“We’re all dreamers” | Tom Ellis enters a new era

Wednesday morning in Mayfair and Tom Ellis is repeatedly throwing himself into the pillowy white embrace of a king-sized bed with the delirious abandon of a man who has found his bliss. Once again the photographer requests another take, once again Ellis obliges, his long limbs splaying everywhere, his eyes wide, his mouth joyously agape. “I could do this all day,” he says, a statement you wouldn’t doubt if you saw his expression while he did it. There is no better angel than our inner child.

Barely a year has passed since we last had Tom Ellis on the cover. Why bring him back so soon? Well, first and foremost, he’s Tom Ellis, a chiselled 6’3 superstar globally beloved for his role as Lucifer, a man who manages the considerable feat of being as nice as he is handsome – if you can get him on your cover, you do so. Secondly, the 2024 cover was meant to run way earlier but the Hollywood writers’ strike played merry havoc with our schedules. And finally, Ellis is having quite the summer, first starring in Hulu drama Washington Black and now The Thursday Murder Club, the Netflix adaptation of Richard Osman’s bestselling detective novel and the nearest thing to a surefire hit this side of the Oasis reunion.

To ensure the third time proved as charming as the first two, we hosted the photoshoot in the private residence of Flemings Mayfair. With multiple rooms over two separate apartments, the townhouse is perfect for guests who crave a little more space, and magazines which need an expensive sofa to drape an actor over. Or indeed a bed to throw him on.

Ellis is in the groomer’s chair when I arrive. Despite his long association with the magazine – as well as the covers, he also interviewed Outlander star Sam Heughan for us – today is the first time we’ve met in person. He greets me with a hug and promptly asks if I watched Rory McIlroy win the Masters the previous weekend. He cried when McIlroy holed the decisive putt. An avid golf fan, Ellis plays off nine: “I could get it down but I don’t play enough.”

Like most actors, Ellis is used to hotels. He started his career doing panto with fellow drama student James McAvoy in Kirkcaldy, Fife; spent six years playing the love interest in BBC sitcom Miranda; moved to the States and landed the title role in Lucifer, a glossy TV drama in which the Devil ran a nightclub and helped out the LAPD. That one spanned six seasons, 93 episodes, one cancellation, two networks (first Fox, then Netflix) and countless Comic Cons. Now 46, he’s worked more or less constantly for the past 25 years – although you’d imagine the hotel rooms have improved.

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Flemings’ townhouse is a doozy. The wallpaper is extremely beautiful: green leaves in one bedroom, tigers in the other. “It’s almost like tapestry,” says Ellis, a man who clearly appreciates good interior design. I show him a photo of the hot air balloon wallpaper that covers a wall in my flat. “We have that wallpaper in Dolly’s nursery!” exclaims Ellis. “The exact same one.” Dolly turns two in November.

Ahead of the shoot, Ellis pops out for a crafty cigarette – a habit he intends to quit any day now and doubtless has done for the past 30 years. Nicotine fix sorted, we crack on. He’s a very good sport, game for any suggestion from the photographer.

“I could do this all day,” he says, launching himself onto the bed for the umpteenth time. Fortunately for the bed springs, all day isn’t an option: he has a filming engagement at Bafta down the road. Ellis, his PR Charlotte and myself head off along Piccadilly. Most of the short walk is spent reliving the Masters and comparing the American sports bar to the London pub.

He’s lived in LA for more than a decade. America’s been good to him, making his name with Lucifer, providing countless friends, his wife Meaghan Oppenheimer (they were set up by a mutual friend while Ellis filmed the Lucifer pilot), and the type of life a young Welsh lad growing up in Sheffield could only dream of. (Sunshine, for starters.) He obtained his citizenship last year, voting for Kamala Harris in the election. He’s still grappling with Donald Trump 2.0. “It does feel like an existential crisis,” says Ellis of Trump’s second presidency. “Everyone’s fucking terrified.”

SHOP THE LOOK: forest green suit, shirt and tie by Edward Sexton; socks by The London Sock Co; loafers by Malone Souliers

So he’s leaving LA – but not America. The family will relocate to New York City, a move instigated by Ellis’s casting as the lead in the upcoming CBS drama CIA. The job should offer some welcome security: creator Dick Wolf devised the immensely successful procedurals Law & Order and FBI, which have run for more than 30 seasons between them. (CIA is a spinoff of the latter.) At the time of the photoshoot, Ellis’s CIA casting had yet to be announced so he couldn’t discuss it. No matter: let’s return to the cosy environs of Bafta.

