Stuart Thompson: The Power of Sad Young Men

Ahead of his return to Southwark Playhouse, multi-award winning actor Stuart Thompson sat down to discuss the world premiere of Theo Jamieson's new musical: Flyby. Stuart delves into the psychological complexities of his character, Daniel—an engineer and astronaut discovering himself in a cosmic world. He shares with us his initial reactions to the wondrous material as he returns to the world of musical theatre following on from his award-winning performance in Spring Awakening at the Almeida Theatre. We hear him talk about the different demands and expectations of doing a musical compared to doing a play as he prepares to take the stage opposite the likes of veteran actress Gina Beck and Poppy Gilbert. 

In this very special interview, Stuart Thompson opens up about his rapid ascent in the industry, from his stage debut in A Taste of Honey to winning the Jack Tinker Award for "Most Promising Newcomer" at the Critics Circle Theatre Awards. Stuart offers an introspective look at his conscious choices to play tragic figures, reflecting on his visceral performance as Osvald in the candlelit Ghosts at Sam Wannamaker Playhouse and his portrayal of Edmund in the affecting drama Romans. We hear him talk about the reaffirming nature of these roles which have helped further shape his worldview and deepen his capacity for empathy as both a human and as an actor. We reflect on these roles together and celebrate the magic of the theatre which continues to challenge and enthral him as an actor as he looks forward to new experiences as a performer.

Flyby runs at Southwark Playhouse from 3 April - 16 May 2026. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Up close with Carlock today. Celebrating art, entertainment, and the evil. Stuart Thompson, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for coming into chat to me, it's lovely. Yeah, so um you were obviously at Suffolk Playhouse for Radiant Boy um last year. What have you missed about Suffolk Playhouse and you know what what makes that space so special?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

I think um the two projects, Flyby and Radiant Boy last year, were really personal and they were passion projects for me both, and I'd had I'd sort of been with them from the inception of them. So I think there's something about South that I think is really exciting as a theatre in London as a hub for new writing, and there's something about the the intimacy of the space. I always feel that I love to be in theatres with smaller audiences. One because they kind of have to engage because there's nowhere to hide, but um you feel as though you can let them in a bit more, maybe, you know. So uh yeah, that's that's what I enjoyed about it last year, and then we'll we'll see this time when it's the same.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, I mean I feel like that's a great year since Radiant Boy, you know, obviously Romans at the Armida, and obviously, you know, SES like Voke Heroes is like still like you know on TV. Um how would you like describe like the past year so far for yourself as well?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

I th the past year, I think um my primary love so far in my career has been theatre, and I think I keep getting drawn back to it. The writing's so good, the scope for variety of character is so vast, and it feels that you have the most control or agency as an actor. I think also maybe it's the kind of beautiful British tradition of theatre that uh amongst actors it feels like a training ground, and so I still feel as though I've laying the foundation of my career. I want to be learning all the time. And last year I really felt like that. I really felt grounded in gleaning as much as I could from who I was working with, where I was working, the writing I was working on, you know, the characters that I was hanging out with. And I feel really fortunate. I feel like I've had a lot of variety when it comes to that. And I think every actor would say the same, you always kind of want to do exactly the opposite of what you've just done, you know, and not because you you know, that's that's the look that we have, you know, there's so much sacrifice in the weird lifestyle of it, but we get to change it up all the time.

unknown 3:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like um before the show was announced, I was very much aware of Theo Jameson, the orchestrator and the musical director, um, but I wasn't really familiar with his work as a composer. Um, what was sort of like your initial reaction to flyby and like the material?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

I like really fell in love with it. So Theo came in as uh guest MD when I was at drama school for a project we were doing, and then in third year they do these uh various awards, and I was up for the Stephen Sondheim one, which was tied with a new Wrighton prize, and I won the the Sondheim one, and he won the Wrighton prize, so we sort of really became aware of each other, and then Flyby came around, and the music is so crazy, like it's so unique and nuts. You feel like you're inside his head, but I think he said a really beautiful thing early on in the publicity for the show where he said he loves going to the theatre or the reason he goes to the theatre is to see people fighting for their lives, and I thought, yeah, I think that's why I go to, and I think that's why I do it too, and especially the story, the two characters really are um fighting for their lives, fighting for for each other, fighting to find meaning and make sense of everything, and the music is such an extraordinary subtext for that, um and also for what they can't say. I mean, even there are moments of orchestration underneath arguments or underneath memories that are sort of extraordinary that that feel as though if if music could just appear in real life, it would make total sense, you know. So I think he has a real insight, it's all character-led and so smart and incisive, but also so daring in its scope. I mean, some moments are so um huge and orchestral.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah. I mean, it's all like such an intriguing um concept in the time jumps, you know, the different um time frames. Um what can you sort of tell us about um the character Daniel as well?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

