The thing to remember about Alexander McQueen is that he was a real person: a real East Londoner who designed real clothes for a real fashion house and who, on his death in 2010, left behind mountains of very real video evidence of who he was and what he was like.
That much is probably obvious to anyone who saw one of his avant-garde women’s wear collections, tromped through the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s record-breaking retrospective of his work or remembers the shock of his suicide at age 40. But for an actor tasked with playing him — particularly one, like Luke Newton, who is predisposed toward research — that real-life-ness can be a blessing and a curse.
To Mr. Newton, who steps into the designer’s sneakers eight times a week in the new Off Broadway play “House of McQueen,” the issue isn’t just portraying a real person for the first time — especially one very different from the “Bridgerton” character who thrust him into a global spotlight. It’s also a matter of esteem.
“It being the first role that’s a real person that’s also so loved and known, I think that was a challenge,” he said.
But out of all the challenges that come along with playing a figure from recent history, the one that seems to weigh most heavily on Mr. Newton is the sheer volume of material out there for him to study up on — any single snippet of which could, theoretically, inform his portrayal.
Leaving stones unturned doesn’t seem to come naturally to the actor; Mr. Newton, 32, has seen the more easily accessible McQueen documentaries, and has watched quite a few more obscure interviews. (If McQueen were still alive, he would be only 56 years old, so his digitally accessible footprint is more vast than one might expect.)
“In the end, we just kind of had to say, ‘Let’s let go of everything outside of this, and this is our story that we’re telling,’” he said.
Sitting in his dressing room last week, wearing a mix of stage costume and his own clothes, Mr. Newton bore more than a passing resemblance to the designer. But in his telling, the casting process was no mere Washington Square Park look-alike contest. “When I got the offer, there wasn’t a full resemblance like people see today,” he said.
He was referring, chiefly, to the hair. At the time he was being considered for the McQueen role, Mr. Newton was still living life beneath the rakish piles of hair he was contractually obligated to maintain for “Bridgerton,” the Netflix period drama in which he plays Colin, the latest season’s romantic lead. But in May, once he was finished shooting Season 4, he was eager to take a bold first step toward becoming McQueen. The buzz cut was almost a foregone conclusion.
“When I wanted to cut my hair, it sort of feels like vanity,” he said. “Just, like, really on the surface — nothing to do with really creating the role. But I feel like it helps me in the initial stages.”
Mr. Newton drew further confidence from an East End connection he shares with the designer. Like McQueen, the actor’s grandmother grew up there. And after Mr. Newton moved to London from the “quiet, seaside town in the south of England” where he was raised, he lived for a time in Stratford, the same part of the city where McQueen spent his boyhood.
While taking pains not to compare himself to the visionary designer who raised heels to new heights (see: Lady Gaga’s armadillo boots in the “Bad Romance” music video) and plunged waistlines to new lows (see: the scandal-bait “bumster” trousers of the early ’90s), Mr. Newton allowed that he might have a knack for fashion himself.
“Maybe I’m convincing myself more of it day by day,” he said, “but I feel like I’ve always — I don’t want to say had an eye for it, but, like, been fascinated by it and enjoyed it.” Indeed, Mr. Newton remembers cautiously monitoring the fashion trickle-down from London to his hometown, just outside Brighton, where baggy, cropped jeans didn’t supplant skinny jeans until several months after they had already taken the capital. (“I remember my dad being like, ‘Are you gonna wear those clown trousers out?’”)
On the most recent “Bridgerton” press tour, Mr. Newton ventured into more sartorially adventurous waters: a deconstructed Emporio Armani suit with embroidered flowers on the sleeves, a Versace jacket with no collar but plenty of checks.
“Being in this industry, and going to fashion shows, and being on red carpets, and going to press tours, and being styled a lot of the time, I’m starting to trust my instincts more,” he added.
But last week, in the thick of rehearsals, glamorous premieres were far from mind. Although no stranger to theater, New York’s comparatively lengthy preview period — during which time a show can be reworked and rejiggered, sometimes right up to opening night — was taking its toll.
“When I was on the press tour for Season 3, I thought, ‘I will never be as exhausted,’” Mr. Newton recalled of last year’s “Bridgerton” blitz. “But I can safely say that I have been on this.”
The run of “House of McQueen,” which covers practically all of McQueen’s life, will be the longest stretch of time that Mr. Newton has ever spent in New York, but he doesn’t expect to be able to take full advantage of being in the city until after the show opens on Tuesday. For the time being, Mr. Newton, who described himself as “not very eccentric as a person,” contents himself with trying the city’s Italian restaurants on Monday nights, when the theater is dark.
Asked about Mr. Newton, the show’s creative team gave the impression of an A student. “He is the ultimate workman,” said Darrah Cloud, the “House of McQueen” playwright. “He shows up half an hour early. He’s got his lines. He’s thinking all the time about it.”
McQueen, with his squarely middle-class upbringing, was no stranger to hard work himself. He badgered his way into an apprenticeship on Savile Row and managed to distinguish himself as a designer to watch even in the crucible that is Central Saint Martins, London’s top-tier school for fashion and design.
Would Luke Newton, the diligent actor, and Alexander McQueen, the brash provocateur, have gotten along?
Mr. Newton said he had given the question a lot of thought, ultimately concluding that he probably would have found the designer “incredibly intimidating.” “I’d love to know what he thought of me,” he added — even if the reviews came back meh.
“It blows my mind to think of him just being like, ‘Whatever, some bloody Netflix actor.’”
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