Former Call the Midwife star Olly Rix opens about the intense physical training he’s been doing to take on his new roll as ripped and ‘charming’ doctor Flynn Byron in Casualty
When we sit down to chat with Olly Rix ahead of his recent debut in the BBC’s iconic medical drama Casualty, there’s a very palpable air of physical and mental intensity about him. For the last nine months, the Call The Midwife star’s been living a semi-secretive existence, training with former military special operatives and getting to grips with the dramatic change of pace, all the while keeping the whole thing under wraps.
Now that viewers have finally met “charming but complicated” Clinical Lead Flynn Byron, it seems like Olly, 40, can finally relax. “For the last almost nine months I’ve just been on the hospital floor all day, every day, trying to get to grips with medical terms and medical procedures, pretending to be a doctor,” he exclusively tells OK!, sounding audibly relieved to be talking about the character after so long.
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“There’s been such a long lead that I just sort of sat in witness protection and got on with the job. I’ve only recently been able to start talking about it and it’s been almost off because I’ve sat on it for so long, it’s been kind of weirdly isolated and private, but ultimately you don’t do this job for yourself, you fo it for an audience and for a show, so I’m really excited to finally see it on screen.”
Olly’s last major role was as Call The Midwife’s well-to-do Matthew Aylward, who arrived in Poplar in series 10 and was quickly widowed and left a single dad. He went on to marry midwife Trixie Franklin, before eventually losing his substantial inheritance and claim to the family business, and departing for New York to start again. Matthew was very much a man of his time, and very different to Flynn, who is described by Casualty bosses as “a man with purpose, and a fierce resolve to make a difference”.
He arrives in the show’s new 12-part box set, Internal Affairs, fresh from a tour of duty with the military and instantly starts ruffling a few feathers on the ward. Olly, who has an established background in theatre, as well as credits on the likes of Agatha Raisin and Our Girl, took his research incredibly seriously, which might go some way to explaining the aforementioned intensity.
He explains that part of his mindset, and his ripped physique, is down to the training he’s been doing. Over the last nine months he’s been working on his physical and mental stamina with an exclusive company called Andarta Health And Performance. The result, a delight to his social media following, is that he’s built a Flynn-worthy physique and mental aptitude.
He’s also been training with Dark Prism, a London-based organisation led by former Special Operatives that hosts realistic tactical experiences such as “Blackout”, Off-Grid raids, and solo missions. The chief instructor is a former Combat Frogman, a special military diver trained to carry out underwater operations, whose aim is to “push participants beyond their limits”.
In essence, Olly’s gone full method-actor for the new role, and it shows. “I spent a lot of time with ex and current special forces operators, and I’ve done some weapons training and a lot of physical training, but most importantly, spent a lot of time asking them about their world and where they come from, and what’s it like to adapt to civilian life,” he says.
“How do they compartmentalise their life? They might have a wife and kids, and then go off around the world doing the things they do. “I think it takes a very specific and very interesting type of person. They’re not all the same, of course, but I looked for the commonalities, and it’s being able to compartmentalise, being extremely exacting and demanding with yourself and other people around you, so sometimes being very short and curt, expecting results and asking for action.
“It’s not a delicate world, and I wanted to take a sense of that into the role. Some people might call that toxic, I personally wouldn’t, but it depends how thick your skin is and how formidable you are.” This idea of toxic masculinity interests him hugely and was a big part of the appeal of Flynn, especially after playing rather more wholesome Matthew for three years.
“First and foremost, I was interested in a very fleshed-out three-dimensional complex human being, which I think Flynn absolutely is,” he says. “I think also, without wanting to make a broader or more serious point about gender politics, I think it’s interesting to see a production lean into what it is to be a man.
“Perhaps, because he comes from the military background that he comes from but he’s also a husband and father, there’s an aspect of what I think is often unfairly termed toxic masculinity around this guy. And I’m interested in why in other contexts it’s celebrated, or maybe not celebrated, but certainly needed. You need rough, tough Special Forces soldiers, whether you like it or not, whether you find it distasteful and you find it affronting somehow. I think that’s very interesting. That’s a world I’m very interested in.
“The really exciting thing is Casualty isn’t a drama about the military, it’s a drama about the medical profession. But to take somebody from such a niche and specific context and then put them in a context where a certain type of masculinity might very well be inappropriate or be affronting, it’s really interesting watching how or if he can adapt and change.”
The Internal Affairs synopsis describes Flynn as facing “the challenge of instilling change in a system weighed down by bureaucracy, all the while grappling with the trauma he has experienced and a deception that threatens to be his undoing”, which probably explains Olly’s approach to his preparation. The pace of the work, too, is very different from his time on Call the Midwife, and he describes it as “fast and frenetic”, with the storylines packed with crisis moments, and fighting the tide.
“When the ER is being overrun, as I suppose is probably true in real-life NHS situations, you’re understaffed and you’re just struggling to fight the tide a bit. That’s often reflected in the actual filming days, in the way we film and the way we work.” Former Oxford University student Olly moved from his London home to Cardiff to be closer to the BBC’s Roath Lock Studios, where most of the show is filmed.
Despite spending much of his time on set, he’s still had plenty of much-needed visits from his friends and family which, if nothing else, have given him a break from his training. “Work is such a privilege and so much fun, and it can be profoundly pivotal and moving and revelatory, but it’s still just work. It’s not going to hold you at the end, so I know that friends and family are everything.”
The other incredibly important being in Olly’s life is his adorable one-year-old cocker spaniel pup Nellie. While he isn’t happy to talk about his private life too much (and any romance chat is very politely swerved), he positively beams when we ask how she’s getting on. He tells us she came into his life at a “bit of a rough time” and, “as dogs tend to do, pulled me out of it”.
“Whilst I was doing all this training and all this prep, it meant I also had this lovely four-month window of taking her out on her first walks, giving her her first baths,” he smiles. “It was a lovely mix of being able to spend a lot of time with her and raise a little pup and have time to think about the job and the work at the same time. You asked me about what I do to relax? Just an hour’s dog walk is enough for me.”
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