Paapa Essiedu speaks to Yahoo UK about his journey into acting and he came to be a rising star of the British theatre, TV and entertainment scene.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 I kind of failed a lot there and I kind of failed upwards a little bit.
00:04 What was it that first interested you in acting
00:12 and brought you to the theatre?
00:14 I kind of didn't grow up going to the theatre, actually.
00:17 I probably didn't see a play for the first time
00:19 until I was about 17 years old.
00:21 And that was just because that wasn't something
00:26 that my friends did or my family did.
00:30 I kind of grew up in East London,
00:31 but there wasn't really a theatre that was that close to me.
00:35 But yeah, I went to National Youth Theatre
00:38 because I knew someone who was going there.
00:43 And that was the first time that I was surrounded by people
00:45 who were interested in these things called plays
00:48 or were interested in dissecting films or talking about actors
00:53 and what their journeys had been through
00:56 and how you can become an actor and learn about acting.
00:59 And then I ended up going to Drum School,
01:00 went to Giltwell School of Music and Drama when I was 18
01:04 and kind of failed a lot there and kind of failed upwards a little bit.
01:09 And yeah, I kind of started off working in theatre mostly
01:14 and then moved on to screen projects later on in my career.
01:17 How would you describe your first experience on stage?
01:22 My first experience on stage was kind of underwhelming in some ways.
01:31 I was playing a postman in a musical version of Pygmalion
01:35 called Me and My Girl and had loads of Cockney singing songs.
01:40 And I'm a terrible singer, so that was disappointing
01:43 for both me and the audience.
01:45 But I was playing a postman in it and had a couple of funny little lines
01:50 and a fun little scene that I got some laughs from people
01:55 who were in my school, you know?
01:57 So suddenly my social status kind of rose a little bit.
02:00 So that was exciting and thrilling.
02:04 And yeah, so I've kind of tried to recreate that feeling of newness
02:09 and spontaneity in a lot of the things I've done since.
02:14 What are your biggest achievements so far?
02:17 Obviously, you've gained critical acclaim for your role in I May Destroy You,
02:20 which you worked on with your friend and fellow Guildhall alum, Michaela Cole.
02:25 And I wondered, how did you two first meet
02:27 and how did that kind of working relationship begin?
02:30 Yeah, we met at Guildhall.
02:31 You know, we kind of met on the first day when we all got...
02:35 Weirdly, at that school, they tell you whether you got in or not
02:39 all on the same day in front of everybody.
02:41 So it's a little bit like X Factor in that sense.
02:44 But yeah, we met on that day and she kind of went to school
02:48 not far from where I grew up.
02:49 We're both from East London.
02:51 And so I spent three years kind of working.
02:53 That was our working relationship, three years kind of devising
02:56 and, like I say, failing together and playing together.
03:00 But mostly building a friendship.
03:03 And yeah, our kind of working relationship through I May Destroy You
03:07 came through quite a roundabout way.
03:10 The part was never written for me or with me in mind or whatever,
03:13 but somehow we kind of came together.
03:16 But when we started working together,
03:18 I guess because there's that kind of pre-existing love and respect
03:22 and understanding, it was just very easy and fruitful and lovely.
03:27 And yeah, I feel very grateful for having had that opportunity.
03:31 - Such a great show. - Oh, thank you.
03:34 And I wanted to ask, is there any role that you've played
03:36 that you would approach differently now?
03:38 Every single one.
03:42 It's like every single time I go back and watch anything,
03:46 I'm like, 'Oh, God, I should have done it like that.'
03:49 Or, 'I thought I was doing it like that.'
03:52 So every single one, but not in a way that means
03:54 that I would actually go back and change it.
03:57 But yeah, with everything, I'm a bit of a perfectionist
04:00 and always strive for everything to be the very best version that it can be.
04:06 And so, yeah, we'll never look back and think, 'Yeah, that was perfect.'
04:10 So every single one.
04:13 I wonder, what were the movies that you loved growing up?
04:15 And do you remember your first cinema trip at all?
