Tom Prior has carved out an enviable career so far with supporting turns in Kingsman: The Secret Service opposite Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Caine, and as Eddie Redmayne’s son in the 2014 Oscar-winning biopic The Theory of Everything.

The British actor’s career kicks into an even higher gear, however, with his breakout role in the film Firebird, where he’s introduced to a global audience as Sergey, one of two Soviet Russian military officers entwined in a forbidden gay love affair at the height of the Cold War.

Here he talks to us about filming love scenes in the freezing Baltic sea, and how Wim Hof and Adele are his motivational life coaches.

Firebird follows a true story of forbidden love between two men which is based on the book The Story of Roman. How did that role come about for you, as you were both the star, co-writer and producer?

I was approached in 2014 while in LA having finished shooting Kingsman and The Theory of Everything in which I play Eddie Redmayne’s son for about 3 seconds, and it was a meeting with a film financer and producer who had just read Peeter Rebane’s first draft of Firebird, and she thought I would be a good fit for the lead role. She connected Peter and myself a few weeks later in London and he sent me the script, and we agreed that I would play Sergey for a few scenes to help raise financing for the film. Peeter was very gracious in allowing me to make some suggestions on how the dialogue could be tweaked here and there, and then literally the next two and a half years we ended up totally rewriting, restructuring and redrafting the whole screenplay and doing a deep dive into all the sociological and political contexts of the time, and going to Russia and meeting the real Sergey and others who had served in the Soviet army at the time.

How did you connect with your character Sergey, besides obviously being a human who experiences love?

Meeting the person you’re going to play invariably writes the rest of his life, and I had this very strong instinct that I didn’t want him to be very downtrodden or internally suffering, as I didn’t really get that from the book. When I met him in real life, he was amazingly warm with a funny persona and very positive outlook, considering he had lived through some pretty horrendous times, particularly in following love and his heart, and he was pretty relentless in being himself which was so beautiful. I asked him so many questions about how he had scaled the relationship, especially as this was a time when there were no words to describe such a relationship, so much was done in the silence of the eye contact and physicality between people to discover how to connect in that way.

The unfolding storyline really shines a light on the freedoms the LGBTQ+ community have today in just being visible and having a voice and role models to champion the cause. What’s been the takeaway for you from being part of the story?

Well I don’t identify, and that’s a conscious decision. I believe that labels have absolutely had their place in allowing such progression to happen in the world and really being able to scale a very complicated and tormented history of being able to be yourself. But now I resonate most strongly with allowing myself to fall in love and experience people for who they are, and it’s not defined by the sexuality of the person alone, and that’s the future really, a world where people don’t have to justify or identify who they are, but an allowance and acceptance of exactly just how it is.

Doing the film made me look very deeply at myself and following my heart and the true calling of that, as Sergey was such a champion in doing that himself in an environment where he was risking his very life to be who he was, but he followed his heart and feelings, he didn’t have to identify in a certain way. In time we’ll all yield to the calling of our hearts, and we can try very hard to avoid that, but like trying to push a beachball under water, it will just keep bubbling up.

Left Necklace **Givenchy**
Right Full look **N°21**

A lot of LGBTQ+ up-and-coming actors are still encouraged towards a closeted blank canvas though, in order to appeal to mass audiences. How can we shine a light on being authentic and proving anything is possible, regardless of how you identify?

It’s a very slippery slope, as some people have already proposed to only cast gay actors to play gay roles, but then at what point do only straight actors play straight roles you know? There’s been some heavy pushing for me to identify, and I don’t want to be pushed into any box as that’s not true to myself. Sexuality and identity at the end of the day ends up being a process of self-discovery, self-authenticity, and that’s what I’m interested in, and the way that I present myself to the world is being authentic. My job as an actor is to present the truth, and if somebody wants to know details about my private life, that as an actor will interfere with the audience’s believability into what I can play, so in my life I present in a very open but a very unspecified way. I believe sexuality is in the spectrum, who I am, or who I’m with today, might not necessarily be who I’m with tomorrow or in a month or a year from now, it can be limiting to have to define yourself a certain way.

“I resonate most strongly with allowing myself to fall in love and experience people for who they are, and it’s not defined by the sexuality of the person alone.”

