‘I have benefitted from systemic racism’: White Lines star Tom Rhys Harries discusses the Black Lives Matter movement and says ‘it’s an issue we need to sort out’
White Lines star Tom Rhys Harries who played Axel Collins in the Netflix drama has talked about ‘benefitting from systemic racism’.
He spoke to MR PORTER’s digital magazine, The Journal, about being vocal about his support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Instagram.
He said: ‘If I’m granted any kind of platform with the work that I do and anybody might want to engage with me, then it would be completely remiss of me to not speak about it because it is a white issue, I think, and as a white male I have benefitted from systemic racism.
‘I have benefitted from systemic racism’: White Lines star Tom Rhys Harries, who plays Axel Collins discussed the Black Lives Matter movement and said ‘it’s an issue we need to sort out’
‘It’s our issue, it’s the white community’s. We have to sort ourselves out.’
And on tackling the issue of white supremacy and white privilege, he said: ‘I just don’t think it’s going to go away, and it shouldn’t go away.
‘I was really keen to talk about it. Do you mind putting in the article that there’s a link in my [Instagram] bio to an anti-racism document, it’s pretty thorough. If people – white people – want to engage with that, it’s there.’
At the time of the interview, Tom said he had been inundating himself with the news following the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of the Minneapolis police and said: ‘It’s just f***ing mad, isn’t it.
‘It’s just so prevalent in my mind,’ he said. ‘I’ve found it hard to have conversations with people all last week without talking about it, because it’s huge.’
During the interview, Tom discussed who he felt the real villain was in White Lines, which is set on Ibiza in the ’90s.
He said: ‘They’re all quite tragic characters, aren’t they? But the worst? Probably Axel. I can say that reflectively because at the time I didn’t think he was the worst, but yeah probably him.’
And addressing the famous throwback scene in which his character pulled out his tooth, he denied that he had done it in real life, as quoted in Wales Online.
‘No! She’s misquoted me. I was doing a gag… I don’t think it’s British humour. It was just me not reading the room. But no, I didn’t pull my tooth out. The dental bill would have been so expensive!’
Tom said she enjoyed playing the controversial character.
“I found him really energising to play. He’s almost like a dream, he’s not real, he’s been recalled by different people. It’s like wearing lots of masks.’
To read The Journal on iPhone, iPad and Android, visit mrporter.com/journal/ or download the MR PORTER app, from the App Store and Google Play
