Tom Payne’s three seasons as
Paul “Jesus” Rovia on The Walking
Dead ended earlier this year with
his character battling zombies,
tricksters and trees in a foggy
graveyard — at night. “We all had
to be careful that no one poked
their eyes out,” he recalls. Payne
emerged from that mist to land
another grim, haunted role.
On Prodigal Son, which premieres on
Fox September 23, he plays Malcolm Bright,
a criminal psychologist who helps the NYPD
catch serial killers. His first quarry is a creep
who’s copying the kills of Malcolm’s own
estranged and deranged father, Martin Whitly
(Michael Sheen). Quicker than you can say, “The
Silence of the Lambs,” Malcolm is asking his
incarcerated dad for tips.
“One of Malcolm’s deepest fears is that he might
carry some of his father’s traits,” Payne says. “He’s
very tortured.” The actor’s been listening toHappy
Face, a true-crime podcast from TV producer Melissa
Moore about her own murderous dad. “Her story’s
heartbreaking, but it’s very useful for me.”
Born in a London suburb, Payne was raised in
picturesque Bath by his TV journalist dad and makeupartist mom. He liked “showing off” as a kid and started
acting in school plays at seven, later graduating from
London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
He recalls, “In that youthful naïveté, I thought, ‘Well,
why would anyone do a job that they didn’t enjoy? This
is what I like doing at school, and this is what I’m going
to do for my job.’”
By 2007, he was a TV heartthrob, playing a rich kid on
the UK teen dramaWaterloo Road. He eventually moved to
L.A. “on credit cards” to try for stateside stardom.
Portraying a jockey in HBO’s short-lived horse-racing
drama,Luck, in 2012 wasn’t the big break he’d hoped for.
Yet Payne, who calls himself “ambitious and focused,”
soon won some starring roles in features. Then came
those zombies and Comic-Con fame.
Cut to today. Working with Sheen has been a dream,
Payne says. “He’s totally there with you — an actor’s
actor, not there to look cool.”
Son has required some adjustments: Payne and
his fiancée, Swedish singer–model Jennifer Åkerman,
both nature-lovers, recently left their “lovely little house”
in L.A. for a New York apartment. And, while working amid
zombies “was fantasy, I’m slightly worried about this new
job messing with my head. Serial killers are real,” he says. “I
definitely will be texting silly pictures and memes from the set.
Just to keep things lighthearted.”
—John GriffithsPHOTOGRAPH BY IAN SPANIER; GROOMING BY THEA ISTENES/EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS MANAGEMENT USING LAURA MERCIERin the
Sins of
the Father
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