He made his name playing insufferable toffs on British TV screens, but now Jack Whitehall is embracing a completely different role: that of a villainous, vengeful male nanny in Prime Video's new psychological thriller, Malice. "I've honestly been looking for the opportunity to do something like this and to get out of my lane and try something that's a little bit more challenging," the 37-year-old comedian and actor exclusively told HELLO!. "You don't want to just be playing the same part over and over again."
It's been nearly 15 years since Jack, who first made a name for himself on the comedy circuit, shot to fame as public school boy JP in Channel 4's Fresh Meat, and again as hapless teacher Alfie Wickers in the BBC sitcom Bad Education. His Hollywood big break came in 2021, when he starred alongside Emily Blunt and Dwayne 'The Rock’ Johnson in Disney blockbuster Jungle Cruise, and in Clifford the Big Red Dog that same year.
Off-screen, Jack is preparing to take on an even bigger role in 2026, when he marries his fiancée, Roxy Horner, a model from Essex. The couple, who live in a converted pub in West London's Notting Hill, welcomed their daughter, Elsie, in September 2023, before confirming their engagement in December the following year.
"Parenting is a new challenge and getting married is very exciting. I'm excited for the next chapter," said Jack, who is "loving" being a dad. Daughter Elsie will be a flower girl, Roxy, 34, told HELLO! earlier this year; "I want her to be my little double. She’ll have to run down the aisle."
Jack's villain role in Prime Video's Malice
Now, Jack stars opposite The X Files star David Duchovny and the Game of Thrones actress Carice van Houten in this new six-part thriller, which was filmed in Richmond, south-west London, and on the island of Paros in Greece. He plays Adam, a charismatic, psychotic tutor and "manny", who charms his way into the life of the wealthy Tanner family during a Greek holiday and secretly plots their downfall.
The role added extra insight for Jack, who was a new dad when he was preparing for the series and looking to hire a nanny for Elsie by the end of the shoot. "That was a weird process," he recalls. "Going to work and making this and then interviewing nannies. I was probably asking so many intense questions and talking to them about their childhood, what their relationships with their parents were like and bringing out the Rorschach [psychological] test. They were like, 'Is this really necessary?' I need to know everything,” he laughed.
"I've honestly been looking for the opportunity to do something like this and to get out of my lane."
While Malice is "exactly the type of genre" Jack wanted to try, it didn't come without its challenges. "Because the material was much darker, it's hard to be doing some of the unsavoury and more villainous aspects of the character and the bad things that he does. Then you've got to wash that off at the end of the day, go home and be a dad and a partner," said Jack, adding, "It was much easier to wrap a day's filming on Clifford the Big Red Dog and do bath time with my daughter. With this, there were definitely a few car journeys home where I had to just decompress a little bit."
There was also more physical preparation required for the part, including learning a Greek dance and getting in shape for shirtless scenes. "I'm used to playing characters that are sort of fools and all quite incompetent: falling over, dropping things and saying the wrong thing," said Jack, "For something like this, I had to be competent to do all of these different things, be physically in good shape, able to dance and flare cocktails, and cook and know about Greek mythology."
Jack's hopes for more serious roles and Christmas plans
Having managed to move away from playing "dimwitted toffs", Jack is looking forward to taking on more serious acting roles. "Maybe I could just get typecast as villains now," he joked. "I love comedy and I'm definitely not turning my back on ever doing it again. I'm sure I'll be doing more comedic roles in the future, but it's nice to mix it up and it’s always way more fun to play a villain than a good guy."
Before that, though, Jack is excited to spend the festive period with his family and is most looking forward to taking his daughter Elsie to see Santa Claus in what will hopefully be a happier visit than in previous years. "We've got photographs of her on Santa's knee, just screaming and absolutely terrified of him," said Jack. "I'm hoping this will be the year we finally get the picture of her smiling."
Malice is available on Prime Video now.
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