The actor Luke Thompson, 35, was born in Southampton, grew up in France and trained at Rada. He was nominated for two awards for his first professional role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe. After 10 years in theatre, his screen breakthrough came playing Benedict Bridgerton in the Netflix hit Bridgerton, which will return soon for its third season. On stage, he recently played Willem in A Little Life, opposite James Norton, and is now making his RSC debut as Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost.
You recently won a WhatsOnStage award and were nominated for an Olivier for A Little Life. Was that gratifying?
It’s a lovely cherry on the cake of that experience. It’s easy to have an opinion on awards when you haven’t been nominated but actually they mean a lot. I’ve devoted a lot of time and thought to getting better at acting, so it’s incredibly meaningful to be recognised like that.
What was the audience reaction like? There were reports of fainting.
Oh god, yes, everything. There were weeks when it was mad. The craziest one was towards the end of the run. Someone was coughing very loudly during a quiet moment in the play and the show had to stop. It turned out they’d projectile vomited in the dress circle, over other people, who then started retching too, so it was like a chain reaction. I wonder sometimes how much of it is self-perpetuating. The more people come expecting graphic content, the stronger they might react. There’s definitely been an uptick in fainting incidents post-pandemic.
How was working with James Norton?
Fantastic. What I love about James is that he keeps it simple. I don’t know if it’s because of his screen experience but in theatre, the risk of repeating a show over and again is that you start to decorate it and it becomes unrecognisable. Whereas James always wanted to trim the fat and get back to the core of it.
We’re speaking during a break in rehearsals for Love’s Labour’s Lost. Is your RSC debut a big deal for you?
A really big deal. It’s a lovely time to do it as well, when there’s been a changeover of artistic directors. It feels like a fresh page. To be the first production in the big theatre is a real honour.
Director Emily Burns’s production is inspired by billionaire tech bros, right?
The play itself is very Elizabethan. We’ve tried to put it in a modern, more relatable context. It opens with a group of rich, powerful men who are very anxious about what to do with their time, what’s real, what’s honest, what’s fake. We all live in that online world now. It’s also about self-improvement and how to deal with these horrible things [points at his mobile phone].
The play includes Shakespeare’s longest speech. How do you go about learning that?
As always with Shakespeare, there are different versions swimming around but yes, it’s a mouthful. Lines in these great texts work like magic spells. You learn them, repeat them and it stirs things in you. So I mutter it to myself and see what happens. Somehow it’s easier when I’m on the move, but I have to be careful. I’ll be walking down the street and run into someone while reciting lines at full throttle. Then I’ll go quiet because it’s like being caught out.
There’s an ongoing debate about West End ticket prices. Should theatre be more accessible?
Of course. It’s not just about accessibility, it’s about the role of theatre. I sometimes worry it’s for the 0.05% of the population who go all the time but I still believe theatre has a societal function. It’s a bit like politics – you need everyone involved, from as many different backgrounds as possible. Theatre should be the opposite of an echo chamber. It’s about coming together and sharing ideas. That’s increasingly rare nowadays. We’re all stuck behind our screens, slightly uncomfortable with the idea of proper debate and exchange.
Bridgerton series three is imminent. Where do we find your character Benedict?
Things come to a head in terms of trying to work out what he actually wants. When you’re “the spare”, there’s a lack of pressure. Benedict flits around having fun, free and easy, but he’s also paralysed by choice and searching for something more meaningful. He’s quite a modern character in that way: I know a lot of people trying to build meaning in their life.
Is this series as sexy as ever?
Of course. Julia Quinn’s books are romance novels, so it would be a betrayal not to explore that. It’s a genre with its own codes. That’s what’s so delicious about the show. Sometimes it’s dismissed as unserious, but there may be some misogyny in that. People love romance. There’s not enough of it around.
What’s it like seeing your bare backside on screen?
Quite strange. We don’t often get that view of ourselves. In a way, it’s good to keep track of these things.
A disabled character joins the cast this series. Are you proud of Bridgerton’s diversity?
Hugely proud. It’s great to see everybody represented on screen. Disabled people were around in those times. It also gives the lie to the authenticity police who govern how period dramas are done. Particularly in the UK – it happens with Shakespeare productions as well – there’s a whole army of people ready to insist that it’s supposed to be like a museum piece. It’s often governed by a nostalgia for something that never even existed. Bridgerton’s not a documentary, it’s a drama. In drama, you can do whatever the fuck you want, Shakespeare wrote history plays that are completely inaccurate historically and no one gives him any shit about that. I guess partly because he’s dead. But it’s a poetic reality and Bridgerton is no different.
What’s it like learning Regency dance styles for ballroom scenes?
Great fun. I have to be careful with spoilers or I’ll get arrested, but I get a nice dancing moment this season. It’s fascinating when you understand these dances as basically like a dating app. They get people to speak, touch, be close – then literally swipe to the next row.
Luke Newton plays Colin Bridgerton. Does it ever get confusing with two Lukes playing brothers?
It’s OK because I tend to be referred to as “Lukey T” and he’s “Newts”. There’s a whole flurry of acting Lukes suddenly. Later in the RSC season, Luke Thallon is playing Hamlet. I grew up thinking I was the only Luke in the village but it’s back in fashion. We’re all roughly the same age, so there must have been a Luke moment back in the late 80s/early 90s!
What do people tend to come up and say when they recognise you?
It’s always a lovely exchange. The breadth of people who are Bridgerton fans is heartwarming. Although once someone asked: “Are you from Bridgerton?” I evaded the question a little bit, then saw her Google “Bernard Bridgerton” on her phone, which made me laugh. Who’s Bernard? Another came up with a photo of Jonny Bailey [who plays Lord Anthony Bridgerton] and said: “This is you, isn’t it?” I was like: “Well, obviously not. We play brothers, sure, but we look quite different.” The funniest was on a plane to New York recently with some of the Bridgerton lot. The air steward came up to Claudia [Jessie, who plays Eloise Bridgerton] and said: “Oh my god, you look like Eloise from Bridgerton!” She pointed at me and said: “And doesn’t he look like the brother?” The air steward said: “Oh, I wish!” So apparently I look shit in real life.
Which fellow actors do you admire?
I just saw American Fiction and the whole cast were terrific but Sterling K Brown was particularly great as the brother. It was just simple, warm, easy acting. It was also lovely to see Jeffrey Wright front and centre for a change.
What theatre have you enjoyed recently?
I loved An Enemy of the People with Matt Smith and had the best time at Sunset Boulevard. It was so fun, sexy and exciting.
How do you relax when you’re not working?
I’m a pianist. I’ve played since I was a kid and did all the grades. Sometimes acting can feel like you’re always deferring to other people and don’t have much control but piano is something entirely yours. I can sit down, play classical stuff for two or three hours, and not notice the time pass. I’d be up for including it in an acting job someday.
Do you have a dream role?
It’s a terrible cliche to say you want to play Hamlet, but most actors do. And I’d love to play Iago, mainly because a casting director once told me: “You can’t play Iago because you’re too nice.” That’s such a misunderstanding of how evil works. It’d be nice to explore something a little bit more unpleasant.
Love’s Labour’s Lost is at the Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 11 April-18 May. Part one of Bridgerton season 3 premieres on Netflix on 16 May
