Leo Woodall F*cking Loves It

It takes about 15 milliseconds in the presence of Leo Woodall to clock why he has become the go-to movie boyfriend of his generation. To start with the obvious, there’s the boyish handsomeness, the blue eyes that shimmer like big swimming pools — attributes that have drawn comparisons to the other Leo at his matinee idol peak. The 29-year-old bounces up to my table in a London hotel restaurant with the lightness of a helium balloon. It’s a nice enough day for mid-May, at least in England, so at his suggestion, we switch to the courtyard. We take our seats, and he is surrounded by bright blue flower bulbs.

Like the boy-next-door charmers he has portrayed in the likes of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, in which he played the younger muse to Renée Zellweger’s chronically unlucky-in-love lead, or One Day, the Netflix romantic TV epic that must’ve caused a worldwide tissue shortage, he is approachable and thoughtful, prone to occasional long pauses between answers and, sometimes, words. He’s also a proper bloke who swears like a sailor, or at least like any other British guy in his late 20s. “Let’s get pissed,” he jokes, as we settle outside. Glorious as a beer might be, we opt instead for a few coffees. He sips his iced latte from underneath a Stetson trucker cap, which along with a tan jacket gives his look today a workwear vibe.

Since breaking out as an Essex lad in The White Lotus Season 2, he’s rounded out those romance-leaning comedies and TV dramas — including this year’s Netflix adaptation of the hit novel Vladimir, in which he plays a professor’s (Rachel Weisz) object of obsession — with even twistier fare. Last year, he led the swishy Apple TV+ drama Prime Target as a gifted mathematician who becomes embroiled in a global conspiracy. Now comes the most fascinating wrinkle in his career to date: Tuner, a frenetic, Safdie-coded, New York heist thriller in which he stars as a hearing-impaired piano tuner who discovers a knack for cracking safes. It’s the sort of complex, rich, character-led indie that can make or break a young actor, but Woodall thrives in the pressure cooker of a movie, proving his classic-leading-man bona fides in a cast that places him alongside Dustin Hoffman, one of the most iconic leading men of all.

Woodall is still kind of playing the movie boyfriend — there’s a prominent romantic subplot in which he falls for Bottoms’ Havana Rose Liu — but it’s the kind of performance that should bust any preconceived notions of who he is as an actor. Ahead, we get into Tuner, his coming role in the Bourdain biopic Tony, why he’s moving away from rom-coms, his love of The Lord of the Rings (though he stays mum on his just-announced role in the upcoming prequel), and resisting self-criticism.

This is probably the first time that people get to see you take on this classic, leading-man-type role in a New York indie. You really get to flex your acting chops in a different way from your previous projects. Was that a draw?

Yeah. I mean, I didn’t really think about it so much at the time, but I played a lead in a movie about six, seven years ago — a film called Nomad [that hasn’t been released yet] — and then, after that, I had a good run at telly. So I was in a space where I was looking much more towards films, and it was a kind of happy accident that this role was available. But I just loved the script. I knew that Dustin was attached, so that was a wonderful pull.

Was Dustin an actor you looked up to growing up?

Oh yeah, 100%. All the President’s Men, one of my favorite films. Same with Kramer vs. Kramer. Growing up, Hook was a big one for me.

A staple of British households around Christmastime.

He’d sometimes do the voice on set, as well, which was f*cking sick.

Was that unprompted, or were you asking him to?

No! I think the director [Daniel Roher, best known as an Oscar-winning documentarian] and he had a very good shorthand. Being a first-time feature director, Daniel had never worked with actors, so I was so curious as to what the dynamic was going to be with him and Dustin, but they just clicked. It felt like they were already very good friends, or soulmates, in some kind of way. So he’d ask him to do it. But if morale was low at any point, he would just sort of go… [Woodall adopts a pitch-perfect Hoffman-as-Hook impression] “I hate, I hate, I hate Peter Pan!” And it would just bring everyone’s spirits up.

How did you feel when you met him for the first time?

Look, it’s intimidating to meet your heroes, but you get used to it the more you do this and go to parties, premieres, or award shows. Knowing you’re about to go to work with this person grounds you a bit. But it also, on the flip side, gives you a valid reason to be incredibly nervous.

What other experiences stand out in your mind when you’ve met people you’ve really admired?

I met Kate Winslet at the BAFTAs. And I also met Leo that night at the BAFTA after-party.

The other Leo.

I’d only really put two and two together that it was Kate and Leo on the same night. They were both lovely, but Kate — it was such a wonderful interaction. I was like, “Wow, I just met Kate Winslet.” Leo, however… I just made a f*cking tit of myself.

