Cass: Interviewing actor Nonso Anozie for the purposes of a Toe-to-Toe interview on the casspennant.com website.

Q1: Bit of your background. I don’t want you to tell me about your Shakespeare side, because that will be the next question. So a bit of your background, like how you become an actor, what have you achieved and been in.

Nonso: When I was younger I loved watching television and I loved watching superheroes and stuff. Spiderman was my favourite superhero and I wanted to be able to play those kinds of roles so I could pretend to be a superhero, I could pretend to be a doctor or a lawyer, just pretend to be anything really. And that’s where I think when I was very young I kind of made the unconscious decision that I wanted to play parts, that I wanted to act. So it kind of stayed in the back of my mind until I grew up, and when I was 15 I had a really great drama teacher in school, I did drama and stayed on to the sixth form at St Aloysious College in Highgate, and she encouraged me a lot. I got involved with the after school activities and I joined this group called the Talawa Youth Uprising, which was kind of covering for the whole of the summer holidays, they take you for six weeks and you do work for Talawa Theatre Company, for young actors. They’re one of Britain’s only black theatre companies in existence still I think because it was still very hard today because a lot of companies the Arts Board are just cutting funding and stuff. But they really helped me in terms of building confidence – there’s a woman there called Greeta Mendes and she was one of the head people there that run the things. And she was just like, Nonso, you’re a big man. Don’t stand with your head stooped low, and she was the first one really that said you can do this, acting. She told me there are going to be people in life that say to you, you’re too big for that you can’t really, or he’s too this or that – they won’t do it in an obvious way, they’ll just kind of allow you or they won’t expect the best from you. And she said to me; don’t allow people to do that to you. Don’t allow people to just let it be easy on you, or just be frightened of you, always move in a direction that you want, Nonso, you’re a big man. You’re standing there, be proud. And I remember I was standing on stage doing these exercises and stuff and doing this thing and I was nervous and I was sweating and stuff. I wiped my brow and she said, Nonso if you’re sweating, be proud of your sweat, own your fucking sweat. You’re a man, stand there on stage, and just be proud of the fact that you’re just there. If you’re sweating, it’s a natural thing. Don’t be distracted by the little things, just be relaxed in yourself. And she really got me to think about that and for the first time there was someone, I mean outside my family that encouraged me in a way to say, you can do it, you can do it no matter what happens. It was at that young age that she got that pride into me. And she was the one that said, well I think you’re good enough to go to drama school; I think you should go there and try at least get in there and do something with acting. She was someone who’d worked in the business for a long time and for her to say, you can do it and you can, you’ve got the talent to do it, just go for it, was the main spur I needed and it was that that pushed me on.

Greeta Mendes, yeah, she was the real spark. And I think that first week of that first summer at Talawa something opened up in me, because I was shy before that and then after that I was like, right I’m a man. I could feel you know the way I was – I don’t know, something, she opened a doorway and that has been flowing ever since really. I’ve just been building on that and that was when I took it into drama school. I auditioned and they really loved me and from day one they kind of liked me and really supported me at drama school. And they saw something in me, which I think was started by Greeta...

Q2: Which has led to this question? The IDMB profile states you’re the youngest actor to play Shakespeare or something. It sounds as if I were in your industry a bit of an accolade mate. Do you want to enlighten me?

Nonso: There was this director called Declan Donellen, he’s a famous theatre director and it was a theatre company called Cheek By Jowl Theatre Company. And he was working with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the time. And he wanted to do a play with young actors because there was a lot being spoken that young actors are not getting trained in Shakespeare in the right way. So they said, all right this year what we’re going to do is instead of bringing all the young people in and doing like small character roles, we’ll do a whole play with young actors. And it just so happens that I was doing a play called The London Cuckolds in drama school and it was very Olde English kind of language. He saw me and this part was made for an old white man, a really old posh English actor. And he was like, I like this guy. So he called me in for an audition for it and I got the part and I played King Lear, which is really a part you’re supposed to play when you’re like 60 something, you know at the end of your career. You know it’s reserved for like old retiring white actors. So when it was this young black guy playing it, and not only the fact that I’m black, it wasn’t even that, it was the fact that I was 23 when I played it and I became the youngest person ever to play that role, to play King Lear. That was my first job out of drama school, and was definitely a building block in my career, going on. And it was something that I’m very proud of.

