Last Updated on 30/05/2024 by Crip Life
Line of Duty actor Tommy Jessop is on a mission to show that people with Down syndrome can play heroes too. He’s starred in high-profile TV programmes and short films, and now he wants to be a leading man. But the right roles are not being offered to him, so Tommy decides to take matters into his own hands. With the help of his brother, filmmaker Will Jessop, Tommy sets off on an epic creative journey to develop his own superhero movie and pitch it in Hollywood. This is a warm, funny and original documentary about daring to dream, created by Tommy and Will.
Our editor, Emma Purcell, got the opportunity to preview the film – Tommy Jessop Goes to Hollywood – and had the pleasure of interviewing both Tommy and Will about the documentary and finding out if their trip to Tinseltown delivered Tommy’s dream.
Tommy Jessop on his life and acting career
Tommy Jessop is a 38-year-old British actor from Hampshire. He is the first actor with Down syndrome to star in a primetime BBC drama, the first professional actor with Down syndrome to tour theatres as Hamlet and the first to become a full voting member of BAFTA.
In 2021, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of the Arts by the University of Winchester and became an Ambassador to Mencap and to the National Down Syndrome Policy Group.
Tommy also published his autobiography, A Life Worth Living, in July 2023, and helped campaign for the Down Syndrome Act to be passed through Parliament.
Tommy began by telling us how he got into acting: “I first started acting through a BBC and Channel 4 talent scheme for disabled actors looking for TV and film work.
My first acting role was in Coming Down The Mountain, which is a 90-minute TV drama about two brothers getting to know each other. The person that I played, Ben, is getting to know himself and find himself. The other brother called David was played by Nicolas Hoult and he knew himself extremely well. His character decided to kill his own brother by planning to push him off a mountain. But I did have a stunt double on standby.
I also did some theatre in my early days. The first performance I did was a person-centred play about making choices in life and what to do in life. I did my own person-centred planning meeting and it was then I realised I wanted to become an actor myself and one thing led to another.”
Tommy went on to share how he got the role of Terry Boyle in the award-winning police drama Line Of Duty: “The showrunner Jed Mercurio rang up and asked, ‘How would you feel if we stick you in a police car and drove you into a lake?’. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at first but I warmed to the idea.”
Tommy added: “But I did enjoy the infamous interrogation interview scenes and being interviewed by Kelly Macdonald (who played DCI Jo Davidson) and Vicky McClure (who played DI Kate Fleming).
Tommy’s brother Will explained a bit more about Tommy’s appearances on Line Of Duty: “In series five I think they’d seen Tommy’s work on telly and they just came to him because they already knew him. In series six, Terry Boyles’s role was going to be expanded. The other thing, of course, to say is Tommy couldn’t tell anyone.”
Tommy continued: “After the phone call, Jed Mercurio said I had to sign a confidential form, which means do not tell anyone.”
“The first I knew about Tommy being in series six was when I was watching it live on television, which was really exciting,” said Will.
You can follow Tommy Jessop on Twitter and Instagram.
Will Jessop on his career in filmmaking
Will Jessop is an Emmy award-nominated documentary filmmaker, with a passion for strong emotional narratives. He is based in the UK, but has filmed all over the world and had some incredible adventures.
Will explains how he was inspired to get into filmmaking: “I suppose I originally got into filmmaking because I always knew that I wanted to tell stories. I started out trying to be a novel writer but then, when I was in my early twenties, I suddenly thought ‘Hang on, I love watching films. Why don’t I try making films?’”
The thing about making films is, it’s so creative in so many ways. I love that kind of complexity. You need to be a writer and a director, potentially working with actors or with real people if you’re making documentaries – thinking about visuals and music – it just seemed to tick every kind of creative box.
In addition to that, it’s collaborative. Whereas obviously, if you’re trying to write a book, you’re just sat on your own for hours and hours on end, as Tommy will tell you. So film as a medium just seems to tick every box and appeal to me in every way.”
Will continued: “In terms of how I actually started my career as a professional filmmaker, it was actually with Tommy. I decided to start making a little documentary behind the scenes with Tommy while he did Coming Down The Mountain and an episode of Holby City at the same time. So I made a half-hour film called Tommy’s Story about my brother, the actor, who was just starting his career, and that was in 2007.
Then in 2012, when Tommy was playing Hamlet on a professional tour with other actors from Blue Apple Theatre, which is the company that my Mum, Tommy and a few others founded in Winchester for actors with and without learning disabilities, I helped write the adaptation of Hamlet that they were performing and at the same time I was desperate to be a filmmaker.
