Joe Thomas: ‘I’d love to play a villain - but I don't think I'd be taken seriously'

The Inbetweeners star thinks that darker characters are more relatable than the 'everyman' 
Branching out? Joe Thomas with girlfriend Hannah Tointon
Dave Benett
Jennifer Ruby26 May 2017
The Weekender

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Inbetweeners and Fresh Meat star Joe Thomas says he would like to play a villain — but is worried he would not be taken seriously.

The actor and comedian, 33, told the Standard he would be keen to take on a “dark” role as viewers tend to identify more with flawed characters.

“I would love to do a villain because I think villains are so interesting,” he said. “I think it’s really hard playing the everyman character in stuff because it’s very, very difficult to define exactly what it means to be like the everyman.

“You often have shows where viewers end up identifying more with characters who are flawed and dark. Snape’s a more interesting character than Harry Potter.”

But Thomas added: “To be honest, when I usually try and do serious stuff it just comes across as funny. The first time I realised at school that I could make people laugh was when I made people laugh by accident. I was doing this really, really serious speech about the virtue of being honest.”

He is reunited with Inbetweeners co-star James Buckley in Damon Beesley’s new BBC2 show White Gold.

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While their comedy pairing has moved from a school classroom to the office of an Eighties double glazing showroom, Thomas says they have maintained their chemistry.

“I genuinely really like him,” he said. “I don’t really know why, he’s just an infuriating wind-up merchant but he’s also very talented and very lovely and very sweet.”

Thomas, who has directed an episode of the new series, wasn’t concerned about it being too similar to The Inbetweeners.

“I think it’s a different show anyway because of the fact that it exists in the world of grown-ups rather than the world of adolescents,” he said. “Above all I wanted it to be funny.”

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