Mark Addy makes physical embarrassment feel personal without turning it into a request for sympathy. We value the warmth and self-respect he brings to comic supporting parts, though the casting can too often stop at his size.
Fi1m perspective
In The Full Monty (1997), Mark Addy’s Dave Horsefall is painfully aware of being looked at. Addy makes that discomfort matter without asking us to feel sorry for him, or suggesting that an unathletic body is sufficient reason for a joke. We were moved by Dave’s embarrassment because his awareness of the audience makes the prospect of stripping feel so uncomfortable. Addy keeps the comedy going without treating the man as disposable. It is the clearest reason to value an actor whose large physical presence can too readily determine the parts he gets.
Peter Cattaneo gives him room to be awkward, and Simon Beaufoy’s writing gives the men home lives that explain their pride. Alongside Robert Carlyle’s forward-driving Gaz and Tom Wilkinson’s stiff Gerald, Addy helps make this a group of distinct men rather than a collection of comic types. The film is too quick to cheer us up about unemployment. Even so, its affection feels earned because these performances make embarrassment recognisable.
That breakthrough led to Hollywood work, with a supporting part alongside Heath Ledger in A Knight’s Tale (2001) and the lead as Bill Miller in the American sitcom Still Standing (2002). Prominent fantasy television roles followed: Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones (2011), then Hercules in Atlantis (2013). His grounded presence is useful in fantasy, where broadly drawn characters can otherwise become hard to care about. The casting does keep returning to size and the everyman. We would welcome more parts that ask something less familiar of him.
He returned to Dave in the television continuation of The Full Monty (2023), a reminder of how firmly that part established his screen identity. We would be wary of making it the measure of every subsequent performance. What we want from his casting is more of the attention Cattaneo paid to the man’s unease, not simply another opportunity to be amiable. Start with the 1997 film, particularly if a comedy about amateur strippers sounds like an evening of easy cruelty.
Biography
Mark Addy is an English actor. Born in York, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art after working as a stage hand at the York Theatre Royal. He began his career in theatre and television before making his film debut.
Addy is known for his role as Dave Horsefall in the 1997 film The Full Monty, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His other film credits include Roland in A Knight's Tale (2001), Friar Tuck in Robin Hood (2010) and Mr Bakewell in Downton Abbey (2019). On television he has appeared as DC Gary Boyle in The Thin Blue Line (1995–1996), King Robert Baratheon in the first season of Game of Thrones (2011) and Andy Richmond in Trollied (2011–2013). He reprised his Full Monty role in the 2023 television series.
