Leo Woodall’s CV from his days at London’s ArtsEd drama college reads extra like that of an athlete than an actor.
He’s ’extremely expert’, it says, in basketball and soccer, and boasts experience in badminton, cricket, darts, stage fight, swimming, desk tennis, tennis and volleyball.
There may be scant point out of his potential on stage or display, save for a few accent proficiencies (American, Cockney and Estuary English) and a notice that he can sing ’excessive baritone’ if required.
Certainly, Leo, 27, the breakout star and raffish heartthrob from tear-jerking Netflix sequence One Day — which has been considered by greater than 15 million folks in a fortnight — was a late convert to appearing.
’Rising up I wished to be a PE instructor or a stuntman,’ he lately admitted.
But from a younger age, Leo’s older brother Gabriel may see he had a star high quality that drew him inexorably in direction of the highlight.
Mod and Woodall have shaped a ’shut bond’ and friendship since making the hit sequence
From a younger age, Leo’s household may see he had a star high quality that drew him inexorably in direction of the highlight. Pictured: Along with his brother Gabriel, far left, father Andrew, left, and sister Connie
Netflix One Day Ep13 – exhibiting Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) in his Café Belleville
The restaurant the place Emma works, this was really filmed on the Outdated Suffolk Punch pub in London
’From the second my household and I noticed Leo play Goggles The Penguin within the Yr Two college play, all of us mentioned it,’ jokes Gabriel, 31.
His father, Andrew, in the meantime — an actor who has had roles in Casualty and Grantchester — used to observe his two sons re-enacting scenes from The Matrix and Lord Of The Rings within the playground in Hammersmith, West London, the place they grew up.
Sarcastically, Andrew, 60, used to attempt to discourage his son from following in his footsteps, telling him: ’No matter you do, do not be a f***ing actor.’
However he is not the one thespian affect in Leo’s life. Mum Jane, 62, additionally went to drama college, and have become deputy principal at Leo’s alma mater in Chiswick.
After her divorce from Leo’s dad, she later married Alexander Morton, one other actor, finest recognized for his function in Monarch Of The Glen.
Uncle Ed Woodall is an actor, director and motion coach, and Leo’s older sister Connie, 32, works within the trade as an agent.
The Woodalls, then, are very a lot within the enterprise of showbusiness. However nepotism has nothing to do with Leo’s speedy rise to fame.
Those that know him insist he alone — with that boy-next-door appeal and piercing blue eyes, which have drawn comparisons to a younger Brad Pitt — holds the key to his success.
On display in One Day, Leo performs troubled Dexter Mayhew, starring alongside Ambika Mod as Emma Morley, the on-off finest mates from David Nicholls’ heart-wrenching, best-selling 2009 novel.
Woodall seems reverse This Is Going To Damage star Ambika Mod, 28, in One Day in his first lead function
Although Leo insists he is nothing like Dexter (’a d***’, he proclaims), there are specific parallels: each hail from well-off households (Leo’s household is listed in The Peerage as his paternal grandmother was the daughter of a baronet) and each are, to make use of the actor’s personal phrases, ’a bit spoilt’ — Leo on account of being the youngest of three siblings.
As a baby, remembers his proud stepsister Kerry Morton, a video creator and artist who lives in Essex, he was a ’bouncy two-year-old’ whom she remembers ’breaking all of the sofas in the home [by] bouncing on them’.
Leo credit Kerry with serving to him good his Essex accent for Jack, the character he performed in darkly comedian sequence The White Lotus alongside Tom Hollander. He additionally met his girlfriend, American actress Meghann Fahy, on set.
’I am from West London, however there are positively lots of people I do know from Essex. My stepsister’s from Essex, so it was enjoyable to lean into that,’ he mentioned in a current interview.
Up till the age of 11, his household says Leo was comfortable. Quiet and well-behaved, his father as soon as described him as ’a taciturn baby’.