How so?

We were crossing paths through a doorway, and he went, “How you doing?” And I went, “Good. We have the same name.” And he was like, “Cool, man. Nice to meet you.” And I was like, “Why the f*ck… Why was that the thing you say to Leonardo DiCaprio? Why don’t you just say hey?” You get tongue-tied.

“I like to think that I’m an approachable guy you can have a decent chat with. But putting pressure on performing — when it’s not the actual work — isn’t something I’m interested in.”

You obviously came into the public eye within the past three or four years with The White Lotus and One Day. I should imagine that’s quite a lot of pressure. You have to be on all the time, right?

Yeah, you do. It’s a daily battle to balance being on and being yourself. I’ve been pretty good at keeping a sense of humor about it all from the beginning, which has helped. Knowing that a lot of it is just f*cking silly, like, you met Kate Winslet tonight — that’s f*cking cool! Go and brag about it with your friends and have a laugh, but don’t think it’s anything more serious than that.

Social media is a new element of being in the public eye in a kind of scary way. I don’t really partake in it. I’ve had times where I think, “Oh sh*t, I should really be far more present on social media.” But really, I just don’t give a f*ck. It’s not really who I am.

That’s part and parcel with being an actor now, that kind of self-promotion, right? I’ve heard apocryphal stories about how certain studios will only cast certain actors if they have a significant following.

Yeah, it’s true. I don’t know the influence that my number of followers has on whether I get [a job] or not. I know that I want it to be about me, and my work, and what I would bring to a role, rather than the demographic or the followers that I would bring.

It sounds like authenticity is important to you at this stage in your career. I don’t want to make that sound like a buzzword.

Don’t most people? I think most people want that for themselves and want that from others. There’s a danger of giving too much of yourself away for something that isn’t that reciprocal.

I’ve done Graham Norton twice now, and I was so f*cking nervous for both of them. The first time I did it, I had this pit in my stomach all day. And then it went well, and it was like, “Oh, that was actually quite fun, everyone was great, blah blah blah.” And then the last time I was on, I found myself still so nervous. It went well, it was fun, but literally walking off that set, I was like, “Why the f*ck did I give so much of myself away to that?” Not to the show, not to Graham or the other guests — because you want to show up. But it felt like I’d given a little part of my soul away to be present on that show.

There was a moment where I was just like, “It doesn’t f*cking matter.” You are who you are. I like to think that I’m an approachable guy who you can have a decent chat with. Ultimately, putting pressure on performing when it’s not the actual work just isn’t something that I’m interested in.

Where do you think that anxiety comes from?

Mainly stage fright. But also, there was the added element of, “What if people think I’m really boring?” [Laughs] I was told right before the show that I was gonna be at the end of the sofa, and I immediately was like, “But that’s where the comedians usually sit. I’m not supposed to be there. I’m not funny enough, or cool enough, or chatty enough to be there.”

How do those anxieties manifest when you approach a job? Because in Tuner, you’re in, by my count, pretty much every single scene, and it kind of lives or dies based on your performance. I wonder if that’s on your mind going into it.

Yeah, but that to me is healthy anxiety, compared to what I was chatting about. I really cared about doing the best job I could. I really cared about bringing my A game. I was also thinking, “I’m gonna be acting with Dustin Hoffman. If I’m not on my A game, something’s gonna go very wrong.” But luckily, when someone is that good, they make you better.

“If you tell me I can’t have a beer in the summer, I’m immediately going to want to go to a pub and have a beer.”

You’ve done a series of romantic roles now: Bridget Jones, which is kind of like the apex of doing a rom-com; One Day; and a more twisted romance with Vladimir. Are you ever thinking, “Maybe I need to explore a different genre space, so that people don’t just think of me as this”?

I am fairly strategic, but ultimately I go with my gut. Before Bridget Jones, it was a conversation I was having about drifting away from romance, and then Bridget Jones was going to happen, and I was just like, “I wanna do it. I wanna be part of that.” I’m conscious of it, but I’m not in a place where I have some strict aversion to romance, because a lot of times it’s hard to avoid in films.

It’s a prominent subplot in Tuner.

Exactly. I think if we’re talking rom-coms, then no, I’m not going after them, and I’m probably not, at this stage in life, wanting to do them that much. But I also kind of look forward to the next time I do a rom-com, because they’re fun.

I have to ask about Tony. Were you ever a Bourdain guy?

No. I was slapped on the wrist by American people when I was like, “Who’s Anthony Bourdain?” Because over there, to some people, he is that f*cking dude, and coming to learn more about him, yeah! He was a f*cking dude! And I think Dominic does a really good job.

