Over the years, Rory Kinnear has played a number of roles on television, but it turns out, he acted the same role two times in two separate TV series. Rory Kinnear is an English actor whose career began on the stage in the early 2000s. In 2008, he earned his breakout role on-screen, appearing as the iconic James Bond character, Bill Tanner, in Quantum of Solace. Since then, Kinnear has accumulated various notable roles in film and television.
Rory Kinnear has enjoyed a handful of memorable roles over the course of his career. After Quantum of Solace, Kinnear continued playing Bill Tanner until Daniel Craig’s final performance as 007 in 2021’s No Time to Die. Kinnear’s other best roles include The Creature in Penny Dreadful, Geoffrey in Alex Garland’s Men, Detective Nock in The Imitation Game, and Captain Nigel Badminton in Our Flag Means Death. However, strangely enough, the Rory Kinnear role that may be most recognizable is the one he has portrayed twice.
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Rory Kinnear Played A British Prime Minister In Two Totally Separate Shows
Kinnear Was A Prime Minister In Black Mirror & The Diplomat
Rory Kinnear has played the fictional British Prime Minister twice in his career. The first time was in 2011, when he starred in the pilot episode of the sci-fi anthology series, Black Mirror. In the episode, entitled “The National Anthem,” Kinnear plays Prime Minister Michael Callow. After a member of the royal family is kidnapped, Callow is ordered to have intercourse with a pig on live television to ensure the victim’s release. Though Kinnear only appears in Black Mirror for this one episode, it is one of his most unforgettable roles due to how horrifying and stressful the episode is.
The second time Kinnear took on the part of prime minister was in 2023’s The Diplomat. The political thriller series follows the new American ambassador to the United Kingdom as she unravels international issues and creates bonds with other political figures. One such figure is Rory Kinnear’s British Prime Minister, Nicol Trowbridge. Unlike in Black Mirror, Kinnear’s Trowbridge is a recurring character in The Diplomat. He appears in all eight episodes, and is set to return for The Diplomat season 2. Despite this interesting career connection, however, Kinnear’s Prime Ministers couldn’t be more different.
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Rory Kinnear’s Two Prime Minister Characters Are Almost Polar Opposites
Callow Is Likable Whereas Trowbridge Is Hateable
It’s unique that Rory Kinnear has played two fictional British Prime Ministers, but it’s even stranger that the characters are completely different from each other. Where Black Mirror’s Michael Callow is a likable character that audiences sympathize with, The Diplomat’s Nicol Trowbridge is completely awful and not someone viewers root for. While Callow is willing to do a humiliating and morally questionable act for the royal family, Trowbridge continuously puts foreign relations at risk by revealing political secrets or manipulating others. Although Rory Kinnear may have experience playing the prime minister, he certainly doesn’t play the same character twice.
