TOM HARPER, The ArtistTom started off his career playing Dennis Hopper's son in the Hallmark fantasy Jason and the Argonauts. Since then he has enjoyed a range of television experience including playing a murderer in an episode of Foyle's War, to a bumbling idiot in ITV's Poirot series with David Suchet.
Film credits include playing a supporting role in The Upside of Anger along side Kevin Costner and Joan Allen. He also recently played the lead along side Simon Callow and Sean Brendan Brosnan in a film called Surveillance which was officially selected in the 2007 Berlin Film Festival. He took a supporting role in Nick Moran's directoral debut Telstar alongside Kevin Spacey and James Corden.
Short films include Personal Spectator which is currently winning the best comedy shorts awards on the film festival circuit in the states, taking first place in the Method Fest as well as at the Toronto and San Fernando festivals. It's a really nice piece of work, and you should watch it here.
Tom plays the role of the Artist in Stiletto, an unsuspecting innocent who finds his world turned upside down. Tom said, "The script immediately grabbed me, there was a certain quality about the writing and the whole idea of the story that was very lucid in my mind straight from my first reading. I loved how comic and yet how plausible it felt that a situation like this could arise."
Of his character, Tom particularly liked "...His naivety. The fact that he would immediately believe in such a situation, and be thrust into such shocking decision making. I myself spend too much time thinking in real life, I loved the fact that my character had no time to think and forcibly had to act in a way that was clearly totally out of character for him. I felt very free to play around, which was down to him, he created a lot of space and made me believe that he trusted me which always helps to make an actor more imaginative and daring."
On working with director William Mager, Harper says, "For someone who is deaf, he has an extraordinary understanding of sound, and I believe a more acute radar than your average person of when you are being truthful as he reads your face. He always shared his ideas so clearly that I felt I was eventually sharing his vision of the film, I've not experienced that with anyone else in my work."
Film Credits: Telstar, Surveillance, Blood and Chocolate, Past Present Future Imperfect, The Upside of Anger, What a Girl Wants, Living in Hope
Television credits: Jason and the Argonauts, In the Beginning, Silent Witness, Judge John Deed, Poirot, Midsommer Murders, Roman Mysteries, Foyles War, Holby City, Liberty, Lewis.
Theatre credits: King John, Julius Caesar (RSC), Mrs Warren's Profession, Taking Sides, Danger My Ally, The Things Good Men Do.
Short Films: Danger My Ally, Voices inside, Personal Spectator and Stiletto.
