Tony Stonem

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Tony Stonem
Nicholas Hoult as Tony Stonem
First appearance	"Tony"
Centric episodes	"Tony"
Information
Gender	Male
Age	17
Year of birth	1989
Occupation	Student
Family	Jim Stonem (father) Anthea Stonem (mother) Effy Stonem (sister)
Relationships	Michelle Richardson (ex-girlfriend) Abigail Stock (mistress)
Relatives	David Stonem (grandfather)
Portrayed by	Nicholas Hoult
Created by	Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain

Anthony "Tony" Stonem is a fictional character in the television series Skins. He is played by Nicholas Hoult.

[edit] Characterisation

Tony first seems to be every parent's dream; he is handsome, popular, does well in school, and has the eye of many girls at his school. On the Skins website,^[1] in a MySpace-style "about me" section, he explains that his favourite philosopher is David Hume, his favourite medieval king is Charlemagne, that his favourite Primal Scream album is Vanishing Point and that his favourite food is potatoes.

There is dark side to his personality, however. The flip side of Tony's charm and self-confidence is an arrogant belief in his own superiority, but no one seems to notice. Teachers, friends' parents, schoolmates and girls he meet are smitten with him, despite his possibly sociopathic tendencies; the cruel games he plays with his family and friends. In "Sid", he displays his love for "control and manipulation" and fondness for the unpredictability of the universe, comparing the lives of those around to him to the functions of subatomic particles. In Unseen Skins episode "The Cat & The Duck", his girlfriend Michelle Richardson characterises Tony as like ice, "cold and transparent."^[2]

Tony's sexual encounters are vast. In "Michelle", Jal Fazer is able to recall a long list of his conquests. Michelle later puts to Abigail that he "fucks everyone... including boys." In a psychology lesson, he equates sex with power and his lust for both in his presentation.

Tony's reading habits give insight into his personality. In "Tony", the book Tony is reading in the bathroom is La Nausée by Jean-Paul Sartre, a novel about existentialism and defining oneself. In "Sid" he is shown reading Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a book which challenges existing moral values. In "Maxxie and Anwar" he reads Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, a book about a young girl struggling with her homosexuality.

[edit] Character history

In "Tony", he attempts to help his best friend Sid Jenkins to lose his virginity before turning 17 for fear of being associated with a perceived loser. After momentarily suggesting Sid may lose it to Michelle, he later reveals he was referring to Cassie. He orders Sid to acquire some weed from local drug dealer Madison Twatter, and eventually ends up driving a stolen car with his friends into a river where the drugs are lost.

Tony also begins a flirtatious relationship with local rich girl Abigail Stock, which develops in "Jal" when he is spotted kissing her by Sid, and later in "Sid" where he uses her to break up with Michelle, only to get back with her in an attempt to emotionally damage Sid and Michelle. In "Maxxie and Anwar", on a school trip to Russia he aggressively and persistently tries to perform oral sex on his gay friend Maxxie, only to find he is bad at it. Michelle oversees this and his shocked, and believing he could be in the closet, probes him to reveal any secrets he may be carrying.

In "Michelle", the episode starts with Michelle watching him as he continues to behave flirtatiously around Maxxie. Enraged, Michelle walks over to, punches and subsequently dumps him after he fails to tell her about his encounter with Maxxie, and she learns of various other affairs. He is subsequently punched by Sid and later slapped by another a girl in psychology lesson as punishment for the incident. After Michelle starts a relationship with Abigail's brother, Josh, Tony then schemes to get her back. He takes sexual pictures of Abigail, and them transmits them to Josh's phone, from where he sends them to Michelle in order to make him think he's as crazy as his sister. He attempts a reconciliation, but she still turns him down.

In "Effy", Tony comes to term with the destructive nature of his machinations when faced with a chase to find his sister, Effy and is given a terrible proposition: he must fuck his unconscious sister if he wants her back from her captors. This scares him to tears, enough for Josh to tell him his lesson has been learnt and let him go. His friendship with Sid is reaffirmed as Sid is the only one there for him in his crisis. Later, in the series finale, Tony repays his debt to Sid by removing him from a mental institution and taking Sid to find Cassie. After leaving Sid at Anwar's party, he tries to call Michelle, but loses her signal, resorting to standing in the middle of the road to get the signal back. He confesses to Michelle that he really does love her but is cut short when he is run over by a coach. Michelle is left staring at her phone as, elsewhere, Effy holds his bleeding body in shock, and the episode ends with Tony's status unclear.

[edit] References

Skins
General	Episode list • Unseen Skins episodes • Soundtrack
Characters	Tony Stonem • Sid Jenkins • Cassie • Jal Fazer • Chris Miles Maxxie • Anwar Kharral • Michelle Richardson • Effy Stonem • Abigail Stock