He um so we found when we're talking about the show that if people ask what it's about, I'm like, it's it's about a couple fragmented over time falling out of love. But uh Daniel's also an astronaut, and it's like, how do you slide that in, and you know, but he is, he's an engineer, and I think initially it existed that as a mode to be like how far away from your life or from the emotional mess that you're confronted with when you're in a relationship. How far away can you get? Well, how possibly far away can you get is space, but then you know it was uh built upon and it's it's much more literal now. But I feel like Daniel is a person who perhaps has thought that he's experienced love in his life, but really hasn't until he meets Emily. I think they're really pivotal for each other, and I think they're very communicative and um very much a modern non-heteronormative couple in that way. Like I imagine they well, Pops and I have spoken about a lot, you know. I imagine they talk about a lot, but of course there are still things, you know. I think when you're on your own, you can be quite uncompromising. When you're in a couple, you have to kind of shed a mask and show kind of ugliness that otherwise you wouldn't have to, and I think there's a beauty in that vulnerability, but also it's terrifying because that vulnerability can be thrown back at you at any point, and so I think through the course of the show you see a person who is totally changed by love, and then I feel, as we've probably all experienced, that white hot fear of going, oh my god, should I have done it? Should I have let myself fall and go there? Um and I guess that's his whole decision.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah, yeah. Um I feel like there's also like a sort of like underground grit of stuff like Playhouse, which I feel like sort of um fits in with what you're describing. Um in what ways do you sort of like see the physical space you know adding to the atmosphere of the piece as well?

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Oh, that's so interesting. Well, I think because it's so exciting to be with a piece of New Writing, and we've all said, you know, we all love it so much, but you can never know how people will receive it. And there feels something quite exciting and punk about being like, come into this little dark space, like see what you think, you know, we've been with it for all this time. Um, and I think also in the scope of the story, it's kind of nuts, yeah, to think like in Little South space, we'll be like, We're gonna take you to space, you know what I mean? Um, just just come with us. I don't know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

I feel like um I've not really seen you doing musicals before very much. You know, the first time I came and caught you was uh playing Oswald in um in Ghost. And yeah, when I looked back in it, that was just an incredible cast for having people like you know Paul Hilton and Patty Mohan as well. Um what was it like in again to work together like on that little piece as well, you know, in Sambo and Maker Playhouse?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Oh I it was I it was incredible. I mean, as you said, like what a cast insane. Um but it was a real learning experience for me because I often play quite sad, tragic characters and love them, they're the most interesting, but you know, kind of is the way and Oswald was kind of another one of those young men. But with Joe Hill Gibbons, our director at the helm, it was a really good practice in I think when you're dealing with also Oswald was at the end of his life, you know, really heavy emotion. It's very easy as an actor to become indulgent in that and sit in the sadness, you know. But we had no sets and we did such uh forensically detailed work on actions and intentions, it was all paperwork. We we didn't run the play, I don't think, until we were in the theatre. Oh well. We got it up on a speed, you know, but we I don't think we did. And Hassie very much works like that, you know. So it was great to kind of see that because it meant that um everything had to be active, there was nothing to hide behind. I couldn't just like lean on a chair or fiddle with something in the draw. Um it was really great to kind of keep yourself accountable, and it also meant that it became this kind of stretchy, sinuous thing that could change, you know, um, which excites me, I think. Uh especially in that space where, as we said about South, there's the the intimacy of feeling that people have to be really with you and kind of leaning in. Um we had to stay really immediate. Uh yeah, god it was so fun. I also met one of my best mates, Sarah, who played my incestuous something about that.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah. Amazing. I mean, are you like are you an actor who likes to like look out into the audience? Do you like to see audiences' faces, you know, when you're performing as well?

