We recently spoke to Freddie about his time on the much-anticipated Netflix series ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ and his time here at the school. Freddie graduated from the One Year Course in 2021. Prior to training at The Oxford School of Drama he trained with the National Youth Theatre appearing in various productions. In addition to acting, he is also a passionate traveller, writer and photographer.
By Omi Mantri
Photo from ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’. (Nick Wall/Netflix)
Firstly, congrats on Bridgerton! How was the filming last year?
Thank you, it was amazing! It was also incredibly overwhelming, particularly for the first month because I didn’t quite comprehend how big a budget production it was until I stepped on set and then suddenly you go, wow, everything is seamless. Apart from maybe me… But it’s good because it kind of kicks you into gear and makes you work stupidly hard, just to not let anyone down. But without a doubt, one of the best experiences of my life!
What was the audition process like?
It was strange because I taped for three different roles. And at the time, I was feeling quite cynical about the whole thing. So I got the tape for King George, who’s the main character, and then didn’t hear anything back. And I kind of thought, obviously, they didn’t want me. Then a tape came through for Brimsley, who’s another one of the main characters. I did that tape. And then they asked me to tape for Reynolds, who was the guy I eventually got, but it was just a self-tape and an online recall.
Wow, that’s interesting to hear.
I was actually in Prague when I first taped for the character that I got. I remember having about 10 minutes, I was there with my dad and his now wife, and they had just told me that they were going to get married! It was my dad’s birthday as well, so we were there kind of celebrating. And I said to my sister, “Meg, we’ve got 10 minutes to do this tape, can we just do this tape quickly?”
That’s amazing. Weirdly, sometimes when you spend less time doing something the work is better.
Yeah, I think sometimes you just innately understand a person? Or you’re very lucky because a person is quite similar to you. Well, I’m not actually sure I am similar to my character. I don’t know, you’ll have to tell me.
Out of curiosity, how different was the final scene compared to the self-tape?
Very, very different because you’ve just had so much more time to prepare. When I look back at my self-tape, I go, that’s a different character to the one that I gave them in the end. But I think that’s a good thing, because I’d like to think the final product is more human. As I said before, in the self-tape I just threw it away a bit and just went, okay, here’s a guy saying these lines. But then I did lots and lots of work to form this human being and we had lots of rehearsals before we started.
How helpful was having this rehearsal process?
It was very intimidating. But it was helpful, in the sense that I got to meet everyone and there’s relaxation that comes with that. If we’d have just had to work together the first time we met each other, that would have been terrifying. We did lots of choreography for slightly more complicated scenes, like dancing and sex. And that is incredibly strange and incredibly uncomfortable, but also on the day it makes it ten times better.
Any particular highlights during filming?
I did love the time we spent filming in a place called Grantham at a stately home called Belton House. We were there for something like two and a half weeks. And instead of putting us in a hotel, for me, Cory, India and Sam. They hired us this massive house in the middle of nowhere. At the end of every day, we came back, and we chilled, and it was perfect weather. It was just one of those pinch me moments where you just go, how is this my life right now? But then we got chased by lots of cows.
Bring you back down to Earth.
Exactly, exactly.
(Liam Daniel/Netflix)
Are there any specific pressures that come with joining an already established franchise?
I’m not going to speak necessarily about myself now. But I will speak about the show as a whole. There is a massive pressure for it to be successful, as successful if not better than the already established franchise, which I think is really scary, because you never know. There are pressures because you have the weight of expectation and you know, how much fans love it and adore it. And you want to do justice to that. Also, because everyone has so carefully defined their characters, you don’t want to drop the ball.
And how was it filming at Blenheim Palace because that’s just down the road from OSD?
I loved every second of working there. My first ever days filming were in Blenheim. So, the first time I ever worked in TV and film, apart from Ed’s film classes, were there and that was surreal, and strangely brought back some anxieties that I took from school into that day’s work, and I had to calm myself down and go, you’re not a student anymore. You’re a professional. You wouldn’t be here if they didn’t want you to be here. But it was amazing. And then I visited the school and it snowed. I don’t know if that was pathetic fallacy or something.
It was meant to be. I know you have been part of a few screen projects. Do you miss doing theatre?
