Bullied in school however now billed as the brand new Brad Pitt: Leo Woodall

Leo Woodall‘s CV from his days at London‘s ArtsEd drama faculty reads extra like that of an athlete than an actor.

He is ‘extremely expert’, it says, in basketball and soccer, and boasts experience in badminton, cricket, darts, stage fight, swimming, desk tennis, tennis and volleyball.

There is scant point out of his capability on stage or display screen, save for a few accent proficiencies (American, Cockney and Estuary English) and a be aware that he can sing ‘excessive baritone’ if required.

Indeed, Leo, 27, the breakout star and raffish heartthrob from tear-jerking Netflix sequence One Day — which has been seen by greater than 15 million individuals in a fortnight — was a late convert to appearing.

‘Growing up I wished to be a PE instructor or a stuntman,’ he not too long ago admitted.

Yet from a younger age, Leo’s older brother Gabriel might see he had a star high quality that drew him inexorably in direction of the highlight. 

‘From the second my household and I noticed Leo play Goggles The Penguin within the Year Two faculty play, all of us mentioned it,’ jokes Gabriel, 31.

His father, Andrew, in the meantime — an actor who has had roles in Casualty and Grantchester — used to look at his two sons re-enacting scenes from The Matrix and Lord Of The Rings within the playground in Hammersmith, West London, the place they grew up.

Ironically, Andrew, 60, used to attempt to discourage his son from following in his footsteps, telling him: ‘Whatever you do, do not be a f***ing actor.’

But he isn’t the one thespian affect in Leo’s life. Mum Jane, 62, additionally went to drama faculty, and have become deputy principal at Leo’s alma mater in Chiswick.

After her divorce from Leo’s dad, she later married Alexander Morton, one other actor, greatest recognized for his position in Monarch Of The Glen.

Uncle Ed Woodall is an actor, director and motion coach, and Leo’s older sister Connie, 32, works within the business as an agent.

The Woodalls, then, are very a lot within the enterprise of showbusiness. But nepotism has nothing to do with Leo’s fast rise to fame. 

Those who know him insist he alone — with that boy-next-door allure and piercing blue eyes, which have drawn comparisons to a younger Brad Pitt — holds the key to his success.

On display screen in One Day, Leo performs troubled Dexter Mayhew, starring alongside Ambika Mod as Emma Morley, the on-off greatest buddies from David Nicholls’ heart-wrenching, best-selling 2009 novel.

Though Leo insists he is nothing like Dexter (‘a d***’, he proclaims), there are specific parallels: each hail from well-off households (Leo’s household is listed in The Peerage as his paternal grandmother was the daughter of a baronet) and each are, to make use of the actor’s personal phrases, ‘a bit spoilt’ — Leo on account of being the youngest of three siblings.

As a baby, recollects his proud stepsister Kerry Morton, a video creator and artist who lives in Essex, he was a ‘bouncy two-year-old’ whom she remembers ‘breaking all of the sofas in the home [by] bouncing on them’.

Leo credit Kerry with serving to him good his Essex accent for Jack, the character he performed in darkly comedian sequence The White Lotus alongside Tom Hollander. He additionally met his girlfriend, American actress Meghann Fahy, on set.

‘I’m from West London, however there are undoubtedly lots of people I do know from Essex. My stepsister’s from Essex, so it was enjoyable to lean into that,’ he mentioned in a latest interview.

Up till the age of 11, his household says Leo was pleased. Quiet and well-behaved, his father as soon as described him as ‘a taciturn youngster’.

However, secondary faculty proved a battle, exposing him to bullies and violence. One classmate pinned him by his neck to a wall; one other beat him on the chest. Once, at a home occasion, somebody threatened to stab him if he did not hand over a pair of gloves.

The influence on Leo was dramatic. At dwelling he turned withdrawn and introverted, too anxious to depart the home. At faculty, he says, he placed on a personality.

‘I began shaving my eyebrows,’ he mentioned. ‘I shaved my head. I wore a hood on a regular basis, modified the best way I talked. It was a type of survival intuition, I believe. To slot in. But I wasn’t good. I lashed out. My mum was fearful.’ These days, Leo credit ‘the darkish years’ with giving him materials: the rationale, maybe, he’s so typically solid as an angsty, tormented younger man.

Studying wasn’t his forte — ‘I did not actually give a f*** about my grades, so it wasn’t like I might simply go to college to review economics’ — and after faculty he ended up working in a bar, smoking weed, with out objective or path.

Sitting up late one evening watching Peaky Blinders, the gangster drama starring Bafta-winner Cillian Murphy, he realised his calling had been staring him within the face all alongside.

He enrolled at Andrew Lloyd Webber-backed ArtsEd, graduating in 2019 with a BA in appearing.

His first break was a small half in Holby City. Next got here Cherry, the 2021 motion thriller by the Russo brothers, starring Spider-Man star Tom Holland. 

He caught the eye of the administrators, who solid him of their spy sequence, Citadel, alongside Hollywood big-hitters Richard Madden and Stanley Tucci.

After that got here Emmy-winning sequence The White Lotus.

On his father’s advice, he was truly binge-watching the primary sequence whereas laid up in a resort room with Covid when the e-mail got here from his agent asking him to go for an audition for the second sequence in 2021, doing what he has since referred to as ‘the best job I’ll ever have’.

He could also be barely biased: it was right here he met Meghann, 33, a former Broadway actress from Massachusetts, who’s appeared on Gossip Girl and Law & Order.

Leo auditioned for One Day whereas nonetheless filming The White Lotus. He hadn’t learn the e-book, solely simply managed to look at the panned 2011 movie (starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess), and will barely stroll as he’d slipped a disc. 

At this stage, he was nonetheless a complete unknown, however says he knew he’d acquired the half when he noticed the casting director in tears throughout certainly one of his display screen exams.

Getting used to the eye his newfound fame brings has been onerous to take care of. Today, he lives in London together with his brother, spends loads of time with household and buddies and — for probably the most half — avoids self-promotion.

As he places it: ‘I believe work is the rationale we do that and… there’s some enjoyable available. But other than that… I dangle tight to one of the best individuals in my life and I do not get too connected to the hoo-ha.’

He ended up watching The White Lotus, which incorporates a number of raunchy scenes, together with his brother — a mistake he wasn’t going to make with One Day, which he seen alone, logged in to the Netflix account he shares together with his mum.

‘I used to be so nervous about what household would consider me as an actor,’ he admits. ‘I’ve all the time felt this private stress to make it. And they’ve all the time been fantastic and supportive.’

So, together with his thespian household firmly behind him, and appearing in his blood, what’s subsequent for this red-hot younger star?

David Nicholls has in contrast him to a few of Hollywood’s main males: Robert Redford, Mark Ruffalo and Ryan Gosling. One reviewer described him as ‘a twister of charisma’. He’s even been tipped as the subsequent James Bond.

And Leo? When requested about his future, he replied: ‘Now that I get requested this query, I ought to in all probability consider a solution.’

Perhaps fittingly for the boy who by no means wished to be an actor, he is acquired completely no concept.