SPEAKER_00 10:27

I don't know. I I definitely prefer smaller houses. I definitely do to feel so I guess I do like having them with me rather than feeling too separate, but also it's terrifying, you know, and you do have to sort of think, no, I'm in my living room, I'm in my living room, they're not there. Um but experiences like that are really helpful for reminding you that it is our job to keep them engaged, you know, and that we can't become too kind of selfish or exclusive with our performance. It is kind of for them to come with us. And I think that is kind of what's nice about feeling them there, and and whether they because I remember with ghosts, trying to think that the San Warner maker is obviously such a beautiful church-like building, and it sort of felt like the house, this kind of remote house in Norway. And it felt sometimes in the candlelight that they were ghosts in the house, you know, because you could just about see the like eyes, and so you you know, if you find helpful ways like that to make sense of why there are 300 people in the front room, then sometimes that's helpful.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Yeah, I was cool as well, you know, with um the candlelight as well, um, and you know, like having that specific lighting there as well, does that sort of like impact the way that you act with you know your face and with your eyes as well?

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Yeah, I mean they're really helpful uh at the globe, you know, with with helping you utilize that to the best of your ability, in that you know, if if a candle's really close to your face, it's like a close-up for the the audience and you know it can be used really effectively. I think logic-wise, for me, the the two players that I've done that, Ghosts and Three Sisters, would be candlelit. So it was helpful in that sense.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Um, but no, it's a beautiful experience, and it is, you can find such creative ways of utilising them, and especially in a space like that, it does give a a kind of sleepover quality, you know, that everyone's like you like gotta listen to you like cuddling around the campfire. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Three Sisters again was like so gorgeous as well, like having that cast there. Um I feel like with such a familiar story, um, was it hard, you know, finding your own voice through these characters as well? And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

I I had a bit of a sentimental connection to Three Sisters because it was my European project in second year at drama school, and I played Chebateekin, the old drunk granddad's love. Um, but it was nice to come back to it. I really you know how some actors feel very tied to Shakespeare. I I would love to do one and I'm sure I'd learn a lot, but I I really don't. I feel much more strongly about the Russian or the you know, the Chekhov Ibsen Tiki and there's something about those that I really connected to at drama school, so it's been really nice to do a couple of them. Um there's something about those writers that really move me as an audience member, also, but uh to hang out with Andre um or any of his characters I think what I find so moving, it's the same way I feel about books. I remember reading Sense and Sensibility the first time when I was going through a heartbreak and being like, oh, we all feel brand new, like we're experiencing this for the first time, but people have we just experienced the same things over and over, and that's what I really found with Andrew, like he had such hope and ambition, and he ends up quite listless, which is obviously another sad young man, but but there was something so exciting in getting to hope for him again every night that maybe he'll make it, you know. Somebody said that the other day about Romeo and Juliet of going and being like, maybe they won't die, you know, maybe this time they'll get away. Um yeah. I I loved it, and again, maybe there's just something in um us as actors that feels like that's great learning material to have just worked with that writing and and hung out in it. Um feels like a kind of we're standing on the shoulders of giants, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Yeah, I mean um you've talked about like these sad young men characters um quite a bit. Um were these are sort of the characters that you were always like drawn to, you know, when you became an actor, or were you sort of like drawn to something else?

