I Am Danny Dyer...
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Danny Dyer has carved a career out of playing the tough guy in iconic British films, all of which is a long way away from his humble beginnings as a rent boy, acting alongside Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect. His breakthrough role as Moff in Human Traffic won him plaudits from fellow actors as well as critics, and he has since starred alongside Daniel Craig, Gillian Anderson and Vinnie Jones. Not only confined to film roles, you may have seen him popping up in Skins as Michelle’s step-dad Malcolm. He’s currently starring in City Rats, a tale of eight individuals looking for redemption with each other. Heat’s Lucie Cave spoke to him.
heat: Were you a Mummy or Daddy’s boy?
Danny: A bit of both. They split up when I was 9, and I was a Mummy’s boy. But when my Dad left - and I think this happens to most kids - because your Dad wasn’t there, you need to blame someone. So I blamed my mother which was the wrong thing to do. But she knew I was just a kid.
h: I got different things from them; my Dad’s spent the best part of my youth being quite guilty. When he’d take me out, he’d buy me things, which maybe was the best way to deal with the situation. I needed to spend time with him. We’re quite close now, he’s not a bad person, he’s not a very social person, he’s not good at family parties and struggles with that.
D: My Mum’s the complete opposite, a complete pacifist. No racist bone in her body, and she roots for everybody. I’ve got the best parts from my Mum. My Dad is very witty and funny, so I think I have that side of him. I’ve got a sensitive side from my Mum, I cry at quite a lot of things.
h: You’re really close to your Nan and took her to the premiere of Human Traffic. What sort of influence did she have? Is there any music which reminds you of her?
D: My granddad got prostate cancer and my Nan always worked. She loves working, and she’s 80 now and is gutted she can’t work. She needs to get up in the morning and do something. So when he got ill, I looked after him whilst she went to work. I was about 13 or 14, so I lived with my granddad. That was when me and my Nan saw the worst side of nursing someone with cancer. My granddad was a big man, and in the Navy. To see him shrink to this tiny, skinny man who couldn’t even go to the toilet anymore - we went through it together. At night when he couldn’t sleep, and I had to roll his cigarettes, we had a real bond. Holding Back The Years by Simply Red reminds me of her and also my granddad, dancing around, which is a really nice image for me.
h: What were you like as a teenager and what music were you into?
D: I was naughty. I was into hard core music and raving. It was acid music.
h: Did you have white gloves?!
D: I was more a whistle nut. Or maybe a big dummy round the neck. Long greasy curtains jumping around down at Bagleys at King’s Cross. Those were the days, trying to get into the club at 15 or 16. You never knew if you were going to get in, whereas now I can walk into any club and get straight in.
h: You started acting at 14, meaning you spent a lot of time growing up on sets. Did that change you as a person? Did you have to grow up quickly?
D: I grew up quicker because I was a working for a pound note, so it gave me some independence. But I really grew up at 19, when I had a baby, and that’s when you have to really grow up. All of a sudden being an adult and a role model. That was tough. But I loved growing up working.
My first job was working with Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect, playing a rent boy. £1,500 for a week’s work, and it was just amazing. I just loved it, being a child actor. I didn’t really know whether it was a long-term thing so I just milked it for all it was worth, and relished it. Even when I wasn’t needed on set, I’d be watching, I was a bit of a ‘set pig’ as they call it! “Go home you wee thing, you’re still on the set” I’ve known a few set pigs, believe you me.
But for me at that age, it was more about learning the process. It’s such a technical thing, it really is, it’s just as important as learning the lines. The technical side, how to flirt with the camera in the right way, that’s what it’s about. You have to flirt with the camera but not take any notice of it even though it’s the most important thing in the whole room. And hitting your mark, and not overlapping each other’s lines, it’s very technical.
Because I didn’t go to drama school, it was fascinating to me. I never knew when I’d get my next job, I thought I was lucky, that I might have to go and find something else to do. Thank God that wasn’t the case.
h: Is there any music which you’d listen to, to get into character?
D: It depends really. I did a movie call Straightheads with Gillian Anderson, a really dark film. I played someone who meets Gillian and on a night out we get rammed off the road by these three guys, who rape her and batter me so badly that I lose an eye. The film is basically a revenge film, we don’t go the police and instead find out who these people are and take revenge on them.
I’m just in such a bad place in this film; I’ve got one eye, and I feel guilty ‘cause I couldn’t protect her. So I’d listen to a bit of The [Sex] Pistols – Never Mind The B******s, ‘cause it’s dark music. The anger and the hate in some of it helped me.
h: Have you got a career high so far? What song reminds you of the high?
D: Probably working with Harold Pinter. It doesn’t get better than that. I realise how lucky I am. We lost a great man. He was a real influence on my life. I didn’t actually know who he was when I first met him and he gave me a part in a play, which has actually given my career real credibility.
I know a lot of people have got a lot of hate towards me, people saying he’s just the same thing, he’s not a proper actor. But I’ve actually done Pinter at the National Theatre. I did No Man’s Land; and on Broadway (Lincoln Centre) I did Celebration, which was the last play he ever wrote. He wasn’t a father figure to me, but he took me under his wing and I learnt a lot from that man.
h: Your family means a lot to you - what was it like when you’ve had to spend quite long periods of time away from your kids? Is that hard?
D: It’s the toughest part. It’s a very lonely job. You travel on your own, you stay on your own; you need to like your own company. If you don’t, then you’re in the wrong game. The acting part of it is easy, it’s the whole idea of waiting around all day, just waiting for your call and you’re pent up, putting your energy in the right place. That’s the key to acting for me, is being able to turn your emotion on and off like that. It’s very important that you do that.
So when I’m away from my mob, as I call them – my girls – it’s tough, I have to shut away, I can’t think about them too much. I have my moments obviously, but it would drive me insane. It’s harder for them, especially for my little two year old, who follows me around. She’s obsessed with me. I love it though. She never knows, when I’m going out the door, whether I’m coming back in half an hour or three months. That’s quite tough for her, but that’s the game I’m in. That’s the reality and there’s nothing we can do about it. I take them with me as much as I possibly can.
h: You’ve been together with your missus Jo since you were 14. That’s ages! Do you remember your first kiss?
D: We used to go to a place called The Shipman Youth Centre, in Canning Town. We met in school, but that was where we had our first kiss. That was a big moment! Our first kiss was actually in a shoot room – like a dustbin room. It’s pretty disgusting, not the most romantic of places.
h: If and when you do actually tie the knot, what would be your first dance?
D: It’s all about her. It’ll be her song, I’m not gonna bother saying, ‘cause whatever I say it doesn’t really matter. But I’d have The Fear – Ian Brown!
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