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Not that it came as a surprise. Just hours earlier, when we sat down with Alex to discuss two of his exciting upcoming projects – the tender, introspective film A Night Like This and the emotionally charged West End revival of This Bitter Earth – he was as thoughtful, open, and quietly magnetic as we’d hoped.

In A Night Like This, Lincoln plays Oliver, a man who meets Lucas (Jack Brett Anderson) on a night out in London. What begins as a casual encounter slowly evolves into something deeper. Not a romance rooted in desire, but one of those emotionally raw connections between two strangers.

“In London, it so rarely happens that you meet someone unless there’s a sexual attraction, or it’s in the context of clubbing or a bar or something,” Alex explains. “Although that is where Oliver and Lucas first meet, there’s no electric sexual thing with them. It’s so rare for people to strike up a friendship. I think that’s quite sad, because it’s such a beautiful aspect of being a human being, to allow yourself to be so vulnerable that you let someone in, and they see you, and you both see each other.”

Set over the course of a single night, the film follows Oliver and Lucas as they walk the streets of London, exploring both the city and each other’s minds. “Lucas has heard about this study of the amount of hours you spend with someone, kind of creating a bond – a friendship, or a relationship, or whatever,” Alex explains. “And so we basically decide that up until 7 or 8 am, where he goes to do his shift at a coffee house, we just go –  this is our night, and we’re gonna explore, find out, walk around London and discover more about each other.”

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While the concept may sound a little like a queer When Harry Met Sally, Alex is quick to clarify. “Well, Oliver is not gay, per se. He’s not even necessarily bi. He and Lucas are drawn to each other because they see in each other that they are both broken in some way,” he says. “At one point, my character says, ‘Look, I’m going through some stuff, and it looks like you are too,’ and so they form a deeper connection.”

Instead of focusing the narrative on sexuality, A Night Like This is more concerned with human connection in its purest form. “I think sometimes there’s a performative nature to the masks that we wear and put on,” Alex says. “And with my character Oliver, that’s very much where he is. He’s never really felt this love connection in his family life, or maybe even in relationships. And so there’s this performative aspect to him – this bravado, this charisma.”

Shedding this emotional armour is at the heart of the story. “What’s nice about it is that it’s like a form of therapy, in the way that your therapist has no bearing on the rest of your life,” Alex says. “These two broken people find themselves seen in one another and then allow themselves to grow a little bit. It’s lovely.”

It’s a message that feels especially timely. In an age where people are more likely to reach for their phones than strike up a conversation, the genuine connection seems so rare. “We all spend too much time on our phones,” Alex reflects. “Like on the tube, or at a party where you might not know anyone, so you’re left to your own devices and you go, ‘I’ll just scroll’ – and it cuts you off immediately. No one’s going to approach you if you’re on your phone. In fact, it’s the best mask we have in this modern world. A barrier. I try to shut off my phone as much as possible now. I don’t always, because it’s a link to everything. But there are limits. I do think we’re losing the human connection aspect in many walks of life. And I think that’s what this film’s really about.”

Here, in this intimate interview with Principle, Lincoln opens up about working with the flamboyant Billy Porter, recalls some near-death experiences, explains his need to escape the noise of everyday life, and why he believes the world might be a better place if we all just talked more and judged less.

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A Night Like This is about forging an emotional bond. You must meet people when filming on set and bond straight away. Does that happen a lot?

It depends. Like, with the first film that I ever did – As I Am – me and the cast stayed in a house in the countryside for like two months. It was all our first film, and we all loved it. We’re all still friends. I’m friends with people from different jobs and things, which is such a beautiful thing to have. But sometimes, you work on a production, and you bond deeply with people, but when you finish the job and it’s just sort of like, “Oh… I’ll see you.” So Jack, for example, we got on so well. It was amazing to work together. We really bonded. But I hadn’t seen him in maybe nine months until we met again at the premiere.