It’s an unobtrusive little building – well, unobtrusive for Piccadilly – sandwiched between a bookshop and a cocktail bar. I imagine the vast majority of pedestrians don’t even notice it. Inside the decor is surprisingly Art Deco. A very polite man ushers us into a marble lift and leads us to the Run Run Shaw Theatre where the recording will take place.

Sir Run Run Shaw was a 20th century Hong Kong movie mogul and philanthropist who built a massive media empire, donated billions to educational institutions and passed away in 2014 at the tender age of 106. The cinema named after him at Bafta is very red and very tiny, seating a mere 41 people. Charlotte and I retire to the back rows while Ellis is plonked in front of a white backdrop to answer questions about his film firsts.

First film he watched? Snow White on VHS. First inappropriate film he watched? Nightmare on Elm Street as a kid. He was awoken that night by wailing outside and ran terrified into his parents’ bedroom. The culprit was not Freddy Krueger but copulating foxes. First line he ever spoke on-screen? “Alright” – in an episode of the sitcom Kiss Me Kate way back in 2000.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the man’s a natural: eloquent, engaged, and palpably bestowed by the movies. He quite literally tears up describing the final scene of The Railway Children, the first film to ever make him cry. Later he references the scene from Mary Poppins where the Banks children float up to the ceiling due to their hysterical laughter. “It’s time to get off the ceiling,” Ellis tells his children whenever they must leave somewhere fun.

Filming complete, we head upstairs to the rooftop restaurant for a spot of lunch. “It’s very pretty in here,” says Ellis. Very pretty: filled with light and foliage, a perfect spring afternoon winking through the windows. There are numerous photographs of past Bafta winners, although I can’t spot any celebrities on the surrounding tables – other than the dude sitting opposite me.

We peruse the menu. He havers between fish and chips or bangers and mash, opting for the latter as “I’ve had fish and chips three times on this trip already.” The dish isn’t listed as bangers and mash. It’s listed as ‘Huntsham Court farm sausages, mashed potato and wholegrain mustard gravy.’ Ellis was raised in Sheffield and knows bangers and mash when he sees it. He orders a Peroni because why not.

The rooftop has a balcony but smoking is prohibited. No matter, the beers have already arrived. We clink bottles, I start recording on my phone and the conversation turns to murder.

SHOP THE LOOK: slim-fit check virgin wool suit and merino polo shirt by Boss; sunglasses by Cutler & Gross

The Thursday Murder Club sounds like one of those dream jobs that makes you want to build a time machine so you can travel back to your younger self, the impoverished drama student, and assure him that everything will turn out OK. One day he will be paid to swan around the sunny Berkshire countryside with numerous acting legends – Sir Ben Kingsley! Helen Mirren! Jonathan Pryce! – being directed by Chris Columbus and actual James Bond playing his dad. “It was a very surreal but lovely experience,” says Ellis.

The premise is simple: four pensioners live in a retirement village and solve crimes together. With the series having sold millions of copies, the remit was simple: put the page on screen and don’t mess it up. Mission accomplished. The film is a joy, the titular Murder Club embodied by four legendary British thespians – Mirren, Sir Ben, Pierce Brosnan, Celia Imrie – clearly having the time of their storied careers. Ellis describes the finished product as “a big, beautiful slice of cake”; multiple helpings are surely guaranteed.

His character Jason is the son of Brosnan’s Ron Ritchie, a former trade unionist turned amateur sleuth. Brosnan himself is a keen artist. By a strange quirk of fate, Ellis was gifted one of his paintings before the film was even cast. His father-in-law bought it at a Malibu fundraiser held by the celebrated zoologist Dame Jane Goodall. The in-laws spoke to Brosnan after the auction and naturally bigged up Ellis as a potential Bond. (Gotta love the family support.) Hearing that Ellis would receive the painting, Brosnan included a handwritten note: “Dear Tom, from one Bond to another, lots of love, Pierce.”

FishHook is a near-abstract depiction of blue and white waves. It was painted by Brosnan on the Hawaiian island of Kauai during Covid. American artist Shepard Fairey turned the original painting into a screenprint that now hangs on the wall of Ellis’s home gym. “It’s a huge piece of art,” says Ellis. “Probably about seven foot by five foot.” He shows me a photo on his phone; the painting looks enormous and rather therapeutic, a dreamy swirl of soft colours and elegant curves.

More out of hope than expectation, I reached out to Brosnan for further detail – and received a written response from the man himself. “The original drawing was made while I was on the phone with a dear friend [Phoebe Scholfield] who was losing her husband Jay Benedict to Covid. A dear friend, a great actor, father and husband. Many drawings are made in this fashion. More than a few have been made into paintings on a larger scale. FishHook, representing safe passage, fishing for souls, the ocean’s bounty.”