Let’s talk about shooting the film, as there’s a love scene in the freezing cold Baltic Sea. That must have taken some mental preparation?

It was actually a huge learning point for me to go and confront the cold in my own life, and through shooting the film, I went and started doing some work with Wim Hoff, and then meditation and self-improvement and self-awareness. The scene itself was one of the most memorable days of shooting, as having to do an intimate scene helped established that close connection, like breaking the ice, in terms of the cast and crew. A sauna was built on the beach which was just brilliant and some of the costume girls were ladling hot water down my pants to keep us warm!

Tell me more about working with Wim Hof, he’s so inspiring and transformative for the human psyche?

Totally, it was very transformative to me. I went to Iceland to do a workshop with him, and Iceland has a very dear place in my heart anyway, I love the country and it inspired me to go and push the boundaries of what’s possible. I’m fascinated by alternative forms of healing, that aren’t just traditional pharmaceutical cut-it-out-under-surgery ways, and you know he’s rewriting medical journals as a result of what he’s doing, with his amazing breathing technique and cold immersion. In Estonia in February, I was going into the sea and it’s minus 25 outside and the sea is at 0.5 degrees, and it certainly makes you feel very alive. There’s an amazing switch that happens from the days when I’ve been in a kind of a low mood and I look at the sea and it’s almost calling me into it, and literally 90 seconds in water that cold really does something like a shock therapy reset, both psychologically and physiologically. The health benefits of it are amazing.

Wim certainly has an interesting life story, and I’m keen to know, are there other true stories that you would love to adapt for the big screen, or star in?

I’m fascinated by telling more true stories that are about overcoming impossible situations to get out of, and within that, challenging the physical capabilities of what people would say the human body is capable of doing, stretching the human body to a limit. I’m fascinated by superhuman capabilities, but I’m not talking Marvel!

Was there a moment growing up when you saw yourself reflected in a character in TV or film, which inspired your journey into the industry?

I grew up watching Jason Bourne and James Bond and reading Tintin, and that was always a massive calling for me. I’ve been asked if I would play James Bond and I always say yes absolutely. But at the same time there’s a newer part of myself that instinctively feels I could play characters like that, but with an added extra that violence doesn’t always have to be the answer. Playing more characters where there is an alternative to the killing of the enemy which has always been the narrative – instead outsmarting them, or disarming them, like the qualities Jason Bourne had, he didn’t kill people unless he actually had to. That’s one of the things I love about Tintin too, he’s not a killer, but a disarmer and a hero for change, which I think heroes in action films should be more about now.

Speaking of heroes, who would you love to work with?

One film that’s completely changed my life is seeing Everything Everywhere All at Once, I think it’s just phenomenal and the depth of the message is done in this lightness that doesn’t feel like a bitter end, but more a means to an end, and I would love to work with Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, as directors they’ve made something so deep in meaning but so accessible to a wide audience.

I would be fascinated to work with Sam Mendes too, a director who can do scale really well and high stakes. I was lucky enough to work with Colin Firth on Kingsman, and he’s an inspiration as he’s had such a varied career.

Your own fanbase is growing, so referring to what you were saying earlier about being your authentic self, is there another celebrity you really admire for keeping it real, so to speak?

Adele! She did this amazing performance on ITV and started a song and got about a third of a way through and told the band, oh stop, let’s start again, and I was like, yes, that’s amazing!! For me I’ve used that and her as an example a few times in my life, you know you can just start again, and having that permission from someone so well established is very empowering. We must celebrate those moments where we get real highs, like doing a great performance or get into really great shape for a photo shoot, but let’s also acknowledge along the way there’s also going to be tears, pain, exhaustion, grief, suffering, and that’s part of life, part of being human.

Well now I’m obviously going to have to ask you which Adele tune is the one that always gets you, the one you know you’ll forever sing-cry along to (we’ve all done it)?

Haha! I think the most significant one for me is When We Were Young, it’s amazing and she has such an amazing capability of being so out there in the world with so much exposure but remaining so true to herself. If I ever got to that level of fame, I would love to be able to just be, and remain that grounded, otherwise we’ll just become delusional and lost!

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Interview by Kate Lawson

Photography by Daniele Fummo

Fashion by Marco Drammis

Casting by Imagemachine Cs

Hair by Adam Garland

Make-Up by Jo Frost