The ‘High School Musical’ Story of Connor Swindells

“I’m such a pessimistic arse,” Connor Swindells tells The Hollywood Reporter.

The British star (so the emphasis is on the “ar” in “arse”) is discussing his start in the industry with the global Netflix hit Sex Education. “I always think the worst and think, ‘No one’s going to see anything,’” he says about being unable to predict the show’s success. But it helps, being a pessimistic arse,” he adds. “If you become conscious of an audience, you set yourself up to fail in many respects.”

The 28-year-old has the world at his feet. Life after Sex Education has been fruitful. He nabbed the lead role in Steven Knight’s (Peaky Blinders) military drama SAS: Rogue Heroes and later, a job alongside Will Ferrell in a small production called Barbie.

Up next, Swindells takes on the role of legendary 14th-century bailiff Albrecht Gessler, whose brutal rule led to the rebellion and eventual independence of the Old Swiss Confederacy (modern-day Switzerland). The ensemble cast of Nick Hamm’s William Tell, releasing Jan. 17 in the U.K., includes Claes Bang, Ellie Bamber, Jake Dunn, Golshifteh Farahani, Jonathan Pryce, Ben Kingsley, Jonah Hauer-King and Rafe Spall. Swindells is also starring with Colin Firth in Peacock’s upcoming Lockerbie: A Search for Truth.

With a family in construction in Sussex, England, acting was a passion that he wasn’t ready to talk about as a kid. He dropped out of school at age 17 thinking he was going to be a boxer: “I was always into acting, quite privately, secretively. But I was too obsessed with what my friends thought of me,” he tells THR. It’s reminiscent of a certain basketball player, Troy Bolton, who in High School Musical was also too scared to admit that he loved singing. “You’re not wrong. It was sort of like that,” Swindells says.

He found a way to embrace what he wanted to do, and now, the industry is reaping the rewards. Thankfully, the Brit doesn’t look like he’s slowing down any time soon. Below, he talks to THR about the enduring bonds he formed on Sex Education, what he can tell us about season two of SAS: Rogue Heroes, out Jan. 1, and which Hollywood names are on his to-work with list: “Fuck it. I’ll say.”

***

Connor, you’re almost the opposite of a “nepo baby.” You dropped out of college, your family are from labor backgrounds. How did you know you wanted to be an actor?

I dropped out of college when I was about 17. I did a year, and then I gave it up. And yeah, my family are all from construction — my mum’s side of the family, anyway. My dad’s side of the family, they’re more like doctors, journalists and people that work in finance. Proper jobs. Every time I tell this story, it seems to change…

Which version am I getting?

You’ll get the one that I find entertaining, which is that, basically, I’d done so badly in school because, for the longest time, I thought I was going to be a boxer. I didn’t think I needed any education to do that. And then that fell apart when I was about 17, and I had no prospects of doing anything really. All of my friends were leaving and going off to college and university. And I was getting left behind.

I was always into acting, quite privately, secretively. As a kid, my dad was a huge cinephile. My dad’s study was wall-to-wall DVDs, and I would often creep in there and steal things and watch films that I definitely shouldn’t have been watching at certain ages. But that was my early entrance into cinema.

That sounds a little High School Musical — a sporty boy who’s secretly into acting.

You’re not wrong, really. It was sort of like that. I was too egotistical and too obsessed with what other people might think. Weirdly, I always wanted to be the funny kid, but I thought that doing drama wouldn’t make me funny anymore. I was too obsessed with what my friends thought of me [over] what I actually wanted to do. And then once my friends left, I suddenly was left with what I wanted to do and I wanted to be an actor. I thought, well, if I’ve been beaten up in a boxing ring in front of people that I know, how bad could this be, really? I was extremely nervous the first time [acting]. I didn’t know I was going to be any good. I’d put all of my eggs in this basket, and I told everyone I was going to be an actor. Thankfully, it’s worked out. I really enjoy making movies and TV shows, and I enjoy the collaborative nature of it all.

With no formal training, you did exactly what you wanted to do. It’s kind of incredible. Your big break was with Sex Education, so how did that come about?

That came about through the brilliant casting director, Lauren Evans, who I’d met when I was really young. She gave me my first ever job, a small little part on a TV series called Harlots. God, I was awful in it. So God bless her for bringing me in for Sex Education. I don’t know why she thought that I’d be a good fit for it. I could tell that she had a problem, which was, “I don’t know what to do with this part. Can we try and figure it out together?” And it was the first time I ever realized as an actor, you are, in large, a craftsman. You come to an audition as a plumber would come to your house to quote you. Now, your quote for that problem might not be what they’re after or whatever, but for the first time, I realized, “Oh, we’re on an equal playing field here in this moment, and you need me to help you fix this problem. Let’s try it out.” I think because of that, I was more free, and we had a great time doing it. And then she put it onto the higher ups, and that was it.

