Aw, the actor who played Ian auditioned for One Day because it’s his wife’s favourite book

Jonny Weldon almost didn’t even try out for the role of Ian in One Day and only turned up to the audition because it was based on his wife Lucy’s favourite book.

Jonny explained that he was hesitant to respond to his agent’s request that he look at the part because he was on vacay. However, when his wife discovered the opportunity, she was desperate for him to give it a go because of how much she adored David Nichols’ book. It has already inspired a 2011 film starring Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway. 

“The audition came through when I was on holiday with my wife,” he told Lorraine Kelly on her show Lorraine. “My agent said if you’re a bit busy, you’re on holiday, you can think about it. It was my wife who said, ‘What’s it for?’ and I said, ‘They’re doing David Nicholls’ One Day.

“She said, ‘You are auditioning for that, it is my favourite book!’ But I was on holiday, so I had to do a self-tape and get like 30 books from this hotel room and prop my phone and then had about 100 recalls and somehow got it.”

Jonny’s character is the stand-up comic that Emma Morley, played by Ambika Mod, gets engaged to. They meet and fall in love while they are both waiting tables at a Mexican restaurant. In the show, they bond over being creatives struggling to make it in their respective industries. One could say that Jonny becoming Ian was quite easy as he had a pool of comedic material to take from, like his many star turns in many pantos over the years that he has proudly documented on social media.

Panto opens TONIGHT. Expenses for £0.99 eyeliner sent to accountant.

Phrases like "oh it just needs an audience", "save it for the 10.30am shows" and "when do we get paid?" are being thrown around everywhere 🎭

Thanks @hatch_talent for the lovely flowers! #craft #livetowork pic.twitter.com/2Ligx7wrel

— Jonny Weldon (@jonnyweldon) December 8, 2023

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One Day is available to watch on Netflix now. For more like this and all the latest Netflix drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

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• One Day: Here is a side-by-side comparison of the cast of the film and the TV series