Isn’t it thrilling that Eloise (played by Claudia Jessie), after seemingly swearing off the prospect of marriage, nearly fainting at being presented in court as an eligible debutante, and also scorning any boy who crosses her path, is slightly intrigued by one? Not that we need every woman to end up in the arms of a man, but if Eloise can find a man to match her wits, ambition, and candor, then why not?
In this season of Shondaland's hit netflix series Bridgerton, Theo (portrayed by Calam Lynch) is a printer’s assistant employed by the man who works with Lady Whistledown — aka Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), aka Eloise’s best friend — to create Whistledown’s Society Papers. But Theo really isn’t fussed by any of that upper-class nonsense. Instead, he’s focused on revolutionary ideas, like fighting for equal rights for all.
“As much as I love watching the fancy dress and the balls, and I am sad I don’t get to be a part of those scenes,” says Lynch, “I was excited to be on the outside, to make my mark in a different way. I found that really appealing.”
Before Lynch took on the role for the second season of the Shondaland and Netflix show Bridgerton, he says he talked to the series’ creator, Chris Van Dusen, to “get the lay of the land” to find out a little bit more about Theo’s journey. And Van Dusen told him, as he has said since the inception of the show, that he wanted to have all the story lines in Bridgerton — especially romantic story lines — intersect with gender, class, and race. And so far, the love affair between Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Siena Rosso (Sabrina Bartlett) in season one has been the only story line to bring together the different classes. But Lynch had been watching that arc closely and was more than thrilled when it came time for his chance to help further that theme.
But season two ends in a real cliff-hanger as to the future of Theo’s role in Bridgerton and the future of his relationship with Eloise. And while we still don’t know all that much about Mr. Sharpe other than his profession and his political leanings, we can tell you all about the young man who plays him.
Lynch comes from an entire family of actors. His parents are lauded theatrical actors Finbar Lynch and Niamh Cusack. His mother, Niamh Cusack, is from a dynasty of famed Irish actors, including Sinéad Cusack (V for Vendetta, Eastern Promises, and HBO’s new horror-comedy The Baby), who is married to Jeremy Irons. Cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, and grandparents — the lineage is strong. But Lynch studied the classics at the University of Oxford and is sure his family sighed with relief when they thought he might be a lawyer. But throughout his four years in college, he performed in dozens of plays, and by his junior year he was signed to an agent and began acting professionally while finishing school. He had a small part in the 2017 Oscar-winning film Dunkirk, played opposite Ruth Wilson in BBC One’s biographical drama Mrs Wilson, and was in Disney’s 2020 adaptation of Black Beauty.
“I did a really awful play devised by university students called A Lover’s Suicide,” says Lynch, “and it was as awful as it sounds. I had to play the guitar, and I don’t play the guitar. It was not good. But that feeling — I was doing a play to, like, 50 people, and it was bad, but there was just something about it. It just felt right. It’s kind of cliché to say, but as soon as I [started acting], there was nothing else in the world that made me feel like that.”
Now that you’re probably on your third viewing of Bridgerton season two, we thought it’s high time to sit Lynch down and talk about Theo. Here, we get him to dish on the other roles he auditioned for first, how much he wanted Theo and Eloise to kiss, learning how to print for real, and what he thinks is in store for Theloise’s future.
VALENTINA VALENTINI: Tell us how you got to play Theo Sharpe. What was the auditioning process like?
CALAM LYNCH: It’s kind of funny, actually, because I’d auditioned for the first season twice. I went out for both the Lukes’ parts — Colin Bridgerton [Luke Newton] and Benedict Bridgerton [Luke Thompson]. I was excited and thought it looked really cool but, of course, got a call from my agent saying it hadn’t gone my way but that they liked me. Then, months later, I got this email, and it was about the second season, and it all happened super-quick. I taped two quick scenes, and I had no idea what the part was. It did have the name Theo and that he was a printer’s assistant, but that was it. I got the sense from the scenes that maybe he was a love interest for someone, but I wasn’t totally sure. And then I got offered the job in November 2020, just before the first season came out.
VV: What were the conversations like with Chris when you were talking about bringing this character to life?
CL: We talked a lot about the relationship between Theo and Eloise and the main thing being — which probably happens less now because of class and more maybe because of geography — but where you have this amazing connection with someone, and you’re young, and maybe it’s the first time you’ve had that connection. It’s such a specific intensity. You feel like it’s everything in the world, and then to have it taken away from you by forces outside your control is just the most heartbreaking thing. The stakes being so high is such a fun thing to play as an actor. And it’s not like they’re not sure. At least I think that; I think they should be together. They’re perfect for each other, and if this one stupid thing — how much money they have — wasn’t in the way, I think they would. And I think they’d be super-happy.
VV: What sort of research or preparation did you do to play Theo?
