Sam Jackson

It has been five years since Skins first hit UK screens to terrify Daily Mail readers with its depiction of modern day teens as drink, drug and sex obsessed delinquents. The show has gone on to win a number of awards, provide huge ratings, spawn an American remake and manages to geniusly keeps things fresh by renewing the cast every other series. Returning this week to E4 for a brand new sixth season, the kids are just as wild and debauched as always. We caught new recruit Sam Jackson – who plays energetic, fun-loving Alex who joins the group at a point when they’re feeling a bit low – to talk to him about this latest character, find out how he got the job and discuss his name-sake, Samuel L.

How did you get your role in the Skins?
My agent sent me info on a new part for series 6. Was lucky enough to get an audition with Jane Ripley (the casting director) in London. Then get got called back for a second one, which went pretty well. Then later in the week, got a phone call saying I hadn't got it but a few hours later got another one saying I had got it. Was a bit of a roller-coaster.

Were you always a fan of the show?
Yeah definitely. It was ground breaking when it first came out wasn't it? I watched all of the previous series and enjoyed every one of them. I love how every two years, we get a switch of cast. I think the show is unique in that way.



How does it feel to have joined the cast?
Yeah it's great. When you're watching it on TV, you never ever think of yourself being a part of it. So joining was pretty surreal at first. I had an amazing time filming, everybody is really nice to you. So it's sad, now that it's all over and everyone's moving onto to other stuff. It went ridiculously quick. 



What do you like most about your character, Alex?
I think I like how genuine he is. What you see is what you get with Alex. None of that two-faced bitchy girl stuff you sometimes get with other characters. I also love his attitude towards life. He cares and looks out for the people he's close to, but equally he lives life to the full. Parties hard and does some all-round mental stuff.

Do you have a similarly wild lifestyle to the Skins characters?
Sometimes yeah...It's probably not as relentless as in Skins. The thing is with Skins, it always picks out the highlights, the wild parties and all that. You never see the horrendous hangovers the next morning, which makes sense because nobody wants to watch that for entertainment do they?



Is it a bit frustrating being called Sam Jackson? If anyone Googles you, Samuel L Jackson appears...
Who's Samuel L Jackson? Never heard of him....Oh that other actor guy? Suppose I've just gotta work hard to see if I can get my name ahead of his!

Do people ask questions like "what was it like working with Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction?"
Funnily enough, they don't. I don't share many similarities with him really- apart from the name. You'd have to be pretty stupid to get us mixed up. Especially if you've actually seen Pulp Fiction. I mean come on- we're poles apart.

Do you ever get mistaken for anyone else?
Apart from Samuel L Jackson? No not really.

[Originally published on wonderlandmagazine.com]

Jeremy Irvine

Steven Spielberg's latest, War Horse, sees the veteran filmmaker returning to his classic, heartfelt best. A tale of friendship, adventure and bravery, War Horse (based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo) is the story of Joey – a young colt from Devon who is sold into the armed forces in World War I and chronicles his incredible journey through Nazi occupied France. Jeremy Irvine – who just 18 months ago was playing a tree in the chorus of a stage production, without any lines – was plucked from obscurity by Spielberg to front the film as Joey’s first owner and trainer, Albert, who also joins the war and longs to be reunited with his horse. We talk to the 21 year old actor about his experience making this film and find out how it feels to front a Spielberg movie as a first project.

War Horse was given a Royal premier in London earlier this week – what was it like having Prince William and Princess Kate in the audience?
First of all – what an honour. I had a lovely chat with William and Kate and we all got to go back to the palace for drinks afterwards and at one point I found myself having a glass of wine with Prince William and going ‘this is so, so strange!’ They’re lovely people and what an honour that they came to a cinema to see my fat face on the screen. But we also had almost 400 service men and women turn up which really got me. I was speechless. Really speechless.

Was Joey at the premier as well?
One of the Joey’s. There were about 14 [to make the film], although I think for the good of the carpets in the cinema it was probably best that he didn’t come in to see the movie. I was amazed there wasn’t a horrific bodily accident from the horse at any point.

It is a well known fact of cinema that you should never work with animals – was Joey a difficult co-star?
I don’t think at any point were we ever not able to get something because of a horse misbehaving. These are the most highly trained animals in the world – they are acting horses. All the horses have bigger CV’s than me! One of them was Seabiscuit. I remember when I first started learning to ride with one, I’d get off and it would start doing stretches. I learnt very quickly that there has to be that mutual respect thing otherwise on camera when you’re in that close up and there is nowhere to hide, if that relationship isn’t real with that horse then it’s going to be very obvious to people who are watching so it was important to spend two months before we started filming to spend all day with them, building relationships and learning how to work with them.

Were there ever any mishaps on set where a horse did have a “bodily accident” in front of everyone and they had to shout “cut”?
Yes, of course. And they always pick the moment when you are in your most intense close up to do the biggest fart you have ever heard.

Would other co-stars, such as Emily Mortimer [Irvine’s on-screen mother], ever have that same reaction during an emotional scene?
[Laughs] No! Emily was great. I mean, she still likes to eat hay, but she was lovely.

The cast includes some terrific actors, Mortimer, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch, and to be directed by Speilberg in your first role – how does that all feel?
I never really know what to say to this. You know? It’s, like, being in a first movie and being in a Spielberg movie. I had nearly two years of not getting any work. I was auditioning and wasn’t even getting call backs for commercials, let alone for a movie.

