DAVID SUCHET: Poirot Plus More

Fans of David Suchet will be getting a double dose of the British character actor this month. Suchet headlines the three-part adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel “The Secret Agent,” beginning Sunday on PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre.” Suchet plays Adolf Verloc, a double-agent living in London circa 1896 who spies on the British for the Russians, while spying on the Russians for the British.

And Thursday on PBS’ “Mystery!” series, Suchet returns in his best known role, as Agatha Christie’s eccentric, obsessive and rotund Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Suchet’s Poirot will be using his “little gray cells” to solve five cases this season.

Suchet, a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has appeared on the London stage for more than 20 years. He has also been featured in more than two dozen films and TV movies, including “The Little Drummer Girl,” “The Falcon and the Snowman” and “Harry and the Hendersons,” in which he demonstrated his comedic side as a determined Bigfoot hunter.

Times staff writer Susan King talked with a charming Suchet over the phone from his house in London.

Do you know that “Secret Agent” and the latest batch of “Poirot” mysteries are premiering the same week?

I say this with all humility, to sit here in London and to think that five-, six- or seven-thousand miles away there are going to be people watching those two performances; I couldn’t be more truly delighted.

How does one approach playing an anti-hero like Verloc in “Secret Agent”? You make a rather unsympathetic character quite sympathetic.

In the book, Conrad is very clear when he writes the character of Adolf Verloc. There are moments when you do not sympathize with him and other moments when you have complete empathy with him.

To approach a character like that you have to really play just one moment at a time and really just allow oneself to be a victim of circumstances and also show what is real (in his life), which is the domestic side.

Conrad describes him as a good man; his wife describes him as a good person.

Did you create Verloc from the script or from Conrad’s book?

My preparation work was mainly from Conrad’s book--little things I got from the book, like that he always wore his hat, even indoors, and that it was always perched on the back of his head. The way he wears his watch chain, which is spread open across his corpulent stomach.

What about his look?

That is absolutely Conrad. Conrad describes when he drinks soup or tea, the little gobblers of liquid hang on the end of his bulbous mustache. Very attractive, isn’t it? I always get these roles. Why do I get these roles? (He laughs.)

If I am allowed to say so, I consider myself very, very fortunate as an actor that I have not been typecast as Poirot. My whole career now is one of such diversity. People are writing to me.

Have your relationship and feelings toward Poirot changed over the years you have been playing him?

I think I am letting him rule, more than me ruling him, and trusting in the character I have created, rather than pushing it myself. Poirot is obsessive by nature and very eccentric. He is so different in a sense from me.

I am in quite a big disguise here (as Poirot), the mustache and five inches of padding all over. I put that huge thing on me and that changes the way I feel and the way I walk and lots of things. It is more like becoming someone else totally. I still love playing Poirot.

Were you a fan of Poirot before you got the part?

I wasn’t a fan of Poirot, but I was a fan of his character. Do you know what I mean? I didn’t actually read a lot of the books, but I watched the films. When I was asked to play him I was so delighted, because I knew I could look like him as I saw him. When I started reading the books I thought, “That I could do and I could do that.” My notebook soon filled up with all little characteristics and eccentricities. I built him up as a I read him from the novels.

Would you like to work in America again?

I would love to come to America to do more movies. If the tradition of the English is to do theater, the tradition of America is to do movies. I don’t believe anyone makes movies like Americans make movies. It is, in a sense, part of your heritage.

“The Secret Agent” begins on “Masterpiece Theatre” Sunday at 9 p.m. on KCET and KPBS. “Poirot, IV” begins on “Mystery!” Thursday at 9 p.m. on KCET and KPBS and next Sunday at 5 p.m. on KOCE .