‘One Day’ Star Leo Woodall on Tackling Dexter’s Emotions and the Pressures of Stepping Into a Leading Role After ‘The White Lotus’
09.02.2024 - 22:13
/ variety.com
Emily Longeretta SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “One Day” now streaming on Netflix. Before auditioning for the latest adaptation of “One Day,” Leo Woodall watched its first iteration. In the 2011 film, Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess starred as Emma and Dexter, a pair of best friends who reunite on the same day each year. The TV series follows the same format, beginning when the duo, portrayed by Ambika Mod and Woodall, meet in college in 1988.
Woodall, who was filming Season 2 of “The White Lotus” in Italy at the time, didn’t have time to read the book, so he watched the movie to gauge the story — and he was pulled in. “I just think it’s such a beautiful story. It’s dubbed as a romance story, but there’s just so much life in it.
There’s so many life events that these two characters go through,” he tells Variety. “I think from from an acting standpoint, it was a wonderful, challenging kind of gift to be able to play a character at many different points in life.” Once there was interest in casting him, he dove into the book — and had to work on his accent. He flew from Sicily to London for the auditions and had to tweak his accent to go from Jack’s, his bad boy character in “The White Lotus,” to Dexter’s: working specifically on “throwing my t’s back into my speech.” Not only was Woodall tasked with taking on a beloved book, but this also marked his first time in a leading role, as his past characters — he appeared in “Vampire Academy” and “Citadel” recently — have been supporting parts.
“I think I was surprised as we began shooting, the pressures that can come with it. We were very lucky that we had a very welcoming and warm crew to work with,” he says. “It was a wonderful challenge in realizing
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