Are you the kind of person who cultivates a really good circle of friends?

I think I’ve got quite a few friends in different walks. I went to university in Swansea, so I’ve got all of those guys who live in Wales, and then my friends from home as well. I have friends from different areas of life, some from times when I maybe wasn’t exactly the same person anymore. But I think to lose that connection is quite a sad thing. So I’ve got lots of friends from different places, walks of life. I feel like, for the most part, they’d get on fairly well. But who knows? There are some volatile ones.

So tell us about This Bitter Earth.

I’m so excited about it. It’s a really beautiful play written by Harrison David Rivers, directed by Billy Porter, and co-starring Omari Douglas. The play follows an interracial couple and is essentially about activism and what it means to come from a white background and get involved in that. My character really wants to get involved in protest, marching, all of that, while his partner is quite removed from it and doesn’t really want to get involved. The conversation becomes: Why? What does that mean? And it touches on the racial dynamics between them.

Fascinating.

It is. Even in the rehearsal space, just during the reading, I had so many conversations about race and what that means that I haven’t really had before. I’ve had them with friends, but not in this way. Billy created a really open discussion space to delve into it.

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So, what is Omari’s character’s take?

My character is all about going out and doing things, and he doesn’t understand why his partner won’t. But Omari’s character tells him, “I live this every day.” There’s an element of white guilt with it as well – my character’s privileged, trust-fund vibes. And there’s disillusionment from Omari’s character in response to that.

Working with Billy Porter must be exciting.

He’s incredible. The space he creates for his actors to perform in is amazing. He’s got such a clear vision and is incredible at articulating what we’re experiencing in the play, and from his own background, he brings that into the piece. It’s amazing to watch.  

We like to imagine him sweeping into rehearsal clad in a swirling cape and flamboyant hat.

Honestly, he doesn’t turn it off. He’s so elegant the entire time. When we did the press launch, I wore a jumper under a jacket and looked so boxy in my denim. And then there’s Billy, looking radiant. And Omari, too. I was like, “Oh god, this is the vibe of the play.”

I’m sure you looked lovely in your boxy denim. But in the poster, you’re shirtless – that’ll appeal to the audience!

That ticks a box, I guess. I’m so excited about it.

You’re obviously best known for your time on Emmerdale. What did working on a juggernaut soap teach you?

So much. Mainly line learning was the biggest thing. You film so much more than anything else. Most jobs are two or three scenes a day. On Emmerdale, you’d sometimes do 16 to 18. There’s a kind of efficiency, they know how they’re going to shoot it. They know what they’re doing. The whole factory feel of the show, the way it all comes together, the scripts, the production team, it’s amazing. As a new actor, it was nerve-wracking, but now I’d be fine. Back then, it was three cameras, I’d only worked with one before, and they’re sort of all on you. It’s like, stand there, don’t move, drop the light, just say your lines. You’re like, “Oh my God, what’s going on?” So it’s very technical in that way, which, for indie film, you don’t really get as much.

You left after two and a half years. Was that about you not wanting to get stuck in that kind of rut?

When you’re in a soap, it films all year round. It’s not seasonal. If it were seven months out of the year and then you had the rest to go off and do other stuff, then I think I might have stayed in it much longer. But you can’t do any of that. There is also an element of, “Oh, I don’t want to only be seen as this thing.” Especially if it’s your first thing. I wanted to leave just because I never want to, at the end of my life, think, “What if?” You know? It’s so important.

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Starring in such a high-profile show like Emmerdale must have been quite an experience, bearing in mind it is watched by so many loyal viewers.

I remember the first time it aired, I was staying at a hotel where I’d watched my first episode. The next morning, I went down to the foyer, hungover, to the coffee machine in the lobby, because there wasn’t one in the hotel room, and then I heard this massive scream behind me. I turn around and this excitable woman is screaming,  “Oh my God, oh my God, it’s Jamie! It’s Jamie!” And I was like, “Jesus!”

