Who is popular today?

The actor is playing against type as a violent fugitive in his new film, finally out after years of post-production. He discusses toxic masculinity, prosthetic penises – and tricky family members
Freddie Fox – son of Edward, nephew of James, brother of Emilia and cousin to the Question Time racism refusenik Laurence – is under no illusions about how he is regarded. “‘Oh, let’s get Freddie in to play the nasty posh guy,’” he says. Rare is the script that doesn’t require him to play gay, decadent or beastly, preferably in spiffy period dress. He’s been a Bullingdon bullyboy (The Riot Club), Louis XIII (The Three Musketeers) and a perky Cambridge graduate in Victorian sitcom Year of the Rabbit, though he first caught the eye when he starred in Worried About the Boy as the singer Marilyn, all lippy and leopard print. “If I need to play a few posh boys to pay the bills then fine,” he tells me via Zoom from his London living room. “But I want to be Iago, Hamlet, David Bowie. I want to explore all the costumes in the cupboard.”
He plays strikingly against type as a violent fugitive in his new film. Or rather, his old film: the 17th-century Shropshire western Fanny Lye Deliver’d wrapped in May 2016, then underwent a protracted post-production period. He was 26 when shooting started; he’s now 31. How’s his memory? “They sent me the trailer. That brought a lot of it back.” He remembers, for instance, the seven-week shoot becoming 10. The rain fell, the set flooded, the midges had a field day. At least the punishing conditions suited the material. “The Holiday wouldn’t have worked there,” he agrees. Continue reading...