Yahoo Movies Leo Woodall’s rise to fame and why it bothers him so much
The Bridget Jones and One Day star is TV and film's new favourite leading man - but he doesn't want the fame that comes with it.
If Leo Woodall has somehow gone under your radar so far, you're about to find the London-born actor's fame inescapable as he stars in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. But Woodall himself says he'd much prefer to remain anonymous.
Starring alongside Renee Zellweger as Bridget's much younger love interest in the fourth adaptation of Helen Fielding's books has rocketed Woodall to superstar status following a run of high-profile roles in the likes of One Day and The White Lotus.
However, unlike many other aspiring leading actors, the 28-year-old is not chasing the level of fame that seems unavoidable for him now, calling it "uncomfortable" and "icky" in a recent interview.
Woodall has explained exactly what it is that he doesn't like about stardom, and how he felt about becoming a huge name as his acting career suddenly took off.
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What Leo Woodall has said about fame
Being cast as Bridget Jones' love interest to replace the late Mark Darcy would have grabbed a huge amount of attention for any actor, but Woodall recently spoke about his mixed feelings on playing Roxster in the rom-com's fourth instalment.
He told Elle: "I don’t really get the Tube anymore. [A woman] told me her husband gets really jealous. It was just so uncomfortable."
It isn't just his Bridget Jones role that has made him a star - Woodall played Dexter Mayhew in a 2024 Netflix adaptation of David Nicholls' One Day, with the series proving much more successful than the 2011 film starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.
"It did all go a bit nuts for me," he added to Elle of his One Day fame. "At first it was like, 'Oh, this is cool', but pretty quickly it just started to feel icky."
Citing Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston's career as an inspiration to him because the US star has managed to make "some really good work" while avoiding the limelight, he also hinted at another reason for disliking fame when asked about his love life.
Woodall is in a relationship with Meghann Fahy, who he met on the set of The White Lotus, but the pair rarely speak about each other publicly.
"We’re very good at keeping it as private as we can," he said. "To me, that’s the only way. You see public relationships all the time slapped all over social media and I can’t imagine that’s any fun. It should be a safe space, so I think letting people into it is completely counter-productive."
Life has changed dramatically for Woodall over the last 12 months - just a year ago, he was asked by The Hollywood Reporter whether he considered himself to be famous after starring in One Day.
"I feel like some people recognise me, but no," he said at the time. "There was one day when I noticed I was being followed by a paparazzi photographer and I thought, 'I don’t know how people deal with this on a daily basis.' I want to be as successful as I can be as an actor, but I don’t think it would be that fun to be categorically famous."
Ahead of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy's release, Radio Times asked him about his seemingly overnight rise to fame and he admitted: "It’s terrifying in a lot of ways. Because it was a relatively quick turnaround, suddenly I was on these big sets and then doing photoshoots and events and interviews. The filming, I’m getting more comfortable with and it’s becoming my safe haven. The press side feels a lot more exposing. That’s the thing that scares me the most. But my nearest and dearest have kept me grounded."
The roles that made Leo Woodall famous
Surprisingly, Woodall's acting CV does not include a huge number of roles to date - Bridget Jones is just his second film, after a very brief appearance in 2021's Cherry, and he had bit parts in TV series Holby City and Vampire Academy in 2019 and 2022.
However, everything changed for the actor when he landed a role in the second series of The White Lotus in 2022, with leading roles in 2024's One Day and 2025's Prime Target following.
The White Lotus
Although Woodall's father Andrew Woodall and stepfather Alexander Morton are both actors, it wasn't until his teens after a tough few years at school that he decided to change the course of his own life and pursue acting, too.
His big break came during the coronavirus pandemic, while he was stuck isolating in a hotel over Christmas after catching Covid and his dad suggested he should watch series one of The White Lotus to pass the time. Woodall instantly loved it, but as he wasn't checking his emails he didn't know that by coincidence he had a message asking him to audition for series two.
Woodall shot to fame as Essex bad boy Jack in the Sicilian-set series two, and told The Guardian “It shouldn’t really have happened for me at that point. White Lotus is a star-studded show and I was not a star. I was not even someone who had been on television before.”
Admitting to being starstruck by the rest of the cast, which included now-girlfriend Fahy, Woodall told W magazine about the shock of meeting Michael Imperioli in the hotel gym: "He said hello and I just forgot the English language. I said something like, ‘Nice to see you later’ or, ‘Nice to hi you.’ I remember walking away like, ‘You idiot. That was Michael Imperioli and you just made a fool of yourself.’"
One Day
While he was filming The White Lotus, Woodall managed to secure the next big stepping stone in his career - his first leading man role in a Netflix TV series adaptation of the David Nicholls bestseller.
It was by no means a surefire hit, as a 2011 film featuring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess had been panned, but viewers much preferred the chemistry between Woodall and Ambika Mod as Dexter and Emma.
Woodall opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about the culture shock of becoming a show's main star, saying: "I struggled at the beginning of One Day. I was struck by how much pressure I felt being a lead. I didn’t know if I should behave like the captain of a sports team. And I struggled with not having any kind of moment to myself, like you can’t tie your own shoelace or spit your own gum out."
Despite the show's huge success, Woodall told The Guardian last year that he didn't consider himself to be famous: "I’m making a bit more money. And there’s freedom that comes with that. But I try not to let it get to my head," adding that he would be "an unbearable f***er" if he ever did let fame affect him.
However, he sounded firmly grounded as he explained that his mum had been kicked out of their shared Netflix account every time they both tried to watch One Day and that she had said: "'Surely, if you’re the lead in a Netflix show, they give you your own account.’ I said, ‘No, mum, that’s not how it works.’"
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
As Woodall explained to Elle, a large part of his discomfort with fame is linked to his heartthrob status, and appearing in Bridget Jones is likely to do little to change that.
His character Roxster gets into an age-gap relationship with grieving Bridget (Zellweger), making him the leading man of the much-anticipated latest instalment of the hit rom-com.
Asked by Radio Times about always playing the heartthrob, he admitted: "Yeah, it’s a mixed bag. In some ways it’s part of the gig. But also, there are sides of it that can make you feel quite vulnerable and exposed. That side isn’t as fun. When you’re playing a role described like that, you can’t help but look at yourself and go, 'Am I that guy?' There’s sometimes pressure in making people buy that!"
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is released in cinemas on 13 February.
