Leo is one of my favourite actors and I would watch any film he makes. He’s a bundle of energy, but has that burning desire you sometimes see in someone even though they play the king of the cool on the outside. Anyway, I have witnessed close up the professional dedication he applies to the roles he plays, first in Green Street and recently where he literally put it all in making Cass, and for that alone I can push aside the fact his colours are firmly nailed to the mask of Tottenham Hotspur. Don’t worry, lads, Frank McAvennie ain’t fooled and sticks one on him proper in the movie! But a friend you make is a friend you make, and it just happens to be a real bonus that he’s a good actor and a good lad who is going places and, like Tamer Hassan before him, on this site Leo gives us the real interview and tells it as it is, so read on.

Q1. Let’s take a look at your background. How did you get involved in acting and where did it all start with you?

I would say when I was about 12 years old; some American casting director spotted me pissing about with my mates on the Kings Road, as you do at that age, and offered me an audition, and I got the part playing this little Yankee kid. It meant I got to travel to some nice countries and I got a few TV bits in England so the bug for acting was kind of in me from school. It was at a young age and to continue it as a career would’ve meant leaving home and I felt I was too young to do that, so I stopped acting and never got back into it seriously until I was about 19 years old.

Like everything in life, you need that chance and when that chance comes you’ve got to do your bit and take it. It’s definitely a tough profession and I know it surely can’t all be down to luck and it doesn’t always follow it’s down to just talent. I know there are people out there who are a lot less talented but are never short of work and I know there’s people more talented than me who aren’t working. You do need that thing where everything comes together at the right time for you.

Q2. Of all the roles you have played, what film gives you the most satisfaction?

I would have to say that Out of Control (2002), written and directed by Dominic Savage, is the one that meant the most and still does mean the most personally. The reason is that it was all set in a young offenders’ prison, which was a real prison called Lancaster Farm and we were working around real inmates doing time and some of them even got a little part in it. It was a BBC film made for TV that went out just once, but it was shown in schools, basically giving the message that if you piss about you are going to end up like this crazy fucker inside. Now, growing up where we’d all grown up, there’s going to be some of us that have experienced what it’s like to have been inside, or, if not, you may have visited family or friends that have been inside. It’s something that goes on and after the film came out I remember being stopped on the tube and on the street by so many people that saw it that just wanted to say, ‘Look, I’ve been banged up myself’ or ‘My brother is inside’ or ‘Thank you so much for doing it because it gave a true picture of what life is like in such an institution.’ It was a real eye-opener about a young offender’s life and it had a blinding cast with the likes of Jamie Foreman, Frank Harper, Tamzin Outhwaite, Rafe Spall, Bronson Webb etc. I remember when we went to the Edinburgh Film Festival and it won the top award for Best New British Feature. Don’t ask me why because as far as I know it only went out the once on BBC TV, but, for whatever reason, people to this day still talk about it. It meant a lot to many people and I suppose for that reason it meant a lot to me.

Q3. If the world was your oyster, who would you want to work with and why?

I guess Gary Oldman because he’s a Londoner, he’s a legend and one of the best that ever did it and it would be a dream obviously to work with him or even be directed by him, thinking of Nil by Mouth. And thinking of that Gary Oldman film takes me to another fella I would like to work with, Ray Winstone – for a couple of reasons, like he is obviously a London boy and a blinding actor and I know the family. If I was looking across the pond, it’d have to be De Niro and Sean Penn – same again, blinders, amazing actors.

Q4. Right, you have declared you’re a football fan, so what are your thoughts about the England team failing to qualify for the Euros this year?

I remember the World Cup 2006 out in Germany when, between acting, I managed to get to the first game against Paraguay, and, even out there with what happened, you come back thinking, ‘That’s it with following the England team!’ It does your head in, to be honest. Then you see this crap like what happened in the Croatia game and the others too. Look, forget the team for a moment and let’s start at the top with the FA putting Mcdoughnut in the job in the first place. I mean, he’s a blinding number two but for me you can’t put a number two in a number one’s job. For me, he was lucky at Boro and in that UEFA Cup run they had, if I remember rightly, there were games where they were scoring in the last minute and, to me, you can’t coach or manage that, as that’s down to a lucky run. Apart from that, he did nothing at Boro, so I don’t know how he even got the job as England manager. The team he picked for the deciding Croatia game was wrong – why did he drop goalkeeper Robinson for that game? There’s Beckham – if he is good enough and fit enough to be on the bench, then he was good enough and fit enough to be on the pitch from the start. In a game as big as that, you need players with heads that have done it before. But, saying that, that team to me looked like they couldn’t be bothered or they were all totally nervous. Now, if you’re nervous, you don’t drop your regular keeper and put a rookie in there; you don’t have Beckham sitting on the bench for a game like that – start him and bring on Wright-Phillips for the last 20 minutes if he tires. Gerrard, for that last goal, if you look back, you see he just turned away from his man. Now there were plenty of incidents in that game where they either didn’t want it or they were shit scared out of their brains – I don’t really know what it is was with them. But what I do know is that the English rugby team that lost in the final this year, fair enough they lost, but, when you see what those boys did with the rose on their shirts, putting their necks on the line, every tackle was like crunch, putting their heart and soul into it with real English passion, which is what I thought we were all about.

Q5. Who is your favourite or best club and world football player?