What a gift from the in-laws! Another arrived directly from Brosnan during filming when the great man endorsed the 007 credentials of his on-screen son. “Pierce Brosnan said, verbatim, ‘you’d be a great Bond.’” Ellis beams with schoolboy delight. “Even if I’m never James Bond, I will take that with me!”

It was a job of affirmations. Ellis has enjoyed a hugely successful career, yet like many people his imposter syndrome is easily triggered. On his first day on set, he opened up to Celia Imrie. “I felt so overwhelmed about everyone that I was working with. And so nervous. Really nervous for the first time in a long time.” He asked Imrie whether the nerves ever went away. “It never goes away, darling,” replied Imrie. “You’ll always feel like that.”

“She was very lovely,” says Ellis. “She just said, ‘oh, I think you have such a wonderful quality.’” He giggles. “I was like, oh, thank you, Celia! I think that about you!” The pair grew close over filming. “She’s absolutely lovely, Celia Imrie,” says Ellis fervently. “Very funny and very sweet and very kind.”

Columbus directed the first two Harry Potter films, and families were actively encouraged on the set of Thursday Murder Club. His eldest daughter Nora studies fine art and writing but has expressed an interest in production design. The art department duly took her under their wing. “They were so lovely to her,” says Ellis. “It was such a happy job in that regard.”

One day his 12-year-old daughter Marnie visited the set. While dad worked, she plonked herself down in one of the chairs reserved for the cast. A cast member eventually wandered over.

“Oh hello,” said Sir Ben Kingsley. “Who are you?” Marnie identified herself as Tom’s daughter. “Oh, Tom!” exclaimed Sir Ben. “He’s a wonderful actor! Wonderful actor.”

“And she told me that,” says Ellis, ‘and I was the happiest person in the world.” Simply sharing the story appears to place him in the top ten.

He even enjoys recounting how he missed out on meeting Steven Spielberg when the legendary director swung by the set. After saying his hellos, Spielberg posed for a photo with the main cast, Columbus and Osmand. Ellis shows me the photo on his phone. There’s Brosnan, there’s Spielberg, there’s Osman towering over everyone – but no Ellis. Not wishing to crowd the shot, he and David Tennant idled beside a wall, waiting to be summoned – only for the summons to never materialise.

No matter. Let’s leave the final words of this section to Brosnan, words that will douse Ellis’s nerves should he return for the inevitable sequels. “I could not have wished for a finer movie-star son than Tom Ellis in Thursday Murder Club,” Brosnan tells me. “Tom has the strength of character as an actor to play light and heavy, drama and comedy. Wonderful to work with, and a great guy to hang out with on set. Who would have thought that the painting FishHook would have such a story.”

Food is here! Ellis tucks in with the enthusiasm of someone who knows this might be his last exposure to proper sausages for many months. “Very good,” is the verdict. “Mashed potato was very buttery. Not a complaint.”

Cappuccinos are ordered, conversation is resumed. With Amazon searching for an actor in his 20s, the Ellis Bond will likely stay confined to imagination. However he came tantalisingly close to landing another major role – that of Reed Richards in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

“There was a select group of people that got asked to tape for Reed Richards,” says Ellis. “I had been waiting for the right thing, timing-wise and character-wise, to come along. And I remember looking at the photo of Richards in the comics and going, ‘this could be the one.’ We look quite similar.”

He sent off the tape, only to receive word the role belonged to Pedro Pascal. “I mean to be fair, he’s not in much,” quips Ellis with a chuckle. “He’s great though. He is great. I’m looking forward to seeing it. The trailer looks quite fun.”

No hard feelings: the career of every actor is littered with the ones that got away. Someone once told Ellis that the best part about being an actor is getting a job. Doing the job is not as fun as getting the job. “I understand that to a certain degree,” says Ellis, “although I really enjoy doing the jobs. But it’s what we live for. We live for the what if-ness of it.”

Embrace uncertainty, shun regret. There’s always another script. “We’re all in this industry because we all dreamt about doing it one day,” says Ellis. “I think we’re still all dreamers, and the people who say they’re not are either too cynical or they shouldn’t be doing it anymore.”

SHOP THE LOOK: polo shirt and wool tailored trousers by Mr P at Mr Porter

He is a deeply uncynical man but Trump’s reelection tested his faith in his adopted country. Last November saddened Ellis but it didn’t surprise him. “I love America for so many reasons but I think it’s a very selfish country in terms of what it promotes in its people. The American dream is a very selfish dream. It’s about: you can come here and make money for your family, protect your family with guns. It’s all about you and building your castle and everyone else is on the outside. That’s why Donald Trump is in charge of the world at the moment.”

