Sydney Lemmon: How are you keeping a schedule now that time seems irrelevant?

 

Tom Austen: When we first came back from filming I was being very regimented and productive but we’re in another lockdown now and I’m just trying to make use of all available daylight. I walk by the river, I try not to watch TV, all the other hours are a complete disaster really.

 

SL: I know that you love the theatre. Do you have a favourite play or performance?

 

TA: When I was at Guildhall a Russian theatre company did Chekov’s The Three Sisters entirely in Russian and the actors sobbed the entire way through the curtain call because they’d been doing the show for three years. It was the most powerful thing I’ve ever seen and I think it was really seminal to see it while I was at drama school. I love simplicity in acting, there’s nothing more powerful than someone being utterly honest and truthful. Kathyrn Hahn, Olivia Coleman, Andrew Scott, all people who do it so simply and honestly. That's my favourite kind of performance.

 

SL: What makes the perfect night out at the theatre?

 

TA: For me, dinner beforehand is a no-no. You always feel rushed and stressed but I do like to go for drinks before, at least one. If you’re going to something you don’t really want to watch, two.

 

SL: Let's talk about Helstrom, how did you shape Daimon as a character?

 

TA: I learnt so much about Daimon through Satana [Marvel fictional character]. The oppositeness between them was something we could dig into to make real and build something that really belonged to us. Both of us have younger brothers so we could draw from our similar experiences and neither of us are actually the spawn of Satan so we had to find our connections somewhere! Seeing the response to the show, what people have really connected to is the family, the dynamic between this brother and sister in particular. It felt like everything we did, all those conversations we had, it was all there on the screen.

SL: Have you ever had a supernatural experience?

 

TA: I went to school in an old Monastery in the middle of nowhere and stuff would go missing, there were weird noises. I’m not saying I saw dead people but there was definitely some weird stuff going on.

 

SL: So you grew up in the English countryside and now you’re a Hollywood actor. Did your upbringing hold you in good stead?

 

TA: Because my dad was in the army, my brothers and I went to boarding school and a lot of the kids there were from forces families and the arts were so far removed from that world. The less people understood the more I felt I had to prove people wrong and as an actor initially that's all it is, proving your worth, proving you deserve a seat at the table. So I think that definitely helped.

 

SL: You’ve done a lot of charity work, which organisations are you involved with?

 

TA: About four years ago someone very close to me became really sick with leukaemia, to the point where we went to the hospital to say our goodbyes. It was explained that he could have a stem cell transplant but the likelihood of finding a match was nearly one in a million but there’s a register people can join and this charity called Anthony Nolan found a match for him. You just swab the inside of your cheek, they log your stem cells and you could potentially become a match for someone, anyone, all around the world. If there’s one thing people can take away from this it’s if you’re eligible, please join a register because you genuinely could be saving someone’s life and it also could be you who needs it someday. The more of us who are on registers the more chance we have of finding matches.

SL: Aside from being an actor, you are an accomplished writer. What are you working on these days?

 

TA: I was just on a call with the producers of my first feature and we’re looking to shoot [this] summer. I’m about to have a TV show go into development. It's just a whole new world and I’m hoping that acting and writing are going to run alongside each other simultaneously. It feels like a whole new chapter has opened.

 

SL: 2020 was a corker of a year, have there been any silver linings?

 

TA: I've learned to appreciate what I have. So many relationships have had to be put on pause this year and it makes you appreciate all of that so much more. I feel so lucky to have such great family and friends and it’s those relationships that matter to me more than anything. It's been a very weird year, we finished the show and launched it over zoom which was disappointing but what really matters is the experience we had and the relationships we made.

 

SL: It’s similar for me, trying to do what you can with what you have.

 

TA: On the record, this has been my favourite interview ever.

 

SL: Maybe I should become a journalist. I could make a small publication, The Austen Daily.

 

TA: Yeah, a pamphlet maybe.