04:18 My first cinema trip was to see the Flintstones movie
04:21 with John Goodman and some other people.
04:25 I don't know who else was in that movie, but it was the Flintstones.
04:28 And they weren't a cartoon, they were real people. It was crazy.
04:30 I remember seeing that when I was maybe four or five years old.
04:34 I remember seeing Batman...
04:39 The Batman with George Clooney.
04:41 I can't remember if that's called Batman Forever or Batman and Robin.
04:44 In my local cinema, which was very exciting.
04:47 But yeah, my favourite films when I was young,
04:51 I used to love the Rush Hour films with Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan
04:55 because I just thought they had amazing chemistry and they were really funny.
04:59 And I loved seeing the physicality of the actors.
05:03 I loved anything that Denzel Washington was in
05:07 or anything that Will Smith was in or Jamie Foxx was in.
05:11 So I was a real kind of lover of seeing people who kind of look like me
05:16 or look like our family on screen, about being brilliant
05:18 and being on big posters and all of that.
05:22 And what were the TV obsessions you had growing up?
05:25 When I was growing up, I loved The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,
05:31 going back to Will Smith.
05:32 I still actually love that show.
05:35 I think it's like astonishingly brilliant.
05:38 I think it's so well written, so charismatically performed.
05:41 I hate to say it, but I think it's probably the best thing that Will's ever done.
05:45 And I'm a big Will Smith fan, so that just shows how high esteem I hold that show.
05:51 I loved that. I'm trying to think of British shows.
05:55 My mum used to really love Only Fools and Horses.
05:58 So we had all the DVDs of that and I've probably seen every single one of that.
06:02 So that's a real old school English-British comedy.
06:08 David Jason and all that.
06:09 I actually quite liked a lot of that old school stuff.
06:13 I liked Fawlty Towers and The Two Ronnies
06:16 and Porridge and Open All Hours, all of that stuff.
06:21 We were really into that stuff, which now I think about it,
06:25 it feels a little bit surprising,
06:27 but I think that was probably where I started off before moving on to other things.
06:31 Is there any role that you went for and didn't get that you regretted missing out on?
06:36 Why are you trying to dredge up my trauma right now?
06:41 - It's funny. - Any roles?
06:43 Obviously, no.
06:46 Like, everything worked, but...
06:47 I remember I auditioned to be in this play with Chuito Ejia
06:53 for what was called Season in the Congo.
06:55 I can't remember how long, maybe eight years ago.
06:58 I was doing a play at the time and I had to travel from Bristol to be in London at 9am.
07:04 I was broke, so I got this coach that left Bristol at 4.30am or whatever.
07:09 Knackered.
07:10 I was like, "Let me have a coffee to wake myself up."
07:13 These times, I didn't really drink coffee.
07:15 I had this double espresso, which sent my brain insane.
07:19 I lost my mind.
07:20 So I obviously went into this audition completely wired, losing it.
07:26 Messed up the audition, didn't get it.
07:28 I think I ended up going to Daniel Kaluuya to be honest,
07:30 so I'm sure it wouldn't have made a difference otherwise.
07:32 But Chuito was, again, someone that was one of the reasons I became an actor,
07:37 someone I looked up to so much and I wanted it so bad.
07:39 I was so hold on tightly about it that there was no relaxation,
07:44 there was no ability for me to just show myself.
07:47 And that was the thing that they're looking for.
07:51 So whilst that one really hit hard,
07:55 it was a really valuable lesson to me to sometimes don't think too much
08:00 about how much you want it, just think about how to show yourself
08:05 with the person that you're working with,
08:07 because those auditions are opportunities to work with somebody
08:10 as opposed to prove yourself to someone.
08:12 You kind of touched on this earlier, but I wondered,
08:15 what was the first show or film that you saw
08:17 that you felt like you saw yourself represented on screen?
08:21 Yeah, I mean, I watched a lot of those kind of films
08:23 when I was young, you know?
08:26 And I suppose representation doesn't just go...
08:33 It goes further than my gender or my race or whatever.
