The following article contains spoilers for
Fallout
season 1.
While he doesn't have many credits to his name, British actor Xelia Mendes-Jones has become one of the most important young actors to watch, as he's proven with his scene-stealing performance in Amazon Prime Video's Falloutseries. Mendes-Jones, who refers to himself as "your local trans guy" on Instagram and uses he/they pronouns, first gained attention with his role as the villainous Renna in season 2 of The Wheel of Time, another Prime Video series. He also appeared opposite Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams in the Romy music video for "She's on My Mind".
Fallout, Mendes-Jones' most impressive project to date, has become a massive success. Based on the popular video game franchise of the same name, Fallout is a retrofuturistic sci-fi drama series that takes place 200 years after a nuclear event. It centers on three disparate characters fighting their way through the post-apocalyptic wasteland that is the United States. Among them is Brotherhood of Steel aspiring knight Maximus (Aaron Moten), who has becomes a squire after his friend Dane (Mendes-Jones is injured). Mendes-Jones is only in Fallout season 1's first and last episode, but he leaves his mark.
How Xelia Mendes-Jones Became An Actor
The Fallout Star Almost Became A Soccer Player Instead
Many actors have dreamed of being on camera for as long as they can remember, but Xelia Mendes-Jones didn't get bitten by the acting bug until he was 17. In fact, prior to his pursuing an acting career, Mendes-Jones was a skilled soccer player, set to go pro. He even told Collider that he was offered a first team place in the Tottenham Hotspur FC but turned it down because his parents wanted him to get a university education. It was a random encounter with a stranger after a school play that convinced Mendes-Jones to be an actor:
I didn’t do any acting until I was 17. I auditioned for the school play when I was 17. I got a role in it and had loads of fun doing it. That was already pretty motivational. But we did a week-long run and on one of the nights when I was going between the backstage and the bar, a parent — and I don’t know whose parent it was, I’ve never met the guy before — stopped me and said to me, ‘Are you planning on doing this?’ And I said, ‘No, I wasn’t,’ and he said, 'You should. You should.; And I was rubbish in that play [laughs], but it was that thing of, ‘Oh, he’s seen something,’ so that kind of gave me the confidence to entertain the idea. So from there on, I just kind of followed my nose. But I would have never pursued it if he hadn’t said that.
If it wasn't for that unknown parent's words, Fallout fans would never have gotten their perfect Dane, which goes to show the importance of encouraging young people in the arts. Mendes-Jones did follow his own parents' wishes and studied at Cambridge University, and he also graduated from the Identity School of Acting (via The Direct).
Xelia Mendes-Jones Made Dane A Fan-Favorite Fallout Character
The Actor Came Up With A Backstory For Dane
Dane has already made history, as they are the third nonbinary character in the Fallout franchise, behind Orlando and Burke in the games. The Fallout showrunners describe Dane as "a confident and eager Initiate of the Brotherhood of Steel, and Maximus‘s closest peer. They believe in the mission of the Brotherhood and dream of one day suiting up as a Knight."
The wasteland of Fallout is a huge world, and there's an equally huge cast of unique characters to fill it and give it an offbeat charm.
While this description doesn't really differentiate Dane from any of the Brotherhood of Steel's other initiates, Xelia-Mendes Jones imbues his Fallout character with compassion, humanity, and fear. Dane is only in two episodes — the Fallout premiere, "The End" and season 1 finale, "The Beginning" — but his storyline raises one of the series' first major questions. In "The End", Dane is promoted to the position of squire for Knight Titus (Michael Rapaport). However, after being injured due to a razor blade hidden in their boot, Maximus gets the promotion instead.
Xelia Mendes-Jones' Fallout Episodes
Season 1, Episode 1
"The End"
Season 1, Episode 8
"The Beginning
This caused many to ask, "Did Maximus hurt Dane?", as Maximus was desperate to move up the ranks of the Brotherhood. The mystery of the razor blade isn't solved until the Fallout season 1 finale, where it's revealed that Dane himself is the culprit.
