SPOILER ALERT: This interview comprises spoilers from “One Day” now streaming on Netflix.

Earlier than auditioning for the newest adaptation of “One Day,” Leo Woodall watched its first iteration. Within the 2011 movie, Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess starred as Emma and Dexter, a pair of finest mates who reunite on the identical day every year. The TV collection follows the identical format, starting when the duo, portrayed by Ambika Mod and Woodall, meet in faculty in 1988.

Woodall, who was filming Season 2 of “The White Lotus” in Italy on the time, didn’t have time to learn the e book, so he watched the film to gauge the story — and he was pulled in.

“I simply assume it’s such a phenomenal story. It’s dubbed as a romance story, however there’s simply a lot life in it. There’s so many life occasions that these two characters undergo,” he tells Selection. “I believe from from an performing standpoint, it was an exquisite, difficult type of reward to have the ability to play a personality at many alternative factors in life.”

As soon as there was curiosity in casting him, he dove into the e book — and needed to work on his accent. He flew from Sicily to London for the auditions and needed to tweak his accent to go from Jack’s, his unhealthy boy character in “The White Lotus,” to Dexter’s: working particularly on “throwing my t’s again into my speech.”

Not solely was Woodall tasked with taking over a beloved e book, however this additionally marked his first time in a number one function, as his previous characters — he appeared in “Vampire Academy” and “Citadel” just lately — have been supporting components.

“I believe I used to be stunned as we started capturing, the pressures that may include it. We had been very fortunate that we had a really welcoming and heat crew to work with,” he says. “It was an exquisite problem in realizing that duty. However then on the flip facet, everyone is doing their very own jobs, and everybody’s working onerous at what they’re doing — and so truly, it’s type of no totally different. You simply should do your job as finest you’ll be able to, and take your naps when you’ll be able to.”

“One Day” wouldn’t work with out the chemistry between Dexter and Emma — each as mates and as companions. Fortunately, that connection got here simple between Woodall and Mod.

“I believe we met up for espresso, which then become a gin and tonic round lunchtime, the day earlier than we went into pre-production, simply to type of have a natter,” he remembers. “Fairly early, I suppose we each realized that we weren’t alone on this huge mountain that we thought we needed to climb. We knew that we had been going to lean on one another a bit, and we had been fortunate in that we did bond early, and and it made working lots simpler. I believe perhaps our friendship carried via on display screen.”

Whereas targeted on romance and friendship, “One Day” additionally reveals the various ups and downs of life for each Emma and Dexter. Within the penultimate episode — after the longtime mates lastly make their manner again to one another in a romantic manner, and start their lives collectively — Emma is killed in a automotive accident. Dexter, who struggled with habit all through his life, spirals.

“They positively had been the more durable components of capturing, and extremely taxing. I used to be exhausted by the top of these few days,” he says of filming the later scenes, which embrace Dex chatting with Emma years after her dying. “However there’s positively one thing fulfilling about it. Strolling away from it — hoping, and feeling pretty assured that I’ve informed that a part of his story with fact and integrity — felt so good. I’d by no means need to mistell or underrepresent these actually, actually terrible components of somebody’s life.”

The times of Dexter’s life that had been “coated in grief” had been a bit harder for Woodall to expertise; personally, he might relate extra to the sooner days of Dexter, when he’s “residing a really cozy life,” working a restaurant and “simply attempting to be as comfortable as potential, and spend extra time along with his family members.”

For Woodall, that’s a very powerful factor. Simply as Emma and Dex do within the collection, we focus on the place he’d prefer to be when he’s 40. “I don’t know,” he says. “I believe I’d simply like to be wholesome and comfortable and in a position to work. If I’ve picked up extra hobbies alongside the way in which or extra pursuits, then perhaps I’ll be exploring them.”

After rising to fame in “The White Lotus” and now being the lead of his personal collection, the alternatives for him are infinite. However Woodall doesn’t have a “dream function,” per se.

“I do know that on this occupation, there’s loads of selection that you would be able to have,” he says. “I’d like to play a sportsman or a sports activities coach. Perhaps that’s what I need to do — play a coach of a faculty soccer crew.”