A new interview with Tom has been shared by BAFTA Guru, in which Tom shares some insight about how Da Vinci's Demons has changed his life as an actor and producer, possibly directing in season 4, along with some Kill Your Friends tit-bits. Read it in full on the website.
“My career’s been really odd. I have a weird psychological block that I can never remember the first two lines, no matter how hard I drill them in. It’s a disease, I can’t stop doing it.
The first audition I ever had was for something at the Royal Court called The Woman Before. I was still at drama school and I assumed I wouldn’t get it. I didn’t. But a month later I got a phone call two days before the show opened saying the guy who was going to play the part had dropped out and could I come in and do it.
With Da Vinci’s Demons, my American agents had sent the script, but I didn’t get to go in on it. I forgot all about it, but then I got a call from a casting director while I was shooting Monroe in Leeds saying they hadn’t been able to find a Leonardo and could I come down to London the next day and meet the creator David S. Goyer.
I was so unprepared, but it kind of took the pressure off. There were 10 people on the list [for the role] and I looked at the list and thought, ‘well, I’m not getting this!’ I went in and did it and felt something shift in the room. David kept giving me different versions of the scenes to do. I walked to Hammersmith station and before I got on the Tube my phone was ringing and it was my agent saying, ‘I don’t know what you just did in that room but they’ve called and said would you go to America immediately.’
I didn’t even have to audition for Starz (the channel), I just had to chat through what I thought about the character in a big, plush Los Angeles office. It’s changed my life in America. It’s led to lovely things being offered, rather than going through the rigmarole of auditioning. Before, I was going to the US and having to wait outside to meet a casting director’s assistant to see if I could meet a casting director. It was like starting again. That was always the case until Da Vinci came along...
...I think [Kill Your Friends] is going to be quite good. We panicked about the tone. Everyone in the film is a douchebag – myself included. It felt good on the set, but you never know until you see it. I remember me, Craig Roberts and Nicholas Hoult couldn’t get through scenes together, we were shaking with laughter. When you’re on a low-budget film and time is of the essence you know you mustn’t laugh anymore because you’re running out of time but that just makes it worse. I saw Nick in New York recently and he really seems positive about it. Which is nice – because you never know.”
