 What does acting means to you, what’s really like to be another you?
For me it means connecting with the outside world and with people all over the world, communicating emotions to the public. Every role I have played has always given me a different emotional energy and of course, it has always brought me productive feedbacks for my personal growth as an actor and as a human being.

I think my career is very multifaceted and I feel so lucky to have staged characters based on true stories, like the football player George Best for the show Best: His Mother’s Son (BBC). At the same time, playing an imaginary character like “Jesus” in The Walking Dead, a TV series that you know is based in an atrocious and frightening context of a world invaded by zombies but that in the end turns out to be a clash between men, gave me very very much. You will not believe it, but it turned out to be a show that put many families together. At the end what it counts is the teamwork with all the actors you are on set with, and since I started acting, I have always been surrounded by wonderful people.

 You moved from England to Los Angeles. What is the difference in the cultural and working setting between Europe and the States?
The States are a meritocratic land and if you want to become someone, it gives you the chance to succeed. There is a scent of freedom, of courage, that no other place has ever given to me. The atmosphere in England was too suffocating, I needed a different place. For sure I would not be who I am if I had not made this choice. LA is a city that gave meaning to my life and my career. I still want to see where I can push myself and how far can I go beyond my potential.
This is the right place.

 What does being a modern man in the 21st century means to you? Has the way of communicating and listening changed?
The actors are constantly in the public eye, judged by the people who follow everything, like every movement. We live in a historical and political moment where we must raise our voice and need to be heard, it is our moral duty to discuss and confront. I think the kind of message that gives both the content and the container’s point of view is fundamental, after all the main tool I can use to talk is the television platform.

We don’t need to stand out, but we rather raise doubts and reach the bottom of judgments and problems that are afflicting humanity. We need to listen to the women who are making their voices heard, more and more… There are too many lazy and careless people, we have to face what is happening now, we can’t wait anymore.

 Let’s put your job aside for a moment … Who’s Tom Payne for real?
A guy who has been very focused on his career from twenty years old. Now I feel like a man in his thirties who’s focusing on the small and big things in life that make me feel good. Like, for example, growing vegetables in my garden, enjoying the good weather and relaxing, having my home in LA, a guy who doesn’t only think about set-world. There is a lot of frustration in cinema, so I decided to take more advantage of what makes me feel good.
I am very concerned about what is happening to our planet on the environmental side, recently, for example, I listened to the alarming report of the Global Warming analyzed by the United Nations. I am disappointed that the various governments are doing nothing to help change those things and that on the contrary, they are minimizing these such important problems, there cannot be only financial reasons behind this. It is not possible that world-level decisions have to be considered only by wealthy white men. I often think that I would like to have children, but I’m not sure it would make sense in a world like this because I would like them to grow up educated on respect for others and for the climate.

 Has your family’s support been important in your choices?
This is linked to the point before. The family. I was lucky enough to have a family that has always supported me in my choices and taught me the right way to live. It was a great challenge for them to see me grow up as an actor in a world where competition is at the bottom of your work. They taught me the values of life and for this, I am grateful. I hope one day I’ll be able to pass down these values. ●