny…I dived into it without thinking about it too much,” the actor explained.
Coogan says he doesn’t understand why viewers often describe him as ‘brave’ for taking on a nefarious figure such as Savile, as he ‘thinks it’s just a job‘.
“My job is to execute this character in the most accurate way possible to help tell a drama that is truthful and not do a caricature, because that ultimately is a disservice to those who survived his abuse,” he added.
“If you do some sort of pantomime villain or something, that’s also not very responsible.”
Savile never faced justice as he passed away before his crimes came to light. He died in 2011 at the age of 84.
Coogan also confessed that starring as Savile did weigh on him mentally, as he recalled returning to his trailer after one day of filming and wanting ‘to burst into tears’.
“It was like I had this huge cloak on me,” he said. “Very sad. Towards the end, I just wanted it to finish.”
The Louis Theroux Podcast is available on Spotify now.
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