Who plays Lars Hutton in The Rig? We explain the character of Lars Hutton and the career of the actor who portrayed him.
January is usually a dark period on the TV and film calendar, coming straight after Christmas and the over-indulgences of the holiday season. Production companies are weary to put out their most promising content during this period of the year, and customers themselves are evidently tightening the purse strings at home, after overspending in December.
Regardless of these common trends, Prime Video has released supernatural thriller The Rig in the cursed dump months to huge success, with the six-part drama becoming rather popular for the streaming site. Fans of the series are eager to find out more about the show’s many mysteries. While plenty of viewers are interested in the controversial character of Lars Hutton and want to know who he is portrayed by.
Who plays Lars Hutton in The Rig?
The character of Lars Hutton is played by Welsh actor Owen Teale. Hutton is one of the more outspoken crew members aboard the Kinloch Bravo oil rig, one who is quite aggressive and violent at times, which makes him a rather detested character on the whole. Throughout the series, this highly frustrating individual is quite antagonistic toward the rig’s management, and he causes no end of trouble aboard the drilling platform.
The series itself focuses on the large team that works aboard the Kinloch Bravo oil rig, which is situated 150 miles off the Scottish coast in the North Sea. The team is scheduled to return to the mainland, but a mysterious fog suddenly covers the surrounding area, cutting off communications with the outside world, stranding them all out at sea. Of course, the fog brings its own dangers and the crew must confront deadly forces that are hard to comprehend if they are to ever make it home alive.
The Rig is created by David MacPherson, who writes the majority of the episodes. With a handful of episodes directed by John Strickland (The Flight Attendant and Line of Duty) and Alex Holmes. Owen Teale is joined by an impressive cast that includes Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek), Iain Glen (Game of Thrones), and Martin Compston (Line of Duty).
What else has Owen Teale starred in?
Owen Teale is a character actor who has been starring in film and TV roles since the mid-1980s. The Rig marks his latest TV credit, however, the thespian has amassed a successful career on the small screen for many decades now, mainly appearing in British shows, but he has been known to dip his toe into American dramas from time to time as well.
Quite fittingly, Teale’s first-ever TV role was in Doctor Who, another sci-fi series. He played the character of Maldak in two episodes, back in 1985. Since then, he has starred in countless dramas, including David Copperfield, Spooks, Midsomer Murders, Torchwood, The Hollow Crown, and Line of Duty. Teale portrayed Chief Inspector Phillip Osborne in three episodes of Line of Duty back in season one of the hit series and then returned as the Chief Constable in 2021 for five further installments.
Owen Teale has also performed in multiple film roles over the decades, most notably his appearance as Brian Vokes in 2020’s Dream Horse and playing Headmaster Gilson in the biopic Tolkien. Yet it is Teale’s roles in American television that will have caught most viewers’ attention. He is credited as Peter Knox in Sky One’s fantasy drama series A Discovery of Witches, and then there’s that HBO show that everybody keeps talking about.
What is Owen Teale known for?
Probably Owen Teale’s most noteworthy role is playing the recurring character of Alliser Thorne in the fantasy series Game of Thrones, appearing in nineteen episodes over four seasons. Alliser Thorne is the Master of Arms at Castle Black, where he is responsible for training new recruits for the Night’s Watch. A great warrior, Thorne rose through the ranks to his esteemed position. In season one, he trained Jon Snow (Kit Harington), although the two were at odds with one another, due to Thorne’s resentment of the character. Thorne had it in for Jon from day one and purposefully makes his life a misery.
Teale would return to the role in seasons four, five, and six to portray Alliser Thorne once again. Over these seasons, Thorne and Jon Snow’s relationship would evolve. Thorne is a complex character that develops over the many seasons. It’s a role that Teale plays exceptionally, one that is not too dissimilar from his other surly, aggressive roles in his filmography. Teale may be slightly typecast, but he makes the most of this and has mined a highly successful career for himself over the many decades.