She didn’t know who to cast for the role of Adam?

Yeah. I think also it was so early on in the project, no one had been cast at all. I think she was also feeling like, “I don’t know what tone these guys want for this show.”

Well, it worked out. Did you realize how big the show would be on set? Was there any sense of just how transformative it would be for your careers?

Certainly not when we were filming the first season. I’m such a pessimistic arse that I always think the worst and think, “No one’s going to see anything.” I think you have to [think that] as an actor as well because if you become conscious of an audience, you set yourself up to fail in many respects. So I always try not to think about that. But I think after the first season came out, it was quite quickly apparent that it was having an impact on a lot of people.

But even to this day, I still am processing how much people love that show, and how lucky I’ve been to be a part of it because it really did change the course of my life.

Why do you think people loved it so much?

Because the show was so hopeful. It was set in a world where you didn’t have to hide, you could just be yourself, and everyone was accepted for being themselves. People struggled with that, but it was all about overcoming that, I think. I think people also just enjoyed how light and funny, the struggles that these people were going through resonated with them, and people saw themselves in different parts. It was a really special show. I feel so grateful to be a part of it.

I think it acted as a bit of a springboard for so many of you. Emma [Mackey]’s doing amazing, Ncuti [Gatwa] is Doctor Who. In terms of the talent, Sex Education was a little goldmine. Are you still in touch with everyone from the show and watching what everyone’s doing?

For sure. I think, naturally, everyone just becomes so busy doing other stuff that you drift apart, sadly. But yeah, we still speak. I mean Alistair [Petrie], I definitely speak to the most, because we spent the most time with each other. He’s like family to me. He officiated my wedding quite recently, so he means so much to me. We’re planning holidays together, and we’re doing all kinds of stuff. So he’s someone that I have so much love for. But I love everyone who was in that show, and I feel so lucky that I got to hang out with them.

Were there any elements of Adam as a character that you’ve taken with you?

It’s a good question. I was so lucky that Adam was so absurd, that I could really do anything and play around as much as I wanted. I never felt like no situation or circumstance he found himself in was unbelievable, and that was really fun. I have a love for animals and dogs that I just didn’t have before him. There’s a dog lying next to me now on the sofa asleep, who also wasn’t here before I played Adam. I learned to really have fun. I was trying too hard, I think, and on Sex Ed I just learned to have fun.

Then you bag a lead role as David Stirling in Steven Knight’s SAS: Rogue Heroes. Was that daunting?

It was the first time I was really stepping outside of my comfort zone with a character who is very, very different to me, both in his personality and in his class. I never got put up for upper-class parts at that point. It was always working-class people. So it was the first character I was going to have to source the information from the outside, for the most part. And it was the first time I was playing a historic, real person. But in all honesty, I didn’t really focus too much on that at the time, and I think I’m glad that I didn’t. I just tried to thank God for Sex Ed because I learned at that point that this is only going to work as a project if we’re all having fun doing it. And it was a hard shoot. I loved working with all of those guys, and I was really bolstered by Tom Shankland, the director, Steven’s writing, and the cast. So no, I didn’t really ever feel out of my depth, I just jumped into it.

When you go into auditions, do you feel like you’re immediately boxed into a certain kind of actor or character?

Not anymore. I think I’ve made enough. I’m always trying to do the opposite of what I just did. I’m sure perhaps there’ll be something I do one day that people just cannot get out of their heads. And that’s no bad thing, right? To have that much of an impact on people is really special, I think.

Was SAS a whole other beast? You haven’t come from a military background, but your portrayal of Stirling is so spot-on.

For sure. I think it probably would have been harder in a more contemporary thing. The landscape was so flat for us to play around, there was no secretive, espionage-type nature about it [yet]. I didn’t have any military background, and there’s not really anyone in my family like that either. But I read a lot of the books. I read his biography and the source material that the show is based on, and that just told me everything I needed to know.

