The LAMDA Notices -issue 11 (2009) has a section with academy alumni successes and includes a lovely headshot of Tom (only tiny - no big ones out there) and a short interview.
Tom Riley Three Year Acting Course (Class of 2005)
Big break? Stepping in at the last minute to replace one of the lead roles in The Woman Before at the Royal Court, whilst still in my third year, was the lucky break that meant casting directors and producers around London sat up and took notice.
Career highlight to date? Fresh out of LAMDA and full of arrogance and naivety, I slightly took for granted a moment when I was sitting in a Venetian Palazzo with Juliette Binoche and Nick Nolte as the sun set, whilst shooting my first ever film [Quelques Jours En Septembre]. It is once you actually get out there that you realise moments like that are few and far between, and that every opportunity should be cherished.
Favourite memory of LAMDA? Mark Bell’s physical theatre classes. Like everyone else, I spent the first year resisting it but, looking back, I discovered more in those classes about different ways to approach the craft than in anything before or since. If I could tell the ’first year me’ that this would be the case, he’d probably laugh and punch me in the face.
Besides training, what else has LAMDA given you? The invaluable support of John Studzinksi CBE and the Genesis Foundation, as well as lifelong friends.