And so I somehow managed to raise enough money to buy a camera and then I just started filming them, Tommy and the other actors, in their rehearsals for Hamlet, and then followed them on their tour.
That material ended up being a film called Growing Up Down’s, which went out on BBC Three in 2014. That was the first time I got paid and my first professional broadcast credit. So, that was the start of my professional career.
You can follow Will Jessop on Twitter and Instagram.
Tommy Jessop Goes to Hollywood
Tommy Jessop is on a mission to show that people with Down syndrome can play heroes, but the right roles are not being offered to him. So, inspired by the advice of his agent, Tommy decides to take matters into his own hands.
Enlisting the help of his brother Will, Tommy sets off to make his own superhero movie. He names his superhero Roger, in honour of his teddy bear, and bases Roger’s superpowers on his own experiences of being someone with Down syndrome.
Tommy sometimes feels as if the world does not understand or value people like him – he and his super-powered alter ego, are determined to change that.
Tommy’s dream is to pitch Roger the Superhero in Hollywood. The brothers call in every favour they can think of and use guerrilla tactics as they try to get Tommy’s movie off the ground – enlisting their mum as a stunt driver and sending video messages to famous actors asking them to play Tommy’s baddie. The pair manage to charm their way into a stunt training day to shoot an action trailer, with Tommy facing off against a small army of bad guys.
Amazingly, the bolder and more ambitious they are, the more it seems to pay off. As the film idea develops, so too does the brothers’ relationship and their understanding of one another.
Soon Tommy and Will are jumping on a plane to Hollywood for their first trip abroad together on their own. The brothers lark through La La Land, singing along to S Club 7, making new A-list friends, and preparing for the ultimate test: a pitch in front of a top Hollywood producer with the power to make Roger the Superhero a reality.
Speaking about his goal for this documentary, Tommy said: “I’m hoping to be the very first person with Down syndrome to become a superhero.”
Will added: “We needed a story and a new challenge for Tommy. The last time he was setting out with his fellow actors to put on a production of Hamlet. Looking at the last few years, Line Of Duty was this massive peak, and it felt like a whole new breakthrough in Tommy’s career. And off the back of that, we felt, as we say in the film, that it would lead to bigger and better opportunities. But in practice, those roles just haven’t come through. So what we’ve decided, if it’s not out there, we make it ourselves.”
Will continued: “The other thing that is special about making this documentary together is that we are actually doing it together. So it’s like a proper shared creation. The authorship is not another film about someone’s brother with Down syndrome. It’s very much a joint effort in all aspects whether it’s Tommy having his own camera or whether it’s developing the superhero movie.
My role really is to support Tommy and Tommy’s ownership. Obviously, there are some bits where I can’t resist whipping out my camera to film something that I’ve been interested in. But it’s very much a shared filmmaking process.
I really love that. My favourite thing about this film is creating it with Tommy and letting Tommy lead and trying to step back and being constantly surprised by the amazing things that he comes up with.”
Why the name Roger Mitchell for your teddy bear?
As mentioned above, Roger the Superhero was named after Tommy’s beloved teddy bear of 35 years, Roger Mitchell. Tommy explained where the name of his bear came from:
“I’ve loved watching Eastenders for many years and there is a famous family on Eastenders called the Mitchells so I named my teddy after that. As for Roger, I just like the name.”
“Also, there’s that amazing bit in our film where it turns out to be the same name as the producer’s first boss”, said Will, “and I think there was a director called Roger Michell who directed Notting Hill. But it’s literally because Tommy loves the Mitchells in Eastenders – so just a complete coincidence”.
Tommy Jessop meets Kit Harington
As part of the film, Tommy and Will got to meet Game of Thrones star Kit Harington who has a relative with Down syndrome and is an Ambassador for Mencap. Kit did a readthrough of a Roger the Superhero scene with Tommy, playing the baddie.
Tommy and Will shared what it was like to meet Kit Harington. Tommy said: “I think it was one of many personal highlights meeting Kit Harington. He really was a nice person and he has a cousin with Down syndrome too.”
Will said: “He was just lovely and such a nice guy. I think obviously we’d be lucky to have him as our baddie. It was so interesting because it was exciting when Tommy and Kit were reading it. Reading our words – Kit Harington and Tommy Jessop facing off in the climax of the movie – he read really well obviously.”
