Tom Mison had the biggest break last year when he starred on Fox’s hit show Sleepy Hollow. Mr. Mison has brought to life the iconic character of Ichabod Crane in a very interesting way. Tom’s portrayal of the show’s lead character is one of the keys why Sleepy Hollow is so successful. He brings lightheartedness to a dark show full of death, mystery, and monsters. He is what you call an ice breaker, an opening for a moment where we could laugh at how Crane operates and moves in the present world. It doesn’t matter if they just faced a headless man riding an apocalyptic horse, give Ichabod Crane a cup of water and he will flip out over the fact that it wasn’t free.
One of the most memorable scenes in the show is the time when Crane talked about his love story to Yolanda, a voice of a vehicle’s OnStar emergency and navigation system. “It’s so nice,” Mison said. “that even when he’s at his most cantankerous and grumpy and proud, there’s still an innocence to him. Talking to somebody in the car, nobody needs that, but he’s not going to be dismissive about it. He’s going to have a really nice chat with her.”
Mison continued by saying “I really love Yolanda, the lady featured. I’d love it if he could call and get advice, particularly emotional advice.”
As entertained as I am with the plight of Crane’s everyday life, Tom Mison says that he has a very different experience with the character. “Ichabod is the hardest part I’ve played,” says Mison. “There’s so much that we need to balance with him. To slightly veer in any one direction a little too much, and it will collapse.”
For me, whatever he’s doing, I hope he keeps it up. It’s very seldom that we see lead characters being the most interesting part of any ensemble. A few examples would be Huge Laurie as House, Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, and Bryan Cranston as Walter White. A lot of shows have uninteresting lead characters, Walking Dead has Rick Grimes, How I Met your Mother has Ted Mosby, Lost has Jack Sheppard, and so on and so forth.
So Mr. Mison’s Ichabod Crane is a breath of fresh air. He doesn’t need to rely on other cast members to make the show watchable. He doesn’t need a Barney, or a Sawyer, or a Daryl. Crane is good all by himself. Obviously, other actors in the show support the lead, especially Leftenant Abbie Mills (played by the excellent Nicole Beharie). But to be frank, Mison is the real star of the show.
The only thing that I can’t accept is that he keeps wearing the same clothes over and over again. I’m sure Sleepy Hollow has a Gap in their mall or something. But I have to say, that shirt he’s wearing is pretty durable. Mison said “It’s been washed. It’s clean. The blood has been washed off.” At least we know it’s clean.