Why Hayley From Love Wedding Repeat Looks So Familiar
There's never a wrong time to fall in love with a new rom-com, and that's exactly what Netflix subscribers did when the streamer dropped its latest affection-centric flick, Love Wedding Repeat, on April 10, 2020. Written and directed by Dean Craig in his feature directorial debut, Love Wedding Repeat is the Americanized remake of the French film Plan de Table, and follows a man named Jack as his goal to make his sister's wedding day a total fairytale gets thrown off course by a long-lost love, an ex, and a load of other unforeseen troubles. The flick unravels different versions of the big day, and offers Jack a shot at happiness in the end.
Though Sam Claflin's Jack is the focus of Love Wedding Repeat, right beside him is his on-screen sister, Hayley. With her striking ginger locks and piercing blue eyes, there's something about the actress who portrays Hayley that feels incredibly familiar. Her name? Eleanor Tomlinson, a talented and experienced actress whom you've certainly seen before.
Eleanor Tomlinson's big break came via Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
Young lasses and lads whose adolescent years played out in the late 2000s will remember Eleanor Tomlinson from one of her earliest roles — her big break, in fact. After appearing in 2005's Falling, 2006's The Illusionist, and 2007's Einstein and Eddington, Tomlinson scored the role of Jas in the 2008 British-American teen rom-com Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.
Co-written and directed by Gurinder Chadha, the flick found Tomlinson acting opposite Georgia Groome as the main character, 14-year-old Georgia Nicholson. The two fall in love with fraternal twins Robbie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Tom Jennings (Sean Bourke), with Georgia struggling to catch Robbie's attention and keep his on-again-off-again girlfriend — and her personal rival — Lindsay (Kimberley Nixon) from interfering in their budding romance.
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging put Tomlinson's name on the map both in the U.K. and the U.S. — and chances are that to this day, many can't think of her without remembering pencil tests, cats on leashes, and the oh-so-quotable declaration, "I'm having a nervy bee."
Eleanor Tomlinson went to Wonderland, played a princess, and met the White Queen
As Eleanor Tomlinson matured, she took on some more diverse roles. In 2010, she appeared in director Tim Burton's reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, playing Fiona Chattaway, one-half of a sister duo who take pride and pleasure in gossiping about others and teasing them for their misfortunes. (Funnily enough, Tomlinson's on-screen sibling was another Eleanor — Eleanor Gecks, who played Faith Chattaway.)
2013 saw Tomlinson portraying Princess Isabelle in Jack the Giant Slayer, Bryan Singer's fantasy adventure film that features Dark Phoenix actor Nicholas Hoult as the titular Jack and Ewan McGregor as Elmont, a king's guard captain who aids Jack on his quest to rescue Isabelle from giants. Later that year, Tomlinson was seen as Isabel Neville, Duchess of Clarence on the BBC historical drama miniseries The White Queen, an adaptation of three books in Philippa Gregory's The Cousins' War historical novel collection (those being The White Queen, The Red Queen, and The Kingmaker's Daughter). The White Queen was the first in a trilogy of TV series, each translating one of Gregory's works; The White Princess and The Spanish Princess followed The White Queen, but Tomlinson appeared on neither.
Eleanor Tomlinson has been in a number of novel adaptations
The White Queen is hardly the only novel adaptation of which Eleanor Tomlinson has been a part. Taking a look at the 27-year-old actress' resume, one might find that she has something of a penchant for picking parts in page-to-screen translations.
Following her turn on The White Queen, Tomlinson played Georgiana Darcy, the sister of Fitzwilliam Darcy, on Death Comes to Pemberley. The three-part series adapts the novel of the same name by P.D. James, which itself is based upon the characters of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's classic novel of manners published in 1813. Thereafter, the actress took on the role of Alice Cunningham on The Labours of Hercules, the last installment in the decades-spanning crime drama Agatha Christie's Poirot. The 13th season of the series, The Labours of Hercules adapted Christie's 1947 collection of the same name. Tomlinson's Alice is a psychology practitioner who butts heads with renowned detective Hercule Poirot — and who harbors a sinister secret.
