It has already been an eventful year for Jack Whitehall. In April, the actor and comedian married his partner of six years, the model Roxy Horner, at Euridge Manor in Wiltshire.
The occasion was attended by more than 100 guests, including James Corden and Jamie Redknapp, as well as the couple’s two-year-old daughter, Elsie, who made her presence known.
© Getty Images for Grand Prix De L"She ran in and interrupted it halfway through," says Jack, 37, in this exclusive interview with HELLO!. "It was very sweet. I was like: 'Do you want to go and sit back down?’ She went: 'No!’”
The ceremony also starred Jack and Roxy's dog, Coco, as their ring bearer, "with a little dress". Roxy's wedding band was mistakenly put on the wrong finger, although the error was rectified during the photographs. "It was sort of my fault," Jack says.
© Getty Images for Sony MusicIt's clear that the host of the Brit Awards is besotted with his daughter. "I'm such a walkover," he says. "Putty in her hands. She does this thing when I try to discipline her… she just stares at me and starts to crack a smile, and I can't keep a straight face. Then I start laughing and then she's like: ‘I've got you. You can't discipline me.’"
Family first
Elsie has also informed a new approach to Jack's work. "I used to say yes to everything," he says of how he balances his busy career with spending time with his daughter. "You just have to be a little bit more selective about the work you take on. You wait for the projects you really want."
His "wonderful" new film is just that. Following a string of high-profile acting roles in TV shows such as Malice, opposite David Duchovny, and The 'Burbs, with Keke Palmer, he has joined a star-studded cast in the independent production Virginia Woolf's Night and Day.
His co-stars include Jennifer Saunders, Timothy Spall and the Girl on the Train star Haley Bennett, and the singer Lily Allen also features, with the project having wrapped shortly before she recorded her recent hit album West End Girl.
"It was a very different experience to how I used to work with Lily, because I met her in other guises back in the day – at music-award shows and things like that," Jack says. "I got to interview her then, and this was obviously a very different environment, in which she's wonderful."
Jack describes the cast as a "really lovely alchemy of actors", singling out Timothy, who starred in the TV series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, as someone whose career he'd like to emulate.
"He can do anything. He started in situational comedy, he's an amazing dramatic actor, he can play vulnerable characters – he's got amazing range," he says. "He's also renowned for being the most wonderful person. He's just an exemplary professional actor and human."
Honeymoon plans
Having just returned from a “mini-moon” with Roxy, in which the couple took the Orient Express from Venice to Paris, Jack is preparing for another exciting break. "I went on three stag dos, so I think there has to be more than one honeymoon," he says.
© WireImageOf the three, which included a night at London's exclusive nightclub The Box, his favourite was a skiing trip. "That was fun. No memories at all – I have selective amnesia from that period – but the honeymoon was lovely."
Virginia Woolf's Night and Day is in UK and Irish cinemas from 19 June, released by Vue Lumière, following its world premiere at SXSW London
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