Leo Woodall and Haley Lu Richardson in series two of the White Lotus. Photo / Supplied
How did the Brit actor prepare for his new role? By watching videos of Joey Essex.
In between laughing and vaping, the British actor Leo Woodall is telling me about filming The White Lotus with its star, Jennifer Coolidge. “She’s exactly how you’d hope she would be, with that voice and extraordinary face,” he says. “The scene kicked off and we were improvising a bit. She’s a master of improv. And she just went [delivered with a near-perfect impression of her bewildered, dreamy voice], ‘I was on the beach today and I saw a squid the size of a wheelbarrow.’ It was so random and brilliant.”
For any actor, sharing a screen with Stifler’s Mom from American Pie, in one of the most-anticipated TV shows of the year, would be a big deal. For one whose previous credits consist of Holby City and the young-adult series Vampire Academy, it’s a very big deal indeed. Woodall, 26, is the breakout star in the standout series and, with a lead role as Dexter in One Day, a new Netflix adaptation of the beloved bestselling book, you’ll be hearing his name a lot soon.
If you’ve missed out on the joys of The White Lotus, which airs on Neon, let’s bring you up to speed. The first series came out of nowhere to become one of the most talked-about and critically lauded programmes of last year, winning six Emmys, including outstanding supporting actress for Coolidge. Set in a five-star luxury resort in Hawaii, the satirical HBO drama followed the narratives of its wealthy, pampered guests while the hotel’s manager slowly, painfully — and excellently — descended into breakdown. The sharp script, all written by the show’s creator, Mike White, tackled issues of race and social status.
The second series, which we are now halfway through, is set in Sicily and follows a new set of wealthy guests, including Aubrey Plaza, Tom Hollander and Theo James, who, due to a nude scene in the first episode, started trending on Twitter right after it aired. Coolidge’s Tanya is the only returning main character. This time the theme is, overwhelmingly, sex. Sex for pleasure, sex for power, sex for money and status; it’s all there. Coolidge’s assistant, Portia (played by Haley Lu Richardson), befriends the sweet, sensitive Albie, who despises misogyny and adores Portia. Enter Leo Woodall’s Jack, a hot, tattooed, sex-mad Essex boy on holiday with his gay uncle, Quentin (Hollander). Guess who Portia goes for.
“Jack’s a bit gross but a great excuse to be outlandish and get rid of any inhibitions,” says Woodall, who prepared for his audition by watching videos of Joey Essex. In the show he wears chunky rings and a silver chain, which they let him keep — and which he is wearing during our Zoom call. “In real life I’m a lot more sensitive than Jack is,” he adds.
There are, of course, some steamy sex scenes. Woodall is involved in one of the show’s most shocking ones (keep watching, you’ll see). “When I found out I was doing it, I couldn’t speak for ten seconds,” he says. “Then I thought, ‘That’s such a brilliant moment.’ They are weird to do but then you’re like, ‘Let’s just embrace it.’ We had intimacy co-ordinators and I felt very comfortable.”
He loved working with Hollander too. “Bit of a national tresh! The first scene we had together was my first scene on set and I wasn’t loving it, I was a bit overwhelmed. He came up to me afterwards, like, ‘You did really great, well done, it’s a lot to deal with. Everyone’s nervous.’ I thought what a lovely dude he was.”
Woodall grew up in Shepherd’s Bush and is from a family of actors. His father, Andrew Woodall, has performed on TV for decades and for the Royal Shakespeare Company, while his stepdad, Alexander Morton, has appeared in Shetland and Luther. “My grandmother was an actor, my grandfather was a theatre director, my sister works for a talent agency and a distant grandmother had her own off-Broadway theatre in New York.” Naturally his parents met at drama school.
Despite acting being in his DNA, it didn’t appeal to Woodall until he was 19. “I wasn’t interested,” he says. “I mucked around a lot as a teenager. Then I watched Jack O’Connell in Skins and thought, ‘Whoa, that looks fun,’ and then Peaky Blinders — and found myself wearing a flat cap, looking in the mirror pretending to be Thomas Shelby [Cillian Murphy’s main character].
“That’s when I started to think about it more. I asked my mum and stepdad for advice. They said, ‘Go to drama school.’”
Two years after graduating he landed The White Lotus. “When I got the call from my agents, I lost it,” he chuckles. Filming took place over four months earlier this year. The main hotel is the Four Seasons in Taormina, perched high above rocks overlooking the Ionian Sea. “It was paradise,” Woodall says. “The first two weeks I just kept thinking, ‘I do not deserve to be here.’ Just staying in the Four Seasons and walking around beautiful Taormina, and the camaraderie of hanging out with other cast members, it was the best time of my life and I’m very proud of it.”
Then, mid-filming, he found out he had got the part of Dexter. “That was a much longer process [than The White Lotus]. There were five or six different rounds. When I got the call I breathed a sigh of relief and they told me not to tell anyone. I obviously then told Meghann [Fahy, who plays Daphne in Lotus] and people back home.”
One Day, by David Nicholls, follows the relationship between Dexter and Emma, each chapter taking place on July 15 over 20 years. In this series each of the 14 episodes will tackle a different day. “I’m glad because it needs a lot of time,” says Woodall, who read the book for the first time during the audition process. “Dexter is very privileged but I didn’t want to make him super-posh, which I think they [the producers] liked about my take on it. Bad things happen to him but I love his glowy, sparkly exterior when, underneath, there is real darkness.” Nicholls is one of the producers and they are halfway through filming.
After that Woodall plans to take a break. But not for too long. “I love the unknown about being an actor,” he says. “The ideal would be going from job to job. I’m not sure I’d want to work on something for seven years. Then again, if Breaking Bad happened again, I’d sign up!”
The White Lotus is available to stream on Neon.
Written by: Scarlett Russell
© The Times of London
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