For being in just two episodes, Mendes-Jones put a lot of thought into his character, even giving Dane a backstory. Of his process, Mendes-Jones said,
With Dane, I think my work really was to kind of focus on their belief and why the Brotherhood. Why not some other faction? I knew that Dane had come to the Brotherhood at some point — Geneva [Robertson-Dworet] and Graham [Wagner] had told me that much — so I knew that they weren’t born into the Brotherhood. I think, for me, the work I did was to kind of, wide-eyed, ‘Look at all of this. I get all these brothers and siblings and sisters to hang around with. I’m not the only kid. There’s all this cool tech. I get taught stuff.’ I feel like Dane’s the kind of kid that really values school, like a bit of a swot, and enjoyed getting to go to lessons and be taught about toaster ovens, and really was taking diligent notes and doing their homework and learning it all. And I think that wide-eyedness, for me, the thing I was very cautious of was making it not this naivety. They’re wide-eyed. They’re taking it all in. And I think you see that in the hospital scene with Maximus, where they’re a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. They’re pretty open, heart-on-the-sleeve, but you see there that there are more cogs turning, and they’ve been watching a lot more than you think and taking a lot more in than you think.
Mendes-Jones' character study of Dane really speaks to the character's vulnerability. Like most young people, Dane just wants to fit in and be accepted, and they find their place in the Brotherhood of Steel. When it came time to really fight, though, and leave their friend, Dane realized this was a mission they weren't up to, and did what they needed to ensure the Brotherhood got the right person for the job. Hopefully, this isn't the last Fallout audiences will see of Dane.
What's Next For Xelia Mendes-Jones
The Actor Is Starring In A Netflix Movie Opposite Tom Hardy & Is Expected To Return For Fallout Season 2
Xelia Mendes-Jones will next be seen in the starry Netflix action-thriller movie Havoc, opposite the likes of Tom Hardy, Timothy Olyphant, and Forest Whitaker. The film centers on the aftermath of a botched drug deal in a corrupt city, in which a grizzled detective must rescue a politician's son. Mendes-Jones plays Johnny, who very well may be the politician's son, as the actor is billed highly. Havoc was also the first acting job Mendes-Jones ever booked, and what's even more exciting is that his character is trans. Mendes-Jones told Collider:
The first job I booked was a film called
Havoc
for Netflix that hasn’t come out yet with Gareth Evans. That would be my audition high, I think, because
I’d come out as trans a couple months before and it was my first audition for an actual trans role, like a non-binary, masc role. Having that come across my desk already was like, ‘Cool, I’m not just like, I’m non-binary in my life and then playing different roles on camera.’ It was like actually getting to audition as myself. It was a
long
process. I had in-person stunt tests and stuff, but booking that was definitely a big high. That whole process of getting called back for it and stuff. It was a really cool project with, I mean, Gareth is a legend of action films, so to have all of that happening and it also be a role that felt like me was such a privilege. Big, big, big high for an audition.
Havoc doesn't yet have a release date, and though it's definitely a movie Mendes-Jones fans will be looking out for, the bigger question is whether he will return for Fallout season 2. Nothing has been officially confirmed, but there's no reason not to expect Dane back given that they've survived season 1 and the Brotherhood of Steel are still major players. In his Colliderinterview, Xelia Mendes-Jones wouldn't officially confirm his taking part in season 2, but he does have a clear vision for Dane's future:
I think Dane’s moved up the ranks due to observational skills , and that’s obviously been recognized by Quintus and by the elders. But I think there’s a jadedness and a new, not respect, but respect in a fearful kind of way of the setup in the Brotherhood that I think previously they weren’t fully clued into yet.
Hopefully, this means that Falloutfans will get Xelia Mendes-Jones back on their screens, as everyone is ready to see Dane in action — ideally in more than two episodes.
Based on the video game franchise of the same name, Fallout is a drama series set in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. The series follows the survivors of the human race in an alternate 1950s timeline, where nuclear war laid waste to the Earth, spawning large irradiated areas and mutated humans who now roam the planet.
Custom Image by Ana Nieves
English (US) ·