With 'Dead Man's Shoes' star Paddy Considine tipped to step into a famous pair of old size nines Empire asks...
Is this the next Robert De Niro?
Words Mark Dinning, Portrait Paul Ryder.
When Paddy Considine was 17 years old God came to visit him one afternoon in the park. Considine, who was magic-mushroomed up to the eyeballs at the time, was well aware that God worked in mysterious ways. What he hadn't realised was quite what a colourful vocabulary the Big man had at his disposal. "Have a panic attack, you cunt", said God. "Let's see how you fucking deal with that."
Not surprisingly, this was the last time that Considine now 31, ever touched drugs. It was also the first of three key moments that have defined his life to date. The third and most recent was the birth of his son, Jack. The second was meeting Shane Meadows.
Having hooked up in college and started a band together - with, if we're being perfectly honest, the sole intention of getting laid - the pair swiftly became best friends, so, when Meadows came to cast the part of council estate loner Morell in his A Room for Romeo Brass (1999), he needed to look no further. Considine, who had tried his hand at photography and roofing but was now on the dole, needed just seven words from Meadows to convince him to make his acting debut: "This is your Johnny Boy." And boy, was he right.
Ever since, Considine has busily established himself at the high end of the British film industry. (Last Resort, 24 hour party people), and last year broke his duck over the pond, with his terrific portrayal of a grieving Dad in In America. "The thing is," he says, "I didn't think about a dead kid once whilst making that film. All I was thinking about was my father, who had just died. I was really fucking depressed."
Whatever the motivation, his performance brought him too the attention of Ron Howard and Russell Crowe - who consequently cast him in the upcoming 'The Cinderella Man' - and sealed his reputation as either (depending on who you ask) 'Britain's Hottest New Talent' or 'The New Robert De Niro'. Maybe it's both.
He can shun the comparison with Bobby all he likes, but this month they will gather momentum with his part in Meadows' latest, Dead Man's shoes. As Richard, an ex-solider returning home to take revenge against a gang of thugs who have corrupted his simple-minded younger brother, he is once again a revelation - cold, vicious and terrifying. If Morell was his Johnny, then just wait until you meet his Travis Bickle.
"You know when someone belittles you, but you're too shocked to do anything about it?" says Considine. "And then maybe a week later you'll think, 'Why the fuck didn't I smash his face in?' Well, that's what Richard's like, except he's lived with those thoughts for so long, he simply can't not act on them anymore. Anger is in his bones. "I can identify with that. And I need to. It sounds really actor-wanky, but if I don't have genuine emotional investment in a part, then it won't. I'm not some fucking dummy. If you want a bloke who'll turn up and bang out some data and coordinates for you in some sci-fi bollocks, then don't be phoning me."
That's not to say Considine hasn't made his mistakes. There was one film lately, for example, in which he claims to have been "absolute dogshit". But then, that was his first time back at work after a "sort of emotional breakdown" left him so screwed up that he didn't think he'd be able to get on a train again, let alone in front of a camera. "ironically," he laughs, "It just happened after '24 hour Party people' - and I was the only one on set who hadn't been permanently zoomed out of their bonce!"
Now he is firmly back in his stride, there is little left to stop him. His dreams of playing Wolverine may sadly be over - "That fucker Jackman got there first" - but with The Cinderella Man pencilled in for a serious Oscar push, Considine's profile looks set to go stratospheric, "well, hopefully. All attention will be on Russell Crowe and Renee Zellwegger, of course - you know, there were only two cats with trailers on that job! -but fingers crossed, it will open me up to a wider crowd," says Considine. "Who knows, maybe Bryan Singer will see it and want me in X-Men 5. Bryan, if you're reading, I'm working on a new character called Oreo-Man. The cunt's chocolatey, but he's fucking deadly." With that sort of language, the idea was probably a gift from God.
>>> Dead Man's Shoes is out on October 1 and was reviewed last issue. Visit www.empireonline.co.uk/reviews.
