Jack Whitehall: ‘I’m playing a cult classic Tom Hanks role – we did something different’

Jack Whitehall took us all by surprise last year by playing a deranged, murderous male nanny in Amazon Prime Video’s Malice.

The actor and comedian, who was recently announced as Saturday Night Live UK’s newest host, showcased his ability to turn laughs into murderous death stares.

But now, following the release of Sky’s The ‘Burbs, which is a TV remake of Joe Dante’s 1989 classic dark comedy film starring Tom Hanks, the 37-year-old looks set to shock us all again in this tale of suburban paranoia.

Starring Keke Palmer as Samira, the wife of Jack’s character Rob Fisher, the Fresh Meat actor told Metro how challenging it was to step into the Forrest Gump actor’s shoes.

‘I sort of faintly remembered watching the movie as a teenager, but I had to revisit it,’ he tells me.

‘Watching it again, it holds up really well. It’s a cult classic and it’s a really fun Joe Dante movie with Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher, so there’s a level of expectation when you’re doing something that’s based on something as strong as that.

‘But what I really liked is that with the scripts they were taking the premise of the original movie, but trying to do something very different… it wasn’t just a retread of the original.’

Boasting Seth Macfarlane as an executive producer, the TV remake – much like its 1989 predecessor – delves into the dark secrets and suburban paranoia of a quiet cul-de-sac in the fictional neighbourhood of Hinkley Hills.

Created by Netflix’s Dead to Me writer Celeste Hughey, the updated storyline sees new mother Samira (Keke) and Rob Fisher (Jack) move back into Rob’s childhood home.

Bored by her new lifestyle, however, Samira becomes obsessed with a mysterious new neighbour who moves into a ‘murder house’ where a teenager disappeared 20 years ago.

Discussing what it was like to star alongside Keke, Jack adds that it was a ‘different’ experience seeing Keke improvise and comedically riff.

‘She was really such a wonderful scene partner and has this amazing attitude to life and to work, we built a quick rapport and chemistry between ourselves,’ he says.

Keke announced the birth of her first child in February 2023, just five months before Jack and his partner Roxy Horner also had a baby.

‘We’re sort of at similar stages of our lives, we were both new-ish parents and I was able to go with her when she was doing a comic riff or improvising,’ Jack tells me.

‘For me, it was slightly different because I was sort of playing the straight character in a lot of the scenes and there were bigger comedic energies around me, but I quite enjoy doing that sometimes as well.’

Central to the story are the racial tensions that can exist in small suburban communities like this, which Jack says was ‘integral’ to telling this story.

‘Keke and Celeste were really interesting when they spoke about this and how it never feels like it overwhelms everything and it’s not heavy handed, but you couldn’t tell that story without touching upon [race].

‘My character is British… [and he’s] an outsider in a very different way to how Samira will feel as an outsider. There’s a disparity between them and their experience of what it’s like to move to the suburbs.

‘I can empathise with her situation, but I’ll never fully be able to understand it, so I love how the series is able to deal with topics like that that… but it doesn’t ever get too heavy. There’s always a joke around the corner.’

Next on Jack’s agenda is hosting the UK version of Saturday Night Live next week, which has so far earned both widespread critical acclaim and cynicism from viewers yet to be convinced by its longevity.

Following on from this week’s celebrity host Riz Ahmed, Jack says it’s going to be even more difficult now that the ‘expectation is higher’.

‘I’m really looking forward to it, but it’s definitely a little bit more daunting now that the first two shows have come out and been a real success,’ he says.

To finish our conversation, I tell Jack that I’ve actually got some personal news of my own to share with him, which sends a shot of panic across his face.

After explaining that I recently proposed to my girlfriend as a shameless plug to ask about his recent star-studded stag-do with the likes of James Corden and Jamie Redknapp, he laughs, before confessing: ‘I did enjoy myself and some drink was taken.

‘I had a lot of fun and it was great to get all of my mates together and sort of forget that I was a parent for six or seven hours.’

Commenting on how his entire stag-do has been seen across the world after paparazzi photographers caught him and his friends in action, he says: ‘It’s actually quite useful… you get a rundown of what the itinerary was and I don’t think I would have remembered what we did.’

The ‘Burbs is available from April 1 on Sky and Streaming Service NOW.

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