Stephen Graham says This Is England nearly ended his acting career
Boiling Point star Stephen Graham has revealed that he couldn’t get another job for eight months after one infamous role.
The 50-year-old actor played a violent fascist in This Is England, and says that he almost ‘lost himself’ in the character throughout filming.
The role has been described as the one that nearly ended his career, due to the nature of his thuggish character
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His racist character in the 2006 feature was called ‘Combo’, with Graham talking about the difficulties of playing that role, especially being a mixed-race man.
One of the more haunting moments from the film involves Stephen’s character violently beating up a black character.
Speaking about the role, he said: “It was life-changing.
“I lost myself quite a bit within that character.
“After This Is England I could not get a job...for about eight months I couldn’t get an audition.”
He admitted that he turned to alcohol during his time filming the drama, and would return to his wife at home ‘crying my eyes out’.
He continued: “For me that was where I really learned to dive into a character, I almost packed it all in.
“I was going to be a youth worker.”
Graham is well known for starring in other roles in films such as Snatch and Gangs of New York, as he continued to go into acting despite being put off by the British film.
He also spoke about the racist abuse he received in his childhood for being mixed race, as his grandad was from Jamaica.
He said: “I’m mixed race.
“As a kid I was called horrible words that I don’t even want to say.”
Since then, he has starred in BBC drama The North Water.
The five-part series was set in Hull and the ice floes of the Arctic in the late 1850s, and also stars Colin Farrell and Jack O'Connell.
His most recent work, however, is a new Netflix drama which has been described as ‘mind-bending’.
The new show, Bodies, was released on 19 October and stars Graham alongside Poldark's Kyle Soller, Peaky Blinders star Tom Mothersdale, Star Wars actor Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, and many more.
The Guardian reviewed the drama and said: “Ambitious, tense, explosive: this genre-blurring whodunnit travels time to visit four detectives investigating the same murder – in different eras.
“It’s exceptionally good value.”
Stephen has had many career highlights, and this year he received an OBE for his services to drama.
Topics: Stephen Graham, TV and Film
Mia Williams