Tom Benedict Knight

TOM BENEDICT KNIGHT

He is new to his craft, he’s ambitious, he’s humble and he’s only just getting started…

“I’ve been very lucky to break through to roles, which are perhaps above what my experiences have been. When these big roles come through, they’re all so cool and interesting. I auditioned for a Batman part last year with Ben Affleck and big roles like a leading part in GAME OF THRONES, amongst many other brilliant opportunities. When you’re a new actor, or even when you’re an established actor, you kind of think ‘I will take anything, thank you so much!’ but with this role it was a dream come true,” says Tom Benedict Knight as he begins to pick apart the perspective-shattering experience he has had playing Michael Franzese in the biopic, GOD THE FATHER.

It wasn’t quite the answer I was expecting from the star of Nicholas Meyer‘s popular miniseries HOUDIDNI, having performed alongside Academy winner Adrien Brody and Kristen Connolly. The Brit has also featured in KICK ASS 2 with Chloe Grace Moretz and Arron Taylor Johnson, as well as in Universal Studios’ DRACULA UNTOLD alongside Luke Evans and Dominic Cooper. His response to his casting was a lot more interesting and refreshingly honest than I had expected, showing how humble he is to have the opportunity to act since bursting on the screen in 2011.  

“It really is an honour to play that part and I was lucky enough to get an audition for it, which I got last year.” He’s reconciling the moment when he was approached to take on the role, which he totally embodied during the production of the film. 

Knight stars as reformed mob boss, Michael Franzese in the highly anticipated biopic GOD THE FATHER, the life story of ‘La Cosa Nostra’ boss who became a Minister of the Church.  The biopic is on the Franzese family, an infamous clan who are known for their mafia-style activities. The father Sonny, is currently serving a 100-year prison sentence and Knight took on the role of his son, Michael who became involved in the mob world picking up where his father left off. Like father, like son. It is a very interesting true story of a mafia man who has turned his life around. “I love talking about it, it’s one of my favourite projects which I have done. Like his father, Michael was given a 100-year sentence himself, but somehow he managed to get it down to a 10-year sentence and whilst he was in prison he reformed his wayward life and became a christian.” 

God The Father starring Tom Benedict Knight
Tom Benedict Knight took on the role of Michael Franzese who goes from mobster to redemption.

The unpretentious 38-year-old has a refreshingly heartfelt and introspective take on his new-found calling in life as an actor, as he still considers himself to be lucky enough to have been granted the lead role. Despite his luck – and talent, there may have been more to do with his casting than simply that, as he has an uncanny resemblance to Michael Franzese. “They watched my audition in Los Angeles and they said I have the same kind of brow and presence as Michael. I didn’t really notice it originally but it turns out I have the same kind of look. Even his wife was saying to me how eerie it was and somebody who was editing the footage, a month after it was shot, said ‘how did you get that footage of Michael as he was leaving the nightclub?’ then they realised it was me, but it was all really encouraging.”

Having only been acting since 2011, Knight was previously a successful entrepreneur. He is the son of successful artists and in his early twenties he was inspired to study business and commerce, which was something he found different. Having delved into the world of property and marketing, he reached the point where his passion for his job had vanquished and he needed to pursue a new passion in life that would bring him excitement and fulfilment.

After encouraging a former employee of his to return to acting and continue to do what he trained at, Knight was persuaded by him to head to New York himself at the age of thirty-five, where he trained to become an actor. Donning a hilarious New York accent the GOD THE FATHER star explained his steps to stardom: “”The teacher said, “Are you sure you haven’t done this before, Tom?” I was like ‘that’s weird, why are they saying that?’ but maybe this means I should take this further. Then things went from one step to another.” He continues, “I thought, why not? When is ever a good time. I just thought, sod it. I considered doing it when I was 25-years-old and I didn’t have that intuitive nudge to give it a shot. Then I thought, blimey, it’s been eight years since I thought about doing this. What am I going to do, let another eight years go by and not do it? You have to just do it. I made many sacrifices – my financial situation changed and I had to get use to be a struggling actor, as opposed to being self-employed. It has been a roller coaster ride, but it’s getting there now.”

