Toby Jones Actor Portraits Rory Lewis London Portrait Photographer
Toby Jones is one of the UK’s most prolific actors, After appearing in supporting roles in films between 1992 and 2005, Jones made his breakthrough as Truman Capote in the biopic Infamous. Since then, his films have included The Mist, W., Frost/Nixon, Captain America: The First Avenger, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Dad’s Army. I invited Toby to sit for a portrait at the London Studio and to my wonderment he graciously accepted. He arrived at the studio looking very bohemian and scruffy. Jones only, 5ft 5in with his quirky tufty bed head hair and a few day’s stubble. His distinctive looks have helped him play a range of flawed heroes.
Before we met, I spend days watching his work, Patterns emerge when you binge-watch Toby Jones. One is his formidable ability to define a character before he even opens his mouth. In Infamous, a blink-and-you-miss-it gesture tells us his Capote is going to be a terrible gossip (he scans the room slowly, mouth closed but tongue sticking into one cheek); in Berberian Sound Studio, his walk suggests a man both pedantic and socially crippled; in The Girl, the grind of little jagged teeth hints at Hitchcock’s sadism.