I never thought I would be able to say this because of the ‘hand of God’ stuff but the greatest player I’ve seen in my lifetime has to be Maradona for that second goal against us in the 1986 World Cup. Obviously, he went a bit off the rails later, but, if you look back at some of the things he did, you’ve got to say he was a different class. For a club player, I’ve got to say Paul Gascoigne, a wasted talent who clearly didn’t fulfil his full potential, which is a sad, sad story, but, well, that free-kick at Wembley against the Arse that was just different class. On his day, he really turned it on. People have touted Rooney but, for me, the way Gazza used to drop his shoulder and go past people was just a joy to watch. Who can forget Euro ’96 when we played the sweaties and they missed a penalty or something. Then Seaman just chucked the ball out and then, boom! Gazza did the rest. And even the way he celebrated was pure Gazza – he’s straight on the deck and everyone’s there squirting him with bottles of water re-enacting the dentist chair. That’s Gazza, he loved the wind-up too.

Q6. OK, it’s obvious you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Tottenham fan that goes England too, so what have been your best and worst fan experiences?

I can’t really say what was my best fan moment because that’s the reason we love it and the reason we all go; there are so many magic moments – the place, your mates, the game – that if I thought about it we could be here all day.

One of the worst moments must have been listening to your mob the last game of the 2006 season. We [Tottenham] were so close that year, we had been above the scum, we’d been holding fourth place for five or six months. Right, we’re doing it, we’re going Champions League, we’re smelling it, we’re tasting it! Obviously, as you know, at Upton Park on any given day, especially this day, there is a lot of banter. So, we’re all there and listening to ‘1–0 to the Arsenal’ da, da, da, then Teddy missed the penalty, lasagnegate! It was just the whole thing, and I’ve got to say it wasn’t a great day listening to that nonsense. That Champions League money would have gone down nicely and this season ain’t been too great either. (Note: Exact rantings of a typical Tottenham fan before whipping the Arse boys 5–1 in the Two-Bob Carling Cup and opening back door to Europe! Even though they will finish below us,sic)

Q7. What are your favourite fashion clothes choices and what about your music choices?

My clothes and all that depends on my mood. If I’m staying in, then a nice little trackie, but if I’m going out somewhere smart then I’ll stick a nice tidy whistle on, though it’s got to be the mod cut, thin trousers and all that cut nicely. I did love the Stoneys, Fila BJ, Pringles and all that sort of stuff back in the day, and you see a lot of similar sort of gear coming back today.

Music is all sorts but I try to support my British music. I’ve been through my hip-hop and garage stages and all that stuff, but also I like my indie and bit of rock, and when I was younger I liked what I would call my urban music. I’m really not one that likes to pigeon-hole my music because I like all sorts depending on what mood I’m in. Also I like a good gig and Kasabian in Ibiza last summer was just the nuts, because of the time, the setting, it was a small venue, open air, on the beach – what more do you want really?

Q8. What are your favourite three movies and your favourite actors?

I’m going to have to say these off the top of my head, so probably Nil by Mouth, Chopper and either Raging Bull or Scarface for my number three.

Favourite actors could be Gary Oldman, Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, you can’t really go wrong with that little list.

Q9. I want to ask you about Jon Baird’s film Cass and about your role in that; how did you come to be involved in it and what satisfaction did you get out of it?

I just know it’s going to be a blinding bloody film and I’m sure everyone checking the website is going to watch it. My character Freeman is made up of bits of a few different characters because obviously being a film you can’t have two minutes of 20 different people. There were a few people I knew from a film before, but the real reason I was in it was the same as everyone else – we all did it for you, we all did it for the big man. I said on the extra bits for the ‘Making Of DVD’ that it just amazes me how you got all these different firms to be on the set at 6am in the morning and I’m sure they were not on Brad Pitt wages or anything! Sure, you’re making a film and that’s an attraction itself and its easy to blag anyone into doing it for half a day or a day, but then getting them back to do it all over again when they’ve had no kip and come all the way back down the motorway – some of them kipped in their cars and all this bit! You know the 2pm call on the phone to be in the film might seem like an idea of fun, but it’s less funny when you’re travelling down in the early hours of the morning on no kip, and nobody is dangling a cheque in their faces to do it. They all did it and they were all as good as gold, and that really amazes me because, to actually see it, you really understand that the name Cass Pennant travels around, not just London and the South but the whole of Britain. Like I say, we all did it for the same reason.

Q10. To wrap, what are your own ambitions, hopes and aspirations, as I’m convinced the actors in this film, including yourself, are today’s new Brit-pack of the movie world and I think you are a bit of an inspiration to today’s young actors.

Well, my hopes and aspirations as far as my family, my mother, my brothers, my loved ones, my close friends are always the same and that is for everyone to be happy. If everyone else is happy, you can’t help but be happy. If I make ten films a year or never do another film, but if I’m happy and everyone else is happy then that’s my life sorted.

In terms of anything else, I have just picked up a couple of awards and was nominated Best Newcomer for the film Stoned (2005) and recently played Lance Corporal Quealey in the army film The Mark of Cain (2007) which won an award, as did Out of Control (2002) and there was a GQ award recently too. What I would say to any aspiring actor is that it’s not all middle- and upper-class bods, or they all went to this pony drama school and they’ve got this dough behind them or there is a relative in the business. I’ve never had any of that and anything I’ve done has been off my own back. Yes, there were times it looked like it was never going to happen, then other times it looked like it was happening too easy. All you can do is not take it too seriously but take it seriously enough to do what you have got to do, and don’t let life pass you by, as you’ll be saying ‘What if…? What if…?’ Just get out there and do it!

Copyright © Cass Pennant 2007