Connor Swindells

Former boxer and latest heartthrob, Connor Swindells, has been quietly working away at his craft of perfecting his acting ability over the last few years after his friends dared him to audition for a play when he was 17.

Thank god they dared Connor to audition for the play as ever since it was a lightbulb moment for Swindells as he realised that this was the path he was destined to follow and look where he has ended up. When Sex Education began on Netlfix in 2019, no one expected how much it would blow up almost instantly and on such a global scale. As Sex Education does exactly what it says on the tin, educate the nation and beyond about the complexities of inner and outer relationships, it’s the characters diverse, nuanced and relatable personas that have made us fall in love with them. That can definitely be said for the role Swindells aptly performs with such grace and ease that it sometimes is hard to forget that you’re watching a fictional performance.

After starting his trajectory in plays, it’s clear that Connor’s gift and love for acting transcends the screen and stage, leaving you touched by the performance Swindells becomes one with. With his other credentials listing from the addictive thriller ‘The Vanishing’ to the latest adaptation of ‘Emma’ by Austen. One thing is for sure, Connor definitely has the range.

Speaking with Connor on a moody London morning is the perfect setting to have a chat mostly about the man himself. It can be easy to get lost in the arch of someone’s character development in a show and confuse that for their actual personality. Speaking with Connor it’s immediately clear that he loves what he does, and that he is eternally grateful for the journey that he is on. Of course, the unknown is inevitable is for all of us but I’m pretty certain will continue to see Connor on our screens as his passion and curiosity for the craft of acting continues to grow and grow.

Enough from me, fall in love with Connor Swindells below (if you haven’t already) spend the rest of your winter nights indulging in season two of Sex Education on Netflix.

Speaking about the beginning of his journey into acting, Connor revealed, “I was a boxer for a long time and then that sort of came to an end when I was about 17. And I needed to figure out what I was going to do next and I’d done terribly in school so there was nothing academically that I could move towards. And then, I mean the story’s changed so much now because I’ve told it so many times.” Connor muses, “it effectively goes that I saw an audition for a play and I was with a group of friends and sort of dared myself to do it. I dared myself to do it in front of them. And then ended up doing that play – doing the big role in it – getting an agent from it and then everything just sort of snowballed from there. It was just right place, right time.”

It may seem like a ‘right place, right time’ situation, but maybe it was life guiding Connor on the path he was supposed to be on? After all, his acting is that good that maybe it was fate all along. “I remember thinking to myself on the first day,” Connor opens up about the first play he was in, “I’m going to ask the stage director if he thinks I can actually do this as a job and if he says no, I’ll walk out and I’ll never do it again. Obviously, he didn’t do that. So, it was definitely a spark moment.”

When it comes to the wide array of routes that Connor can go down, it’s clear that he’s happy as long as he is not trapped in an acting box. “I don’t want to limit myself,” Connor begins, “I like TV and film a lot because I like that the collaboration of it. I like how it can – in the best-case scenario – be a really great collaboration between everyone on the set. I feel comfortable there. So, that’s my favourite part about it and I think that, in terms of genre, I did really like doing comedy which I hadn’t realised until Sex Ed. It’s just a lot of fun when you’re doing it with the right people who are like-minded which Sex Ed is. So, that’s lots of fun. But, I like doing all kinds of stuff. I’m about to start doing another thriller as well. So, we will just wait and see.”

When it comes to what Connor has learned about himself over the last crazy year for the actor, it really all comes down to trying to be at peace with not having everything figured out. “I’ve learnt more of my own identity over the past year.” Reflects Connor, “But, that’s not because of the show, that’s just because the ages of being 22 to 23, realising that it’s okay, I’m still really young and I don’t have to have everything figured out and that’s fine.

When it comes to his own process within acting, or if he has found a routine or method, it all comes down to collaborating and the energy on set. “I think it’s important to have fun and it’s important for everyone to be collaborating together because that’s when everyone does their best work.” Connor reveals, “So, it’s important to create a nice, friendly environment with everyone because you want everyone around you to be giving positive energy and wanting to succeed, rather than actors who come onto the set and carry themselves in the way they do. And they create…well, they’re just difficult to work with. Thankfully, I haven’t really worked with anyone like that but, you hear stories all the time. I just think, why would you want to create an environment where everyone wants you to fail? You want everyone to be like “come on, you can do it you can do it!” and that’s when I think I do my best stuff. So, I guess my process is just that. Just trying to be nice to people to make sure we’re all working together. That’s it really.”

It’s hard to imagine how crazy 2019 must have been the cast of Sex Education as they were all launched into stars within their own right. As we are still at the start of 2020, God knows what is in store for the actors.

When I quiz Connor about 2o20 and what he is looking forward to, he lets me know that he wants to grow personally alongside the growth of his career, “I’ve been so focused on my career for the last couple of years, that I haven’t really had time to think about my own personal growth – so, I’m just sort of doing more of the things that I want to do in my own time that I’ve put off for so long. That’s something that’s easy to relate to for a lot of people. Yeah, and finding out what things I like doing again because I’ve just been so focused on acting and my career for like every day, so now it’s time to figure out what things I like doing with my time and doing those things.”

It’s easy to see why a lot of fans have connected with Connor on and off-screen – there’s am edge to him like the greats who have come before him in British cinema and we for one can’t wait to see what this boy done good gets up to next.