'Outlaw' – Danny Dyer and Rupert Friend Q&A

The stars of Nick Love's controversial new thriller talk to Chris Tilly.

Mar  7 2007

Last summer The TOMB caught up with Danny Dyer and Rupert Friend on the set of Nick Love's violent new thriller 'Outlaw'. This is what they had to say:

How's the shoot going?

Danny Dyer: Great, yeah. I've been fucking excited about this job for a while now so, you know, it came around quite quickly. I haven't had that long to ponder on it, I've just gone straight into battle off my last job.

And now we're doing it, we're nearly a month in, and what we've done, because of Sean Bean and his schedule, is we've gone straight in on the deep-end with his scenes. We're filming all the heavy fucking violent, brutal stuff first. Which is not usually the way Nick works, he likes to give you time to find your character a bit and go on the journey a bit before we get dark. But, I mean, we've gone straight in here.

And luckily we've got some fucking great actors. Everyone knows where they are, who they are and what they're doing. We had a week's rehearsal lined up but it turned into just a couple of days of talking; everyone seemed to know their game, you know? And that's the great thing about this. We don't know each other at all as actors but there are little moments between us where we're looking at each other and we've hit those marks right off. It's not about discussing it and breaking it down, it just comes naturally. It's a fucking joy.

What got you excited about it?

DD: Well it's Mr. Love, isn't it? He's my partner in crime, you know. There's nothing quite like us two in British filmmaking! Who else does that?

Nick said that casting-wise he was ditching all his regulars - and then added, 'except Danny' as a quick afterthought.

DD: Well exactly. And he didn't tell me that last part. Of course I'd have been gutted if I didn't get the call, 'cos I love him, but I'd have understood and I'd have moved on. But... Of course I'm fucking in it! He's not stupid!

What did you think when you read the script?

DD: Well I just think he's gone to another level now. It's not just about Londoners. It's not just about geezers saying 'cunt' every other sentence. Which is a fascinating thing if you do it right - it's always an entertaining thing to watch - but he's now gone for a real ensemble piece with really different characters. Each character brings something totally different to the table; it's not about cockneys running about being cockneys. It's not even about friendship; it's about strangers getting together and deciding to do something about how fucked up this country is. So that in itself is quite an amazing story.

Like I said, I didn't have a clue what it was going to be about when I took the job. All I knew was that it was called 'Outlaw' and that's it. When I read it, it fucking made me laugh, it made me cry. It was one of those scripts that really fucking excited me.

Who are the two you're playing in the film?

Rupert Friend: I'm playing a guy called Sandy who's had his face kicked in outside a club and he joins this gang so he can have some chance of getting his life back. He's lost all his confidence; he can't go back to university because of his parents. He can't face going out and he's very nervous of other people because his face has been completely mashed.

DD: I play a character who's a bit of a city boy. Hasn't had nothing drastic happen to him like Sandy but I'm just a melt, really. I don't like fighting and I can't fight so I can't really protect my bird. So I've got this whole dilemma going on in my head where I want to stand up for myself and I want to do something about it.

Sandy grows in the group, really, whereas my stuff is all away from the group. Most of the stuff we've shot I'm sort of in the background reacting off stuff. My journey - where I grow - is all away from the outlaws, when I'm with my wife-to-be.

RF: You do have that thing with your father-in-law as well.

DD: Yes, this is the thing, it's all about the world I'm living in. I'm going to marry this girl and her father doesn't like me because he thinks I'm a bit of a prick to be honest with you. He talks to me like I'm a cunt. It's just a number of things that get to me. What happens to me is I pull up at a set of lights and there's a group of lads in a car next to us. They say to me, 'Are you gonna marry that bird?' and I say yeah, to which they reply, 'You don't mind if I kick her back doors in do ya?' And I'm the sort of bloke who puts his head down. I'm an absolute cunt, basically. And then I get bashed.

Sandy's the public school boy of the film...

RF: Yeah, well I think the thing we really wanted to get was the idea that this guy had a real chance at life. He's a popular good-looking guy who plays rugby, is quite popular with girls and has a good group of friends. He's going to go to Cambridge to do politics.

It's just this simple idea that the thing everyone sees is your face. Being different from everyone else can really throw people's perception of you. In researching I looked at all of these different stories of people who've tried to commit suicide and blown their jaw off with a shotgun. People who've had their faces hacked off with machetes. They're faces you'd catch yourself just staring at on the tube.

We had it in a rave scene here actually, a group of extras who didn't know I was an actor and that it was make-up; I caught them whispering, 'Fucking hell, look at his face, what's happened to him?' It was actually a bit horrible because you think what it'd be like if it wasn't just make-up. We've tried to give the sense that Sandy is a character who's pulled completely into his shell and the idea is that the group, he realises, is destructive and is not going help him but it does give him the confidence to face up to life and say, 'Well, yes I look different but I'm not going to let it stop me living.'

DD: Tell them about your little connection with Sean's character.

RF: He's sort of an old family friend who's come back from war and back in the old days he was the only one I used to be able to connect to. He really wants me to join the group because he knows it's going to get me out of the house. He sees me joining the group as being as much about getting a group of friends as anything else. The really interesting thing for me is that you've got these four brothers who would actually do anything for you. We're not the best of friends or anything, but we support each other.

The scene we've just been shooting, where we beat up these two guys, earlier on they're walking out of a pub and this group of complete strangers ambush them and shove them into a van. Although that's horrific and that's not what this character is about, having those people do that for you is important because my character certainly wouldn't do anything about it.

The part I played before this was a big Roman epic, 'The Last Legion', and he was the one who was always in first with the punches and swords. He'd just jump into a fight and worry about it later. Whereas this guy very much stays at the back. And as you saw in the scene where he's trying to beat these guys up, he just can't do it. You think, 'What would I do?' I don't believe in revenge but, fucking hell, they've ruined this guy's life. Ruined it in just a few months.

DD: The big thing about this film, and what a lot of people are saying, if you've got a kid and your kid was nonced by someone, it doesn't matter who you are you'd say, 'Just fucking give me ten minutes with 'em.'

RF: However kind-of liberal you are and however much you might say you don't believe in an eye for an eye, when it's your kid who's been nonced, or your kid's mum who's been slashed, or your girlfriend has been smashed, are you really going to say, 'No I don't believe in violence?' You're going to slap the shit out of them given half the chance. And that's what this film does; it jogs your morals, whatever they may be. Whatever your beliefs are, it does make you think about what you'd do in that situation. I'm not a right-wing person but it makes you think, 'Yeah, if that was me I'd want to do something about it.'

It sounds like it could generate a bit of controversy then.

DD: Of course it will; it's Mr Love for a start.

RF: One way or another you're going to be passionate. You can't sit on the fence with this; you're either going to go, 'Yes that's right,' or you're going to have problems with it. And that's what film is for, you know.

DD: And you get a bit of everything with this. There's not very many light-hearted moments, though, I must say. There's no funnies at all. There's one moment of passion; I have a right lips-up with this bird, but that's it.

RF: See, I think your story's fascinating 'cos it's this thing of being stuck in this really stagnant relationship and thinking, 'I'm a young guy, this is not what I'm about. This is not my fucking game.'

It seems a lot more controversial than your roles in the past, Rupert.

RF: Well you've got to remember that I've got four films in the can you haven't seen. But yeah, controversial in terms of the subject matter, certainly. It's definitely not run-of-the-mill. But it's certainly nothing I'd ever shy away from. I think that's what it's about. If film can't stir it up once in a while then what's it doing? It's exciting.

'Outlaw' is released on Friday.

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