LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: You've heard this one before, all's fair in love and war. A new series shows love turning into war. And on the front lines, many, many lawyers. HBO's "War" shows just how unpleasant things can get in what one character calls the biggest divorce trial in British history.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WAR")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) You are the wronged party here.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) You are the wronged party here. There can be no doubt about that.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) We can play dirty if we have to.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) And if they play dirty, we will be total and utter filth.
FADEL: Dominic West plays Morgan, a billionaire divorcing his wife, who's an actress. And if you remember his American accent as Jimmy McNulty in "The Wire," prepare yourself for his real accent.
DOMINIC WEST: The drama sort of lives on a knife edge between love and war and how when disputes arise, you can either let them go or go to war on them. And because we've got lawyers and because there's a lot of money involved, those disputes that would normally be let go are turned into point-scoring. And it becomes - you know, I suppose that knife edge between love and war, there's very little that separates the two. And what was a loving relationship quickly becomes really nasty.
FADEL: There's this one scene with you and Sienna Miller, who plays your wife, Carla. And you're at the very first step in the divorce. You both have to pretend like it's amicable in front of a mediator. You're both - this is before it gets further. You're both all smiles, kind words, I think holding hands even. But the contempt for each other in this moment is just barely under the surface. Talk about that scene.
WEST: What I realized in courtrooms generally, but certainly in divorces, people are playing a role. And the role you have to play in front of this mediator is that you are reasonable and you are loving and warm and a completely civilized human being, when underneath, you're sort of prepped to be ruthless and treacherous and trying to screw over the one person that you used to love. And it's supposed to sort of resonate with marriage vows. So we both say I do when they say, are you willing to go ahead with this divorce and the battle?
FADEL: (Laughter)
WEST: And we both say I do in a very sort of ironic way.
FADEL: I mean, how did you build your character? I mean, what sort of emotional state are both of you exploring as actors at the beginning of this when you both decide the divorce is on?
WEST: I suppose what I concentrated on, apart from talking to Sienna about - a little bit about what our marriage might've been like. But Sienna and I, we have a 20-year friendship and a certain familiarity, which was essential. And we sort of let that take care of itself. And then, other than that, I listened to a podcast called "Good Bad Billionaire," where they take a billionaire for every program, and they evaluate them, whether they're good, bad or just another billionaire. And most are just another billionaire, but three are good.
FADEL: Oh, my gosh.
(LAUGHTER)
WEST: And, you know, an awful lot of them are really bad people. But the three who are good are basically the ones who gave all their money away. And one of them is the Duty Free guy. Actually, he's died, so there's now only two.
FADEL: There's only two good billionaires in the world now?
WEST: There's only two. (Laughter) Yeah, something like that. Because my character is a benign billionaire, which I thought was an interesting oxymoron. And...
FADEL: (Laughter).
WEST: So that was interesting, trying to work out, he's got to be ruthless because he's a billionaire, but I think he's got a heart and he's trying to do the right thing.
FADEL: What was it like? I mean, you said you and Sienna Miller have known each other for 20 years. What was it like to have a scene partner like her in this show?
WEST: Our friendship freed us up to be really nasty to each other.
FADEL: (Laughter).
WEST: And there's nothing more fun than being horrible to someone without any consequences (laughter). And she's funny and acerbic and witty. And so we had a lot of fun because we didn't actually have many scenes together. And the ones we do, there's a lot of nastiness going on. And eventually, it gets to the courtroom. And it was really fun looking her in the eye and trying to bring her down.
FADEL: (Laughter) I mean, the thing about the show is just how many people are employed to oversee the dissolution of a marriage, especially in this case where both are high-profile, wealthy people.
WEST: Yeah.
FADEL: And it's really clear just how big of a business this was.
WEST: Yeah.
FADEL: I just wonder what you saw in that as you played out this battle of people who once loved each other?
WEST: This is where I suppose the show differs from previous shows on this subject. It's seen through the sort of lawyers and how they regard this end of this marriage as a battleground to win over their rival law firms, basically.
FADEL: Yeah.
WEST: So it becomes a corporate battle, with all the ruthless competitiveness that that involves. And also, a third factor being the public opinion. So there's a propaganda war going on as well.
FADEL: I feel like you play a lot of characters in bad marriages.
WEST: In bad marriages (laughter)?
FADEL: Yes. Like "The Wire," "The Affair," "War."
WEST: Yeah. "The Crown."
FADEL: "The Crown."
WEST: I do, I do. I don't know why. I have a wonderful marriage. And I love my wife very much. So I don't know what - I suppose...
FADEL: Trying something different on screen.
WEST: That's what happens when you become a middle-aged actor. There's not much goes on except - either you're a tough guy or you're a bastard husband.
(LAUGHTER)
FADEL: Did it feel like you were at a cliff-hanger with each episode, what happens to Morgan next?
WEST: Yeah. I mean, he sort of has an audience oscillating between. Hopefully, your loyalties keep changing and your opinions of who's in the right keep changing.
FADEL: It's so true.
WEST: I think I'm definitely on a losing wicket in the first episode, from what I hear from (laughter) various people, who said, oh, he's - they can't stand Morgan. I think one comment was Dominic West has such a punchable face, which is...
FADEL: (Laughter) I mean.
WEST: I ought to be a bit careful (laughter).
FADEL: The first few episodes, I don't know if I can disagree.
(LAUGHTER)
FADEL: You mentioned watching rich people and sort of the fascination we have with them, really rich people.
WEST: Yeah.
FADEL: So do we also enjoy watching rich people tear each other apart? I mean, are we, the audience, bad people?
WEST: Yeah, we love it. I mean, on one level, we love it because, obviously, you can have all the money in the world, and you still have the same problems that everybody has. And on another level, you love seeing high-status people going through a situation that terrifies us. It's like "Shakespeare's Kings" or "Oedipus," you know, Greek tragedy. You feel catharsis when you watch high-status people go through things that frighten us and things that we would hate to go through and things that we feel glad that we're observers of rather than participants in some traumatic event. And I suppose that's really what drama is. It's a way of finding catharsis about our deepest fears.
FADEL: That's Dominic West. His new series is called "War." It's on HBO. Episode 1 airs tonight. Thank you so much.
WEST: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF RIHANNA SONG, "LOVE ON THE BRAIN")
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
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