Encompassing a role of a character is not only an inner body experience, where you transform your mind into thinking like that person, but for Knight, it was also a strange out of body one, where he barely recognised himself in the mirror. “When I went on set the first day, I had to be clean shaven. They shaved me as bare as a baby’s bum – and I haven’t seen myself like that for over a decade and it was a very surreal experience. I looked and felt like a very different person. I looked at myself after styling and in the costume and said, “That is definitely not me.” It was like I had metamorphosed into Michael. Going onto the set on the first day, I had an out of body experience, I left myself behind and I became him.”

His arduous training for his profession in New York has set him up with an inquisitive rigor that inveigles a wish to mull over existential issues of his role; to feel what Michael felt and to try to convey all of the emotions Franzese went through from heartbreak, highs and lows, to joy. “When he was on set, I said, “Listen, Michael, I will stay on set until everyone else has left. Whatever happens, if you want to keep doing it again and again and again, then we will.” I wanted to make it truthful and for him to be happy with how it was going.”

Elaborating on his role, Knight comments on how he grew up watching GOODFELLAS and watching Italian mafia films and getting an opportunity to portray one of the most renowned mafia bosses in America, was an extraordinarily remarkable achievement for the new actor and research was key. “I jumped on the internet and started researching him and with Michael doing a lot of public speaking, he was very visible online, so I could see how he talks, walks and his general physicality. Looking at him today was a great start, but then of course I had to work back and understand what he was like in his thirties – all the energy and swag that he had as a man who was earning five million dollars a day, but Michael was very much more of a thinking-man mobster, rather than a muscle bound tough guy. He was a very smart individual.”  

Knight was supported by Franzese everyday, as he would turn up on set and be there for each take, watching every word he said. “Some actors might find that a bit intimidating, but I had the luxury of him being there so I could consult with him. There was almost like a transfer of energy from him to myself.”

As a British actor on the rise, Knight has found himself alongside good company with so many Brits like Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston doing well in Hollywood. “There have been British actors doing well for decades, with a flavour they bring to international film productions and I think the Brits are good at being cast as bad guys. There is an advert on TV at the moment, where we do bad so well.”

He continues, “I think we have had a concentration of actors who have been so successful in breaking out into different roles, which are interesting. Christian Bale is Welsh, you get Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston that have all just smashed it. The way is paved with people who have done well, so I am hoping that I can pursue that. It’s quite handy that both my first name and my middle name happen to be the same. When you do a google search, my name is up there with Benedict and Tom and I can definitely cope with that!”

Having recently signed on to do a new film, it seems the future looks set to be even brighter for the driven actor, who will be starring in upcoming feature film THE CALL UP, which begins production this week. “I got involved in this off the back of Houdini, after being spotted by one of the people involved in the production, which led to getting a role.  I am so humble about this whole position, as I’m still fairly new to it. It’s quite a thrill to be in this brilliant situation.”

So what lies in store for this eager and enthusiastic Brit? “I would love to do a big studio film, like a superhero film, that would be wonderful. But what I would really like to do is remake a movie about my Great, Great Grandfather’s life. A documentary was made about him, Brigadier General Noel Lee, who was a very famous soldier in the First World War. It’s a tragic love story about what happened to him and his book is “He Shall Have No Equal.” I’d like to do a remake of his life because we look very similar and it would be a real honour to play him at some point in the next ten years.” If that didn’t happen? “Well, I’d like to do THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY, taking on the role of Clint Eastwood or Lee Van Cleef as the bad, I don’t think I’d want to do the ugly, but the good or the bad would be fine!”

You can follow all the latest news from the man himself on Tom Benedict Knight on Twitter: @Tom_B_Knight and don’t forget to watch the fantastic trailer for his new film:

GOD THE FATHER will be released in the US on October 31st and a UK release date is yet to be confirmed.

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