After one night?

Literally the first night. People love shows like Emmerdale. The audience are so engrossed in it. It’s such a beautiful experience because they tackle storylines that are interesting, things other places maybe can’t tackle as much, or at least not with that kind of reach. My aunt loved that I was in it,  because she used to watch it all the time. She never used to talk about me before that, and would tell her friends, “Oh, he’s an actor or whatever.” But as soon as I got Emmerdale, it was like, “Oh my God, he’s in Emmerdale!”

She must have been furious when you left.

She was a bit, actually. I’m still not in the good books, but hopefully I can at some point.

Your rugby drama, In From The Side, was so well received.

I got long-listed for a BIFA, which was amazing. When we were shooting it, me, Matt Carter (the director and co-writer), Adam Silver (co-writer), and Alex King (co-star), we all spoke regularly, and there are rumblings of things potentially happening, but we don’t know yet. But when shooting it, it was just this lower-budget indie film. I loved the subject matter, and I used to play rugby, so that was part of the fun too. But I really didn’t think it would have the impact. So what’s so beautiful now is that people still get in touch, either saying how much they loved it or how it helped them come out, which is honestly an incredible thing. I’ll never get over that. The idea that you’ve had some part in someone being able to or feeling like they can come out, that’s beautiful. But also, it’s about the inclusivity of sport. Sport can be a massive wound for a lot of the community, especially football. It’s very straight. I think the film delves into how there are spaces for people of all walks of life. That’s really lovely.

The rugby world has always seemed to be really relaxed about sexuality.  

There’s a real culture in rugby – at least from my part – where it was always about you as a person. It was like, how hard can you hit? It didn’t matter your sexuality. I mean, growing up, I wasn’t straight, and I love that about my journey and myself. But growing up in that rugby world, it always felt really inclusive. It really didn’t matter.

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In From The Side was embraced by so many people, not just LGBTQ audiences.

I feel like while there is a world in which we need representation and there needs to be cinema for specific groups, I don’t think we should close off those stories to everyone. If it feels natural to the characters, then that’s what it is. But there’s this constant dissecting of everything, who should play what, what’s allowed… I just feel like that takes away from what we’re trying to do, which is to relate to humans on a bigger level. These are stories that happen to humans, everywhere, from different backgrounds. Rather than saying, “This is your cinema, this is your story…”

People do seem so obsessed with creating divisions and labelling themselves when once we were keen not to be. Why are people so obsessed with being seen as part of a specific group?

I find it fascinating. I think it’s to do with globalisation. These days, it’s so easy to talk to anyone across the world, and humans, that I think people feel lost in this massive, interconnected world. And so we’re all trying to say, “Well, no, I’m an individual! I am this, I’m that, I belong to this clique.” It’s great to have your community, your people. But it’s become, “You picked your community, stay in it. Don’t move.” And I’m not just talking about sexuality, but once you’re in something, you’re not allowed to move out of it. And I just think that’s silly. We’re all stuck in our cliques, like it’s high school, and no one can talk to anyone else. Discussions aren’t happening. And we’re never going to move forward.

And that creates a very broken world. Without proper discussion, how can we ever really understand each other?

I think the idea of discussion has disappeared.  Everything’s black and white now, but the world just isn’t. I find myself increasingly living in the grey. A lot of people I speak to – inside and outside the community – feel like they’re in the grey too. But you feel like you can’t say certain things, for fear of being labelled. And then you’re cast aside. You’re not part of this group or that one. And I just think, if we can’t talk to each other, we’re never going to grow or heal as a population.

It’s interesting, in the recent series of Celebrity Big Brother, Jojo got upset by an offensive comment made by actor Mickey Rourke. But instead of demonising him, Jojo and he had an adult conversation about what had happened and were able to move on. At the same time, drag queen Danny Beard surprised himself by forging a very unlikely friendship with former Tory politician Michael Fabricant. It just goes to show that just because people can be so different from one another, it doesn’t mean they can’t meet somewhere in the middle.

