Kyle Soller

Syril Karn wants order and recognition in Andor (2022), and Kyle Soller makes his insecurity as interesting as his ambition. The Imperial functionary could be merely a useful obstacle; Soller gives us reasons to keep wondering about him. His strength is the attention he gives to men who are troubled by their own standing. We recommend him for that patient work, particularly in ensembles where a supporting character can otherwise disappear between appearances.

His early screen work included Korsunsky in Anna Karenina (2012), but Poldark (2015) provides a clearer account of what he brings to a programme. As Francis Poldark, the insecure, troubled cousin, he has to find space in a romance firmly organised around Aidan Turner’s Ross. We enjoyed the departures from Ross because Soller gave Francis enough personality to make us interested in somebody else. Alongside Eleanor Tomlinson’s Demelza and Jack Farthing’s George Warleggan, he helps the romantic complications hold our attention. The reservation is with the programme: its other characters can still seem to be competing for whatever attention Ross leaves over.

The stage has given him more space, notably as Eric Glass in The Inheritance (2018). With Stephen Daldry directing Matthew Lopez’s two-part play, he had a leading role to sustain. Those opportunities matter: the anxious supporting part need not be the only thing he gets asked to do. Bodies (2023) also gives him a television lead, as the Victorian detective Alfred Hillinghead.

Writer and showrunner Tony Gilroy’s Andor gives Soller’s concern with insecurity a particularly good setting. The programme takes ordinary lives under the Empire seriously, allowing an ambitious functionary to be worth following alongside the central story. Its opening takes too long to settle, but the patience pays off in people worth caring about. Start there for Soller, and resist judging the whole programme by how quickly it gets going.