CL: Before we started shooting, I read a couple of books that I thought he would have been reading at the time — socialist literature and writings on gender. I didn’t know it at the time because I didn’t have that script yet, but Eloise actually mentions Mary Wollstonecraft [an 18th-century English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights], which I’d read. So, it’s a subtle thing because Theo’s super-progressive for his time, but I didn’t want him to be too mansplaining to Eloise, because Eloise gets it already. And he is like, “Okay, you’re posh. You think you’re interested in this stuff, but you’re not really.” But I didn’t want that to be about gender; I wanted it to be about class. So, rather than the fact that she’s a woman and that’s why she wouldn’t understand, I wanted it to be because she has so much money that she wouldn’t understand. I really worked on straddling that line by reading books about class and gender.
VV: You mean in your performance? Not in the lines that are written for you, right?
CL: Oh, yeah. The lines take care of themselves. They do that job for you in that I don’t think he is being a misogynist from what he says. It was a tone thing, and I was really aware of it. I don’t think people would have cared for him in a way that they do if he’d been a bit of a dick before, you know?
VV: True. And how about printing? Did you actually get to learn how to print on an old press?
CL: They did bring in an expert who worked along with the set designer to make the studio where the printer’s workshop is. He was amazing because that’s his thing, and he’s done quite a few TV shows before this too. I spent about a half hour with him before we shot my printing scenes, and it all looks really hard and like it’s quite heavy, like it’s a real workout, but it’s not. So, I could pretend that I was working really hard, doing all these things that look really complicated. Everyone came in, and they were like, “Oh, my god, Calam, you’re a natural.” But he just taught me a couple of little tricks you can use to print something. I actually took one home. That was my little memento from the set, a pamphlet that I printed.
VV: Moving on to more pressing matters — you’re welcome for the pun — I think the fans have been excited to see Eloise get some action. Some chaste action, for sure, but still, it’s been fun to watch her heart flutter a bit.
CL: What action?! Aw, man. We both thought we should have had a kiss. We did; we were gunning for it.
VV: Did you ask Chris or director Tom Verica directly for a kiss?
CL: We did. We were like, “C’mon, Tom, man. Just a little peck.” But it’s a period thing. Like, if this was set in modern times, they absolutely would have kissed. But that’s a big deal back then. And they denied us, of course. Probably rightly, because Chris and Tom and everyone on the show has to protect the whole series and Eloise’s arc through it all. Whereas I was like, “Well, Theo really wants to kiss her, so Calam really wants to kiss her as well.” But you do get the intimacy without needing to go full Anthony and Kate, you know?
VV: In Bridgerton, so often you get that immediate spark, that attraction-at-first-sight thing. Do you think Eloise and Theo were attracted to each other instantly?
CL: I think Eloise was attracted to Theo instantly [laughs]. But seriously, though, because I hadn’t seen it happen when we filmed, when I watched that first scene when Theo shuts the printer’s shop door after they meet, I didn’t see that Eloise does this little look back. It’s a great moment from Claudia — this “Hmm, who’s that guy?” And of course, I hadn’t seen it because I was behind a closed door. As for Theo [pauses], I do think he finds her attractive straight away, but there are defenses up with him, as there are with her. Like with lots of 18- and 19-year-olds, that’s part of your problem, that you’re trying to be vulnerable with someone when you don’t really know who you are. As soon as those walls start to come down — it’s that workers’-rights speech in the hall — there’s that moment where he really sees her for the first time and thinks, “Wow, this girl is beautiful, smart and funny and interested in me.”
VV: Theo and Eloise’s last scene together in this season — that was really a heart-wrenching thing to watch. What was going on there for Theo, and for you, Calam, filming it?
CL: It was really emotional! It was my last day on set, and it was Claudia’s last day on set, so it already felt really emotional in the room. Because we shot it all chronologically, we’d gone through the same journey they had. The writing in that scene is so beautiful, and sometimes it happens as an actor — and I remember it happening that day— it just really hits you. You’ve opened up to someone, you’re there with them, and then he can’t understand why she’s leaving him, because he doesn’t know what Penelope has been whispering in her ear. So, he reverts to punching outwards and being like, “You’re just like all of them.” And the reason it’s sad is because he doesn’t even believe that. Because if he thought that really, it would be easier to let her go. But he’s seen this side to her which could be so different. And then when she says that what they’re doing is stupid … It’s taken him longer than her to really open up, and in that moment it’s taken away. That’s the worst feeling.
VV: It makes me wonder what their future story arc is going to be like, though! And not that you know — or even if you did, you can’t tell us — but I wonder if this is the last we’ll see of Theo.
CL: Listen. I spoke to Jess Brownell [the showrunner for seasons three and four] a couple of months ago and was like, “I ship Theloise. Fully.”
VV: Theloise! It’s the new Peneloise, I guess. Great ship name. I hadn’t heard that yet, surprisingly.
CL: I’ve definitely said it before. No one said it in the show, but I’ve been saying it to lots of people [laughs]. But yes, I think he’d give her another shot if she came back. And we don’t know if she is coming back. But if she knocked on that printer’s workshop again, I think he’d be there.
Valentina Valentini is a London-based entertainment, travel, and food writer and also a Senior Contributor for Shondaland. Elsewhere she has written for Vanity Fair, Vulture, Variety, Thrillist, Heated, and The Washington Post. Her personal essays can be read in the Los Angeles Times, Longreads, and her tangents and general complaints can be seen on Twitter at @ByValentinaV.
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