Q3: Do you write?

Nonso: Yeah, I do, I do write a little bit, sometimes I find myself keeping a diary if I’m doing something interesting. Like with ‘Cass’, I was kind of sometimes writing stuff down, just ideas that came to me and stuff about my experiences of the movie. But I didn’t keep a detailed one. The reason why I didn’t keep a detailed one on ‘Cass’ was because it was full on every day. Because you’re morning to night. You wake up four-thirty, pick up five-thirty. You don’t really have time. But with Othello, I did Othello. Once you’ve done the rehearsal period, you’ve got the whole day, and then you do the show in the evening. So I had time to kind of think and reflect of what is going on in my life. So I really, when I get time like that I really like to write and especially when I’m being creative. I’ve got an idea for a school play. I’m definitely working on school plays as well as theatre. I really like science fiction. A lot of people wouldn’t think so but I was into Star Trek a lot and I like that kind of thing.

Q4: So why this film and what was so special doing it?

Nonso: I remember being approached by Jon and Stefan and they said, we’ve talked to everybody and we feel that you might be somebody that could possibly fill this role because we’ve looked at everybody and there’s not many people we can say that could play Cass, and I remember the whole kind of football violence in the 80s period, I grew up in that. I didn’t experience it because I didn’t have anybody take me to football matches when I was younger. You know I grew up with my Nigerian mother and going to football matches was more for white people more than black people in those days. That’s why you were so unusual a character. So as soon as they gave me your book and I read it, I thought, this story is unique so I didn’t see it as just another part. To me, Cass is a big life moment – I saw it as that as soon as I saw the book to be honest.

Q5: Do you remember and we went to watch West Ham v Bolton 2007.

Nonso: Yeah, yeah, we went down there. And it was basically the day you spent with us, you did a walk with us and did a talk on your past what it was like after the game. It was the first time you did it with me. You’d done it with a few other people obviously like Jon on the DVD, but it was really about just getting to know you. And the first time I felt relaxed straight away, I didn’t feel like – at first I thought, oh God is he going to see me as someone that, you know, is he going to see me as someone who doesn’t want to play him and I was thinking all kinds of different things were going in my head. But then I just thought you know what, just relax and as soon as I saw you I relaxed and it was just cool. And also for me it was just another sign. All the way through shooting there’s been like little signs. Like also there was another decision maker for me. I didn’t have to make, the decision was made for me, was when you said – Nonso! When they won, basically West Ham had to win to stay up. And when they won I was like, well that’s a sign for me. I’m a big believer in like the universe and things don’t happen for no reason. You meet people for a reason, or some things happen for a reason. If something bad happens to you, sometimes bad things happen and that’s just the way it goes. But sometimes bad things can happen to you because you did something bad. Or good things can happen to you because you’re giving out good energy. And I’m a believer in that kind of flow of the universe. Sometimes you sit back and you go, yeah. You can’t explain it but you just appreciate it, you just appreciate that that’s the way the world works, it’s the circle of life or whatever you want to call it. And for me that day over West Ham was a key day. I just went, yeah, this one’s gonna happen and it’s going to be great. And you know little did I know how tough it would be during the weeks of filming.

Q6: How did you find working with the cast and director behind ‘Cass’?

