Born in London, Tom Burke, 44, trained at Rada. In 2008, he won the Ian Charleson award for his role in Creditors at London’s Donmar Warehouse. From 2014 to 2016, he appeared in the BBC series The Musketeers; his other TV work includes War & Peace and Strike, in which he plays the title role. His best-known films are Mank, The Souvenir, The Wonder and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. His new Netflix series is Legends. He lives in Kent.
What is your greatest fear?
To be stuck in the past.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Rumination.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Outrage.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
Putting chocolate mousse in my agent’s face. Somebody had done it to me – that thing where they go, “Smell this, it smells funny”, and then they put it in your nose. A year later I was in this French restaurant with a very 1980s-style dessert trolley and, before I knew it, I had a bowl of chocolate mousse in front of me. And my agent went, “What’s that smell?”, and it felt impossible not to … I immediately felt awful and tried to apologise. He, of course, said that he found it funny. But I knew he didn’t.
Describe yourself in three words
Steady, reaching, bewildered.
What makes you unhappy?
The internet.
If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
The pager.
What is your most unappealing habit?
Taking the last thing out of a box of something in the fridge or cupboard, then putting the empty box back.
What scares you about getting older?
Having regrets and not knowing what to do about them.
Who is your celebrity crush?
Lauren Laverne.
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Buying sunglasses.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Incidentally.
What is the worst job you’ve done?
A movie. Does it have a name? It might do.
What is the closest you’ve come to death?
A running accident when I was 14 or 15. I fainted but I was a bit of a jester and they thought I was taking the piss, so I was left for a bit. I woke up in hospital.
What has been your closest brush with the law?
I’ve twice not been able to do jury service. Both times I was doing a fringe play and wrote a letter saying, “You don’t understand, I don’t have an understudy.” And both times I didn’t realise they’d written back saying, “You’ve got to turn up”, because I was so busy getting the play on and didn’t open my mail.
What keeps you awake at night?
It’s usually a slight feeling that, having got through the day, I didn’t get any time to do any writing or something creative – it was a lot of admin, exhaustion from that and rumination.
Would you rather have more sex, money or fame?
I don’t think I need more of any of those three at the moment.
How would you like to be remembered?
I’ve not always been great friend material. I’ve tried to get better at that, so to be remembered as reliable by a few would be great.
What happens when we die?
You reach a certain point in life and suddenly know a lot of dead people, and I’ve noticed you don’t stop getting to know people who are dead. Those relationships continue and I like that.
