Tom Riley
Tom Riley
Tom Riley is an English actor and producer...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionActor
Date of Birth5 April 1981
actors assured
When you change a lead actor, everything's going to change - but you can rest assured he's going to absolutely smash it.
apartment basement gym lack love treadmill
I love to run. When the weather's bad, I should get on the treadmill in the basement gym of my apartment building, but I lack the motivation.
angles certain enables good handsome hollywood leading lucky others quite roles
I'm quite lucky in that at certain angles I look all right, and at others I don't look so good, which enables me to play some leading roles and some stranger, more 'character'-type parts. I wouldn't say I'm the conventional handsome Hollywood leading man.
audience drop highlight intimacy last love performing squeeze stage
Performing on stage is my first love - it's why I wanted to be an actor in the first place - and 'Arcadia' is the highlight of my career so far. I love the intimacy of a live theatre audience - you can really squeeze every last drop out of each scene.
chance experience great life mix observe people university various walks
University was a chance to people-watch and to mix with people from all various walks of life, which as an actor is a great experience because you get to observe people.
experience gained helped inform
I feel like the experience I gained at university has really helped to inform me as far as who I wanted to become as an actor and what I wanted to do.
aura brad certain change deal feeling ignore people pitt room seen strangest superstar trying walks
There's a certain aura when a superstar like Brad Pitt walks into a room - I've seen it myself - but it comes from everyone else going, 'Aaaahhh!!' That's what you have to deal with, people looking at you and whispering. That would be the strangest thing, feeling the change as you walk in a room and trying to ignore it. But I think I could cope!
copied dad
I can jump on to a kitchen worktop from standing, like Tigger. It was something my dad could do, and I copied it from him.
record worked
I worked in restaurants, bars, record stores; I did anything and everything to pay my way through university and LAMDA.
chased
The thing about 'Doctor Who' is it's chased around the world, so there's 50 fans hanging out at every location.
characters episode including loved single steve themselves within
I loved Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's 'Inside No 9.' The way that they constrained each episode to a single location, then tasked themselves with including completely new characters every week, within a single half-hour.
article birmingham bunch directed england english knew north radio stuff theater university wrote
I went to university in the north of England at University of Birmingham to do an English literature degree, and I knew I could do extracurricular stuff with theater and drama. I started a theater company, called Article 19, and I did it with a bunch of friends. I wrote and directed plays. I had a radio show.
amazing backstage introduce meeting saw since tom
In America, celebrities who go to see your show will come backstage and introduce themselves. Meeting Annette Bening and Ethan Hawke that way was amazing, but when Tom Hanks came, it was really special - I've loved him since I first saw him in 'Big!'
gigantic mix people period quite school social sure
What you don't get necessarily at drama school is a gigantic mix of people. At university, there's people from every social background, and you get to go through that period of being naive and not quite sure who you're going to be.