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Will continued: “I just think he’s an incredibly lovely, generous chap, but also he has got a special interest and there was a kind of immediate warmth and understanding from him.
In the film, the bit where he talks about how his cousin makes him feel, I found it very moving because that’s also an experience or a feeling that I have with Tommy. It’s just so interesting to see that reflected in someone else because it is a very deeply personal thing that you’re sometimes scared of saying out loud in case it sounds a bit odd. That was very special for me.”
Interactions with people in the creative industries
In the documentary, Tommy and Will send video pitches to actors and producers asking if they liked to be part of their Roger the Superhero project. When I watched this scene, my interpretation was that only those who have a connection to Down syndrome – Kit Harrington, Zack Gottsagen (who also has Down syndrome) and the creators of the film The Peanut Button Falcon, in which Zack stars in – responded to the brothers’ requests.
However, Will highlighted they had interactions with many other professionals who have no connection to Down syndrome: “Beyond Kit and Zack, and the makers of The Peanut Butter Falcon, actually the people that we meet, like Amanda the writer, Will Sharpe, who is also a very successful, talented actor and filmmaker, and Neve Campbell and JJ Feild in America – they actually don’t have any connection with Down syndrome that we know of, but they were still nonetheless, really excited and interested to hear from Tommy.
It’s also true that in Tommy’s career in general, he’s actually fitted into mainstream productions and it hasn’t really come through a kind of disability-specific channel, which I think is probably rare. But there’s something special and powerful about that I think.
I’m conscious that we need allies and we need people to be allies that are not just relatives. So there was something really uplifting about the responses we got from people across the board, even if they didn’t know anyone with Down syndrome. And actually, some of them, I’m not sure they’d ever even met anyone with Down syndrome, let alone worked with them professionally.
Tommy Jessop’s favourite moments in LA
Next, Tommy shared some of his favourite moments on his trip to LA with his brother: “I loved meeting the makers of The Peanut Button Falcon and pitching my own film. There were also a few highlights relating to food that aren’t in the film like the In-N-Out burger place, which was enjoyable, and having the Tom Cruise cake that he gives to his A-lister friends. I also enjoyed swimming in the hotel pool and I hope this will be the first of many boys holidays together.
Tommy Jessop pitches Roger the Superhero
The finale of the documentary saw Tommy pitch Roger the Superhero to top Hollywood producer, Joel Zadak. Tommy shared how he felt at that moment: “I was looking forward to it at the start of it and at the end of it I was proud that I had done it.”
Will added: “Tommy doesn’t really get nervous so I was getting nervous for both of us and it was funny because when Tommy was doing the pitch, we had done everything together to this point, but when that was happening I felt like I was trapped behind the camera, and all I could do was just watch. But of course that meant that Tommy smashed it and did an absolutely fantastic job. And I was able to just let go and trust and enjoy watching Tommy doing a wonderful job.”
I couldn’t finish my interview with Tommy and Will without asking the ultimate question – will Roger the Superhero be made into a movie?
Tommy said: “Well Joel Zadak mentioned that he’ll wait for the screenplay to be written, so the short answer is yes and we’re now writing the script.”
I also asked if they plan to cast other actors with Down syndrome in supporting roles. Tommy replied: “Including other actors with Down syndrome and other disabilities for supporting roles would definitely be good.”
Will also said: “The documentary really only takes us up to the point of pitching and now the next phase is obviously writing and then casting. There could well be a follow-up documentary in that.
I personally would love to have open casting sessions for actors with Down syndrome and we talked about who they could play. There are so many kinds of juicy roles – other superheroes or mentors or even baddies. Obviously, you need famous actors like Kit Harington to help raise the funding because ultimately it’s a business. But I would love to see a film populated with actors with Down syndrome. I think it would be wonderful.”
Words of advice
When asked if he has got any other acting roles or film projects lined up, Tommy simply answered in true Hollywood style: “Top secret.”
Finally, Tommy and Will left us with these words of advice. Tommy said: “You can start by really believing in yourself and following your own dreams in life. You can be who you truly want to be in real life as well”
Will concluded: “In addition to Tommy’s advice, I’d say for the rest of us, we’ve just got to keep creating opportunities. It’s not just about acting in superhero movies, it’s about creating opportunities for people to live the lives that they want at all levels – that’s what the film is really about.”
Awards and Nominations
On 17th May 2024, Tommy Jessop Goes to Hollywood won Best Documentary at the RTS Southern Awards 2024.
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Tommy Jessop Goes to Hollywood is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.