Toby-Alexander Smith says working with Joan Collins is his career highlight. Ahead of his return to EastEnders as serial killer Gray Atkins, Toby-Alexander Smith has filmed a murder mystery with Dame Joan Collins - and how she responded to his daughter was a highlight of his career.
A Career Highlight with an Icon
Toby-Alexander Smith may have been nominated for several Best Villain awards over the years, but the first thing anyone speaking to him will notice is that he's extraordinarily nice. When he sits down on a call, he takes his time easing into the conversation, asking how I am and if we've met before. And when I ask about his daughters and his Emmerdale actress wife Amy Walsh, he beams from ear to ear.
We're having a chat because Toby is starring in a new film with Joan Collins. A Murder Between Friends is a brand new murder mystery starring the Dynasty icon as Francesca Carlyle, a TV detective who invites her friends, including Toby's Sydney, to a mansion for a holiday, only to find one of their group has been killed. The film was released on 15 June, and shortly before both that and his upcoming return to EastEnders, Toby shared why working with Joan was a career highlight and how she helped make a beautiful memory with his family.
Working with Joan Collins
Iconic is the word there. She was amazing to work with. She walks onto set and she's just got this aura and this gravitas about her, such a rich and colourful life and career that experience can provide someone and yeah, she's lovely. A master of her craft, professional, kind. I got to do some one-on-one scenes with her when you see your name next to Joan Collins - that's pretty special. It's very hard to not have an out-of-body experience when she's looking at me and I was just thinking about all the people she's worked with, all the projects she's done over the years and the life that she's led but yeah, she's fantastic but the whole cast were brilliant. It was such a fun shoot. To say that I've shared the screen with Dame Joan Collins feels like a bit of a pinch me moment, I have to say.
Was That the Best Moment of Your Career?
I don't know what else could happen that could be more iconic than saying I've shared a screen with Joan Collins So that feels pretty special. There was one point where it nearly was the worst moment of my career actually. When we did a Zoom table read for the film, my daughter at the time was having a nap upstairs and she woke before the end of the Zoom read through and it was just the film was ramping up Joan was delivering some of her lines and I had to go and get Bonnie from upstairs, bring her down. She starts singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star bubbling away. Everyone's looking around thinking who on earth is talking over Joan's lines I was mortified because that's the first time we all met over Zoom and I literally basically held up Bonnie put her in the fire and blamed it all on my two-year-old for interrupting the table read. Luckily, Joan was incredibly gracious and said how much she loved babies and then they ended up meeting on set a few weeks later. So yeah, that could have been a very embarrassing moment but actually it was alright in the end and all thanks to Joan Collins.
Best Moment on Set
The best was probably actually when we weren't actually filming. My wife was filming a documentary for ITV and she actually flew out with our daughter, Bonnie, who was two at the time. They flew out to have a day on set with us and basically we had lunch in between takes one day and Joan Collins came and sat in this courtyard area with me and Amy and Bonnie and we all had lunch together. Joan and Bonnie shared an ice cream and Amy and Joan were sharing stories about travelling with kids. Joan got this picture of her two children in these suitcases piled high. They were sharing mum stories and it just felt really special and the whole thing got captured on camera because the crew filmed some of it with obviously Joan's permission and I was just like, wow, this feels like such a moment. My little girl Bonnie, obviously didn't even know at the time! We've got a picture of her and we had a picture all together and she's looking at Joan like she just knows that this woman's clearly iconic you can just see it in a two-year-old's eyes.
Being a Dad to Two Girls
You and Amy recently had another baby - congratulations! What's it like being a dad to two girls? It's a juggle! But it's beautiful chaos. We're absolutely loving it! I feel like I was definitely meant to have two girls. I love having my little girls and you know, I am very much an advocate for men's mental health and things like that as well. I think it is so important that men are vulnerable and I try and be vulnerable too. I think with the whole Manosphere thing that terrifies me slightly. You just think it's a very scary time to be bringing girls up into this world and so, you know, I really want to use whatever platform I've got to sort of be a voice to try and be a true depiction of what I believe a man should be and not what is toxic and being put out there on things like social media. I'm just very aware of that fact that, you know you are a male role model in two little girls' lives.
Making Sure Men Know It's Okay to Be Vulnerable
A lot of it's about connection and having people to connect with because I think, you know, it's very cliche to say 'talking' but it is the most important thing that we can do. Especially new dads - communication and connection is the most important thing, talking with other dads, other people who work in the mental health sector and so many different organisations out there as well. Someone to just say it does get easier.
Returning to EastEnders
You're returning to EastEnders soon, what was it like to step back into Gray Atkins shoes? Gray was pretty heavy the first time around. Obviously, we dealt with the domestic abuse storyline and then there was some more sort of heightened curveballs and more deaths, which was very heavy too, but a gift for an actor. I felt very challenged doing that but then leaving the show, you know I've gone on to do some really lovely films I've done a lot of nice guys and horseback period dramas and A Murder Between Friends. I feel very privileged that I've been given an opportunity to sort of stretch myself as an actor or just sort of just be a yes man to whatever opportunity is coming your way and just dive straight in. Gray was a brilliant character. It was a gift to play Gray and it'll be fascinating to know what four years in prison would do for someone like him. His identity was very much, you know, control and power and very manipulative. Being in prison would very much strip a lot of that identity. So it was fascinating to tap into that psychology.
Would You Ever Join Emmerdale?
I joke with Amy because obviously she's in Emmerdale and we're based up in Leeds and it would certainly be very convenient It would just pop down the Dales!