I was going to ask what he’s like as a young Bourdain.

He’s great. The film is at the very beginning of his journey to becoming a cook, and I think we joked that he didn’t realize what he was signing up for, because Bourdain at that point [wasn’t] the cool guy that people think of him as. He’s just witnessing all these other people. My character was an amalgamation of the drugs, sex, and rock ’n’ roll that he kind of became. His role in the movie, at this point of his life, is like, not really knowing how to be rock ’n’ roll. And he does a really good job of [playing this] already slightly tortured soul.

Are you a capital-C cinema guy, or are you more of a blockbuster franchise guy?

It’s pretty varied. I f*cking love movies. I love the big franchises. I love Marvel. I love an action movie.

Do you have a Letterboxd?

I do. I’m not going to tell you [what it is].

A secret one.

I have a secret one, but it keeps changing. I don’t really have a preference on either. My Letterboxd will give me a bit of both. It’ll be Lord of the Rings, and it’ll also be Good Will Hunting.

It’s a pretty good time for you to be doing that Lord of the Rings rewatch right now.

I do it at least once a year.

Because we’re the same age, right? It’s such a zillennial staple. It’s Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

Harry Potter is in my Letterboxd as well. I f*cking love Harry Potter.

What is it about acting that you find most fulfilling?

You search for it, because it really doesn’t happen a lot. [But it’s] those moments of chaos, those moments of unpredictability. When you’re there with your scene partner, and you’re just kind of locked in. The safety belt is unlocked. And you just feel like you’re on autopilot, in a good way, and you’re not in your head, and you’re not planning the next thing. You’re just completely present. It’s a wonderful f*cking feeling.

What are some of the downsides that you’ve found in this stage of your career, with all the attendant scrutiny that comes?

If I ever find myself comparing myself to anyone else, it never leads to anything good. It always makes you feel bad in some way, and you kind of judge yourself. You’re like, “Why am I even doing that? Why am I even comparing myself to them?” That, I’d say, is maybe a downside, but it doesn’t exist that often. I am quite private, and keeping that intact does get harder and harder.

Can you go to a Chelsea game without being stopped right now?

I wouldn’t f*cking go to a Chelsea game right now. [Laughs] I don’t know, to be honest. I haven’t been to a game since last season. The idea of not being able to be completely anonymous — that can make things you would otherwise just enjoy a little more, I don’t know, intense.

There was an interview you did around Bridget Jones where it seemed like you were alluding to pressures around male body image that exist for actors in rom-com roles. Do you think male actors are still expected to conform to a particular kind of physical or aesthetic standard? And how do you deal with that?

I mean, it depends on who you speak to. Ultimately, there is a sort of expectancy or pressure to have 0% body fat. I love being in shape. And I hate being out of shape. I think what is determined as “being in shape” is maybe a little askew when you throw a camera into the mix, or you throw an audience into the mix, or you throw social media into the mix; the bar is so high. If I could f*cking wake up every day, and eat and drink what I want, and just have a dirty six-pack, I’d do it. But it’s just not really me.

I’ll do it for a role, if it’s appropriate, and if it’s required. But then sometimes I’m like, even if you’re not playing the boy in Bridget Jones, or you’re not playing an MMA fighter, should you just do it anyway? Other lads look great when they’re getting their kit off. I don’t wanna be lazy. Part of me also doesn’t want to conform to it too much. Like, if you tell me I can’t have a beer in the summer, I’m immediately going to want to go to a pub and have a beer. But then there are also moments where I knew that I could have done more. I could have been better.

Like when?

I could have been in better shape for Vladimir, I reckon. But I didn’t really commit to it enough. And then the show came out, and I’m like, “I could have looked better in that.” You’re forced to have these conversations with yourself where you maybe are a little too hard on yourself.

Do you have a reflex for self-criticism when you watch yourself back?

Actually, I’m fairly good at it. I know people that just can’t watch anything that they’re in, because they’re in it. And I think that’s a shame. Maybe it’s the little kid in me, or the younger actor in me that had a dream, but I enjoy it. I think there’s a lot of space to enjoy that sh*t. When those opening credits of Bridget Jones start rolling after that 10-minute awful gut punch, and the David Bowie kicks in, and it’s her dancing, and it’s f*cking Bridget Jones and my name pops up, I was like, “F*ck, yeah! This is so sick.” Enjoy it. It would’ve been such a shame if I was too critical of myself to not be able to enjoy those little moments.

Top image credit: Burberry clothing and shoes.