That’s what we should be doing. If someone says something that offends you, it doesn’t automatically mean you’re right just because you’re offended. But it does mean you can have a conversation. Tell them how you feel. Whether it’s about sexuality, identity, it starts with a conversation. I feel like we’ve moved away from that. But that used to be normal. We used to just talk.

Why do you think that’s changed?

I don’t know. Human connection is important, it can transcend politics, taste in music, whatever. There’s just a lovely human connection. That’s why I think comedy is so good. Because you can laugh with someone, no matter their politics, sexuality, or whatever. You share a joke, and you’re just people. We need to get back to that. I don’t know how we do it. I don’t know how we heal.

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By encouraging people to actually talk. The problems mostly come from online, where statements are made, where words can be misinterpreted so easily, and where there’s no opportunity for real conversations like this.

That’s true. It’s easy to interpret a message is passive-aggressive when it isn’t. It all gets misconstrued. Sometimes, it’s other people who can blow things out of proportion. To use the Big Brother example, Jojo and Mickey may have had a moment of conflict, discussed it, and moved on, but then others can blow it up into something more. It’s mesmerizing to watch, but it’s terrifying.

Sometimes there’s more to why people say or do things, but some people just see black and white.

We’ve all seen someone do something stupid and think, “What are you doing?” But you have no idea what that person’s going through that day. I’m not saying you should give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but to a degree, you should. It’s not always possible to, but there’s always something going on.  And you can’t justify behaviour sometimes, but you can understand behaviour.

It’s refreshing for someone in the public eye to have such a balanced outlook on life.

Well, it’s lovely to have a frank conversation like this about that. Because sometimes interviews can be just surface-level. People don’t want to talk about that, which I find really fascinating because we’re not even saying anything controversial. We’re basically just saying: “Everyone should talk more.”   

Away from acting, you seem to enjoy life well away from cameras. From what we can see from your Instagram feed, you like to travel and you have a wicked sense of humour.

I’ve always loved traveling. It’s always been a part of me. I don’t want to get to the end of my life and think, “What if?”  There was a guy I met at a wedding who was, maybe, 65. We were chatting about travel, and he asked me if I had been to New Zealand. I hadn’t, and he said, “You should go, it’s amazing.” He said he and his wife went when they were 20, and they planned to climb a particular mountain after retirement.  I asked him, “Amazing, how was it?”  and he said, “We couldn’t do it. My knee doesn’t work.” I thought, wow. That’s such a sad indictment of what we do. We work ourselves to the bone, our knees break, and then we’re supposed to finally start living? My father passed away before he could use his retirement or pension. I’m not saying that’ll happen to everyone, but it really shaped my perspective. He grafted his whole life to get to that point, and he never got to fully enjoy it. That really scares me. So with travelling, I just want to go out and see and do as much as I can. I love it. When I was in Australia, I was washing in sinks at petrol stations, lakes, streams, and waterfalls. I loved it. I was on my own for like 15 days. The weather wasn’t great on the coast, so I went inland, towards the desert a bit. I slept in a national park with wallabies, kangaroos, and wombats everywhere. It was amazing.

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Travelling alone is quite the challenge. You must enjoy your own company.