Did you ever get close to giving up?
When you are at those really low points – and it’s quite a lonely business because you’re self employed and on your own a lot – unless you really, really want it then you are going to get to one of those points where you think of doing something else.

You quit LAMDA, right?
I did a year and then I didn’t get back into LAMDA after that, actually. But I made a decision early on that I wanted to get away from the crowd. I had a friend who was a camera man and so we went away and filmed a showreel and I went around agents myself and told them it was for professional work. I did that for eight months and nobody was interested and then eventually a lovely agent did take me on and the second audition that they put me up for was War Horse.

Are you still in touch with anyone from drama school?
Yeah, yeah, they’re all my very close friends.

Are they not seething that you landed a Spielberg film as a first job?
Of course not! They are all wonderfully talented and I’m sure they will do very well as well. But it’s one of those industries where a lot of it is about being in the right place at the right time. I owe all of this to that one lucky break. A lot of wonderful actors that I know haven’t had that lucky break and maybe never will. But it’s about being ready when that moment comes.

[Originally published on wonderlandmagazine.com, January 2012]

Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender

“Shame” is the haunting new film from director Steve McQueen, giving an unflinching account of one man’s spiralling descent into sex addiction in New York. Michael Fassbender (reunited with McQueen following “Hunger”, 2008) plays protagonist Brandon Sullivan whose addiction threatens to derail his entire life, while his situation is complicated by the arrival of his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) who imposes herself – along with her own troubles – on him for an extended stay. With his work life made difficult by a sleazy boss (James Badge Dale as David) and a mesmerising work colleague (Nicole Beharie as Marianne) offering possible normality, “Shame” is a fearless exploration of 21st Century desires, failings, obsessions and relationships that includes graphic scenes of sex (including eye-watering full frontal nudity from Fassbender) that have caused quite the stir amongst critics and viewers alike. Joining the director and main star in London, Wonderland begins with light conversation before moving onto the films darker content.

We read that the budget for this film was $6.5 million US dollars. How much of that budget went into creating the screen filling CGI penis?
[Pause followed by laughter]
Michael – All of the budget! I think we had point five left to make the film.
Steve – We thought we’d do 3D but that would have been way too expensive.
Michael – [laughs]
Steve – There was a funny story, there was this woman who said “I have seen your film literally about fifteen times” and I said “Why?” and she goes “I’m someone who goes to the movies with the blind and so I have to describe it to them” and I said “Really?!” and she said “yes!”. I don’t know if she had to describe Michael’s penis but let’s not go there!

The film addresses the very serious topic of sex addiction. What was it that attracted you to this subject?
Steve – The idea that someone could get so addicted to something that was so intimate but actually did not want the intimacy – the paradox of that was fascinating to me. Just talking to [script writer] Abi Morgan [Sex Traffic, The Iron Lady] about it, it was interesting to investigate what a sex addict is and once we delved into it, we saw the evidence of how serious and devastating it is. It’s similar to drug addiction or alcohol addiction and it really does take a toll on someone’s life.
Michael – Of course this is something that should be looked at and should be pretty relevant and contemporary to today but nobody had talked about it in a film. It just seemed really obvious that this is something that is worth investigation. [Having worked together on Hunger] I knew I was going to be in the best of hands and it was going to be dealt with accordingly, uncompromisingly and also respectfully.

How did you go about researching for the film?
Steve – We couldn’t get an “in”, as such, in London as people wouldn’t speak to us. It’s almost like when people were diagnosed with HIV in the early 80s, it’s a situation where there is a stigma to sex and people don’t want to speak – especially to the media. So we had to go to New York and speak to an expert in the field who in turn introduced us to addicts and former addicts and it was one of those situations that through those conversations and research that we got an idea of what it was to be a sex addict and make very close relationships with people who were, or are, sex addicts.

What were the more shocking things that you discovered?
Steve – Certain things were worse than in the film, of course. I mean you can imagine someone being locked in a room for 72 hours, looking at porn and masturbating all day.
Michael – I think the most affecting or disturbing thing is the sense that – whatever the addiction – it’s a loss of control. The fact that a guy can’t get through the day without masturbating in the bathroom at work and he’s surfing the internet and dragging up these porn sites on his work computer – he’s not an idiot, he knows he’s going to get caught doing it, but he can’t help himself. The choice has been taken away because the condition has taken over. That for me is what’s most disturbing.

We left the cinema feeling a little depressed about the state of the characters in the film – are they all hopeless? Brandon is an addict, Sissy clearly has her own troubles and then Brandon’s boss –
Steve – I think Marianne is a symbol of hope and she is quite healthy. Sissy and Brandon come from the same place. And David is a bit of a jerk.
Michael – The fact that Brandon is someone who is aware of his condition, that’s already hopeful and he’s trying.
Steve – It’s a difficult world and I’m not making Walt Disney pictures here. If you want to see a happy ending go and see any of those American movies that are probably being put up for an Academy Award right now. I’m trying to make a movie about real life – which is not easy sometimes for people who have certain kinds of conditions – but what is admirable about [Brandon] is that he is a likeable person and he’s trying. Not everyone is Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, you know what I mean?

Has making this film had any impact on your own sex lives?
Michael – Very much so. It’s kind of made me appreciate the relationships that I have been in and that I like intimacy. It had never kind of occurred to me that this could be a condition and to see how devastating it can be having met people –I feel grateful. I feel lucky.
Steve –You do come away feeling very lucky. But they say you are always just one drink away.


[Originally published on wonderlandmagazine.com, Jan 2012]