Luke Pasqualino rose to fame in 2009 for playing teen skaterboy Freddie McClair on Skins. Now, he portrays d’Artagnan, a 17th century French swordsman, on the BBC drama The Musketeers.

In his interview, he discusses resiliency, justice, and what it was like to play a silent assassin who spoke only by pointing at his many tattoos.

FAULT: How did you get your start in acting?

Luke: I got into acting when I was like nine years old. I joined a local drama workshop that was maybe an hour and a half every Monday night after school. I tried everything as a kid—football, ice hockey, tennis—and I got bored of those things very quickly. But the drama workshop was the one thing I never really got bored with, so I knew I was kind of onto something with that. And I really started to enjoy it as I got better at it. Then I left school at 16 and I worked for a couple of years—as a pizza chef in my cousin’s restaurant, and sweeping floors at my dad’s hair salon. And then, at 18, I got an agent and my first acting job, Skins.

FAULT: But the first time you auditioned for Skins, you actually didn’t get the part, is that right?

Luke: I didn’t. I auditioned for Nick Hoult’s part originally.

 

FAULT: How did you bounce back from that rejection?

Luke: I think in this industry, you take a lot of knock-backs, especially in the early stages of your career. You get more knock-backs than you do successes. So it really does test your stamina and perseverance—having to push past the failures. You kind of become immune to it; you become conditioned to bring yourself back up. You learn from not getting jobs. I think, in everything really, you have to push through and move forward.

 

FAULT: In The Musketeers, what’s d’Artagnan’s motivation?

Luke: He’s a very hard worker; he grew up working on a farm, and he’s always had a talent for swordsmanship. But the thing that really drives him is his appetite for justice. He’s always wanting to make sure that people are treated well and have equal rights, and that no one gets what they don’t deserve. You know, he’s a real patriot of France, and he’s just a good man who doesn’t like to see bad things.

FAULT: What’s the weirdest or most interesting role you’ve ever played?

Luke: The one that really sticks out is from a movie I did called Snowpiercer. I played a character called Grey who was actually a silent assassin. He didn’t say one word in the entire movie. And he was totally tattooed, so he would communicate by pointing to different words on his body. I had to get tattoo makeup for three hours every morning. He was quite a beautiful character.

And I learned so much from Bong Joon-ho, who directed it, as well as my incredible peers from the cast—Chris Evans, Song Jang-ho, Tilda Swinton, and Octavia Spencer. Playing Grey also taught me a lot about myself, so it was a very interesting role, especially because I couldn’t say a word.

 

FAULT: Did the inability to speak make it difficult for you to communicate the character to the audience?

Luke: My character was very expressive in his movements. Grey was sort of the protector of John Hurt’s character, Gilliam. He was a fighter; he could become this absolute raging monster when Gilliam unleashed him, so a lot of great story could be told with his actions. The character was actually really good for helping me move into the realm of getting a message across without saying anything.

FAULT: Is there anything you can tell us about what we’ll see in upcoming episodes of The Musketeers?

Luke: Well the whole series this year, there are more adversaries, both physical and emotional, which the musketeers will have to bring to closure in combat. Paris is a very different place at this point. Every character has a good journey, and there are some surprises.

 

FAULT: Apart from The Musketeers, what are you working on right now?

Luke: I just finished a movie earlier this year called Solar Eclips (spelled like that!). It deals with conspiracies about Gandhi’s life. That comes out next year. And I’m currently shooting a five-part drama for the BBC called Our Girl, which comes out later this year. So yeah, I’m getting around.

FAULT: What is your FAULT?

Luke: I’m quite impatient. Not all the time, but sometimes. You know, like I kind of get crazy when I get stuck in traffic, stuff like that. I get antsy because I like being on time, and I don’t like waiting for people very much.

 

You can catch Luke on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The Musketeers continues on BBC1, Saturdays at 8.30pm.

 

Words Cody Fitzpatrick

Photography Jack Alexander

Styling Felicity Gray

Grooming Natalie Viner