In 2012, Tom Rhys Harries was named Star of Tomorrow by British film magazine Screen International. Nearly a decade later, tomorrow is here, and the British actor is definitely the kind of star that shines steadily through each role. From bit parts on longstanding TV series like Midsomer Murders or an appearance among the all-star cast of H&M’s Erdem hookup, to striking roles on Britannia and White Lines, he’s gone from strength to strength. For his next role, he joins Uma Thurman on Suspicion, the remake of Israeli thriller False Flag. So of course, the first question could only be...

Left Blazer by VALENTINO, pants by LANVIN, vest by DOLCE & GABBANA and Boots by GRENSONRight Leather jacket by BERLUTI — Left Blazer by VALENTINO, pants by LANVIN, vest by DOLCE & GABBANA and Boots by GRENSON
Right Leather jacket by BERLUTI

What makes you suspicious, Tom Rhys Harries?

Politicians?

(Laughs.) After the year, we’ve been through, I don’t feel like letting you off the hook because that sounds like an easy out.

I’m not very suspicious on the whole. I don’t really believe in any conspiracy theories. (Laughs.) I didn’t think you’d ask me that. We have this running joke on set that we’re all going to have to get Botox afterwards because obviously, we have a sort of perma-frown developing from all the suspicion. I’ve been practicing. (Tom makes a hilariously suspicious face at the camera.) That’s about the extent of my acting.

Blazer by FENDI, pants by MAISON MIHARA YASUHIRO, vest by DOLCE & GABBANA and boots by GRENSON

Just like Zoolander and Blue Steel, all you need is one look.

Exactly! That’s my bible.

Coat by BALENCIAGA, pants and shoes by LANVIN

So after that strenuous bout of frowning, what are you up to? Chillaxing at home in your loft under the eaves?

It’s got everything I need. But these windows here overlook a really lovely pub, which is a bit of a tease, since I obviously can’t go.

Customised vintage t-shirt by MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA , pants by McQ and boots by GRENSON

I can see it from here: you and your mates trying to break into a pub, hilarity ensues.

Funnily enough, my friends and I have been talking about either sneaking into the pub, or moving into it. We’d get in trouble, wouldn’t we? (Laughs.)

Left Vest by AMI, custom bleached jeans by stylist from NUDIE JEANS and boots by GRENSONRight Knitwear and pants by MAISON MIHARA YASUHIRO — Left Vest by AMI, custom bleached jeans by stylist from NUDIE JEANS and boots by GRENSON
Right Knitwear and pants by MAISON MIHARA YASUHIRO

Since we’re here talking, you can’t have gotten too much trouble today. What have you been up to?

I’ve been training, and writing some music. I’ve been working with a friend to try and finish some stuff.

Left Leather jacket by BERLUTIRight Blazer by VALENTINO, pants by LANVIN and vest by DOLCE & GABBANA — Left Leather jacket by BERLUTI
Right Blazer by VALENTINO, pants by LANVIN and vest by DOLCE & GABBANA

Last I heard, you described yourself as “very bad.” Twelve months on, where are you at?

I’m getting better at structure, which is something I brought up. So I hope I can get something out soon. I’ve got all my kit here.

Wow, that’s one sensitive microphone… If the music doesn’t work out, you could do ASMR. What else have you learned in the past year?

That you’ve just go to roll with the punches. There’s this quote I quite like: “The obstacle becomes the way.” No matter how organized and on top of everything you are, life – not just Covid-19 – gets in the way and it comes at you fast doesn’t it.

Left Coat and vest by AMI, track top by MAISON MIHARA YASUHIRO, custom bleached jeans by stylist from NUDIE JEANS and boots by GRENSONRight Coat by LANVIN, blazer with hood, pants and vest all by DOLCE & GABBANA and boots by GRENSON — Left Coat and vest by AMI, track top by MAISON MIHARA YASUHIRO, custom bleached jeans by stylist from NUDIE JEANS and boots by GRENSON
Right Coat by LANVIN, blazer with hood, pants and vest all by DOLCE & GABBANA and boots by GRENSON

Your latest Instagram post was Fran Leibowitz – she’s having a bit of a moment on social media. What made you think of her?

For the filming of Suspicion, we stayed at this hotel just outside of London for the night shoots. It took us a couple of weeks to get the sequence, so during the day, we’re supposed to be sleeping. But I just couldn’t sleep and found myself binge-watching the Martin Scorsese on Fran Leibowitz. I can’t recommend it enough. Really, she’s so bold, confident, strong and self-assured. She just didn’t give a shit.It was like Fran’s love letter to New York – so funny, so smart and wish a really dry sense of humor. I started to feel like she became my buddy for the weekend. And she smokes like a chimney.

Oddly enough, someone this week mentioned that artists are no longer as rambunctious or decadent as they once were. Something to do with being under a panopticon of public scrutiny and the constant injunction of being role models.

I’m sure they just have very good publicist.

T-Shirt by SAINT LAURENT by Anthony Vaccarello and pants by SIMON JAMES CATHCART

Hmm… So how good is Simon at his job then?

Very good.

I knew it. You have broken into the pub.

Dude, I’m in the pub now. I’m smashed. (Laughs.) That being said, when you have a job that comes with notoriety – musician, actor, athlete – you didn’t set out to be a role model. Anybody’s field of work could put them in the public eye and open them to constant scrunity. All of us try things, experiment. We’re all humans trying to figure it out. And especially in times like now where it’s important to have conversations to ensure that causes that truly matter [like justice and equality] truly advance.

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Interview by Lily Templeton

Photography by Gavin Bond

Fashion by Mark Anthony Bradley

Grooming by Tyler Johnston

Set Design by Chris Williams

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 — 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)

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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.

“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)

“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.

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.

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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