Breakthrough alum Paapa Essiedu on creating character authenticity

As an actor, Paapa Essiedu has never shied away from playing complex characters. He was the first black actor to play Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2016, and in 2021 was nominated for numerous awards for his role as a young gay man processing the trauma of sexual assault in I May Destroy You. Now, Essiedu has taken on the role of a conflicted Catholic priest confronting what falling in love with a nun means for his vows in new Channel 4 drama Falling.

Essiedu, who was named a BAFTA Breakthrough in 2018 after a string of early TV roles in series like Press, The Miniaturist and Kiri shared his experience of taking on this new role as part of a special preview screening at BAFTA 195 Piccadilly in May.

• Entries for the 2026 BAFTA Breakthrough programme, supported by Netflix, are open until 19 June so get your applications and recommendations in now.

Find out what he has to say about playing a priest and his commitment to learning British Sign Language (BSL) to ensure an authentic portrayal of the relationship between his character and his sister …

In Falling Essiedu’s priest has to navigate how his growing feelings fit with his faith. For the actor the role gave him a chance to think about his own relationship to the church from growing up, all be it in an Anglican church not a Catholic one.

He explains: “I had a fairly decent kind of grounding in the world of Christianity but from a congregant’s perspective. It’s a whole different kettle of fish when you’re talking about the responsibility and the knowledge and the position of being a priest.”

In preparing for the role Essiedu spent time with real priests who he describes as “generous with their time and attention”. And in particular, the actor says he was welcomed in by a priest in Cardiff who was a” very modern man who was connected to the modern world in a way that I find incredibly inspiring and he helped me along the way.”

So, what does he takeaway from the experience of making Falling in terms of love and faith? He says: “I find a line in the first episode really moving, it’s about the relationship between faith and doubt. There is no faith without doubt right and to me that feels like something deeply, deeply human. Faith in whatever you’re talking about. It could be faith in God, but I think a lot of this show is about faith in love and in love in all its different forms; romantic love, sibling love, love between a religious leader and their flock – whatever. But the idea of perfection in the imperfection that’s something I find really moving and it makes me think about the journey towards falling in love with somebody rather than just obsession as a result of it.”

Aside from the romantic and spiritual relationships at the heart of Falling another core dynamic is that between Essiedu’s priest and his deaf sister Susan. It is a relationship portrayal that the actor is immensely proud of, and he thanks director Jack Thorne for giving him “the opportunity to create a relationship which I feel is not shown on mainstream TV anywhere near regularly enough.”

Taking the time to learn BSL in order to authentically show the relationship also led to a stronger bond between Essiedu and his co-star Sophie Stone. He explains: “For me it was about finding an intimacy and a history between two people, between two siblings. The way they are together is the way they speak with each other, the way they use language with each other, and it’s one of the relationships that I’ve had the opportunity to explore in my whole career that I’ve enjoyed the most and actually felt the closest.

“I think you can trick yourself into thinking that if you don’t have a command of the language [it] is something that can provide a distancing effect. But actually, it brought us closer and it brought the characters closer and you’ll see in the show the characters are foundational for each other and that foundation is built on their history and the way they speak with each other. So, it was a huge privilege to even have a nanosecond of time to be able to invest in that”

Stone herself praises Essiedu’s commitment saying: “Honestly this guy worked so hard, every day whether it was through zoom or facetime with each other, he worked with a team of deaf people for months before we began filming. BSL includes facial expressions and all sorts of things happening and so it’s very expressive, very emotionally connected and almost spiritual experience I would say…

“Quite a lot of people feel embarrassed about expressing or making sounds and being fully involved in the language, Paapa didn’t. He embraced it, enjoyed it and was part of the deaf community and it mattered to him, he wanted it to not just look good, but he wanted it to be clear for our relationship to be authentic. So, everything mattered and because it mattered to him it meant that our relationship outside of work was deeper because I could introduce him to friends and let him be a part of the world.”

Falling will air from 19 May on Channel 4.

At BAFTA we are committed to supporting creative Film, Games and TV talent and one way we do this is through our Learning, Inclusion and Talent programmes. Paapa Essiedu was a member of BAFTA’s 2018 Breakthrough cohort – our flagship programme showcasing and helping accelerate the careers of the next generation, and part of our charity’s vision that people from all backgrounds will have opportunities to thrive in the screen industries. Entries for the 2026 BAFTA Breakthrough programme, supported by Netflix, are open until 19 June so get your applications and recommendations in now.