If there was an award for Most Down-to-Earth Actor at this weekend’s Baftas, Robert Aramayo would be a shoo-in. When the British rising star found out he was nominated alongside the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B Jordan and Timothée Chalamet in this year’s Best Actor category – for his touching performance in the drama I Swear – he was a bit indisposed. “I was literally doing the dishes!” he tells me ahead of suiting up for the ceremony on Sunday. “I had it up on YouTube and just couldn’t believe it when I saw my name.”
Aramayo’s had an enviably stacked first month of the year. The Hull-born 33-year-old – perhaps best known as the diplomatic Elrond in Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings series The Rings of Power – made his stage debut opposite Rosie Sheehy in Guess How Much I Love You? at the Royal Court, an emotionally fraught production about a couple’s unexpected ultrasound results. One week later, he became a Bafta nominee. He was also nominated in the EE Rising Star category, where he’s competing against names including One Battle After Another’s Chase Infiniti; talk about several buses arriving at once.
