Quote Of The Day By Jack Lowden 'There Is Courage In Persevering, But There Is Courage In Calling It A Day As Well...'

Scottish actor Jack Lowden has been a rising star in the U.K. for the last decade, racking up eye-catching roles in movies like "Fighting With My Family" and Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk." 

But Lowden is now perhaps best known for playing downtrodden MI5 spy River Cartwright in Apple TV's "Slow Horses." The drama has quickly become one of the best British spy shows ever made, largely because it acts as an antithesis to James Bond's familiar suave antics on the big screen. While 007 gets embroiled in globetrotting conspiracies featuring explosions, superyachts, and love interests, the team in "Slow Horses" is more or less confined to the Slough House office in North London. 

The first trailer for "Slow Horses" Season 6 revealed that Cartwright and the team are on the run because of something murky that MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) has gotten into. The show, which is already renewed for Seasons 7, returns with Season 6 on Wednesday, September 16. To help tide us over as we await the next installment of "Slow Horses," we turn to Lowden for today's quote of the day.

"There is courage in persevering, but there is courage in calling it a day as well... I have more admiration for people that pivot and use [their skills] in a different way."

Jack Lowden's quote comes from a 2024 interview he did with the podcast "An Actor Despairs" while promoting "Slow Horses" Season 4. He explained how some of his friends in the film and TV industry decided to stop pursuing acting as a career to focus their efforts elsewhere. Lowden applauded those people for taking the skills they had learned as actors and using them in other positions within the industry.

Lowden also reflected on moments of self-doubt within his own career and how he learned to overcome his insecurities about being in front of the camera through repetition and experience. After working with A-list figures like Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, and Jack O'Connell, it seems that his approach has paid off.

It's a tough lesson to learn, but Jack Lowden's quote is about knowing when to throw in the towel instead of mindlessly persevering simply for the sake of never giving up. Though it's admirable to chase dreams and achieve goals, life doesn't always play out the way we want. In those instances, it can be beneficial to find a way to use your strengths in a different or unexpected way, even if it means pivoting away from an initial dream. 

By acknowledging that something isn't working, you give yourself space to learn and grow. And even if a specific dream hasn't been realized, it doesn't mean the time spent chasing it has been wasted. During the aforementioned interview, Lowden pointed out that people he knows in the industry are "wonderfully successful and having the time of their lives" because they've found new ways to use the skills they picked up while training to be actors.

While Lowden's comments may seem negative at first glance, he's highlighting the benefits of changing your path and celebrating the art of a good pivot. Sometimes it's important to slow down and evaluate whether pursuing your dream is still worth it. If it's not, walking away could open the door for an even better opportunity. 

• "If you speak to any soldier, even now, they say they are fighting for their friends. It always ends up that they're fighting for the man next to them." — from a 2014 interview with the BBC

• "One trap you can fall into when playing someone iconic is to end up doing everything in an iconic way, no matter how pedestrian or mundane that thing is." — from a 2017 interview with the Guardian

• "Everything always looked better in black and white. Everything always looked as if it were the first time; there's always more people in a black and white photograph. It just makes it seem that there were more people at a gig, more people at a football match, than with color photography. Everything looks more exciting." — from a 2017 interview with Independent

• "I love people that are triers. You know when someone sits opposite you and tries to be mysterious or cool, and you can just see through it. It's almost more honest to me when you see someone who is trying to be somebody else. By default, they then actually show you who they are." — from a 2020 interview with Gentleman's Journal