SPEAKER_00 14:56

No, I definitely I'm drawn to it's a weird thing, right? Because they obviously being an actor identity-wise is very strange because you're constantly being perceived. People are like, this is what we think you are, or we want to see you for this. And always my kind of super objective has been that my interest lies in playing a huge scope of people. Because I think acting is a practice of empathy and um understanding because you know you can play really ostensibly awful people, you have to understand why you know their motivations, why did they do these things? We're all capable of you know crazy things, it's in all of us, so you know, I I find that really fascinating and it helps me understand myself and people around me, blah blah blah. Um so I think you know, I do group them together as they side on men, but I have felt very privileged to get to honour their stories because I think that's also what's beautiful about theatre is that people are with you. And listen, you know, again it's so subjective, people may not be moved, but the idea that somebody may have gone through what your character's gone through or some semblance of it, and see themselves in it, or see a different resolution, you know, that is so moving and exciting to me, and I think that's where my poor mother is always like, surely a comedy next, please, someone. But it's like, and there's lots to be found there, but um I I have a real uh punch on for those characters. I think I think I want to um understand them and and try to tell their story as best I can.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Yeah, I mean when you're having those, you know, those moments of you know that descent into madness in like Oswald's case, for example. You know, are you like how um consciously are you in that frame of mind or are you still thinking technically about like you know reaching people at the back of the audience?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Well, I had a well no, I think tech the technical stuff you try to well anyway, if we do if we can get out of the way in in rehearsals or previews, or you know, but but hopefully that shouldn't be at the forefront of your mind. But I think I had a great learning experience during Spring Awakening actually, because I found it he was again a uh I love him so much, that character, and I was so glad to get to do it, it was a real like childhood dream ticked off. But he's a downward spiral from the beginning, and I found him quite hard to be with, um, and it started to affect me as Stu. And then since then it gave me an awareness of going, ooh, because I do like playing these men and I love doing theatre, but we can't be, you know, obviously, it it's totally understandable. Your body's like, you're crying every day, what is up? How can we help? You know, they don't know that it's not you, and so ghosts is a kind of great example of if it was a year or two on. I remember feeling that I was kind of growing in my understanding, you know, it's different for everyone, but of how to go there and totally honour the story and not sort of phone the emotion in. You do want to feel as though the the people are watching him really go through it every single time, but not taking it home. And I think it's possibly just a time thing, you know, getting older, experiencing a bit more uh having an awareness of of cultivating that and and not being too unsafe with yourself and your emotions. Um, but everyone has a different way into it, you know. I think my frustration, you know, I was only 23 when I played Moritz, but was when it started to overtake, I was like, right, but I don't want it to affect my work, I still want to go there. So it's a balancing act for sure, but I think it's doable, and that's what the great thing, another great thing about doing this job is is that you can learn and get better, and the transience of theatre, you can be like, well, tomorrow night, you know, you know, maybe I I uh you know maybe it'll uh feel truer or blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like Spring Awakening is such a great musical, you know, it's got such a a punk feel to it, um, and such an important story as well, I think. Um Do you feel like the demands of doing a musical are particularly different to that of doing a play? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Yes, yeah. I I just just the singing again, because basically for me, I don't always sing, obviously, uh, but if I know that I'm going to, I want the music to be sort of second nature in my bones so that I'm not thinking, as we were saying, about the technical stuff of going, oh my god, that big note's coming up, or timing, or placement, vowel placement, or something like that. If that can all be kind of baked in, it means that you can just approach a song as you would a monologue or a scene and be in the thoughts, and um that's my ideal, but of course that takes a bit of doing, and then also just maintenance. Poppy and I are really living like nuns at the minute to make sure kind of endurance, you know, of eight shows a week, but specifically for voice, yeah. Um I guess other than that, it's not too different.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

It's lovely to sing, it's lovely to be in music calls again and figuring that stuff out, but I d I definitely get more nervous for singing than I do, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Yeah, I can imagine. I mean you're working with the amazing Gina Beck on the show. Yeah. And you know, she's such a she's such a pro at doing musicals. Um I mean for yourself, you know, did you always see yourself as being able to do both plays and musicals, or did you see yourself as being one or the other? It kind of came around organically.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

I I was more of a dancer when I was younger, yeah. Um ballet, and and I moved to London when I was 16, I went to six former arteurs. Um, and that was kind of when my perspective really shifted, and I applied to drama schools and then went to London and studied acting and blah blah blah. But I think I I think looking back, I I uh love musical theatre and listen to it all the time. Big, big nerd of it. But I think I wouldn't have been totally fulfilled if I if I wasn't able to do all things. I think um I found so much in the players that I've done so far, and I think um I also think I don't have the skill set to do musicals all the time, or as we've said, the kind of um endurance. I don't know. Like what when one comes along and I'm like yes, then I work up to it, but I I think it's nice to have a big mix for me.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yeah, absolutely. Um I was curious about Romans as well because that was such an epic piece of theatre, um, and such an interesting exploration into masculinity and what that looks like. Um I think. I've been very much talking about, you know, what does it mean to be a man today and what does masculinity look like today? I was wondering like after doing that show and also you know playing all of these, I guess, as you say, sad young men, how has that sort of like impacted your view on what being a man is today, too?