08:37 So I could find myself representing...
08:40 In my head, I always thought I was going to be in Harry Potter.
08:44 Do you know what I mean?
08:45 When I was reading those books, I was like,
08:47 I'm in Gryffindor or whatever.
08:50 So I could feel versions of myself
08:52 represented in that film,
08:54 even though people didn't necessarily look like me.
08:57 But yeah, I've spoken before about Lenny James
09:01 and seeing him in a show called...
09:05 in a television film called Fallout,
09:08 which I just loved.
09:10 And not even necessarily...
09:12 I mean, there was a part of it that kind of represented
09:14 the kind of circumstances that I grew up in,
09:16 but there was something about his performance
09:18 and Emile's performance, Emile Mean's performance
09:20 in that show that really made me think about acting
09:24 in a slightly different way.
09:26 And you may think this is me going back to your trauma again,
09:29 but I wonder, what was the first film to make you cry?
09:33 The first film to make me cry?
09:35 Wow.
09:37 I cried a lot in The Lion King.
09:39 The Lion King was really probably my favourite film, actually.
09:42 It probably still is, to be honest.
09:43 The old-school Lion King, not the new one.
09:45 But yeah, when...
09:49 no spoilers, but when whatever happens to Mufasa
09:52 happens to Mufasa, that was a hard one for me to take as a youth.
09:56 So I cried a lot in that.
09:58 And I also really remember...
10:00 Did you ever see the film Beasts of the Southern Wild?
10:03 - Yes. - Amazing film.
10:04 I spoke with a live orchestra once,
10:05 and the music in that film was just so, so moving.
10:09 But I remember that broke me in half as well.
10:12 But I was a bit older by then.
10:14 It's OK to cry, though.
10:18 Were there any mentors in your life or career
10:21 that had a defining impact on you,
10:22 or who had set you on your path for acting?
10:25 Lots.
10:26 Lots of mentors.
10:27 Like, I suppose my first drama teacher at school,
10:34 who's called Mr Oliver,
10:35 was the first person to say, "You're good at this,"
10:39 or, "You might be good at this, so maybe you should try doing it,
10:45 try learning more about it."
10:47 So I got to shout him out.
10:48 But at every step of the way,
10:51 my teachers when I was at Guildhall,
10:53 or actors that I've worked with since,
10:56 I just did a play with Cobna Holdrook-Smith,
11:00 who's now mainly a friend,
11:04 but has always been incredibly...
11:07 He's just probably the most intelligent person I know.
11:10 But he's always been incredibly forthcoming with advice
11:14 and mentorship towards me.
11:16 Even when we weren't friends.
11:18 So I feel like you can find mentorship in anybody.
11:22 It doesn't have to be someone who's a four-time Academy Award winner.
11:29 There's mentorship and advice and inspiration to be found from anyone.
11:34 That's not to say that I don't think Cobna should be winning Academy Awards,
11:38 just for the record.
11:40 In fact, he should be.
11:42 This is my campaign for him to win.
11:45 We'll get started.
11:47 And I wondered if you could go back in time
11:50 and give young Papa any advice on how to change his origin story,
11:54 what would it be?
11:55 I mean, watching the Lazarus Projects,
11:58 you should be very, very careful going back in time
12:00 and meddling with anything.
12:02 But I think if ever I was to go back in time and talk to myself,
12:07 it would always be to be kinder to myself,
12:11 or to be as kind as possible to myself.
12:13 We all think their immediate moment is so important and so high stakes
12:19 and so full of jeopardy and danger.
12:20 But sometimes it is, but sometimes it's not.
12:25 And in those moments, I think it's incredibly important
12:27 to take time for yourself and be kind to yourself,
12:31 to allow things to take the time that they need
12:33 to progress in whichever way feels right.
12:39 So that's what I would tell myself, my very anxious 20-whatever-year-old self.
12:44 Straight-out guiltful.
12:46 Exactly.
12:47 (Music)
12:50 (upbeat music)
12:52 (upbeat music)