EXCLUSIVE: Thomas Nicholson Talks his Time on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Motherland: Fort Salem
Thomas Nicholson is making a name for himself in the acting world and we got the chance to sit down and speak with him. The star recently starred as David Bowie on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow earlier this year and is currently starring on Freeform’s Motherland: Fort Salem.
What was it like being on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow?
“It was great. Actually, I’ve auditioned for that show a few times and because of the time traveling and all this, they have so much fun with meeting real life characters. There’s so much fun in that because it’s not a serious biopic about any of them. It’s more like the fun and celebrating these people. So, it was a show that for a long time, I had hoped to get on because they just have so much fun, and it also seems like a show where they just keep breaking the rules and breaking the expectations of what a superhero show is.”
What was it like to play David Bowie on the show?
“Like so many people, I’ve always been a fan of Bowie. I love his music, and I love his inclusive outlook on people and his creative flare, both in music and in his different styles of look. Of course, it was also nerve wracking because he’s such a recognizable icon. There’s also a friend of mine who played King Arthur on the show who’s maybe, maybe not, a real life character but even to the extent that he might be, no one knows what he would have looked like or sounded like. With Bowie, everyone knows exactly what Bowie looks like, what Bowie sounds like, all that stuff. So yeah, it was nerve wracking, but I was also super excited to get to play kind of a personal hero of mine.”
How do you prepare for something like that? When you know that you’re going to be playing someone who either had existed or is alive right now, how do you prepare for that? Because I’ve got to imagine it’s completely different than crafting a brand new character.
“Sometimes even if it’s with a real life person like this, again, there’s so much access on YouTube to interviews and performances and all this stuff. So in this case, I already had a very good idea of what he sounded like and looked like, but I kind of honed in on that particular era of David Bowie, because he was also such a chameleon. There’s almost like multiple David Bowies. So just watched a few YouTube videos to just refresh the sound of his version of the accent.”
You can read the rest of our interview below the jump. Make sure to check out Thomas on Motherland: Fort Salem airing every Tuesday on Freeform.
Photo credit: Ashley Ross
What was it like auditioning for the part?
“It’s weird because when I auditioned for it, I had those sides available to me that I was auditioning for, and then I can’t remember exactly, but I had about 24 hours to submit my audition. I also had to play and sing this song and for the audition, I didn’t have a melody. I just had to make something up. Step one is do the audition, and then step two is after I was told I had booked it, I can perhaps try to get beyond the mimicry of David Bowie.”
How do you find a way to make the character your own without making it feel robotic?
“It’s such a fine line to try to copy all the things that David Bowie did and sounded like, but then still not be completely robotic about it and bring something of myself to it, or some kind of playfulness to it. Because if anything, David Bowie was certainly also playful. If I’m too rigid about being David Bowie, I lose the playfulness that makes him David Bowie. So yeah, there was definitely added challenges in feeling like I’m trying to honor this icon and at the same time making it my own, but I don’t know. I relished the challenge.”
What would you say was the hardest part about playing him?
“Learning to play. You know, there’s a little bit of noodling, so learning to play a little bit of 12 string guitar.”
Did you know how to play the guitar?
“I can play a little bit of a six string, and it’s not actually that much more difficult, but I guess it was more the expectation of learning to play a 12 string. Then once I got down to it, I felt like I was okay.”
Was it hard learning the 12 string?
“I wasn’t sure if it would be very different from a six string, but it wasn’t actually, at least to the extent, because I’m just kind of noodling a guitar a little bit. I’m not playing something super advanced. So I guess that was one thing, just a technical thing I was nervous about. I feel like he just seems like the most confident and open person on the planet. I guess it’s the combining the nerves of playing David Bowie with the confidence that he exuded. But that’s also what was so exhilarating about it. So, there’s going to be so many expectations about it, and I had my own expectations too. Again, I’m such a fan of David Bowie, so I want to do my best to do him justice.”
Can you share what other roles you had auditioned for?
“A couple of the real life ones I remember were Jack the Ripper and a young Prince Charles. There may have been others, but those are the two that come to mind. It’s funny because I know there was one that I was shortlisted for and close to booking, and there’s always ups and downs, and there’s a lot of rejection as an actor. At the time I was so bummed because I was so close to playing this real life person. It would’ve been so much fun. Then a couple of years later booking David Bowie is like, well, that would not have been available to me if I booked this other world before that.”