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Well, it's it's really uh affirming or um exciting to me when it feels as though you know you're discerning about the jobs you take, the work you do, and but you can only plot your career so much, you know, it's also timing of what comes along, blah blah blah. But it feels really sort of kismet when things come along and feel that your self is kind of a part of this story, like wherever you're at in your life, you're like, oh my god, as if this has come through right now. And Romans was a great thing in that um masculinity and gender are such uh fascinating topics to me, objectively, but also for myself, it's like a constant exploration. I think Grayson Perry said it in his book of identity is a verb, not a noun. This thing of like if we can be generous with ourselves that it can constantly move and shift, then we can afford that generosity to other people. And Edmund was like such a glorious prospect in that way, um, because he didn't engender masculinity capital M, as I think I don't. I think I enjoy I enjoy my the the aspects of being a boy, but I enjoy both my masculine and feminine, and and I feel if everyone's able to, we all have that, and it all ebbs and flows all the time. One takes precedence, the other takes all the blah blah blah. What I thought was exciting about him, similar to Moritz actually, is that there was a a a queerness that didn't have a name because we were in a time in which there wouldn't be a vernacular for it. And um that feels so pure to me, but also so courageous, because I think, Jesus, how did they were they even aware of it? You know, if if I I think of myself and my queerness, and it's sort of like if I you know, I suppose there's always a quiet knowing, but when you see real life examples, you feel like, oh great, you know, for ages you feel ostracized like you're the only one. Um but to come back to the question, I think I discover a lot about my my own identity, my own masculinity through my work for sure. And I think it's exciting when parts come along where I feel I can stretch into the feminine or um stretch into the masculine or meet both bring forward a conversation about the fluidity of it all.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Yeah. Yeah. I mean when you look back, do you feel like there was one role which had particularly changed you and made you look at life differently as well?

SPEAKER_00 25:04

That's such a good question. They all have for different reasons, I think. Yeah, they all have and and all very fortunately, God when I think about it, um have had some aspect of that. Like small p political, I always say of going like if in my small way I'm telling a queer person story that that was at some point marginalised. Like my first ever um job was playing Jeff in A Taste of Honey, which I think, hopefully I'm not wrong, was the first gay character written in British theatre. Maybe, maybe. Um but I I loved this this this gay um working class northern character. I was like hilarious. Um and I think it's always so interesting to find the bits of of course you can't totally separate it from yourself, you find the bits of yourself kind of in them that you relate to, but also um the bits that you don't understand. How do you honour them? Uh and I think those are the bits you learn from or that have helped me evolve because you have to get past judgment of like I really don't understand that, or um it it helps you confront things that normally you wouldn't have to look at or question. Yeah, absolutely. Either you come out the other side agreeing with yourself from before or moving on into different territory.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Yeah, I think it's just an interesting um uh what you say is interesting about queerness, and I feel like it's becoming more accepted over the last few years, but I feel it's still um I feel like it's still not fully normalized in some ways. Like what do you think is sort of like getting in the way of that?

SPEAKER_00 26:49

I wonder. Gosh, such a big question. I know, I think sometimes, of course, we're in such a sort of liberal microcosm in the artistic world that I often think, ah, sorted. You know, we're we're past it, but of course we're not, you know. Um the state of the world elsewhere. And I wonder whether it is uh the the triumph of trying. I think we've just got to keep going, keep championing stories, characters that we've not heard from. I think often it's um that debate between assimilational revolt with queerness, of going like, do we continue to do we enjoy the fight against or do we want to kind of blend in? And I think there's uh an argument for both, you know. I think um uh that's what's interesting about stories, you know, people agreeing and disagreeing and changing their mind and coming away with uh questions, and that's what I found with myself. I mean, with my own queerness and then seeing it reflected back in stories that I'm in or I'm watching or whatever. Um you find new stuff about yourself that you didn't know was there or really thought never would be. And I think I think that's the key. It's it's maintaining conversations and starting new ones. Um that's what excites me about it anyway. And where I feel that that acting can so often be hey, it's a very silly job, thrilled to get to do it and get paid for it, but I do think there's a bit of like a spiritual, social, political aspect to it, of going, we can we can do things for good if we champion the right stories, etc. writers, blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Absolutely. Um do you see acting as being a political act as well?