Nevertheless, secondary college proved a battle, exposing him to bullies and violence. One classmate pinned him by his neck to a wall; one other beat him on the chest. As soon as, at a home get together, somebody threatened to stab him if he did not hand over a pair of gloves.
The affect on Leo was dramatic. At house he turned withdrawn and introverted, too anxious to depart the home. At college, he says, he placed on a personality.
Leo and his brother Gabriel with their mom Jane, who additionally went to drama college the place she met his father
’I began shaving my eyebrows,’ he mentioned. ’I shaved my head. I wore a hood on a regular basis, modified the best way I talked. It was a type of survival intuition, I believe. To slot in. However I wasn’t good. I lashed out. My mum was frightened.’ As of late, Leo credit ’the darkish years’ with giving him materials: the explanation, maybe, he’s so typically forged as an angsty, tormented younger man.
Finding out wasn’t his forte — ’I did not actually give a f*** about my grades, so it wasn’t like I may simply go to school to check economics’ — and after college he ended up working in a bar, smoking weed, with out function or route.
Sitting up late one night time watching Peaky Blinders, the gangster drama starring Bafta-winner Cillian Murphy, he realised his calling had been staring him within the face all alongside.
He enrolled at Andrew Lloyd Webber-backed ArtsEd, graduating in 2019 with a BA in appearing.
His first break was a small half in Holby Metropolis. Subsequent got here Cherry, the 2021 motion thriller by the Russo brothers, starring Spider-Man star Tom Holland.
He caught the eye of the administrators, who forged him of their spy sequence, Citadel, alongside Hollywood big-hitters Richard Madden and Stanley Tucci.
English actor Leo Woodall , 27, has been in comparison with Brad Pitt after profitable a legion of followers taking part in charming Dexter Mayhew in Netflix smash-hit One Day
After that got here Emmy-winning sequence The White Lotus.
On his father’s suggestion, he was really binge-watching the primary sequence whereas laid up in a resort room with Covid when the e-mail got here from his agent asking him to go for an audition for the second sequence in 2021, doing what he has since referred to as ’the best job I will ever have’.
He could also be barely biased: it was right here he met Meghann, 33, a former Broadway actress from Massachusetts, who’s appeared on Gossip Lady and Regulation & Order.
Leo auditioned for One Day whereas nonetheless filming The White Lotus. He hadn’t learn the e-book, solely simply managed to observe the panned 2011 movie (starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess), and will barely stroll as he’d slipped a disc.
At this stage, he was nonetheless a complete unknown, however says he knew he’d obtained the half when he noticed the casting director in tears throughout considered one of his display checks.
Woodall has gelled again his lengthy hair at plenty of pink carpet appearances, simply as 60-year-old Pitt used to do
Getting used to the eye his newfound fame brings has been onerous to take care of. At the moment, he lives in London along with his brother, spends loads of time with household and mates and — for probably the most half — avoids self-promotion.
As he places it: ’I believe work is the explanation we do that and… there’s some enjoyable available. However aside from that… I hold tight to the perfect folks in my life and I do not get too connected to the hoo-ha.’
He ended up watching The White Lotus, which comprises a number of raunchy scenes, along with his brother — a mistake he wasn’t going to make with One Day, which he considered alone, logged in to the Netflix account he shares along with his mum.
’I used to be so nervous about what household would consider me as an actor,’ he admits. ’I’ve all the time felt this private strain to make it. They usually’ve all the time been great and supportive.’
So, along with his thespian household firmly behind him, and appearing in his blood, what’s subsequent for this red-hot younger star?
David Nicholls has in contrast him to a few of Hollywood’s main males: Robert Redford, Mark Ruffalo and Ryan Gosling. One reviewer described him as ’a twister of charisma’. He is even been tipped as the subsequent James Bond.
And Leo? When requested about his future, he replied: ’Now that I get requested this query, I ought to in all probability consider a solution.’
Maybe fittingly for the boy who by no means wished to be an actor, he is obtained completely no concept.