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Probably I had seen Die Another Day and Possession before, but the first time I really noticed Toby’s acting was – as I love stories set in colonial India – in the swashbuckling Sharpe’s Challenge, where I thought he played a perfect villain.
Then, almost by chance, I got to watch Jane Eyre 2006, found it – and him! – wonderful, and decided I just had to give a certain new pirate series a chance.
When I finished watching Black Sails I was left with contrasting feelings: on the one hand, joy because rarely do such beautiful and fulfilling stories grace the screen; on the other, a sense of emptiness (though of course rewatches had started soon after) and the certainty it would be hard to find something to live up to that.
I was lucky, though: first of all, because there was a whole filmography of his I could work my way through (and I did!), and most especially, because I soon discovered – again, by chance – that Toby had returned to the West End stage with Oslo. Obviously, it was too good an opportunity to be missed.
A few weeks later, sitting in the front row of a lovely London venue, entranced since the first appearance of his character, not only did I enjoy a very original, very relevant play about peace in our turbulent times, but I also realized that the stage is really the place where such a gifted actor as our Mr. Stephens gives his absolute best.
And that was only the beginning. I could go on and on, till I got to the incredible experience of Joe Egg, but that, maybe, is a story for another day.
I’d seen him in The Camomile Lawn but when I saw Tenant of Wildfell Hall, that was it. His lambing prowess did it for me
Jednoznačne sa mi páčil v Jane Eyre – tá jeho mimika nemá chybu. Tie jeho vážne, alebo zamilované pohľady. A teraz sledujem ďalšie jeho filmy. Je to skvelý herec , má kondičku pri bitkách, šermovaní . Zbožňujem ho.
It was Saturday evening, April 2020, during the coronavirus lock down. Normally, we would be out, having a coffee by the sea, or something like that. Instead, we had to stay in watching TV. Suddenly, after a few boring hours of playing with the remote control, I literally got stuck as I watched Toby Stephens’ moody but extremely handsome Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre. One of my favourite novels in an adaptation I had never seen before (I have seen all the others). I didn’t know the actor, but he looked familiar. So, I googled him! Et voila! It was the same actor I had seen almost 20 years ago in Die another day! And had never heard anything about him since then! How could this be possible? So after a little bit of research l found out that he was actually Maggie Smith’s son! It was just so jaw dropping that I kept repeating loudly "Maggie Smith’s son? ’ making my eleven year old daughter wonder whether lock down had started affecting me seriously😅. The rest is history. We spend the rest of the spring and summer watching Black Sails, Summer of rockets, Lost in Space, And then there were none, Hunter killer, and of course Vexed and even CBeebies! In other words serious Toby-itis! At some point, my husband commented: ‘I think, this actor was playing in the previous series too!’ It sounded so funny! We had such a good time, we really enjoyed every episode! Every role Toby Stephens has played is so unique and different and his acting is really amazing. I wish I could see him on stage some day with my family. That would be a great experience!
For my 20th birthday, a couple of friends and I decided to do a celebratory trip to London (we were living in Scotland at the time). None of us had never been to the theatre at that stage, and we decided that catching a play in London would be an appropriately adult thing to do. Because we were studying Tennessee Williams’ plays at uni at the time, we decided to go see A Streetcar Named Desire. And then fell in love with Toby. He was so damn sexy in it that I didn’t care about much else in the play or how closely he played the role of Stanley.
Shortly after that, his roles in A Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Twelfth Night further cemented my infatuation. When I left the UK I had little access to British TV programmes, and so I saw nothing by him (apart from Die Another Day, Possession, and Mangal Pandey) for almost two decades.
Imagine my delight then, when a few years ago, after having moved countries and gained better access to British TV programmes, I was able to catch up on all the TV and movies Toby has acted in since then.
I am blown away by his versatility in acting, the way he portrays each character so differently through subtle mannerisms and accents, and his remarkable ability to express emotion through his eyes, without saying a word.
Even on radio he is amazing as Bond, Marlowe and Vronsky and is a fabulous narrator of audiobooks.
I could watch anything if Toby is in it. My favourite roles that I have watched him play are Rochester (Jane Eyre), Flint (BS), John Robinson (LiS), Gilbert Markham (TWH), and Jack Armstrong (Vexed).
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