Crown star’s tears for ex- gang member
After hearing ex- gang member’s traumatic story, the actor ‘ wept for 10 minutes’. Now he wants YOU to help the charity that introduced them...
HE IS a member of one of the most successful acting dynasties in Britain and enjoyed a loving and privileged upbringing. So when Freddie Fox heard a reformed gang member talk of the death of his friend, he admits he couldn’t stop crying. A year ago, the 31- year- old actor – who plays Mark Thatcher in hit Netflix series The Crown – was attending a charity carol concert on behalf of the St Giles Trust. Then a young man, who turned out to be the same age as Freddie, stepped up to speak.
“The guy had been involved with gangs since his teens and he had watched his best friend be killed,” explains Freddie. “He had been ostracised by his whole family and St Giles had become his family.
“He now works very actively to get young men out of gang violence. As he stood and told his story, I wept for 10 minutes. We were both the same age but because of the difference in opportunities – money, parents who were there – we couldn’t have been more 180 degrees opposite to each other.”
Deeply moved by the senseless death – the result of an argument over a watch – and the different paths their lives had taken, Freddie stuck around afterwards to chat. The two men bonded and had planned to meet up this Christmas for a drink. “We were going to see how life had been over the ensuing year,” says Freddie. “Obviously we can’t do that now because of Covid but I hope I will be able to in a year’s time and hear all about the amazing things he is doing.” It was because of another random encounter three years earlier that Freddie was even at the carol concert. “I would never have heard this story if it hadn’t been for a chance meeting with a man called Kenny,” he explains. “He had been in prison for a long time but he was now helping others and he introduced me to the work of St Giles Trust. They invited me to see the reform work they were doing at Wandsworth Prison in London London. It was such a long way from my life and I knew I could learn from it.
“What struck me when I visited Wandsworth was the noise – banging, shouting, fighting – going on all the time. But I was given the chance to meet people working on programmes that the charity was running to help them rehabilitate and I’ve been completely hooked ever since.” Now an ambassador for St Giles, Giles the actor act – whose h parents t are Joanna David and Edward Fox and whose sister is Silent Witness star Emilia Fox – spends spare time helping raise funds to run rehabilitation programmes.
This Christmas, he is also fronting St Giles’s campaign – the subject of this year’s Daily Express festive appeal – to help the charity provide 50,000 free meals by encouragingi people to donate £5 tot help feed an impoverished family over the holidays.
Says Freddie: “I feel very grateful to the charity for letting me be part of something I don’t think I would have naturally come to if I hadn’t been stopped by Kenny that day.
“I feel very lucky every time I speak to them. What the charity does is so important. It is helping families keep a roof over their
heads and eat, when they would otherwise be subjected to poverty and crime. It’s about rehabilitation before the crime and keeping us all safe.”
Freddie is grateful to still be working during the pandemic. Unlike many of his peers whose productions have been cancelled, he has been busy filming various TV dramas – including that Mark Thatcher role.
“People can see him as a yuppie villain,” says Freddie as he reflects on Mrs Thatcher’s son. “But it’s been good to show his flaws, insecurities and how desperately he wants his mother’s attention.”
Stories have suggested the Royals are far from happy about how Prince Charles and Princess Diana are being depicted in the latest series. Is he surprised by the intense focus on the plots?
“I knew there would be a lot of eyes on the screen,” he replies, smiling as he does.
“It’s a much- loved show and importantly, it tells a fascinating story. tory. We all know first- hand some of the things that were going g on and we all want to know now what goes on behind nd closed doors!
“But I don’t suspect the Royal Family watch it. I probably wouldn’t watch a drama about my family because I would go, ‘ Oh no, they have got it all wrong!’
“Equally, I think most people do accept it as a drama. Some reviewers have said it’s the most expensive, glossy soap p there has ever been.
“There is a vein of truth in that. It delivers what we crave as an audience with the greatest dialogue ever written for television. There is then the added twist that many of the people involved are around and very much alive.”
Earlier this year, Freddie played another controversial character, convicted murderer Jeremy Bamber, in ITV’s White House Farm.
“Just as we know the people in The Crown, it’s the same with Jeremy and a real human tragedy,” he adds. “This was a dramatisation too and we will never completely know what happened that night.”
As we chat over Zoom, Freddie roars with laughter when I ask him if he likes playing such flawed characters.
“I am not very good at doing the guy who just turns up,” he confides. “I think people think you have the luxury of choosing every part you want, which I obviously don’t, but I am a character actor. I like delving inside their characters.”
As well as a new role in an Apple drama with Gary Oldman, Freddie is also starring in another with Downton Abbey star Lily James. They have been close friends ever since they attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama together and so it was fantastic, says Freddie, to work together on the Nancy Mitford TV adaptation, The Pursuit Of Love, which also stars Dominic West. Lily and Dominic were, of course, snapped looking cosy together in Rome earlier this year, sparking speculation about West’s marriage.
AND while Freddie is not up for discussing that, he does describe how pleased he was to work with his friend. “We had a blast and it was fantastic to do this together as an extension of a friendship of well over a decade,” he says. “I was also working with Emily Mortimer whom I have known all my life. Her father ( Rumpole writer John Mortimer) was my godfather and I have been on holidays with them since I was a kid. I was so proud of her.” He pauses, laughs and then adds: “And if I hadn’t had that job, I wouldn’t have been able to pay my mortgage! That whole job was a blessing.” Like millions of us, Freddie – who has also played Oscar Wilde’s Wild lover, featured in The Three Musketeers, and an starred opposite Lily L in a theatre production d of Romeo and Juliet Ju – will be having a different Christmas th this year.
His parents live in the countryside and they have created their own bubble so Freddie and s sister Emilia have decided to rent a place together o over Christmas. “I am not in a bubble with my parents and so my sister and I have created our own,” he explains.
“We’ve rented a place in Dorset and I am looking forward to walks on the beaches. It’s the place I am at my happiest in the world.”
He says the latest national lockdown has enabled him to work on his house, which he moved into earlier this year.
“I’ve had this time where I haven’t been able to go anywhere and so I’ve filled my house with furniture to make it home.”
As for New Year resolutions, he has a very simple wish and one that will resonate with many millions of people – to give his family and friends a huge hug. “I’d also like to have a pint with my mates!” he says, chuckling.
“And I would love to go and see a play and be in one. My heart is with theatres and young students coming out of drama school and wanting to be actors in 2020, because it has been such a disaster. It reminds us of the importance of life.”
And with that parting shot, Freddie dashes off for another Zoom meeting with St Giles Trust to put the finishing touches to its wonderful campaign to provide 50,000 free meals this Christmas.
‘ What St Giles does is so important. It is helping families to keep a roof over their heads and eat’