Veteran actor Bill Nighy has said he wants to have a “very belated action career”.The 76-year-old is known for embodying a myriad of characters across genres, from cursed octopus-like sea captain Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean to his Bafta award-winning performance as washed-up rock star Billy Mack in Love Actually.Nighy has rarely, however, taken on action-based roles or explored the genre, the exception being 2010’s Wild Target, where he played a hitman, with the actor claiming he is “looking to do more of that”.He now stars as the boss of an assassination agency in the Prime Video series, Ride or Die, which follows Debbie Claybourne, played by Octavia Spencer, who finds out her best friend, Judith Burton, played by Hannah Waddingham, is an international assassin when a plan goes wrong.Speaking to Metro, Nighy said: “I played a hitman. It was the only other time I’ve ever used a gun, I think, until I got to this one, where I do actually shoot a pistol at one point.“I’m always pleased for that, and I’m looking to do more of that. I want a very belated action career.“It is a kind of introduction to that world, to the world of romantic action comedy, you might say. So, I’m in the right world. I’m in the genre world. I like being in the genre world.“I like it as a thing; I just find it kind of benign. Those kinds of films are beloved, and I like to be a part of it.”It comes after Nighy previously joked in an interview with The Guardian that he could be “James Bond’s grandfather”.[ Bill Nighy: ‘I’m pretending to be Irish. So God help us all. May my mother forgive me’Opens in new window ]He went on to describe how, despite playing a range of characters across genres throughout his career, he would not mind being typecast.“You get considered for a kind of line of parts, although I am fortunate to be offered a variety of things, (but) I don’t actively seek out doing eccentric parts,” Nighy said.“I love genre, so I love being a vampire, I love being a squid man, I love being a werewolf, I love being all those kinds of things.“People often say, ‘I don’t want to get typecast’. I’d love to be typecast. It would be so great to go to work and just walk and talk and not have to put on a battle skirt or put on 250 dots on your face and wear cosmic pyjamas.”Nighy is also known for playing the eccentric father James Lake in 2013’s About Time, vampire Viktor in 2003’s Underworld and Mr Williams in the 2022 film Living, which follows a civil servant who decides to take time off work after receiving a life-changing medical diagnosis. – PA