Mr Burton: Harry Lawtey on the privilege of portraying Richard Burton
The actor playing a young Richard Burton in a new biographical film has described how much of a privilege it was to take on such an "iconic" role. Harry Lawtey said he was aware of the pressure of being an Englishman portraying the "Welsh hero" in Mr Burton.He told Lucy Owen on BBC Radio Wales: "It was daunting, for sure."Trust me, it's certainly not lost on the gumption of some English lad turning up to play the quintessential Welsh hero, which he is."The film is about Burton's early life growing up in the Afan Valley, Neath Port Talbot, and has been released to mark the centenary of his birth.
The 28-year-old star of BBC drama Industry became fascinated with the Welsh Hollywood legend after watching a play about Burton's relationship with his director, Sir John Gielgud, in 2023. "It's probably one of my favourite plays I've ever seen. And I became sort of briefly obsessed with Richard Burton for a week or two after that," he said.Three weeks later he got the audition to play Burton on the big screen. Lawtey researched Burton's life by watching his back catalogue, reading biographies and "all of his diaries, which were just amazing, to get detail, information and kind of nuance about the guy".
Born in Oxford, Lawtey had to put on a Welsh accent and learn some Welsh. "We start the film with this strong Port Talbot accent and some Welsh language too, and over the course of the film he has to uncover this RP (received pronunciation) voice, we call it in the business, which is quite a well-spoken, proper, quite Anglified accent, really, that we've kind of come to recognise in Richard with those hints of Welshness in there as well," he said.
On learning to speak some Welsh lines, Lawtey said he felt almost "embarrassed" but had support from the Welsh speaking writer, producer and director. "Those are the ones that were giving me recordings that I could follow and kind of try to hone as best as I could," he said."You know, it really mattered to me, deeply, more than anything else, that aspect of the film felt as authentic and true and respected as possible, because it's so significant in Richard's story and his life."
Bafta-winning actor Toby Jones plays Burton's teacher who discovered his talent for acting. Lawtey said filming alongside Jones in Burton's home village of Pontrhydyfen was like a life-imitating-art experience. "This film is a story of mentorship, I suppose, and if you speak to any actor worth their salt, they'll have had many people over their careers who kind of given them something of themselves and kind of push them on their way. And Toby certainly represents that for me."
Mr Burton, produced by Severn Screen, BBC Wales and Ffilm Cymru Wales, was released in UK cinemas on 4 April 2025.
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