I do. And I really would like to do theatre again. I don’t know if I’m confident enough right now to do it because what I love about screen work is I can have another go. And that immediately makes me more comfortable. I’m not convinced how good I was at theatre to be honest. And that makes me want to do it again, because I want to improve. So maybe I will, but right now I’m quite comfortable doing screen work because I think I’m better at it. It favours a smaller actor, I think.
And have you always been interested in acting?
I have, very quietly. I didn’t start acting until I was 23. And I’m now 26. I’d never ever done it. And that was for numerous reasons. One because my dad’s an actor, and I hated the idea of being compared to him. And I just kept on postponing it. Year on year I would say I’ll do it next year. I’ll do it when I’m at uni. And then I graduated uni and I went, oh. If I’m actually going to do this, because I really want to, I have to do it now. So I went to evening classes, applied to Oxford, got in. But the only ever plays I’ve done are at Oxford.
Looking back, was there a time of the school that was of particular significance?
Kristine Landon Smith. She was an amazing external director who came in and directed ‘The Seagull’ and she completely unlocked me. She gave me for the first time ever, in terms of acting, confidence in myself, a belief that I could achieve all the things that I wanted to achieve. She actually just sort of showered me with praise. And that makes me sound like a bit of a narcissist. But she made me feel like I could do it for the first time. I think I got significantly better because of that. So meeting Kristine, was the moment. Thank you, Kristine!
Are there any aspects of the training that you particularly value, now that you are in the profession?
Working with lots of different directors. It was amazing having Dylan for the first one. Then having a self-directed piece and then we had two external directors which was awesome because it gives you the opportunity to work with people whose minds work differently from each other’s and differently from yours.
And I know one of your passions outside of acting is photography. Would you say that has shaped your perspective on acting?
I think at the core of both of them is curiosity and people, and that’s probably how I would want them, but I have every intention of pursuing photography as well. And I’m hoping that in a weird way this show helps. And actually, the cinematographer for this (Jeff Jur), who did Dirty Dancing and all of Bridgerton, he would just repeatedly say to me ‘keep doing your photography, I love your photography’. And that filled me with such a warm, fuzzy feeling. And I just thought, I need to carry on doing this because I love it.
Spending time behind the camera brings you joy as you say, have you ever considered the same for the acting world, such as directing, writing, filming?
I am writing something at the moment with a good friend of mine but, I’m not going to go into details about that because it’s probably terrible. If it’s not, maybe you can read it. But I also think I need to get more experienced on the ground before I start. I wouldn’t bet myself to be a good actor yet let alone director, so I want to learn a bit more about the craft of all of it. But actually working on Queen Charlotte I learned so much about filmmaking as a visual art. And it was so refreshing to see how unimportant actors are in the wider picture. Well, I learned that on ‘Baby Reindeer’ I was replaced within about six hours.
I know you mentioned that you’re working on some writing. How important would you say it is for actors nowadays to create their own work?
Very, very important. I’m not speaking from a financial perspective because writing things and getting things made is arguably harder than getting an acting job, which is hard in its own right. But I think you learn so much from doing it. You learn about the craft; you learn about the industry. It forces you to be introspective and have an external focus as well on how people talk and make observations about life. But you’ll also learn a lot about yourself. It’s a really rough ride this whole self-employment creative thing. I think it’s important that we are self-reflective all the time, otherwise, we’ll end up quite unhappy. And I think that’s one of the benefits of making your own stuff. It’s an outlook.
Wonderful, just a final thing. Is there anything that you want to tell the readers?
I would say… If there was one lesson that I am learning, haven’t learned it yet. It’s that you have to believe in yourself, you have to be confident. I would say from what I have seen, 90% of getting a job is confidence. You may be talented, you may be less talented, but I think confidence wins out. People want to work with someone that is self-assured and confident, so keep working on that. You will have moments of self-doubt at drama school before drama school after drama school, even if you don’t go to drama school, you will have moments of self-doubt, but you have to try and work through those and believe in yourself. And if someone works it out, please tell me how.
Quick fire Questions
-
Film or TV?
Film -
Cinema or Theatre?
Film -
Classical or Contemporary work?
Contemporary -
Bodycon or Voicecon?
Both – No - Bodycon -
Favourite subject at OSD?
Movement -
Favourite project at OSD?
The Seagull (Directed by Kristine Landon Smith) -
Self-tape or In person auditions?
In-person -
What’s your favourite accent to do?
Northern Irish but I can’t do it. -
What accent do you want to learn?
Northern Irish
