“It was really the director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, who excited me about The Old Guard. I loved her film Beyond The Lights with Gugu Mbatha-Raw and I was excited about her taking on a project of this size, excited about her as a storyteller and a black woman making this type of film. As soon as I met with Gina and began talking about Copley, we could see we were both interested in his morality, his at best ethically ambiguous way of looking at the world. This really grounded all the fantasy and made it unlike any other graphic novel adaptation. For me, if anyone has the mentality of ‘The ends justifies the means’, as Copley does, then don’t do it. But he lives in that grey area, as do many people in real life. I felt there could be a moment of empathy for him during the film. The decisions he makes and his background made him neither an outright villain nor particularly heroic. He’s complex.”