Photographer :Lane Dorsey
Editor :Rhonda McKnight
1. Where do you call home? What is your favorite country to visit?
I’m from Newcastle, in the north-east of England, and I will always call that home, but right now I am very happy to be living in Toronto. I’ve had a great time in lots of countries that I’ve visited. This fall alone, I enjoyed myself immensely in Tuscany, in Italy, and South Korea.
2. How long have you been acting and is there any other hidden talents?
I think my first professional acting role was in 2007, so quite a while now. I’m still a pretty good soccer player, in spite of my aging, perpetually injured body. Along similar lines, I have an almost unrivaled, encyclopedic knowledge of English football in the 1990s. I’m also something of a human thesaurus – if you can’t think of the right word, I’m your man.
3. We love your role now on The CW’s "Reign. How did you prepare to get into the character?
I didn’t have all that long to prepare in advance of starting the role, so it’s an ongoing process. I read about the real-life Robert Dudley. Luckily there is a lot of material about him, and specifically about his relationship with Queen Elizabeth. I also did some reading about the time and watched some films and television set in Tudor times. And then I prepared to throw all that knowledge away on the day and try to make Dudley a real human being, just like human beings in 2015.
4. What's the hardest thing about being an actor?
I don’t think any career is quite so beyond your control. It’s out of your hands. You can be a good, hard-working actor and still not work until someone decides you can. And that can be very hard to deal with. You need to have other things in your life that mean something to you, beyond the job. I always say…you would never walk past a soccer field in the park and see a guy playing who’s as good as Lionel Messi but who just never got picked up like a pro. But you could easily be in an acting class, or watching a play in some basement with 5 people in the audience, and see a wonderful actor who it just never quite happened for.
5. Have you ever done a Broadway Play or Musical? Have you ever had to act as something outrageous?
I have never worked on Broadway, but I have done quite a bit of stage work. A couple of outrageous ones spring to mind. My very first time on stage, I played Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I wore an electric blue lycra bodysuit and about 20 earrings and a nose ring, which was certainly outrageously embarrassing for a thirteen-year-old. And then a couple of years ago in Vancouver, I did a play called White Hot. My character was paid by a woman to punch her in the neck, an act that always elicited a gasp from the audience.
6. I want to highlight a few characters acting roles below tell us if you would or wouldn't or have acted like this.
a. vampire
I once guest-starred on an episode of Supernatural as a vampire. It was quite a clever set-up, whereby a brood of vampires was using the recent popularity of the Twilight films to ensnare teenage girls who wanted a vampire boyfriend. My brief was to channel my inner R-Patz. I got my head chopped off.
b. a zombie
I’m not all that interested in the undead genre, although I did really like 28 Days Later. I am, however, a famously slow walker, so that might help.
c. a very wealthy man
A well-known acting teacher once told me that I would either play the disappointing son of very wealthy, upper-class parents, or the overachieving son of poor parents. But for some reason, I’m never cast in anything in which you see my character’s parents at all.
g. a boxer
I’d like to do a project that forced me to get into great shape. I’ve done a tiny little bit of boxing in the past and I find it to be a great stress-reliever. My run looks funny on screen. I’m fast but my legs make up about 70% of my height. I’ve been compared to a gazelle.
h. a music artist/rocker
I once attempted to learn the guitar for a role in a movie. For two months, my friend Mike gave me lessons. He’s a great, patient teacher, and it was all going well until it came to singing and playing at the same time, which it turns out I am entirely incapable of doing. So I don’t think you once see my face and my guitar-playing hands in the same frame in the movie.
7. Can you let fans know are you single? What type of person are you attracted to and if you are single do you have a Hollywood crush?
I am not single, but I do have an abiding love for Penelope Cruz.
8. What actors would you love to work with that you have not and why?
To name but a few and in no particular order: Mark Rylance, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Fassbender, Paddy Considine, Peter Mullan, Ricky Gervais, Olivia Colman, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Marion Cotillard, Daniel Day-Lewis. Because they are all wonderful.
9. Are you on social media? If so where are fans each out and follow you?
I’m afraid I’m not a social media user. But please don’t hold it against me!