XO EDIT NO.1 MARCH 2014
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Gary Carr PHOTOGRAPHER: NATALIE J WATTS FASHION DIRECTOR: RACHEL HOLLAND GROOMING: LUCY PEARSON @ WAHL ARTISTS USING MAC STYLING ASSISTANT: DARIA MOS LOCATION: MERCURE LONDON BRIDGE
XO E DI T NO 1
WORDS BY: OLIVIA PINNOCK Actor, scriptwriter, director, musician, lyricist, charity co-founder… it’s no wonder Gary Carr has a packed diary. As we meet in a London hotel lobby, he’s furiously sending a work-related email and apologising profusely. He may be a busy guy, but Gary still has time for manners. In fact, he’s utterly charming the whole time I’m with him: jumping to his feet to order me another of the green teas he is sipping as I arrive, holding open doors and thanking me sincerely at the end of the interview. He smirks shyly when I read out some of the swooning tweets he received following his appearance as Jack Ross, Downton Abbey’s all-American, smooth talking jazz singer. “Yeah, people are sweet,” he giggles as I quote a fan saying “@iamgarycarr He can service me any day!”
The attention is understandable if you’re familiar with the character’s suave charms, snappy dress sense and silky smooth jazz vocals. He got the call to audition for the part whilst filming series 3 of BBC cop drama Death in Paradise, which returns in January, in the Caribbean. He filmed his audition in a friendly local’s back garden surrounded by dogs and chickens, not your typical Downton backdrop, but it seemed to work its magic on the producers. In person, 26-year-old Gary is incredibly modest about his part in ITV’s worldwide-sensation period drama and it’s quite clear that it is just a stepping stone for the many other projects under his belt.
As our conversation moves on to Gary’s music (his first love), the short film which he wrote and directed called Freedom Serenity and setting up his charity The Beautiful World Foundation, his passion for creating really comes through. It is this which inspires him to take on more and more work: “I’m a massive fan of ambitious people who go out and just want to make things happen… I think creativity and vision are my pulling factors [for working on a job].”
“Make it happen!” is a phrase that keeps popping up in conversation with Gary and it’s also his Twitter bio. He explains that it has