He used to stay out of politics; Trump’s first presidency changed that. During our interview in 2020, he described a second Trump term as being his own personal hell loop. He responded to the Black Lives Matter movement by having his friend and fellow actor Brandon Kyle Goodman host a weekly interview series on his Instagram and its 7.3m followers. (Now 8.7m.) I suspect his newly acquired US citizenship will only make him more outspoken now he and his children have a stake in the country.

I think of Ellis’s Mary Poppins-inspired words when he must reluctantly curtail family fun. “It’s time to get off the ceiling.” Has he ever come off the ceiling himself?

“No,” he replies without much consideration. “I mean, I’ve dipped a bit when I’ve not got a job, but I’ve always floated back up there. I feel incredibly, incredibly fortunate to do what I do.”

Later, he mentions an old David Letterman interview where Christopher Reeves describes working with Marlon Brando on Superman. It was a disillusioning experience for the young actor. “He doesn’t care anymore,” Reeves says of Brando. “He took the two million and ran.” Reeves continues. “I just still care. I’m a real beginner and I just care so much that it hurts when someone’s phoning it in.”

Tom Ellis isn’t a beginner by any means but he cares more than anything. I can’t imagine him ever phoning it in.

Three months after our lunch at Bafta, I catch up with Ellis over Zoom. Two cardboard boxes are visible behind him, along with a photo of David Bowie and a poster for Tell Me Lies, the TV drama created by Oppenheimer. (Ellis appeared in season two.) “We’re in the process of packing up our house at the moment,” says Ellis. “So it’s a bit of a complicated time in our life.” Amid the chaos, he has finally managed to quit smoking – seven weeks today!

Ellis and Oppenheimer are excited by the move, even if the actual moving part can be a drag. His casting in CIA is now public knowledge. Ellis plays Colin Rakes, a roguish CIA agent recently settled in New York. (The character is listed as Hart Hoxton on IMDb – “he’s taken on a few incarnations already,” says Ellis.) Naturally, the maverick Rakes is partnered with his behavioural antithesis in the FBI, an agent Ellis describes as “anally retentive, all his pens in a row, immaculate hair, clean shaven, does everything by the book.” Look, Dick Wolf didn’t become one of the most successful producers on American TV through an aversion to playing the hits.

Gratifyingly, Ellis was headhunted for CIA. The offer proved the catalyst to finally act on a long-mooted move to New York. Like politicians, the actor’s life is largely shaped by events. I recently interviewed JJ Feild, the British American actor currently playing Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre. (A brilliant production, incidentally.)

“I know JJ,” says Ellis. “I did one of my first ever jobs with him.” A 2001 TV adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk. Feild was a young Jack, Ellis played his bully. “He’s a very good golfer, JJ,” says Ellis. (Ellis is a nuanced and intelligent man but I suspect he is also capable of dividing the world into a simple binary: those who can golf and those who can’t golf.)

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Anyway, Feild had spent 15 years in LA before permanently relocating to London this summer. Two families don’t exactly signal an exodus but I was struck by the parallels. Ellis believes more people are departing LA than arriving. “It just doesn’t seem to make an awful lot of sense to live here anymore.” Fewer and fewer productions shoot in the city. The pandemic, the writers’ strike, economic downturn, global unrest have all taken a toll. “It feels like the industry has been thinned out somewhat in the last few years,” says Ellis ruefully.

Let’s part on a positive note: what excites him about the years ahead? Plenty, it transpires. He hopes to collaborate with Oppenheimer on a new project. “I don’t know what it’s going to be for definite yet but I think it will happen.” If all goes to plan, CIA will run for multiple seasons. The move to New York brings the opportunity to finally scratch the theatrical itch, hopefully with some Noel Coward or Oscar Wilde. Conquer Broadway with something witty, timeless and quintessentially English.

More stories to tell, another chapter soon to be written. He is a lucky man and he knows it. He cares because it’s the decent thing to do. And were he to somehow forget his blessings, should he briefly cease to care, he need only glance at the bracelet on his wrist.

It’s a friendship bracelet, made for him by Marnie when she saw Taylor Swift play Wembley last summer. (Friendship bracelets are massive among Swifties.) His contains the letters NFMD, the initials of his four children – Nora, Florence, Marnie and Dolly. “Which also stands for No Fucking More Dad,” grins Ellis. “It’s like the cheapest bit of arts and crafts but it’s stayed on my wrist for a year.”

Tom Ellis will not be coming off the ceiling anytime soon.