Beyond that, it was just about doing accent stuff and movement stuff and learning the lines. Because Steven Knight, he’ll write scenes that go on for 15, 20 minutes with no cut. Huge dialogue. And it was just about drilling that into myself. All the other stuff will come. There’ll be people on set to help you. There’ll be brilliant military advisors, which we had. Again, it comes down to that collaborative nature of the medium, and you have to embrace that. There are plenty of times on that set where I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t have it figured out at all. And thankfully, there were people around me that could help. So every person on that set was as much a part of making David Stirling as I was.

Are you an extrovert? Where has this love of working with people come from?

I think I float somewhere in the middle, closer toward introverted, because when I’m tired at the end of the day, I have a social battery that does drain like everyone. I’m quite shy, and I think that acting and doing this allows me to talk to people because I’m not really talking about myself, I’m talking about the work.

Is there any writing or directing in your future?

I think never say never. There is something so brilliant about just turning up, doing your bit and then fucking off. Perhaps in the future, maybe, but it would have to be the right thing with the right people.

Where did you shoot SAS?

Well, it’s been different every year, but there’s an airfield called White Waltham, that we shoot a lot of stuff at, and then a chunk of it will be on location somewhere. So for the second season, the guys all went to Croatia. I didn’t get to go, just because of the story. In the first season, we went to Morocco.

What can you tell us about season two? Stirling is captured at the end of season one, so what’s in store? What can people be excited about?

Well, I only recently saw it, and I was fucking blown away. Excuse my language. It was everything I loved and more. And I think because now we know the characters, you’re instantly in the driver’s seat with them. You’re not trying to learn everyone and figure everyone out. You know who they all are. It’s just grown in its strength. The actors have grown in the time that we’ve last seen them. The characters have grown. The scripts are fantastic. The action is amazing. And this season as well, in particular, follows way more the inner workings of these people, the PTSD element of the things that they’ve gone through.

And then we come to Barbie. How did that happen?

I did a tape, and then the next thing I heard, I was going to be on set in two weeks. So I didn’t even get to meet Greta before I was there. I think I met her for the first time in my costume fitting or something.

That job in particular was just so magical in in every way you can imagine. I was suddenly with Will Ferrell. I grew up watching his films, and he was like, just chatting with me and shooting the shit in the green room. We were seeing how many candy bars we could eat in a day. It was obscene. We got to go to L.A. for a couple of weeks and do some shooting out there. And I only really had a few days out there, so it was just a big jolly. But yeah, it was a wild experience. And Greta was obviously fantastic. Seeing Ncuti and Emma outside of the Sex Ed environment as well was also really, really special for us.

I’m curious what that transition was like from a U.K.-based production in Sex Ed to a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster like Barbie.

I’m not jumping out of your question, but it didn’t really feel like that. I think because Greta comes from an independent cinema background, it might have had tons and tons of millions of money behind it, but didn’t feel like it. She always created an atmosphere where we could play around, and there was no one hammering a cosh or anything over the production. It was just a complete playground.

In William Tell, you are back to a rather terrifying role. I’ve got total whiplash with your characters. Gessler is terrifying. What was it like coming into this period piece project?

At first, I wasn’t really sure. I just thought, “God, this is going to be an incredibly physically challenging role. I’m going to have to get fit for it and do all the horse riding and the swinging swords and the body armor that weighs a ton and all of that.” But that stuff I really love as well. I’m excited by a physical challenge and maybe that’s because I come from an athletic background, so it’s easier for my brain to understand what I’m going to have to do. A lot of the time, as an actor you learn your lines, but then what do you do? So much of it is just about attuning yourself emotionally to this character, and physicality can speed up that process, I think, for me. So that was a thrill.

I thought, “This is going to be an amazing experience, regardless of what happens afterwards.” It is an over-the-top, at times, silly action film, but I also really love those and I find those films super entertaining and enjoyable to watch, and I like being a part of that for other people. Also this is an opportunity to just play a nasty piece of work.

Did you film in Switzerland?

We filmed in Italy for 10 weeks. We were in Rome for, I think, half of that time, and then the other half, we were in the mountains, in the north, which was fantastic. There’s places in this film that have never been in a film before. It’s unbelievable.

Wow. You are right though, there’s something that feels a little nostalgic about this film. Something we’ve not seen in a long time.

When we were filming it, I felt the same as well. There’s a huge town in it that was all practical, it was all a build, right? And now that would just all be CGI. There were CGI elements in this film, but nothing to do with what the actors were doing. That was a really special experience. It felt like we were just doing a huge piece of theater. It felt like we were making a movie back in the 50s.

Did you know the history of William Tell and Gessler before you took the role?

