“I didn’t see it specifically,” Leo Woodall says as a sheepish smile, the one that broke countless hearts after Netflix canceled the romantic drama One Day in which he starred, appears on his face.
Woodall is well aware that there are a number of TikTok videos documenting viewers’ intense emotional response to the series, which depicts the slow, tortuous burn of would-be friends Dex (Woodall) and Emma (Ambika Maud) over 20 years. . His friends passed some, he says. But after exchanging pleasantries at the start of this video call in mid-May (with Woodall beaming from London), I share my screen to walk you through a recorded example of heartbreak.
He lets out a laugh as he prepares to attack.
There is a young woman wrapped in a green blanket, in various states of complete sadness. Another video shows a close-up of a young woman wiping tears from her face as she watches an early interaction between Dex and Emma with the caption: “2 days later, I’m still crying watching the edits.” The final video shows a viewer who has just finished the series, the camera focuses on her face as she desperate for a pillow. One by one, Woodall lets out a guilty squeal or “Oh, nooooo!” her when she shows them.
“We could watch them all day,” Woodall says as the brief presentation ends.
“I was very interested and wanted to know what people thought and how they felt about it,” Leo Woodall says of opening his One Day. He doesn’t need to worry.
(Jennifer McCord/for The Times)
“At first, when the show came out, I was trying to catch up on some of the reactions,” he adds. “I was very interested and concerned about what people thought and how they responded, if at all. But there is something cathartic and therapeutic about it. He needs a good cry. We spend a lot of time observing things. , and you don’t always have a real emotional response and I think the show has really managed to reach people’s hearts.”
It also helped raise the actor’s profile, taking him from an unknown figure to an international favorite. After a key supporting role in the second season of HBO’s “White Lotus,” playing the supposed “cousin” of a gay man who tries to scam Jennifer Coolidge’s wealthy character, the 27-year-old actor took the Internet by storm in February. sent mentally. with the release of an adaptation of David Nicholls’ best-selling novel. In the melancholic and anguished best friends story, previously adapted for the big screen in 2011 with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, Dexter Woodall is privileged and charismatic but emotionally tortured as the series humorously explores the evolution of their friendship and doggedly depicts it. . Best friend for two decades in one day.
“There’s definitely a certain kind of projection that people put on you,” he says. “I did it myself with the actors I saw. It’s a natural thing for you to do. It was an incredible feeling to be on the other side. You can’t take it too seriously. You should find it fun and move on with your life for a while. Too much focus on what I want to do. Now that’s just the fun part.”
Not that Woodall had much time to understand attention. Shortly after One Day premiered, he gushed on Instagram: “My trainers were going up and up and I was like, ‘Oh, cool,’ but then I was like, ‘I’m going to put my phone away.’” , he began working on the Nazi film “Nuremberg,” a film starring Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon and Rami Malek.
What’s next for Leo Woodall? He appears in the upcoming film Bridget Jones: Madness About a Boy.
(Jennifer McCord/for The Times)
Although Woodall comes from a family of actors (her parents met at drama school and she is a descendant of silent film star Maxine Elliott), she didn’t always dream of making a living as a performer. She thought maybe there was something athletic about her letters. She then discovered Peaky Blinders and Skins, and curiosity was piqued.
“I just remember I was on a gap year, working in a bar and not doing anything worthwhile for my future, and I guess I started thinking about it,” he says. “It was a few things: it was ‘Peaky Blinders,’ it was also ‘Skins.’ I watched two seasons that Jack O’Connell was in. Everything he does is good.” I started to learn how he got to where he was and how he played this character. And yes, watching ‘Peaky Blinders’ and feeling like he’s doing a Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) impression in the mirror. [Laughs] I had a hat on and I said, ‘Screw it, no one’s going to see it, I’m going to do it.’
In 2019, she graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts, where she studied acting before landing small roles in television shows such as Vampire Academy and The Citadel. She was filming “White Lotus” when she saw the film version of “One Day” as prep work for her audition: “I didn’t know how it was going to turn out.” “And I remember I was in my kitchen cooking something and I looked back for a second and Emma hit me. And I thought, ‘What the fuck… what? ‘How could you do this to us?!’”
Adding to his intrigue was, as he describes it, “a love story that really wasn’t just a love story. It’s about these two people growing up together and growing apart. It’s more about their “Will they make it?” friendship. Together?” I know that’s a big part of it, but you only see one thing. real friendship”. Then there’s the complexity of Dex’s journey.
“It’s incredibly fragile and vulnerable,” he says. “I think what I think about him, not just people in the world of this story, but also people who have seen the show now, is that he has kind of a reputation, and as it goes on you find out that he’s very insecure.” . He “He feels alone… most of the time he just wants to connect with the people he cares about. He is a big-hearted person and he is devastated.”
Woodall humbly jokes when asked what he’s learned about playing the lead: “Oh, I don’t know yet. Honestly, there is a lot to discover. At the beginning of filming he didn’t know exactly which foot to put forward. Then I said “just do your job and be polite.” But he is passionate about this chapter of his story.
“It’s very sweet, very funny,” he says. “I’ve been away from home for a long time and that can affect your happiness. So now I’m back in London and I’m very happy to come back and see all my people and continue working. I hope I can keep it. It’s the acting game, you never know. “There is momentum.”
