Joe Simpson's photo-realistic paintings of famous British actors in roles they wish they could play

Featuring Olivia Colman, Paddy Considine, Charlie Cox, Warwick Davis, Mark Gatiss, Matt Lucas, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, John Simm and Eleanor Tomlinson – the project is five years in the making and sees Simpson ask some of his favourite actors to reveal their hopes, motivations and dreams.

"I've been open to interpretations of the questions," Simpson tells Creative Boom. "The only stipulation is that it's something that they haven't done before – so that it's new."

The oil on canvas works are to go on tour, kicking off at the Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery from now until 3 March, before moving on to the Oriel Gallery, Theatr Clywd in North Wales and the Alfred East Art Gallery in Kettering. More dates will follow, finishing with a London exhibition at the end of this summer.

Speaking of his process, Simpson says: "I worked with each actor and discussed their ideas about the role, why they chose it, and we collaborated on what would be included in the finished piece. I took the original photographs of the actor in costume and used these as references to create the painting with an imagined background and setting, like a film still from a film that doesn't exist. I wanted to re-invent the role that they have chosen, imagining my interpretation of how that could look. I spent over two months on each piece and filmed a time-lapse of the process."

The exhibition will feature behind-the-scenes displays, with concept sketches, time-lapses and insights into the motivations behind the actors' choices. For example, Matt Lucas chose Singin' In The Rain as he grew up loving musicals, and his first screen crush was Gene Kelly.

"Initially, he was going to pick the role of Annie," adds Simpson, "which would have been a very different painting. Olivia Colman chose the Lars Von Trier movie Breaking the Waves, which she had only seen once, but it made such a profound impact on her that she has never stopped thinking about it.

"Michael Sheen said he'd pretty much played every role he wanted to play, but he was in love with Maurice Sendack's book, Where The Wild Things Are – from reading it as a child to reading it to his daughter. He even owns his own costume to wear at home. Gugu Mbatha-Ra's first professional role was a background character in the stage play of Cleopatra at Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre; she said it's her ambition to play the lead role."