I really like being on my own. My first hike in Australia, I was on my own, wearing a vest, had a butter sandwich in my bag… That’s all I had. Just bread and butter. I hadn’t looked up what was poisonous yet, like spiders, snakes and I had no sting gear and barely any water. It was a four-hour hike. By the end, I’d already had some run-ins with snakes. All turned out completely fine, they weren’t venomous. But I didn’t know that at the time. I also got leeches on me, which really put my back up and made me anxious. Anyway, I got to the furthest point and was walking along when suddenly a tree brushed against me. I felt this pain down my arm and saw two bite marks. I immediately thought, “spider,” and panicked. The time it took me to go from that panic to, “Well, I guess I’m going to die” was about 20 seconds. I knew that if it had been something really bad, I’d lose motor function within 40 minutes. So calmly, I just sat on a log, ate my butter sandwich, and waited to go. My arm was throbbing, and noticed that I had what looked like three bites, which I thought was weird because how could three spiders have bitten me in that short time? Time passed, and was I was still awake, so I headed back to my auntie’s place a few miles away and told her about it. She asked which mountain I’d been to, and then said, “Oh, okay.” Turned out I’d been stung by the cousin of a stinging nettle. So I genuinely thought I was dying, or for a solid 10 minutes, I just sat there.  It was a moment where I was genuinely resigned to death. Not in a dramatic way, but just like, “Ah, if it happens, okay.” Now I just want my innings to be good. I want to be like, “What am I doing at this point? That’s great. That’s amazing.” I can die here.

You sound like quite a mystical person?

I don’t know if I believe in “elsewhere,” but I believe in energy, for sure. I like the idea that we are the cosmos looking at itself.  And then we die, and our energy gets used in something else. Eventually, the planet will be destroyed, and we’ll be floating energy again. Brian Cox talks about someone asking him, “What’s the meaning of the universe?” And he says, “What more do you want? You are the universe – particles shooting across the stars – and you get to be a human being, looking at itself, experiencing everything from your perspective.” Then you die, and you go back to being particles. I love that – it’s the idea that we give ourselves meaning. There’s no external meaning.  I love him. He’s got such enthusiasm and passion.  Someone can be passionate about spoons, and if they’re really into it, I’m in.

You seem really laid-back, but clearly someone who gets things done. Are you highly ambitious?  

Depends, really. Right now, career-wise, I’ve been pushing things I’m writing, trying to get projects going. So yeah, ambitious in that way. There are lots of stories I want to tell, lots of characters I want to play. But in life, I’m very laid back. I don’t plan anything. That sort of inhibits the business side of things, because I haven’t got a structured plan. But there are moments I hyper-focus and really push things. Some days I’m laser-focused, working toward a goal. Others, especially after finishing a role, I just need to switch off for a while. Even if the role was playing a dead body or a tree! I’ll just sit for a couple of weeks and do nothing.

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It’s a competitive industry. Do you feel pressure to be more “on it”? Especially when you see your peers popping up in every new show? Do you ever think, “Why did he get that role and not me?”

Constantly. Especially in the last few years, I’ve been going up for bigger roles, getting close, but not quite. And you start imagining your life if you’d gotten it. You’re told not to, but you do.  And there are a few actors who always seem to get it, and I’m like, “Oh, come on…”

Have you missed out on anything you really wanted?

There was a new James Norton show about William the Conqueror called King & Conqueror. It’s a period of history I love. The way England became what it is, that era is fascinating. And I’ve got no period drama credits. I’d love to be able to wield a sword, really. Maybe I should just do the training and hope for the best.

Landing that breakthrough moment can come after years of grafting, can’t it. Some people assume Jonathan Bailey was an overnight success after Wicked, when actually he’s been doing this for like 20 years. Are you somebody who is impatient for those big crossover roles?

I’ve never done any of this for the fame or anything like that. But I’d love to land that role that sort of takes you from, “Oh God, when’s the next job coming in” to “Oh, well, I’ve got like three offers in. I’ll pick one.” Everyone wants that, just some security.  It’s always a funny thing when people say someone is an overnight success because you know, they’ve been working for years to get to that stage. There are a few who just come into it, which is amazing and I’m always jealous of those people. 

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But you’ve done brilliantly. Emmerdale was your first big role, which is a great start.  

But then there’s always the element of I wish I had started. But you can’t fight with your past self, and you can’t do anything about your future, so you may as well just be in the moment with it. And that’s what I’m trying to do more.  

‘This Bitter Earth’ runs at Soho Theatre from Wednesday 18th June until Saturday 26th July 2025.

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