Tom Ellis
As the British actor’s time playing Lucifer draws to a close, he reflects on the role that’s made him one of television’s most popular stars and tells us why his daughters don’t watch the show.
Tom Ellis has just hit a second golf ball deep into the bushes and he’s not best pleased about it. It’s early May in London, where people are now allowed to partake in activities together and meet up again but judging by the way he’s playing, Ellis may well have preferred to speak over Zoom.
“Found it,” he cries from within the North London shrubbery, “I reckon I can play it.”
In an attempt to attribute blame for his lost balls and our collective dented pride, and meaning no disrespect to the course’s ground staff, we lament how unplayable the course is and duly call it quits after no more than six holes in favour of a couple of pints in the unseasonably warm climes.
“Obviously, the conditions were against us this time,” says Ellis as we sit down to debrief on our aborted round at the charming if unpredictable Alexandra Park pitch and putt. Before we get our conversation properly underway, we hit another curveball. The much-maligned process of ordering two Amstels through an app rather than at the bar in person consumes us like two school children reticent to do homework but after handing over all our personal data and much ado about nothing, we have our drinks.
Glossing over the fact Ellis has spent a fair amount of lockdown honing his golfing skills, we’re catching up today to talk about the end of chapter for Ellis. After six years, six seasons, 86 episodes and countless nudity scenes, the 42-year-old is biding farewell to the fantasy world of Lucifer.
“It's the Lazarus of TV shows, because it wouldn't die,” he jokes, alluding to the various near-deaths the show has had over the years before Netflix snapped it up. “But there's been so many amazing experiences that happened in my journey for six years,” he says somewhat emotionally.
“I'd say the last two episodes of season six, the two-parter, and episode nine, our penultimate episode, was a really cathartic episode with me. The story involves Lucifer going around and basically saying goodbye to everyone. It was cathartic, because I was basically having these conversations with people on the screen,” he adds.
The show may have subsequently turned Ellis into something of a pin up to his 9.9 million Instagram fans, but to some close to him there’s been an indifference to him playing Lucifer. “My daughter said to me yesterday, ‘I would probably watch Lucifer if you weren't in it.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She was like, ‘You've got no clothes on half the time and your bum's always out, Dad. It's embarrassing.’
“I can't really argue with that,” he smirks, as Cornershop’s ‘A Brimful of Asha’ blares out of a speaker near where we’re sat...
Tom Ellis wears Fendi on the cover of Man About Town’s AW21 issue.
