Meet Tom Jones Star Solly McLeod
It famously took the makers of Tom Jones seeing nearly 100 actors before they found their leading man. Meet Solly McLeod, the British actor who snagged the role and infused it with an irresistible, jaunty warmth, and learn intriguing facts about the young star and his turn as Tom Jones, as revealed when he sat down with MASTERPIECE in April 2023.
- 1.
McLeod's Childhood Was Spent on an Island in Scotland's Far North
A long-time resident of London, Solly McLeod was actually born in Scotland and spent the first part of his life on an island in Orkney, which he described as “way, way, way north.” When it came time to play the optimistic and innocent Tom Jones, McLeod drew from his magical time in Orkney. “Tom and I were the same age when I filmed it, but I was really more similar to Tom when I was maybe 10 or 11 or 12, so it brought back living in Orkney and the fun and innocence and love of nature that I had then, which was really nice, to delve into myself and be like, ‘Ah, let’s pull out these bits again that you’ve been hiding away in the big city for so long.’”
The island still plays an important part in McLeod’s life, as he enjoys returning between jobs to visit his grandparents, with whom he’s close, and to take a break “…any time I need to ground myself in the real world again, which is easy to float off of, with all the stuff that’s going on.”
- 2.
McLeod Comes from a Musical Family
Hailing from a musical family—parents Aimee Leonard and Rory McLeod are both musicians—McLeod felt that “acting or music—it was either one of the two, really, and I leaned more towards acting.” He credits his grandfather as the person who encouraged him to get into performance and has happy memories of his grandfather showing him the big franchise films—Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, what is this? These are real people, right?’ And he was like, ‘No, no, it’s acting, a film set, all of this.’ And I knew: I want to do it. This is what I want to do.”
- 3.
McLeod's Journey Making Tom Jones Started with a Wrong Turn
It’s only fitting that a character on a journey be played by an actor who’s had a journey of his own, and in the case of Solly McLeod playing Tom Jones, the journey was a great experience…in spite of getting off to a rocky start! “I initially thought the audition was for the Welsh singer Tom Jones, for a biopic, and I was like, ‘Really? Me? There’s no way I can do that.’” Because McLeod was coming off two back-to-back projects (including Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon) with only a day’s rest in between each one, it was a challenge for him to quickly shed those characters, and it took a toll on the young actor. Plus, it was an ambitious production for a leading man who was in some 54 of the shoot’s 57 days.
“But,” he reflected, “we got through it, and I think the fact that Tom Jones is such a light, fun, character and a fun show, with some very big-hearted, warm scenes in there, those are the things that really helped me after the previous two jobs, which were a lot darker, to keep going and pick me up every day on set…It was really nice to pull that part of myself back out again.”
- 4.
The Tom Jones Cast Transformed into Meddling Kids
The intensity of Tom Jones‘ production schedule was offset by camaraderie among the cast, mutual support, and a particular night out about halfway through the shoot. “I remember going out with Sophie Wilde [Sophia Western] and Pearl Mackie [Honour Newton] and Daniel Rigby [Benjamin Partridge] and a few of the other cast on Halloween. We all dressed up as Scooby Doo and the gang—I was Fred, obviously—and we had some drinks and had a dance in some places, played some games, and it was nice. Kind of a quiet, wholesome thing to do between all the chaos.”
Other pleasures of the set included laughs among McLeod, Wilde and James Wilbraham (William Blifil) triggered by Alun Armstrong (Squire Western) and James Fleet (Squire Allworthy). McLeod recalled, “In between takes, or even during a take when it wasn’t their coverage, they’d just pull a face or give a look or say something, a little mutter. It was hilarious. They had a rapport, so they were cracking jokes with each other, trying to make each other laugh—and because they’re so professional, we were the ones that ended up laughing.”
McLeod and costar Sophie Wilde, the only actors working throughout the whole shoot, had apartments one floor apart in the same building, which allowed a real friendship to develop. He described, “Even off set, when we weren’t filming, we’d hang out, and we were really good mates through that whole period of filming. We were each other’s support, and it was really nice to have someone that understood.”
And just as Sophie Wilde found Hannah Waddingham to be a true support, so too did McLeod, who delighted in the star’s presence and deeply appreciated her advice and help with the tougher scenes. “Hannah Waddingham was just an absolute joy to be around and film with, on and off set with,” McLeod said. “She brought an energy and a presence to the set that lifted everyone up on the days that we were waking up at 3am and going home at six or seven o’clock at night.”
- 5.
McLeod Found Much to Admire in His Character
The 20-year-old Tom Jones of the 1749 novel was far more innocent and naïve than a 20-year-old today, McLeod noted, saying, “Now everyone’s exposed to so much more of the real world through social media and all of that stuff. But Tom was like, ‘Life is great. I live in a big house, I’ve got a big family. Yeah, everything’s fine.’”
But it was Tom’s journey into the real world where everything isn’t fine that revealed to McLeod what he loves most about his character: “He’s unapologetically good. His goodness kind of gets him in some pretty bad situations…It’s not all good and happy and sunny all the time, and that’s something that he has to learn. But his resilience to all these obstacles he faces, and all the different people he meets—he could very easily judge them at a glance, at first meeting, but he doesn’t do that. I think that today we’re very quick to judge people just based on how they look, even how they sound over the phone, and so I quite admire how non-judgmental he is, and I think, “Well, maybe I could be a bit more like that.”
- 6.
McLeod Can't Quite Claim "Love Conquers All," But…
Is Solly McLeod like his Tom Jones character, a big romantic who believes that love can conquer all? The actor, who’s in his early twenties, was not ready to commit. “It’s such a big thing—love and romance—and there’s all different kinds of love, so who knows? I may be more skeptical than Tom is. But I’m not like, ‘Boo to love!’—I can really admire it. When I see a character or someone in the real world just completely infatuated, completely in love, would do anything, there’s a part of me that wishes, ‘I’d love to have that, I’d love to feel that, I wonder what that’s like.’ But people don’t necessarily feel that their whole life. I’m still incredibly young—it’s all fun. It’s the chase. It’s like you never know what you’re going to get with love and with romance. I think that’s kind of the excitement.”