I didn’t know the history at all. I’d never heard the legend, but it follows all the tropes and stories that I love. So I enjoyed researching it and and speaking to Nick [Hamm], that was most of my research, just speaking to Nick about it. He filled me in on all of it.

Your portrayal of Gessler was, and I mean this in a good way, deeply disturbing. Is there any part of you that tries to find something to like about a character like that, or is it just a case of, “No, I’m going to really depraved depths here”?

It’s a hard question to answer. I realized with the script quite early on, this is a man who is completely unafraid to take up all the air in the room, and if anything, craves it. He demands to be the center of the attention. And he’s a theatrical person by nature, and it’s a big performance, right? It’s the big swing. So I focused more on that. I try not to think, “Is this person good or bad?” I just focus on, why are they doing what they’re doing? Why are they demanding what they are? But I think that his moral compass is completely non-existent, and he is an egomaniac and a complete narcissist who wants to be at the tip-top one day.

It’s interesting you say you always want to do the opposite of what you’ve just done. Do you prefer playing the good guy or the bad guy?

I don’t really prefer playing either. I don’t really think of them like that. You can’t help it at a certain point, but no, I’m always just taken by the people, the director who’s attached, what the script is saying. Does this feel like something I can actually lend myself to? Ultimately, because there will be many moments on set where I don’t know what to do, am I going to feel bolstered and supported when it comes to those moments? And if the answer is yes, then it’s a no-brainer.

What would you like to do next? Is there anyone in particular you’d love to work with?

I would have dreamed of working with Greta Gerwig, and I have so I’ve been so blessed. There are others… Fuck it. I’ll say. I’m thinking, “If you say, it won’t happen.” Who gives a fuck? I’d love to work with Luca Guadagnino. He’s a friend, a brilliant director. I don’t really need to say much more. Spike Jones is probably the director that inspired me the most as a young man, he was involved in the Jackass stuff. And I hate to admit that I am a Jackass kid. I was that generation, that kind of idiot. But also his films, like Being John Malkovich. I’m a big fan of a lot of his documentary-style stuff, too, and obviously his music videos. So he’s a big name up there. Paul Thomas Anderson films I grew up on as well. My dad introduced me to those.

I can only list all the people that every person lists when they get asked this question. But in terms of actors that I suppose inspired me, Philip Seymour Hoffman was a big one, Robin Williams, I
list them together because tragically, they died in the same year. But Joaquin Phoenix as well. I am a massive, massive, massive, and I have been for the longest time, Jesse Plemons fan, all the way from Friday Night Lights. I think he’s fantastic, and I’m so happy that he’s getting the recognition he deserves. Will Ferrell, I grew up on his comedies. Step Brothers is probably one of my favorite films. It’s normally actors that could do both the funny and serious stuff. Bill Murray was another one.

Those are all great choices. So what’s next for Connor Swindells?

Well, after I finished filming on William Tell, I started a television series about the Lockerbie plane bombing, where I play a detective, Ed McCusker, who is the complete opposite of Gessler. A bread and butter Glaswegian man.

There’s a thing that I’m doing next year, which I can’t talk about right now, but it will be very different from Lockerbie and Ed McCusker.

The world is really your oyster right now, it feels.

That’s very kind of you to say. I have a hard time, I think, feeling proud of myself.

Why?

Oh, I don’t know. I suppose it’s difficult as an actor not to compare yourself. But the thing the older I get and the longer I do it is that it’s OK not to know the answers to every question. It’s OK to ask yourself questions. It’s OK to fail, and it’s OK to take big swings, and it’s OK to be a craftsman. I think I put too much pressure on myself being an artist when I was younger. I think being an actor and doing this is just about finding out the frequency and getting onto the wavelength of the director and the project. And some projects require you to come to them as an artist, and if you come to them as a craftsman, you’re going to get chewed out. And then other projects, if you come to as an artist, and they need you to be a craftsman… You’re going to get chewed out as well. So it’s just about finding out which person you need to be and embracing that there’s nothing wrong with either of them.

The other tip I’ve learned as well, I was discussing this with my wife quite recently, but actors are either ending scenes thinking about doing something or doing something. Don’t be the actor that ends every scene thinking about something. Pete Mullan gave me that piece of advice. The great Peter Mullan.

Well, I think your dad would be very proud of you.

Definitely. I think my dad’s just waiting for me now to do some sort of Star Trek [project]. He’s a big Trekkie, and I can’t promise him that’s going to happen anytime soon, but I think once that happens he’ll be full to the brim with pride.