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You’ve talked about “Patrick Melrose” being a dream role for you. Why was this character so appealing?

There were a lot of appeals, but primarily, I guess, it’s the journey he goes on. It’s the scope of one man’s extraordinary circumstances and the shift of someone who begins as a victim of child abuse and devolves into a drug addict, and the continuing trauma upsetting any stability within his own family.

Finally, being able to deploy the special equipment needed to pull free from that gravity to become someone who has survived and who is going to be integrated into society in a positive way with love and trust. The ghosts are still there, but he can live with them because he’s going to do something good with his life. There’s a profound attraction to the role because that’s quite a journey to go on by any actor’s standards. And then on top of that, you have the most beautiful form in the books and in the episodic structure that David Nicholls manufactured. [Mr. Nicholls wrote the script.] You have the most searing, acerbic, dazzling wit and you have that shifting from hilarity to profundity or tragedy in a heartbeat.

[Read about the Emmy nominations. | See a list of nominees.]

The novels have such a distinct prose. As you began to prepare for the role, were you intimidated at all about bringing those words to life?

Of course, because some of the most profound achievements of the book are deflections or metaphors or reflections of the human condition, or a peculiar aspect of an extreme experience. Not all of those can be turned into dialogue or action, or the kind of things that move the story along.