Yep, and I’d have to imagine that when you audition for stuff like that, especially auditioning for a number of roles, you eventually stay in their minds that when you come back it’s, “Oh yeah, yeah. No, he wasn’t right, but this, yeah, this is a role he was right for.”
What was it like working with the cast?
“It was great. There was such a positive atmosphere on set. That episode of Legends, the first day production was back after, first of all the season hiatus, but then also it was much longer than it was supposed to be because of the COVID lockdown. Everyone was so happy to see each other and also just be able to actually work because there was still a lot of people who couldn’t work at the time.
I could see that those lead actors really, really liked each other’s company. That’s always nice to see, but they were obviously very happy to see each other for the first time in months and months. Even with that and having not seen each other for a long time, they were very, very good at being very inclusive and including me in just the chat behind the scenes while we’re waiting for setups and stuff. So yeah, I felt very, very welcomed.
Can you tell us what we can expect from you in the new season of Motherland: Fort Salem?
“The world literally opens up because the first season they spend a lot at the military academy and then the second season they open up to the outside world a lot more. One of the new alliances, they come across me and we have some rendezvous. I have a lot of fun with some of the established characters on the show. I’m part of introducing a few new characters as well.”
How did you end up landing the part?
“This was a self-tape again. I auditioned for it again. What was that? Either September or October last year. So, again, it was a self-tape. I taped it at home and that was kind of it. It was one tape. Then, I don’t know, a week or two after my agent called and said there was an offer for the part. I’d auditioned for one other part on the role, which was actually fun because it’s obviously a new role, this first role I auditioned for, but I ended up having a lot of scenes with that character. So that was actually a lot of fun.”
Are we going to see you often in the season?
“Yeah, I’ll be recurring in a few episodes. I’m sure I will induce a strong opinion. People will probably have a strong opinion about what my character should or should not do. Involuntarily, I help some other characters bond. Some of the fan favorites, they will bond in a way in part because of me, although it’s not necessarily my intention.”
What was it like working with that cast?
“It’s the show I’ve spent the longest on because my time on the show was spread out over a couple of months, I think. So, it’s a show I’ve spent the longest on and returned back to the same people. Like on Legends of Tomorrow, I was just there for a couple of days and I felt like an incredibly welcome guest. With Motherland, I was kind of there often enough that I felt like part of the family, and it’s such a great family to be a part of. It’s very inclusive and there’s no divas. It’s very just, you see so many, I don’t know. I love being on a set where there are a lot of people who look very different. Men, women, and there’s a non-binary person joining the cast in season two who’s awesome.”
Can you talk about the inclusiveness on set?
“I just think it’s such a great show for that, and behind the camera too, there’re lots of women directors, a female camera operator, women in the writer’s room, women of color directing. I just thought that that show is doing really well. It’s being talked about a lot these days and yeah, I feel like that show is doing a lot to actually walk the walk and not just talk the talk, but I don’t know. I’m excited to be able to be part of that even though I’m the very white and very male, but it’s just cool to be a part of a show like that.
What I actually like a lot about Motherland is with so many women characters who are so powerful, it kind of goes beyond that. Where you also start looking into, well, all this power comes with a responsibility, and they don’t all use them for good, which is kind of cool. There’s room for a lot of nuance in that way.”
What was thing you learned about yourself during the pandemic?
“I was able to find a lot of gratitude for the good things that I do have in my life. I do find actually just in terms of acting and a career, it translates to not being less ambitious, but being a little more confident for sure. Maybe kind of easy going in terms of, I hope to book every audition I get, but it’s easier to just do all my prep, do the audition, knock it off, send it off, and then just kind of let it go and let it be what it is. That kind of thing, and even when I get auditions, be less worried about what the producers want and just do it the way I think is more fun.
And, I can see it has translated in some of the things that I booked. These couple of jobs have been a very big deal for me, both because they’re awesome and fun, but also big steps up in my career. There’s another job I can’t talk just yet, but another one that’s just a kind of role that I would never book without just bouncing off the walls, go all the way with it. So yeah, just having more fun and kind of more of a fuck it attitude.”