Nonso: Well I think it’s definitely the best film experience I’ve had, definitely. It was something where I’ve learnt the most. When you have to lead anything, you have to lead any company, lead any cast, lead any firm, I imagine that when you have to be a leader, you’ve got emotions and you have to pull it out your arse somehow. You have to get it out there, you have to say, right I’m here and I’ve got to do it, and that’s exactly what you have to do. But when you’ve got a cast and a director of people that we have in ‘Cass’ it’s 100% much more easier. They made it so, I mean Jon is the kind of director that, he doesn’t bash you for getting it wrong, he doesn’t bash you. He just tries to steer you in the right direction. A lot of directors would, if you do something wrong or you mess up the take, they’d get really pissed off. With Jon, it was just okay then, I’m not feeling the way you do that now. Let’s just think about something else and he’ll give you a little idea of what you could do next or how to get that in the character. He’s a great coach with character as well, like keeping your character. Sometimes I’d slip into a more modern London accent and he’d be like, no, no, I’m not taking that take, I want Cass, I want Cass out of you. And that was, to me, that was a very big factor in keeping the feel of the character, keeping it constant. It was Jon. I mean I did a lot of work but he kind of – you know like when you just make a cake. He was just holding it and making sure it didn’t fall over. Because you’ve got to keep making sure it looks nice – and he framed it. Basically I did it, I created a character, but he framed it just nice. Also, the rest of the cast, I mean obviously Gavin and Leo were flipping brilliant to work alongside them.

You literally bonded straight away. Because most of the time we were in our trailers together just having a good laugh. And when we went out to set it was a continuation of what we had off set but with different actors. It was great, but it was a real natural bond.

Q7: We’re coming away from ‘Cass’. What’s lined up film wise that we’ve not seen you in? Anything interesting lined up?

Nonso: Well, there’s a couple of things.Yeah, I’ve got a little bit coming out in Mike Leigh’s new movie, and it’s called Happy Go Lucky. It’s about a girl who’s got a really positive mental attitude on life and it’s about a few days in her life. She goes to the doctors, it shows her at work, it shows her with her family, and it shows her with her friends. And she meets lots of different people. I play a guy called Ezra King who’s an osteopath. It’s a very little role but I had to take the opportunity to work with Mike Lee because he’s a world renowned, literally a world movie director. I mean a lot of his movies have won really various awards all over the world. Actors that have been in his movies have won Oscars, the acting is so real. And what you don’t realise when he does his films, a lot of it is improvised and he does it. I wanted to have that experience, because I want to do a film where it is going to be really difficult and different. And I like a challenge, I like anything that makes you feels, whoa that’s what I want to do, I want a piece of that. Everybody in the movie that you see, near enough everybody was working for like six months with Mike Leigh, developing their characters, developing intricate details about their background. And can we have a character, like I’m studying you for Cass, but you’re real, so I have to know everything about you for real. But we imagined up this character, Ezra, and he a girlfriend, family. We talked about his grandparents, his great grandparents, his sisters, his aunties, uncles; we made a whole family tree. History of where he went to primary school, secondary school, you know university. So all of that stuff. And exactly where he came from and every week we’d meet up and had to go through little exercises and bits and really build up this character. And for me, that was a great ... in a way it was a real beautiful thing. So I got a bit in that.

And I think I’ll work with Joe Wright again, he’s the guy who directed ‘Atonement’ and he’s on to me for another project that he’s making after the one he’s filming right now. In ‘Atonement’ I play Corporal Frank Mace in Dunkirk. It was a real challenge and before I did that part I really did a lot of research into black soldiers in the Second World War and really just wanted to get it right, because I think it’s important. And it’s important with things like that, as a lot of people were there. Everybody in the Commonwealth was involved in the war and their stories have not been told. What was even more interesting about this was he was British born and he was British at that time. A lot of people don’t even think of the British black population that were alive and well at that time and involved in the war. Everybody thinks that there were no black people. Well in fact black people have been here since Roman times, since the founding of the country. I actually found some footage of a black man on Dunkirk beach itself and there was a really tall big black soldier. It was really funny to see because people who doubt it, the film footage is right there which I think is important. It’s important to get people to think and go, oh a black person. That doesn’t make sense to me. Why doesn’t it make sense to you? Because it’s not been shown to you, because a lot of people rely on what they see from the television, from films, as their guide to what the world is like. So when you actually see it, it changes your view of what is actually true and false. And that was very important. Even though it was a small role, I think it was incredibly important. I’ve also got a bit coming out in a Guy Ritchie directed film called Rock and Roller, which is a new movie coming out towards the end of the year. I play a character called Think Tank or The Tank. It’s a film about a bunch of East End gangsters and they are after the best way they can make money. Basically he goes out and the guy who’s playing a character called One Two is the actor Gerard Butler, who was in 300, the Spartans, he was the lead guy in that. And basically they need to make money. They get hold of this painting and then it gets robbed off them. And then they need to find this painting because it’s obviously on the underworld market. And so they need to go to the Think Tank. He’s the guy that knows everybody, he’s the guy that knows everybody on the street, and I’m that guy. So he’s like, right you’re the guy I want to talk to; you’re the one who tells us how to do it. And I’m like, no problem mate; I’ll find your painting for you.

