Anson Boon on learning life skills, whether to build shelves or a career
If acting had not called Anson Boon’s name, you might have found the British actor delivering your mail as a postman, a job he sees as “peaceful, bar the occasional run-in with rabid dogs”, he said. Instead, his daily route means facing down German soldiers in Sam Mendes’ World War I epic 1917, end-of-life issues in Blackbird and rabid journalists on press junkets. Before he embarks on his next project, he gives a peek behind the blinds, or rather, behind the blue screen he has in his garden shed.
Left Shirt QASIMI and necklace SWEET LIME JUICE
Right Full look SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO
What’s that blue screen behind you? Are you on set?
This is the background I did the Blackbird audition in front of, actually. This is what I use from auditions. I’ve got this weird sort of wallpaper behind me in the garden shed and I’m recording myself doing acting things in front of it.
Lucky color then.
Yeah, I need to touch it before I do every audition. (Laughs)
Left Full look DRIES VAN NOTEN
Right Full look BOTEGGA VENETA
Where are you really, though? Because with that, you could tell us you’re anywhere, secret MI6 bunker, Mars...
I am about an hour north of London. As for what I’m up to… Well. I feel like a bit of a secret agent saying that, but I was working on something highly confidential and top secret before lockdown. Now, I am someone at home, auditioning, doing Zoom calls and trying to do everything remotely in this strange new world we live in. And I've kind of I've been picking up all sorts of new hobbies since lockdown so you can find me on the golf course a lot – something I never imagined I'd do, fishing or hanging out with my brother.
Golfing, fishing, that’s very 1917 English countryside gentry. When’s the grouse shooting?
(Laughs) That's definitely not my thing.
Turtleneck RAF SIMONS
“Doing manual things keeps me grounded and reminds where I come from; regardless of how many cool places I visit in the world.”
So life of locked down leisure?
My grandfather is a potato farmer and I’ve been lucky to spend a lot of time with him during lockdown. Because I’ve spent so much time traveling or on set, I kind of felt like a hopeless person that had no manual skills. So when it was safe to go and see my grandfather, who is a potato farmer, outdoors at his farm, I leaned all these manual skills. I could now fix things around my house, in the car and build stuff with wood. I feel like I’m now better equipped to go forward in life. Doing manual things keeps me grounded and reminds where I come from; regardless of how many cool places I visit in the world.
And where DID you come from? Because how does one manage to be — at just 19 years old — at once a rising name on the big screen and at the National Theatre? Who did you bribe?
Well, funnily enough without money, I did kind of bribe my agents take me on. The agent I had at the time was the one who’d come off the little local drama school I did when I was little. I’d done an open audition for this Netflix series called The Alienist, where I was supposed to be an extra. But I got on really well with the director and he decided to keep me on for seven months, as a background character, giving me lines and incredible stuff like that. And so I decided it would be a good idea to email all the top agents in London and tell them that I was playing a lead role in this Netflix series, which was a complete lie… Clearly some idiots believed me and took me on. (Laughs.) I did a bunch of tests for a bunch of agents and this wonderful lady who is now my agent took me on, finding me all these weird and wonderful projects.
“Fake it ‘til you make it” strikes again.
Exactly. You've got to find your way in there somehow. My parents definitely aren't actors and I didn't grow up in London, so I had no way into this in and I didn't go to drama school over so... Yeah, I had to lie at some point. (Laughs)
Full look BOTEGGA VENETA
“It’s about living what you’re doing. It’s not about performing what you’re doing. ”
How have Blackbird and 1917 changed the way you see your profession?
First, because it was the first time I worked every single day on a production. Before, I’d played smaller parts. So I went into Blackbird being used to slotting into a story that was already made. Here, I was building the story from the very start, helping create what you see on screen. And funnily enough for 1917, while I wasn’t one of the roles all the way through, Sam Mendes asked me to come in and help him, so I played every single role in the film during rehearsals. It was me, George [MacKay], Dean [-Charles Chapman] and another actor called Tommy. We’d come in every day, at the studios or at the location near Stonehenge, where in order for them to build the right meters of trenches, we would have to walk through these fields. I’d play Colin Firth or Benedict Cumberbatch or Mark Strong. So that was also an experience of being part of the creative process.
Then, you know, I've been lucky enough that 1917, The Alienist or Blackbird were all incredible detailed in the production design. So it was not about acting, it was about being and that's certainly something that those jobs taught me about my profession. It's about living what you're doing. It's not about performing what you're doing.
Shirt QASIMI, necklace SWEET LIME JUICE and pants HERMES
Did 1917 feel like your family history was coming full circle?
Yes. When I was growing up, my granddad hung his dad’s medals on the wall and would tell me stories about him. His own father was a bicycle courier in World War I. He used to carry messages for different posts along the trenches, like George MacKay’s character Lance Corporal Schofield. I actually wear his signet ring, and because it was relevant to the time period, they let me wear it in the film as well, which was a really nice touch for my granddad. It was really nice to give something back to my grandparents, who along with the rest of my family, have been incredibly supporting of what I’ve wanted to do since I was little.
Both 1917 and Blackbird seem quite dark when you read the synopsis, but ultimately end up feeling like a beyond-all-odds celebration of life.
That's what I would love people to take away from it. Both stories might seem really dark and traumatic, but you actually get to watch people enjoy the last moments of a life and what it should really be about, which is about spending quality time with family and look at the real world, sharing the love. Blackbird is a celebration of life, and in many ways, so is 1917. It's really lovely to find the natural moments of light in these moments of darkness.
All SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO
You slip into the lives, and wardrobes, of your character but who is the real Anson Boon, when it comes to style?
That’s a real question. But if we’re only talking style-wise, I’m as schizophrenic with my wardrobe as with the roles I play. Maybe because I feel like I have these different personalities. When I go watch football, I love to dress in the style of the football fans of the Eighties, so Fila, Adidas… but if I go with friends on a weekend, I like to wear cool new young designers with a bit of Vivienne Westwood thrown in. For a premiere, you’ll have me suited and booted, but then at home or for a walk with my mum or girlfriend, I’ll reach for sports clothes. So I don’t think I have a set style, which is probably every stylist’s nightmare to be honest.
Or a dream.
True. I’ll say yes to a lot of things because I’m always willing to try something new.
Left Shirt DRIES VAN NOTEN
Right Shirt QASIMI, necklace SWEET LIME JUICE and pants HERMES
Are you sure you’re willing to let that go on the record?
(Laughs.) There’s a limit. But yeah, next thing I know, I'm going to be dressed in like this really outrageous Gucci dress or something. I’ll draw the line there.
With that blue background, it could virtually happen over night, with a bit of spare time and CGI, so I’ll keep an eye out for that Dolce & Gabbana dress moment.
Yeah, you do that. You'll be waiting a long time. (Laughs)
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Interviewed by Lily Templeton
Photography by Patricia Ruiz del Portal
Fashion by Marco Drammis
Hair by Ryona Rushima
Make-Up by Philippe Miletto
Studio Lucerne Studio
