As we gays who obsess over “Awards Season” know, we’re on the verge of Emmy nomination voting, which can only mean one thing: Variety‘s “Actors On Actors” interview series is back, pairing together two awards hopefuls for a typically delightful conversation.
Over the weekend, Variety dropped one of its most charming “Actors On Actors” to date, featuring heartthrobs Nicholas Galitizine (stumping for both Mary & George and Red, White & Royal Blue) and Leo Woodall (One Day).
Aside from them both being dashing British actors in their late-twenties who’ve had real breakout career moments in the past few years, the true brilliance of the coupling came when they both revealed they had previously auditioned for one another’s roles.
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Yup, Woodall read for the titular part of George Villiers in the buzzy Starz miniseries Mary & George… which eventually went to Galitzine!
And Galitizine could have played “cheeky nephew” Jack in season two of The White Lotus… had Woodall not nabbed the part! (For those keeping track, that would’ve been—spoiler!—yet another queer role for Galitzine).
Though the actors jokingly played up their rivalry after discovering they support different English football teams, its turns out they have way more in common than either realized.
And that’s not all they share: Both stars are apparently very comfortable with stripping down on camera and filming gay sex scenes.
Woodall, of course, gave us all the gag of the 2022 TV season on The White Lotus when Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya McQuoid accidentally walked in on his character Jack going to town on who we thought was his uncle Quentin (Tom Hollander). It was a twist we’ll never forget!
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And most of the world became familiar with Galitzine through his role in Red, White & Royal Blue, which featured a very notable “moment of insertion” between his royal Prince Henry and Taylor Zakhar Perez’s “first son” Alex Claremont-Diaz. Not to mention, he hooks up with just about everyone in the salacious Mary & George.
Neither actor seems to have an issue with showing some skin for a role. But what they didn’t really consider beforehand is what it’ll be like to watch those scenes back—while sitting right next to their family members!
Toward the end of their hilarious “Actors On Actors” interview, Galtizine revealed his whole family attended the premiere of Mary & George, a show which finds the actor in multiple compromising positions, getting it on with men, women, and engaging in multiple orgies. “It was pretty… uncomfortable,” he shared with a laugh.
“The best thing in the world was my sister next to me in absolute hysterics, burying her head in her hands, and my mum was completely still and had her eyes closed but was looking in the direction of the screen so as not to give away that she wasn’t watching.”
It was Galitzine’s father who perhaps had the funniest reaction “My dad, almost in this sort of hyper-masculine way, was like: ‘I’m going to watch this—en watch their son do sex scenes on camera.'”
“I was like, ‘Dad, you really don’t have to watch this,'” Galitzine said. “I get that you’re proud!”
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The anecdote clearly brought back memories for Woodall who remembered: “I only had the one scene in The White Lotus that people could be uncomfortable with,” he cracked.
“I didn’t tell anyone that that scene with Tom [Hollander] was going to happen, and I watched it with my brother – and he had no idea,” Woodall recalled. “He was just on the sofa and I actually recorded him, and he was like, ‘uhhhh!’ It did shock [him]—I didn’t tell a soul.”
And clearly that’s the genius of The White Lotus: There’s no one anyone could’ve predicted we’d see that moment between “uncle” and nephew.” Well… no one except Galitzine:
“It comes out of nowhere! But I obviously knew [it was coming] because I read for it and you got the part instead of me,” the actor added with a grin. “But I watched it with other people and I was like, ‘Oh, I know what’s coming now.’ And it was so good.”
Hey, here’s an idea: These two clearly get on so well, and certainly don’t have any issues filming intimate scenes—can someone cats them in a project where they play lovers? We’ll be waiting!
Nicholas Galitzine can currently be seen in Mary & George on Starz and Red, White & Royal Blue streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Leo Woodall can be seen in One Day on Netflix, and Season 2 of The White Lotus, available on Max.
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