It’s Joel Fry’s World

…We’re just living in it. The British actor cut his teeth with a decade of reliable sitcom roles, but now rising to the task in Ben Wheatley’s folk horror In The Earth after impressing in Disney franchises and indie gems alike, Joel Fry is showing no signs of slowing down. Luke Walpole takes us through his key roles to date.

Joel Fry is having a moment. Following a steady string of comedic best friend roles in quirky British sitcoms like Plebs and Trollied, the London-born character actor has used his flock of brown hair and roguish grin in an increasingly wide variety of film roles. From Disney blockbusters through to Richard Curtis romcoms and Netflix comedies, and most recently playing as the terminally anxious lead in Ben Wheatley’s pagan horror In The Earth, Fry has shown an ability to use his disarming comedic talents and latent anxiety in nuanced, surprising performances.

The transition from playful TV roles to major film performances has been smooth thanks to the actor’s golden thread of decency which never strays into dullness and a comedy which is never forced. Fry is a fundamentally endearing screen presence; whether playing a hapless supermarket worker, a wannabe roadie or a Dickensian street robber. 

The actor excels in bringing lovable idiots to the small screen. As Leighton in Trollied, the supermarket-based sitcom which he starred in from 2011 to 2013, Fry makes a useless character deeply likable. Leighton may advise schoolkids there is a two-for-one offer on cider, or accidentally turn off all the store’s freezers to try and help save the planet, but thanks to Fry’s lumbering frame, frizzy hair and cheeky smile, it’s impossible to stay angry at him.

Moving to Ancient Rome as the outlandish Stylax in Plebs between 2013 and 2016, Fry effectively played an Inbetweener in a toga. It could easily feel crass, but in his hyperactive pursuit of fun, fame and women, Fry playfully provides the energetic counterpoint to Tom Rosenthal’s easily frazzled Marcus. Thanks to the actor’s optimism and mischievous streak, Stylax becomes a friend who can be infuriating but also makes your day-to-day life that little bit more exciting. 

Overlapping his time in both Plebs and Trollied, Fry winced his way through almost every scene of mockumentaries Twenty Twelve and its follow up W1A as ‘Viral Concept Designer Karl Marx’ (yes, really), knowing he is doomed to have all his garbled plans for media campaigns shot down. As such, Fry acts with a cringing self-awareness which accompanies the brash confidence exhibited in previous shows. 

Despite confidently – and perhaps comfortably – sitting in the world of sitcoms, joining Game of Thrones as Hizdahr zo Loraq in 2014 offered the opportunity for Fry to finally play straight. The son of a slave trader and an embodiment of the Old World order, Loraq fights an upwards battle to secure the trust of Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons. What begins as pandering and a whimpering fear slowly evolves into a steelier resolve. Instead of using his physicality for laughs, Fry becomes increasingly statuesque, standing taller as he pushes against his new ruler’s decision-making. In line with the wanton bloodshed which defined Game of Thrones, Loraq’s end came swiftly – but Fry showed he could bring more to a role than just comedic timing. 

Simon Amstell’s deft and poignant 2018 feature Benjamin, which blurs the lines between performance and real life, saw Fry bring this duality to life to delicate effect. Though he describes himself as a professional comedian, Fry’s character Stephen, the best friend of the titular lead, completely tanks a stand-up gig after a boisterous start during which he seeks laughter from discussing suicide and his father’s abusive parenting. 

Stephen’s neurotic behaviour – his flinched shoulders, constant fiddling with the mic stand, and wringing of his hands – reflects an internal need for validation and support much more worthy of attention than the material he has written. The morning after the gig, we see his tender side; his face bruised and swollen by whoever he sought comfort from after his disastrous gig, and in Fry’s eyes there’s an existential pain to match the physical one, as Stephen grapples with who he is away from the spotlight.

As the willing groupie Rocky in Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle's 2019 romcom Yesterday, Fry returned to his roots of playing a clueless, if loyal, comedy foil. A high-concept story of a man who wakes up from a bike accident as the only person to remember the music of The Beatles, the film is primarily a love letter to the band’s music, but also a cautionary tale on the alienating impact of fame as the film’s lead Jack this twist of fate to find fame. 

Fry’s permanent grin and palpable enthusiasm for the high life of parties and rock and roll is clear from his almost permanently drunk state, and he delivers one of the film’s best lines with a laconic edge when telling Ed Sheeran to leave rapping “to the brothers”. But as the star of the film’s lead, Jack, starts to rise, Rocky becomes a gravitational pull back to Earth, a reminder of home. Jack’s final coup, in which he uploads his much anticipated album for free online (quite a quaint gesture, really) is ultimately completed by his dependable best friend. 

The following year, and as the Maid-of-Honour Bryan in Love, Wedding, Repeat, Fry re-exhibited his eagerness to please as a struggling actor looking to impress a famous director also at the wedding. Unfortunately, things don’t go to plan. Accidentally drugged with sleeping pills part-way through the film, Fry’s skill for physical comedy shines as he lumbers through the crowd, eyes rolling in the back of his head, as he desperately tries to make his way through his Maid-of-Honour speech before falling asleep. Though neither romcom parts were written with a huge amount of depth, Fry’s comedic instincts still come to the fore. 

Last month’s Cruella, a Disney prequel for the 101 Dalmatians villain, pits Fry’s calming influence against the increasingly brazen titular character. As Jasper, the street orphan who takes a young Cruella under his wing as a child, Fry becomes the film’s moral compass with a streetwise sense of right and wrong which sets him apart in the quasi-Dickensian world depicted by director Craig Gillespie. The film is full of pastiche characters, from Emma Thompson’s acerbic Baroness von Hellman to Jamie Demetriou’s snivelling departments store manager Gerald, but in the middle of this caricatured London landscape, Jasper is more of an everyman; willing to steal a wallet, but also instrumental in supporting Cruella’s initial dreams of becoming a fashion designer. 

Though Jasper is initially a cheerful and chipper member of the gang of thieves alongside Cruella, and his sidekick Horace, he sees Cruella’s burgeoning vendetta against the Baroness as spiraling out of control and pushes against it with increasing firmness and a sniping delivery to his lines. Despite this, and with a look of concern etched across Fry’s face for the film’s final third, Jasper loses his power to stop the excesses of his former friend. 

The threads of Fry’s career – his anxious body language, an eagerness to please and a consistent undercurrent of comedy – come together in Ben Wheatley’s Covid-inspired horror film In The Earth. Playing scientist Martin Lowery, Fry is thrust into a world decimated by a virus, and whose living inhabitants have grown increasingly cautious and febrile. The oppressive impact of this already affects Lowery, as he walks through the woods with rounded shoulders, a resigned plod and a constant look of worry. 

Thanks in part to Wheatley’s darkly comic styling and the deadpan support of Reece Shearsmith’s woodsman Zach, Fry plays a toe-curling operation for laughs – but the sharpest aspect of his performance sees him flip his usual tongue-in-cheek anxiety into something much more existential. He’s nervous about not just what he will say next, but how he can continue to offer something to a world which has been turned upside down by a pandemic. 

Slated to play Wentworth in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion opposite Succession’s Sarah Snook, Fry’s subtle character acting and understated delivery could be very much at home in a love story about second chances and the weight of the past. After a decade spent disarming and charming TV audiences, Fry’s flashing grin is already at home on the big screen.