Sebastian de Souza

As anyone that has ever watched even one episode of E4’s hit show Skins will know, those kids are pretty wild. All-night parties, run-ins with the law, promiscuous sex, drug abuse and bouts of violence – it’s an apparently accurate dramatisation of modern-day British teen culture. So after arranging a photo-shoot with Sebastian De Souza (who has played the brooding Matty Levan since the beginning of season 5) in London’s luxurious St Martins Lane Hotel, Rollacoaster are anxiously anticipating a huge bill for one trashed suite and excessive use of the mini bar by the end of the day. But arriving at room 302, the space is immaculate save for a pile of dark hair neatly swept into the corner (“He needed his hair trimmed,” informs his publicist, apologising for the mess as he sits quietly tapping on his iPhone from a chair).
Sebastian enters the room having finished shooting in one of the corridors. He’s bright-eyed, has a broad smile and gives a confident handshake when introducing himself. Nothing so far suggests that he would have been up all night in some trendy warehouse party where 18-year-old guys presumably go to socialise. As the shoot wraps, we take the actor down to the hotel bar where we anticipate the company credit card to receive the abuse we envisioned with a demand for a table-length’s worth of midday tequila shots – but Sebastian instead only orders a cappuccino. And does so politely.
“I think because of what Skins is and the age group that it appeals to, people often seem to get slightly confused about where the character ends and the actor playing the character begins,” he says, admitting to being far less rowdy than his on-screen persona, revealing he is occasionally stopped in the street by fans. I don’t really understand celebrity and when people approach me to ask for an autograph or photograph – I think it’s bizarre.” But with Matty’s brooding attitude and Sebastian’s smoking good looks, does this not work to his advantage – with a cornucopia of admiring female fans? “I wish!” he laughs as we ask if he gets propositioned. “Disappointingly, that never happens. But please invite your readers to write in” (letters to the usual address, then).
His air time as Matty, however, is soon to come to a conclusion as fans of the show will know the entire cast is renewed every two years and the sixth season finale is just a few weeks away. But for Sebastian, he is not worried about saying goodbye to his first television role. “That’s it for me,” he begins. “It’s very important to know when to turn the light off and the writers are very clear how they write in order to follow a structure that should end in two seasons’ time. The whole point is that the characters leave school at the end of the two years to go on to do other things. So for me, the party is over. But it was a party!”
With Skins behind him, Sebastian isn’t feeling too much pressure as to what roles to tackle next (he has no secure plans beyond a story arch on Sky Atlantic’s The Borgias – although he is writing material himself), nor does he feel pressure to match the Hollywood levels of success that came to Skins’ first generation of stars, Nicholas Hoult and Dev Patel. “I am just interested in doing some good work in the next few years, whether that is on screens or on stage – I’m not precious about it,” he explains. “My greatest passion is the theatre but does he feel pressure to match the Hollywood leveI also recognise that that option might not be open to me in the next few years. I will take what I can get and if that’s great work, then fantastic.”
And if that should fail, he has a back-up plan that couldn’t be more far removed from the debauchery of Skins if it tried – “Gardening!” he exclaims. “I’m setting up a company with a friend of mine. I sort of like being outdoors. It’ll be very hands on. Trimming. Mowing lawns. Gardening in Holland Park where people have lots of money. And gardens.” But that radical nature of his Skins character isn’t completely untraceable as he provides vocals on an underground electro track called “Stay” by Cubiq – a raw track that has Seb singing exaggerated vocals over a tinny tune that wouldn’t sound out of place blasting over the soundsystems of a warehouse party or late in the night of a music festival – something he may soon do. “We might go to South Africa this year because the label we released on has a big scene there – so I might be singing in Jo’burg,” he teases. Very rock and roll for a Holland Park gardener. “I know! Fucking rock star! I’d like to do that. Everyone wants to be a rock star and that is how I am fulfilling this dream.

[Originally published in Rollacoaster Issue 4, February 2012. Photography by Chad Pickard and Paul McLean.]