SPEAKER_00 28:37

I I think it can be, you know, and and hey, I uh only in a small way. Again, there's a quote from one of my favourite books, which is something like, um, didn't know if you could change the world, but uh would at least try changing the bit of world around and you know, that kind of thing. Of like I hope that that by being discerning with stories I tell that that somebody will see themselves in one of the characters or see something that that that was buried or they weren't able to talk about. That that to me is the incredibly like numinous thing that theatre can do. And so I I I hope, as I say, um lowercase p political, but I think it can be.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

Absolutely. Um you mentioned the um the Sundown competition at the start of the interview, um, and I recently heard through the Grapevine that they've actually banned Franklin Shepherd Inc. from competition because you did it so well and it's become like the winning song. Um I was like wondering like you know, how did you go about preparing for that number as well and put that competition to that's so funny?

SPEAKER_00 29:42

I have not heard this, but I'll believe you. Um how did I? I mean, I was thrilled to be asked. I think we auditioned in my year, and you know, all the schools go forward for it, and then two people from each school go forward for the first round, and then I think there's 12 finalists, can't quite remember, but um you as I say it was tied with that new writing competition, so you you had your sundimes song, and then you were assigned a new song with new writers, and so uh it was nice. The the two songs that I did were super contrasting, but Frank Anchievini is crazy, um, but I loved it, and I think that's what I I mean about when I do approach musical theatre, it's great, like it's such a study singing, uh it's such a muscle. Um, and trying to understand those nuances. I don't read music, so it's all from here, um which is so makes it incredibly tricky for MDs. But um, yeah, it was so fun. It was exactly that Lyran of like getting all his tiny nuanced beats uh musically into my body and then thinking about you know situance. Um but it was so fun, and it was like a raucous afternoon. It was amazing, it was at the hair market, and all my pals came, and I just couldn't believe it. It was so fun.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

I saw it was like a great like lineup as well, I saw it like Lily Cahoa that year as well, and like Jamie Boggier that year. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Uh yeah, yeah, it was, it was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

Yeah, um, I saw that you also like won the um the Jack Tinker Award at the Critic Circle Award um a few years back too. Um I was wondering, um, did that feel like a stamp of approval for you, or did it in it add a layout crush, you know, best newcomer that you had to like reach a deadline as well?

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Uh no, I I the recognition was great. It was like oh that's so nice. It was for spring, and so I think because it had been uh a glorious but but uh a hard job in ways, it it felt really great. I think also because I love that character so much to be like, yay! It's such a special show, and also it was the best kind of award because you just get told that you've got it rather than being nominated and having to say it. It was great. So you just go and have a nice time. No, I was really thrilled. Um I think that stuff's really lovely. You know, the the awards and things, uh it I don't think it's at all why we do any of it, but but to feel recognized, especially with that, you know, the critic circle, feeling that you're recognised by your own industry, um, just starting out, it really felt like uh keep going, which was nice.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Absolutely. Um I guess yeah, when you look back as well, you know, in those days when you're doing taste of honey, um is that something that you know now that you wish you had known back then too?

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Hmm. Oh god, that's a good question. Probably loads. I think what what I've uh learned, I really love my work. And I think more and more I learn the balance of taking the work seriously and not taking myself too seriously. Because I think um amongst my pals, like our support network of actors that we have, I think it's really lovely to see it as the beautiful tradition that it is and uphold that. And I think so often the importance or beauty of it is kind of invalidated or reduced, and actually I think it's I think it's glorious, and I think it's okay to take it seriously, you know. Um, but also have a giggle at the same time. I really learned that actually from like my American pals in my year at drama school. I think they really like Viola Davis is a big inspiration of mine. I think they really take their space with that stuff and they're not afraid to take their work seriously and and uh I don't know respect the lineage of writers and and people that have come before them and I'm not saying that we don't, but you know they they um I think that's something I've I've learned. It's okay to love it. I mean I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Absolutely. Um it's been so lovely talking to you. Um just as a last question, what's the what's the best part about being Stuart Thompson? Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

The best part. I I feel so grateful to get to do what I do. I really think being an artist, being a freelancer, that you can be the hardest work and the most talented, but the lifestyle may not suit you. It's crazy, you know. There's a it's so weird. At any level of success, it's insecure, it's unstable. But I think that those follow periods and that instability actually opens up uh an opportunity for interrogation each time of going, okay, this is kind of oof. Do I still love it? Does it still make me happy? Yes, great, let's keep going. And when you get to do what you love, it's insane. It's not a job. You know, you don't work a day in your life, and I think I feel really blessed to get to do that. So that's the best part of our fears too.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Yeah, amazing. Thank you so much for talking to us today. Thank you.