Actor Tom Burke, 41, was raised in Kent by actor parents. He trained at Rada and has worked extensively on stage, including at the RSC and the National. On TV he has played Athos in The Musketeers, Dolokhov in War & Peace and the eponymous detective in Strike, the BBC series based on JK Rowling’s novels. His film roles include The Souvenir and Orson Welles in Mank. He now stars alongside Florence Pugh in Sebastián Lelio’s new film The Wonder, adapted from Emma Donoghue’s novel about an English nurse travelling to Ireland in 1862 to investigate a girl who has survived for months without eating.
You play journalist Will Byrne in The Wonder. What attracted you to the role?
If I’m honest, at first I just thought the two female leads were brilliant. I knew Florence was such a great actor and when we did the Zoom read-through Kíla [12-year-old Kíla Lord Cassidy] blew me away. In the book, it’s very much a romance between mine and Florence’s characters but Sebastián wanted more of a slow-building bond that grows out of them both being outsiders. The word rots in my mouth as I say it but it all felt very organic (laughs).