Q8: As a British actor what issues do you feel could be improved in your industry? You know, this stereotyping black people in roles like you see in TV soaps. First they don’t have a black family in a working class, run down community or whatever. Then they do have a black family, they’re automatically stereotyped straight away instead of people getting on and living normal lives. Do you feel this yourself?

Nonso: I think essentially it’s not really bad. I think the sort of opportunities they put out there could definitely improve. There’s far too many of this kind of new urban thing with gun violence and not every young black boy is involved with guns, runs or talks like that. There are a lot of black people that do well for themselves; there are a lot of black people that don’t. In terms of improving the industry, I think that could definitely be improved but the thing is, how do you get round it. As an actor you train really hard to prove you can act and when you’re given those roles to play it’s like it’s the only thing you can play. That’s why I thought ‘Cass’ was such a beautiful message, because it’s just totally different. Nothing has ever been done like ‘Cass’ in this country before, ever. It’s the first film of its kind. So people need to recognise that, I’m not just saying that because I’ve played Cass, this is the first of its kind and I really, really hope that it gets what it deserves because at the end of the day it is, it’s a first, it really is a first. That is one of the important things that needs to get pushed properly.

Q9: Let’s hope it inspires different things to come out of that. Favourite films, and most remembered great film moments?

Nonso: Well I like lots of different films. I love films, that’s why I’ve always wanted to get involved in cinema. Godfather I and II, Colour Purple, Gladiator – those films are like in my top, they’re my top films. I just think they’re perfect, they’re almost perfect films. The Colour Purple was probably the first film to ever make me cry. Have you seen like the scene when Danny Glover’s beating Lennie’s sister and throwing stones at her. Heartbreaking, heartbreaking. And it’s just, oh amazing. The first time I went, wow that is the kind of stuff I want to do. Godfather I and II to me is just the perfect, they’re beautiful, classic. And then Russell Crowe in Gladiator for me, I think he was robbed when they didn’t give him the Oscar for it because I thought he was perfect in that. If you notice from back in the day of all those Ben Hur, Sparticus classics till then they’d never brought out like a sort of huge sort kind of Roman movie until then. And that was like 2000 wasn’t it. And it had never been done until that point. And to do that film and to do it as well as they did. And for him to play it the way he did, well.

Q10: Right. And who do you most admire in the industry?

Nonso: There are a lot of people; there are a lot of people I admire. I admire people who’ve come before me in the industry. James Earl Jones, I loved him as an actor. I love Denzel Washington. Kevin Spacey – a lot of his older stuff that he did, like American Beauty and stuff like that, I really liked, Usual Suspects. I love Al Pacino, Al Pacino in Scarface. I tend not to have idols, but I love bits that people do really because I respect that, when you go, that’s good acting. Because you can see them in another film and it won’t be good. You know when you kind of just go, yeah, that bit. Scarface, Al Pacino.

Q11: I’ve asked everyone else, so come on, North London boy. Your football team’s Liverpool, but you’re a London man right. You’re not going to win the title and Liverpool’s been a talking point this season gone right. Are the fans with the Board or are they not with the Board? Do they want the Yanks out and the manager, you know. Is he a dead man walking or is he...

Nonso: I think they should stick behind Raphael because everybody goes through a slump; there are always ups and downs. But this down is not as bad as it could be. I just think he’s going to deliver.

Cass: Do you think he understands the English game?

Nonso: I think he does.

Cass: He’s got a great record with the cups.

