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Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. Did the reputation of English football fans, or hooligans,
travel further abroad. Was this one fo the first things you might
have associated with our game here?
Elijah: The violence? No, not really. In fact this was
actually relatively new to me. I think one of the elements that
attracted me to the oriject the most was in reading the script
it sort of talked about a side of football culture that I was
not familiar with at all. I was really fascinated by it, particularly
the sense that the people - these hooligans - are not exactly
criminals or thugs in their daily life. That sort of duality was
something that I was really fascinated by. And the opportunity
to play a character that sort of unwillingly, or unknowingly,
falls into this group and starts out very innocent but ends up
becoming one of them. I was fascinated by that as an actor.
Q. Did you feel like you were a lamb to the slaughter
when you were taken to your first football match? And do you now
consider yourself an honorary geezer?
Elijah: You'd have to ask them if I am an honorary geezer,
I don;t know...
Leo: Oh very much so, Elijah...
Elijah: Then I guess I am. A lamb to the slaughter?
It was pretty exciting, actually.
Charlie: I was probably, ironically, more of
a lamb to the slaughter than you were. I mean, you knew more about
football than I did.
Elijah: That's kind of true, ironically.
Charlie: Well I'd never watched a football game
in my life. I'm a film fan, you know. If I have 90 minutes to
spare, I'm gonna watch a movie.
Elijah: That would be the same for me as well.
But I've got a lot of English friends who are huge football fans.
So I've seen football matches and I've always wanted to go to
a football match. It was probably the greatest sport experience
in my life; I've never experienced anything like it.
I'm not a huge sports fan and nor do I support it.
Q. So what was it that immediately struck you as being
the most emotionally overpowering thing?
Elijah: It's this unified sense of the whole group of
fans for that particular team. It's so unified in their passion.
There's this completely palpable, visceral energy that you can
feel. It's unhinged, actually. It gets to the point where you
feel that something either really amazing could happen, or something
really awful could happen. That energy is unlike anything I've
ever experience. Everybody starts to sing in unison and you feel
that you're part of something special. It goes beyond sport. I
maybe making it sound glammer than it is, but that's how it feels.
From my daily life, I don't really follow sport, but there is
something amazing about going to a match. I think if I lived in
England, maybe I'd go more often.
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Q. When you were doing the
preparation, were you actually mixing with gang members? Did you
go undercover and infiltrate these guys? Did you feel threatened
at all?
Elijah: As undercover as we could be, I guess.
Charlie: When we would go to the pubs before
the matches it was very much undercover and I tried as much as
possible to look like I belonged there. But it's very difficult
when you don't know the songs and aren't true.. But Lexi made
a group of guys available to us that were there basically from
the moment we stepped off the plane, all the way through filming,
which was incredible.
And that's one of the most incredible things about being an actor
- the opportunity to have access to a world that, ordinarily,
you would never be allowed into. And Lexi is a genius film-maker
in that it's a style of direction that enabled her to make a group
of guys like that accessible to us so that we can go and then
take advantage of that and educate ourselves, rather than coming
to set with a predetermined notion of how these scenes should
exactly be and then try and micro-manage it. She planted the seeds
and then created an environment for us to go and then do what
we do.
Q. Did you get any Frodo kind of shouts from anyone when
you were in the pub?
Elijah: Oh sure. Yep. But I'm trying very hard to stay
away from that, you know. But yeah, I've been hearing that for
sure.
Q. Did participating in some of the fight sequences make
you question how you would fare in such a situation?
Elijah: Relatively poorly I imagine. The thing about
these fights is that whether or not you are a good fighter is
kind of irrelevant. Because it's mad, chaotic, swept up into a
sea of people. Even if you have incredible skill as a fighter
you'd be surrounded and overwhelmed and overcome and the best
of fights could lose in a fight like that. It's just too insane
and too chaotic. So I would say even if I thought I could fare
well, it's all dependent on the situation and how mad it gets.
It's luck, basically.
Q. Have you ever been involved in a fight?
Elijah: I've not, no.
Related stories: Our
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Feature: Lexi Alexander
defends content of film amid controversy
Charlie Hunnam interview
Marc Warren interview
Lexi Alexander interview
Leo Gregory interview
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