In September 2016, it was announced that Tom Burke (The Musketeers and War & Peace actor) would be portraying Cormoran Strike in the Strike series. Executive producer Ruth Kenley-Letts had previously worked with Tom Burke on other projects (The Hour and The Deep Blue Sea), and it was Tom who kept coming to her mind when she was reading the books. Even after auditioning many actors for the role, none seemed to fit as well as Tom for her. J.K. Rowling was also very keen to see Tom as Cormoran; she loved his performance as Dolokhov in War and Peace and went to see him in a play.
For the role of a 6-foot-3 “grizzly bear” of a man, Tom went on a protein diet and attended the gym to bulk up. He spent time observing how larger men walked and carried themselves, so he could imitate that way of moving. Cormoran Strike is an amputee, so Burke spent a lot of time with two actual amputees, Barney Gillespie and Mark Wildish, who he could watch walk and who could advise him. Tom stated that running as the character was a bit of guesswork, as he couldn’t ask Mark or Barney to run for him, as it would have been agony for them. Tom also worked closely with movement director Toby Sedgewick to perfect his movements as the character.
At the BFI event for The Cuckoo’s Calling release, Tom mentioned that he offered to get a purm to make his hair more pube-like so he’d look more like the book character. They decided against this.
Tom has also read the Cormoran Strike novels multiple times.
Below are a couple of StrikeFans exclusive interviews with Tom Burke.