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In the first episode of Guy Ritchie\u2019s new Netflix series \u201cThe Gentlemen<\/a>,\u201d a British aristocrat is forced to dress up in a chicken suit and dance on camera at the pleasure of a gangster to whom he owes money. He flaps his arms wildly, thrusts his head forward and crows at the top of his voice, as tears stream down his face.<\/p>\n The man in the costume is Daniel Ings, an actor whose face people might recognize more than his name. He is best known for playing Luke, a lovable womanizer on the sitcom \u201cLovesick,\u201d but he has also appeared in many other television roles that fit a certain archetype: the charming, posh British man, who is a bit of a cad.<\/p>\n In \u201cThe Crown,<\/a>\u201d he played a roguish friend of Prince Philip; he was the unreliable father of Dr. Jean Milburn\u2019s baby on \u201cSex Education<\/a>\u201d and the resentful husband on Lucy Prebble\u2019s \u201cI Hate Suzie<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI probably should show some range at some point,\u201d Ings, 38, joked in a recent interview at a London hotel. But he enjoyed playing \u201cthe cheeky chappy,\u201d he said, as well as the challenge of transforming characters who, on paper, seem quite unlikable into endearing onscreen presences. When Ings reads a script that frames his prospective role as a <\/strong>villain, he said, he thinks, \u201cI bet I can find something childlike, something fun in there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n To play Freddy in \u201cThe Gentlemen,\u201d Ings brought this approach to what might be his most reprehensible character yet. The arrogant, drug-addled eldest son of a duke, Freddy is passed over in his father\u2019s will in favor of his younger brother, Eddie (Theo James), who discovers organized criminals running an enormous weed farm underneath the family estate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As Eddie tries to safely extract his family from the criminal world, Freddy creates chaos. It was essential to the plot, Ings said, for viewers to feel some of the affection that Eddie has for his \u201cidiot brother,\u201d so that they understand when Eddie enters into dodgy deals with gangsters to protect Freddy and pay his debts.<\/p>\n Although Ings has made a career playing upper-class British rogues, his own background is a little different. He went to a private school in England, but his family was lower-middle class, he said, and he learned to play posh by observing his classmates. \u201cIt\u2019s a thing that I know from watching it, and I can perform it ironically,\u201d he said. Though many of his characters are lotharios, Ings has been in a relationship with his wife since they were teenagers.<\/p>\n An Ings performance is a balancing act between careful attention to what he calls \u201cthe cadence of dialogue\u201d and physical improvisation, in which he lets loose and makes himself ridiculous. Filming \u201cThe Gentlemen\u201d gave Ings the opportunity for both. For a scene in which Freddy learns from his father\u2019s will that he won\u2019t get the inheritance he expects, Ings said he carefully prepared his lines of furious dialogue. But Ritchie, the episode\u2019s director, gave him free rein, take after take, Ings added, to see where the scene could take him. \u201cThere was an opportunity to rampage,\u201d Ings said, smiling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ritchie said in an emailed statement that the opportunity to evolve Eddie and Freddy\u2019s story over the course of eight hourlong episodes was \u201ctremendously liberating,\u201d compared with the restraints of a 2020 film<\/a>, also called \u201cThe Gentlemen,\u201d that he had made featuring a similar plot.<\/p>\n Ings\u2019s characters \u2014 including Freddy \u2014 are often loud, verbose and physically expressive. In person, the actor also spoke exuberantly with his hands and swore a lot. \u201cOn the one hand, he\u2019s very English,\u201d said Johnny Flynn, who starred alongside Ings in \u201cLovesick,\u201d \u201cbut in terms of his energy, it\u2019s more of an American comedy atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ings cited actors like Vince Vaughn and Robin Williams as his heroes. His dream role, he said, would be something similar to Williams on \u201cMork and Mindy,\u201d a sitcom that premiered in the late \u201970s, in which Williams played an extraterrestrial navigating life on Earth. Williams would \u201ccome in and just improvise these insane rants and physical comedy, or go bouncing around the set,\u201d Ings said.<\/p>\n Although Ings seemed happy in his posh cad niche, he said if he were to branch out, he would want to do more theater. He hasn\u2019t been onstage since 2013, when he provided comic relief as the Porter in a London production of \u201cMacbeth\u201d \u2014 though he wasn\u2019t interested in a yearlong, West End run. \u201cI know I would get bored,\u201d he said, \u201cand you can\u2019t improvise onstage \u2014 unless you\u2019re Mark Rylance.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, performing \u201cshould be fun for the audience, and fun for the community of people who were there on the day doing it,\u201d Ings said. \u201cBring back \u2018Mork and Mindy,\u2019 you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n