Stephen Graham, the star of Netflix’s newest smash hit in Adolescence, is best known for many for playing the racist thug Combo in This is England.
The Shane Meadows classic focuses on a young boy who joins a group of skinheads led by Combo.
Graham received a great deal of praise for his performance and, in addition to his role in Snatch, looked primed to become one of the UK’s premiere actors.
Despite this, he was left without work for the next eight months.
Advert
Graham has spoke about this experience, in addition to how difficult it was to play a racist character as a mixed-race man himself.
Graham said of filming This is England on Desert Island Discs: “It was life-changing. I lost myself quite a bit within that character.
"For me, that was where I really learned to dive into a character.
“For about eight months, I couldn't get an audition.
"I almost packed it all in. I was going to be a youth worker."
The actor stated that he would often come home and cry his eyes out after filming and that he eventually turned to drink to cope with the intensity of the role.
Filming This is England brought back memories of racist abuse Graham himself had suffered as a child.
He spoke about how, because his grandfather was from Jamaica and he was mixed race kids ‘called horrible [him] words that I don't even want to say, and little monkey boy'.
He went on to say: “I love to go into people’s living rooms and create conversation and debate, try and bring about some discussion about what they’re watching.
"It’s important for me, as an actor, to be part of something that’s a social commentary."
This is something that Graham has managed to emulate once again with his new show Adolescence.
The series, which was co-written by Graham as well as starring him, centres around a young boy arrested on suspicion of murder.
Adolescence has topped Netflix's charts globally, racking in over 24 million views totalling over 90 million hours of watched time.
Graham said of the show in an interview with ITV: "We wanted to put a mirror up to society and just say take a little look and see what's going on."
He also said when discussing the show with Radio X: "Look, it started when I read an article, and it was an article about a young boy who'd stabbed a young girl to death, and it just, you know, it made me feel cold.
"Then a couple of months later, there was a piece on the news, and it was about a young boy who'd stabbed a young girl to death, and if I'm really honest with you, they hurt my heart. These two incidents were opposite ends of the country. And I just thought, 'Why? Why is this happening?'
"Not just because I'm a father, but I think any kind of human being with an ounce of moral compass can look at that kind of situation and think, "What's happening? What's going on with society today that we're in?"'
Topics: Stephen Graham, Netflix, Racism, Film, TV and Film
Michael Slavin