The actress also played Mary Durrant on the three-part BBC drama Ordeal by Innocence. An adaptation of another Agatha Christie's novel, Ordeal by Innocence revolves around the murder of Heiress Rachel Argyll (Anna Chancellor) and the twisty mystery surrounding the true identity of her killer.
Most recently, Tomlinson starred as Amy on The War of the Worlds, an adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells sci-fi novel that deals with a sudden Martian invasion. The series, set in Edwardian England, follows Amy and her husband George (Rafe Spall) as they face the alien invasion and fight against an unstoppable enemy.
You probably recognize Eleanor Tomlinson from Poldark
Eleanor Tomlinson's longest-running television role to date — and the one most know her for — was as Demelza Poldark on the BBC historical drama series Poldark, yet another adaptation of a novel. This time around, Tomlinson found herself in the center of the world that writer and producer Debbie Horsfield adapted for television from the Winston Graham-penned novel collection of the same name.
Premiering in March 2015, Poldark begins in the year 1783, and sees Captain Ross Vennor Poldark (The Hobbit franchise's Aidan Turner) returning home to Cornwall, England after serving three years in the army during the American War of Independence. The life that Captain Ross left behind has changed completely: his father is dead, he's practically destitute now that his estate is in shambles and he's racked up enormous debt, and, to top it all off, he no longer has a chance at marrying his longtime love Elizabeth (Heida Reed), as she's gotten engaged to Ross' cousin.
Things take a turn when Ross meets Demelza, whom he initially employs as a maid and later falls in love with. After their 1787 wedding, Poldark focuses on the couple's lives and their growing family.
The series earned rave reviews from critics and excellent feedback from fans (season 3 even landed a perfect 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and though it wrapped with its fifth season in August 2019, Poldark (and Tomlinson's performance on it) won't soon be forgotten.
Eleanor Tomlinson's voice is also familiar
If you watched Love Wedding Repeat and felt that you'd heard Hayley's voice before, you probably recognize it from Loving Vincent or Squadron 42.
In Loving Vincent, the first-ever fully painted animated film which centers around the life and death of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, Tomlinson provided her voice to Adeline Ravoux, a girl whom van Gogh had painted. (She's the subject of the 1890 work Portrait of Adeline Ravoux.) Adeline's father, Arthur-Gustave Ravoux, owned an inn where van Gogh stayed; in July 1890, the girl witnessed van Gogh returning to the inn after he had shot himself, an act that ended his life two days later.
Squadron 42 is about as different from Loving Vincent as it gets, but Tomlinson's voice-acting work was just as stellar in it. A single-player video game that's part of the Star Citizen universe, Squadron 42 has been described as the "true spiritual successor to Wing Commander," Origin Systems' space combat simulation game that spawned an entire media franchise. In Squadron 42, Tomlinson voices Advocacy Special Agent-in-Charge Rebecca Trejo.
Eleanor Tomlinson dazzled in Colette
In recent years, Eleanor Tomlinson has continued to impress on the silver screen — most notably in the 2018 biographical drama Colette.
Starring Keira Knightley as the titular character, the film centers around Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, a French author, mime, actress, and Nobel Prize in Literature recipient. Following her wedding to a writer mononymously known as Willy (Dominic West), Colette ghostwrites a novel for him. It soon becomes the hottest topic in France, particularly the cushy Paris. But as the increasingly popular Claudine à l'école, the semi-autobiographical novel that Colette injected with her own life experiences, pushes Willy and Colette to create more novels in the Claudine collection, it becomes difficult for Colette to maintain creative ownership over her work. Thus, she begins challenging the status quo of gender, sexuality, fashion, and literature. In the film, Tomlinson portrays Georgie Raoul-Duval, an American debutante with whom Colette has an affair.
It's plain to see that Eleanor Tomlinson is a formidable, dynamic force in the acting world — and it's only up for her from here. Fans can next spot her as a singer named Mary Brighton on The Nevers, a sci-fi drama series created by Joss Whedon that's set to premiere on HBO in 2021.