You’ve likely seen Masters of the Air star Anthony Boyle before—whether in Netflix’s Derry Girls, Apple TV+’s Tetris, or maybe you recall him as Scorpius Malfoy in the critically acclaimed Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, both in New York and London, for which Boyle received an Olivier Award, a Tony nomination, an Evening Standard Theatre Award nomination, and several other well-deserved accolades.
Most recently, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s World War II–set Masters of the Air has dropped Boyle into a flurry of Hollywood It boys—among them: Austin Butler, Callum Turner, and Barry Keoghan—promptly setting the internet ablaze. (With thanks to the Apple TV+ press team, recent promotions have included Boyle and his castmates dreamily narrating real love letters from soldiers during the war.) Boyle’s performance as Major Harry Crosby, or Cross—a real-life bomber whose book A Wing and a Prayer inspired much of the nine-episode limited series—follows his arc from a trepidatious young soldier with a nasty bout of airsickness to a verified war hero.
Viewers can look forward to seeing a lot more of the 29-year-old Belfast native in 2024, with shows like Manhunt, Shardlake, and Say Nothing on the horizon. On a recent Zoom call from London, Boyle spoke to Vogue about surviving Masters of the Air boot camp, the joys of growing a mustache, and what he’s up to next.
Vogue: I’m curious about your journey from finding out that you’d landed your role in Masters of the Air to arriving on set.
Anthony Boyle: I was filming a movie called Tetris in Glasgow during lockdown; there were no restaurants, no bars, no anything open. I was just in a hotel by myself, and I’d got a call from my agents on the phone, and there were a couple of people on the call, and I thought, They’re not all calling me just to check in. Then they told me, “Oh, by the way, you got the job.” I wanted to celebrate, but there was no one around me. So I just jumped up and down on the bed, tried to do a front flip. No one was around because it was lockdown and we were all isolating while doing this movie, so I just celebrated on my own with a bottle of red wine and had a lovely time.
And then what next, after your front flip?
I just started researching because there was a lot of material on the guy I played. He had written a memoir, A Wing and a Prayer, which I read a couple of times to try to get the sense of who he was. There was a 10-minute clip of him speaking, and he’s in a B-17 plane in his 60s or 70s. He was talking about his life, and there’s so many really beautiful moments where he thinks the camera isn’t recording and speaks to the person behind the camera, and you get a real sense of him. He was very funny and very self-deprecating.
You and your castmates were put through boot camp to prepare for filming. What was that like?
It was tough. Most rehearsal processes are sitting around leafing through a script and drinking lattes, and this was not. We got there, and there was a [military consultant] called Captain Dale Dye who made us dress fully as if we were in the army, spoke to us in our character names, and was making us do press-ups on the ground—you know, “Drop and gimme 20, maggot,” and that sort of thing. It was a different rehearsal process than the majority of us were used to, but it was a lot of fun. It was good to bond everyone together.
How long did that process last?
About two weeks. It was a pretty intense workout regimen. We also learned how to fly the planes, and we had this guy come over from the States who had flown a B-17 to explain the switches. It was a lot to take in, but it was good fun.
Tell me more about what it was like to act out fight scenes in accurate models of the original planes. Poor Harry Crosby and his airsickness—if only he had those Amazon motion-sickness goggles.
Poor Cross! If only he had those goggles. We were trying to make it as real as possible. We filmed in these 360-degree screens; we’d be put on these planes, we would be lifted 50 feet in the air on these electronic gimbals, and then we would actually act out flying the course of the missions. It was like being on a roller coaster—we were getting banged about in these things. It was in the middle of summer, so we were hot and up there for nine hours at a time. It was hard to get up and down, and it would take like an hour to reset, so you had to pee before you went up there.
What made you feel most immersed in that time period?
The costumes are incredible, and [costume designer] Colleen Atwood is an absolute god. When you put the uniforms on, you feel a certain way. We were also playing a lot of ’40s music, which was good fun and made us feel like we were in the time period.
You also have Manhunt coming out on Apple TV+ next month. Let’s talk more about that—most importantly, was that your real mustache?
It was my real mustache. It should have got its own credit. I love that mustache with all my heart, and having to get rid of it…. A bit of my soul died with it, you know? If I wasn’t an actor and [didn’t have] to be clean-shaven, I think I’d have the biggest mustache possible and just let it go down to my hip.
How long does growing a mustache like that take?
That was a surprise to me. It was about two or three months. Now I’m getting, like, a phantom limb with that mustache. I wish it was here to sort of twizzle.
Sadly, I don’t personally know what that’s like, but I can imagine.
You’ll never know the joy of having one—drinking a pint of Guinness and then the foam being on the [bottom of your mustache] is one of the few pleasures in life. It’s really incredible stuff.
You’re playing another real—yet rather more infamous—person in John Wilkes Booth. When did the process of filming Manhunt start?
It was about two months after we wrapped on Masters when we started filming Manhunt in Savannah. Masters was filmed on a soldier boot camp, and then Manhunt was like a cowboy camp. I would ride horses every day, hang out with these cowboys, drink whiskey, chew tobacco, and try to get into that world as much as possible. It was a great experience. I fell in love with riding horses, and I loved Savannah. It was so hot, especially in those period costumes in the height of summer.
You’re definitely developing a track record for taking on characters who force you to go method. Did you learn to ride for the role?
It was my first time doing it, and I took to it like a duck to water. I showed up with a mustache and had the boots on. I loved my horse, Bradley; he was a little fucker. They first put me on a horse to learn that was quite slow and dull. Then they put me on Bradley because he was a bit like [John Wilkes Booth]—he was sort of crazy and a bit wild, and I had to really stay on top of him because he had a lot of character.
What can we expect from you in 2024? What are you looking forward to?
A mustache, the motion-sickness goggles you were talking about, and being on the back of a horse. I’ve also got a show coming out on Disney+ called Shardlake with Arthur Hughes and Sean Bean. It’s set in the 1500s, and it’s a whodunnit. I saw it last week, and I think it’s great. Bring people around [to watch the show], have some popcorn, guess who did it; it’s a bit of crack. [Editor’s note: For those not familiar, crack means “fun” in Irish slang.] Then I got another show coming out called Say Nothing for FX and Disney+. That’s a show set in Belfast, so that was cool to speak with my own accent.
You’ve done a lot of different accents in your various roles. How does it feel to use your own?
I felt like I was cheating on set, just speaking in my own voice—like, Someone’s gonna find out! I’ve got a million accents and my own accent changes constantly because of doing different accents all the time.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
