Edward Bluemel Fights the Sunday-Night Blues

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In some ways, Edward Bluemel is like many other British actors in their twenties. He’s knowledgable, he has a deeply rooted passion for the theater, and he even lives in a house with other actors (including the Olivier winner Anthony Boyle from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a drama school classmate). Unlike many of his peers, however, Bluemel can already call a whole night of television his own, as he is currently starring in two of the biggest shows coming out of the UK—last fall’s fantasy drama A Discovery of Witches and now the second season of Killing Eve, the Emmy-nominated thriller that’s found global acclaim—both of which air on Sunday nights on AMC. Clearly, the industry has its attention on Bluemel, but he’s keeping his feet on the ground and embracing every step of his journey.
 
Bluemel, twenty-five, doesn’t chalk up his initial pursuit of acting to any serendipity or intrinsic desire and in fact, downplays his talent as a factor. “When I was really young, basically I just spoke louder and clearer than everyone else, and that was misconstrued amongst teachers and parents as me acting, so I was told, ‘This is it, you’re a good actor,'” he recalls. “So I was like, ‘Ok, ok, I’ll have at it, I don’t have any other ideas at the moment.’ Further down the line when I was sixteen, seventeen I started being like, ‘Ok nothing else has really materialized so I think I’m going to have to push this.’ And that’s what I did.”

Bluemel eventually went to the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, where his passion for acting blossomed. As is typical of the British acting tradition, theater was a focal point, much to his approval. “I think that it’s super valued here in Britain and I’m very much in favor of that because it’s such a good way of starting to learn all the tools that you need to be an actor,” he reasons. “If you learn them on stage, I think that’s easier to apply to the screen than the other way around.” While there, he performed in Shakespeare plays like The Winter’s Tale and King Lear, experiences which encouraged his enthusiasm even further. “For me, all of those classical plays are really important; the history of acting and where it’s all come from and why we’re still doing it now and why it’s still important now for me is always rooted in classical theater,” he explains. “There’s a reason we’ve always done it.”

After graduating, getting an agent, and moving to London, Bluemel began to take his new career more seriously. Though he’s always retained a love of the stage, small roles on television and in films began to come through. “I love being in front of an audience, but at the same time, I’m very aware that at the moment I’ve been very lucky to get some amazing parts on TV,” he says, “and it’s important to strike while the iron is hot.” Though he says he would grab a play “with both hands” if given the opportunity, he acknowledges that being on two hit shows adds a lot of value to his growth as an actor. “While I’m auditioning for television and getting parts, it would be silly to be looking elsewhere,” he notes. “[Screen acting] is a different type of challenge, which I relish.”

The first show that brought Bluemel attention was A Discovery of Witches, an adaptation of Deborah Harkness’s fantasy trilogy in which supernatural beings including witches and vampires must learn to survive in a world where they’re forced to hide, which premiered last September in the UK. It comes at a time when the vampire genre has finally quieted down after its ubiquity at the beginning of the decade and its success in the UK proves that palates are clearly receptive to the concept once again. Bluemel plays Marcus Whitmore, the vampire son of Matthew Goode’s Matthew Clairmont, a biochemistry professor at Oxford. “At first you might just think it’s another vampire drama, but there’s definitely layers to it that make it stand out from the crowd,” he explains. “It leans into historical fiction—obviously there were no vampires—but historical fiction in a way because in the second and third books you meet real people from history. Other than the fantasy element, it’s very historically accurate. It’s really nice to be in a world of fantasy mixed with something that is so well-informed and well-researched. They’re complete opposites but they go hand-in-hand really well.”

On the other hand, Killing Eve taps into something entirely different and has garnered rave reviews for its charming and inscrutable characters from the mind of Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The success of the first season meant that Bluemel was joining a project with established chemistry that was working well—a prospect that was as exciting as it was intimidating. “At first I found it quite daunting because there’s not a single person in the cast that I had watched in the first that I didn’t think was brilliant and some of them are incredibly experienced and well-known and -respected,” he says. “There was definitely an element for me joining like, ‘I’ve really got to be on my game here.’”

Hugo, Bluemel’s character, works with Eve (Sandra Oh) at MI6 trying to track down Jodie Comer‘s Villanelle, a psychopathic assassin linked in a twistedly codependent relationship with Eve. As the connection between Eve and Villanelle gets more complicated, the sharp-witted, ambitious, and perceptive Hugo creates more tension in Bridge’s distinctly sardonic way. “What’s interesting about the supporting characters is you only really see either Eve’s or Villanelle’s perception of them, so you only see them in the context with the two main characters,” he explains. “I think that makes them really fascinating because all of these characters have lives that the viewer doesn’t even begin to see or begin to get let in on.”

Among the many reasons Killing Eve has been so celebrated is its unconventional gender roles, coming at a time when representation is a major discussion in the industry. Bluemel is quick to recognize the shift that Hugo represents as he undermines everything Eve does. “One of the things that I hope the people who watch it will enjoy—or really love to hate—is that this show is being so well-received for the fact that it’s super inclusive. It’s written mainly by women, it’s been directed a lot by women, it’s got female producers, and it’s got two unbelievable female leads,” he asserts. The irony is not lost on him: “And then what you’ve got in this season is the complete opposite to that, which is Hugo, a very privileged, straight, white boy who is used to getting everything he wants. He’s a character that doesn’t go with the rest of the show; it obviously causes conflict and that’s why it’s so fun.”

Killing Eve is a genuine phenomenon, putting Bluemel in front of the widest audience he’s had yet. “I’m delighted,” he says gleamingly, speaking about the series with the enthusiasm of a fan more than a cast member. “This show is so good that of course it’s taken over the world. Everybody is watching everywhere.” It’s precisely the kind of jumping-off point an actor seeks in his career, but what it portends for Bluemel is anyone’s guess. “I don’t like to set myself too many targets or endpoints because I feel like acting is so volatile as a job—anything happens—so to avoid disappointment, I don’t look too far in the future.” For now, that means we are left to indulge in his performances in two great shows, following his career with the same level of anticipation as we do either of them.

Killing Eve and A Discovery of Witches continue on Sundays on AMC.