At 28 years old, Leo Woodall is starting to corner the market on a very particular species of onscreen love interest—the guy who’s so sweet and dreamy that there’s got to be a catch, right? The actor first broke out as a beach-vacation fling on the second season of The White Lotus, then he conquered Netflix with the time-skipping romance One Day. Now he is the fresh-faced May to Renee Zellweger’s iconic 50-something December in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, now streaming on Peacock. Below, our latest ELLE Man dives deep into the world of Bridget Jones and talks about his love of High School Musical.
When did Bridget Jones enter your cultural universe?
I’d seen the first one [Bridget Jones’s Diary] on repeat over the years at Christmas. I just thought it was joyous. Just sweet and cozy.
And now you’re playing her love interest.
Yeah, I play Roxster—when Bridget and her children get stuck up a tree on Hamstead Heath, a guy who works in the park, which is me, comes to save them. He and Bridget take a liking to each other and they go on a date and a relationship ensues.
We’re in a full-blown cultural moment for movies about relationships between an older woman and a much younger man. What do you think’s going on here?
Yeah, I don’t know! I mean, I think these relationships, the stories they’re been telling—they’re not new. I couldn’t tell you why it’s suddenly happening now, but I know that the best thing about it is reminding everyone that people are just people. We can connect on across planets and across genders—well, not planets, sorry, across the planet.
Any relationships in your life with an age gap approaching Bridget’s and Roxster’s?
Definitely not. But what’s so good about the film is that it’s lovely to see her have some joy because she’s grieving and she meets this young guy and he’s got the right intentions. I think it’s lovely.
Is there a woman outside of your family who you admired growing up?
Kate Winslet. When I was growing up, it was around the time of Titanic, and I just thought she was this wonderful actress who was also the coolest fucking woman on the planet.
Do you have a formative female movie character who sticks out in your memory?
Julia Roberts in Notting Hill. Again, just this unique charisma and warmth and that beaming smile. I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen that movie.
![leo woodall](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/ren-c3-a9e-zellweger-and-leo-woodall-attend-the-bridget-jones-news-photo-1738691445.pjpeg?resize=980:* ""Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy" World Premiere - Arrivals")
Zellweger and Woodall at the Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy world premiere.
Do you remember your first celebrity crush?
Vanessa Hudgens. I was into High School Musical and I was just completely in love with her. I must have been 10 or 11, maybe even younger, and I remember going to school and one of my mates said that he was in love with Vanessa, and we actually had a fight about it.
Wow! A fight over a girl who had no idea either of you existed! And sorry, it was about…which of you liked her more?
Yes, who liked her more. It was incredibly childish, but it was very serious.
Which female singer are you most likely to be caught singing aloud to?
I think Stevie Nicks? “Edge of Seventeen.”
Who is the woman in your life who taught you the most about women?
My mom and my sister. For my mom, it was always just about kindness—how you should treat people, let alone women. I feel very lucky that I had her to teach me just how to be a good man. And with my sister, she’s five years older than I am, so it was the more nitty-gritty dating advice, all the things you could get wrong as a bloke, how women think, stuff like that. She’s always been someone that can be brutally honest with me and tell me, “Okay, well, you fucked that up. I can see exactly why she feels that way.”
Do you have any stereotypically male habits that you’re courageous enough to confess?
So many that I have, not many that I want to confess to. My laundry situation isn’t great. I’ll just leave it at that.
What’s something about women that you envy?
Their emotional intelligence. I actually do pride myself on having emotional intelligence, but when I think about just how much smarter women tend to be—I think so many men, and myself included sometimes, we just don’t get it. Probably the thing I’ve learned most is how to listen properly. I think I’m a really good listener.
A version of this story appears in the March 2025 issue of ELLE.