THE SCREEN STEALER: DARYL McCORMACK
‘IT WAS LIKE A HALF DAY AT SCHOOL – you know, the days where you’re allowed to come in wearing your own clothes, and it’s nice outside and you get an ice-cream.’ Daryl McCormack, 30, is describing the fun of working with Emma Thompson for his starring role in last year’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, the film that scored him a coveted EE Rising Star nomination at the Baftas. In it, he plays a young male sex worker who is booked by Thompson’s Nancy, a middle-aged widow who has never had an orgasm. The result is an honest, at times heartbreaking journey of intimacy and sexual awakening.
McCormack was born in Tipperary, Ireland, to an Irish mother; his African-American father is from Baltimore. Having mostly grown up as the only male in a household with his mother, grandma and sister, McCormack took on the role of entertainer from a young age. ‘That was my first stage in a way,’ he says. ‘Performing has always been the backbone of who I am.’
He studied drama in Dublin before moving to Hackney, east London, in 2017. Starting out in the West End, he began to pick up small screen roles before being cast as violent gangster Isaiah Jesus in Peaky Blinders. With a rare combination of striking talent, sensitivity, charisma – and grown-up boy-band good looks – McCormack’s profile has been steadily rising ever since. But the last year has been a standout one for the actor.
His ascent is set to continue. This year, he will play a young author in The
Tutor, alongside Richard E Grant, and front The Woman in the Wall with Ruth Wilson. Then there are the whispers that McCormack will be the next Bond…
Although his most treasured takeaway from his career so far remains his friendship with Thompson (‘She’s an amazing friend, but also like a guardian or something’), the Bafta nod is the icing on the cake. Previous winners have seen their careers explode post-awards. McCormack is still in disbelief. ‘I don’t really know how to take it in,’ he says. ‘I moved to London five years ago from Ireland and started waiting tables. To be nominated feels like a crazy moment.’