Nonso: Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Cass: He tinkers about in the English game and I think he knows European football but not the English football game and I will go as far as saying you can never win the league here, all that tinkering.

Nonso: Yeah. No but I do believe that he is going to deliver. If we give him another season I reckon he’ll do it but if you let him go, who do you get?

Cass: What’s his name – Fernando Torres. You can’t take players off and tinker about with quality players like that. They’ve got to form striker relationships just look at the difference now he’s playing a settled team.

Nonso: Yeah, that’s true, that’s true. It was bit disappointing against Man United.

Cass: And the board business drama this year, do you think the new board has wrecked the chances of the team or do you feel comfortable with developments of the ongoing boardroom saga.

Nonso: Well it is more about football than it is about money and it is about what you can bring into it. As long as the manager’s given autonomy as to who he can bring into the side – as long as he’s given his budget and he can do whatever he wants with it, whoever the manager’s going to be.

Cass: So what’s your strongest moan this season as a Liverpool fan or are you happy with the season?

Nonso: My strongest moan? Well the fact that we’ve been hovering around No. 5 and 6 for like the longest time. I mean we should be in the top three, ideally.

Cass: So he’s not been performing.

Nonso: I would say that’s a general moan that we are drawing more than we’re winning and we’ve lost too many as well.

Cass: Who are your favourite Liverpool players?

Nonso: I’ve always admired Gerrard but I would say Torres at the moment, definitely, he’s my favourite player.

Cass: All time Liverpool?

Nonso: All time? John Barnes, all time player closely followed by Kenny Dalgleish and Ian Rush.

Cass: And you’ve always had them, Liverpool. You’ve always had them haven’t you? Always had top strikers.

Nonso: Yeah, definitely.

Q12: Well finally big man, we’ve walked own Green Street, had a prawn sandwich on your day out. You also walked into the Cockney Rejects gig. Both can be considered West Ham days out. So what were the experiences like for you?

Nonso: For me, going to West Ham was a nice day out because it was a real positive one. It was a high note as well; we’re all getting to know that part of London. Because I’ve never really done that walk. I don’t think I’ve ever walked past the stadium in my life, yeah; it’s a really nice stadium. But actually to go in and sit in the VIP bit, it was a really nice experience as well. And to have the team win was an even better experience. And just the buzz. You get to see what the buzz is like on a football day. It was a Saturday, so to see how it builds up, to actually see your stall, well your son’s stall to see how that all works. And to see the market. It almost feels as though it’s a little bit in a time capsule, the place. Like it’s a little pocket of London that you can tell hasn’t changed for a while or isn’t going to change. It’s just like, we are the way we are, leave us alone kind of thing. The Rejects thing was a whole another ball game. That was amazing. We walked into this place and it was the first time I met – Gavin Brocker, as he was at the Rejects, yeah.I also remember the look on Leo’s face, when we went in there the Mean Fiddler and it was just the most amazing experience. You walked in, it was dark, skinheads everywhere, just like somewhere I would – like the worst nightmare for me, like it was being plunged in at the deep end of this my worst. Cass is looking at me, this is alright here, and this is what we do. And I was like what am I getting in to. People just looking at you like, okay who’s this guy. It’s almost like when you’re with Cass you’re all right. So we walked in and then people just going nuts on the stage especially obviously famous tunes like I’m For Ever Blowing Bubbles. But when the big tunes came on, people started just pushing and pulling, it was like a riot, like you’re getting ready for a war. You jumped in. I was like, what the – it was going mad. People – just tribal madness. Because it was so alien to me. Once I’d been through it, once I’d seen that, I was okay. Now I know what I’m getting into. I could kind of see where we’re at. Okay if I can deal with this, I can deal with this. I was walking out thinking shit, so it was an eye opener. It’s something I don’t think I’ll ever forget. No, it was a real taster. You literally have to have your eyes about you because I was right in the middle of it. That’s when I felt yes, I’m taking on real role of Cass. So when those Stoke guys went mental later on the fight scene set of the movie, and I didn’t run or anything, I just fucking stood there and said, fuck it let’s have it.

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