JACK O’CONNELL

‘I THINK I STILL DO FEEL LIKE AN OUTSIDER, TO BE HONEST’

Since finding fame as one of Skins’ breakout graduates, Jack O’Connell has been renowned for bringing a raw intensity to his roles. Next up, he’s channelling that charisma in Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, playing the legendary singer’s troubled partner Blake Fielder-Civil. ‘I don’t think you stop learning,’ he tells Total Film. ‘New challenges are always welcome.’

When Total Film catches up with Jack O’Connell in February, he’s on an uncharacteristically chilled break. ‘I’m just in Italy, in the mountains,’ he explains.

‘Just frolicking around in the snow.’ Not exactly what you expect if you’re familiar with his on-screen work, which frequently has a ferocious edge.

After doing classic Brit TV staples (The Bill, Holby City), O’Connell showed early promise in the likes of This Is England and Eden Lake. Born in Derbyshire in 1990 to an Irish father and English mother, O’Connell almost pursued a career in football before he found drama, his working-class roots making him something of a rarity in the British acting scene. His big break came with Skins, E4’s talent hotbed that had already launched the careers of Dev Patel, Daniel Kaluuya and Nicholas Hoult when he joined Season 3 as bad boy James Cook.

His film career was supercharged by a searing turn in prison drama Starred Up in 2013, followed closely by Troubles-set thriller ’71 and a Hollywood breakout in Angelina Jolie’s prestige picture, Unbroken, in which he starred as former Olympian Louis Zamperini, who becomes a prisoner of war in a true survival story. More US work followed, but he has found his best roles in recent years on the small screen, with Netflix’s wildly underrated western Godless (2017), and the BBC’s The North Water (2021) and SAS: Rogue Heroes (2022; Season 2 incoming).

Next up, O’Connell has another project that’s sure to attract a lot of attention. Back to Black - the Amy Winehouse biopic being made with the permission of the late singer’s estate - brings to the screen an indelible moment in recent British cultural history. Marisa Abela (Industry) stars as Winehouse, and O’Connell is Blake Fielder-Civil; the film examines Winehouse’s life through the prism of that all-consuming relationship. O’Connell was director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s first choice for the role and was cast first, meaning he was involved when they were testing actors to play Winehouse.

‘A good thing about those tests is, I like to approach my work openly,’ he says. ‘I like to try things, and I like to get it wrong. Getting it wrong sometimes, and figuring it out, and embarrassing yourself once or twice along the way, perhaps. Thankfully Marisa is that type of actor where she’s open, and she wants to experiment, and she wants to try things. I was really blown away by her.’

The role is a reminder of O’Connell’s potent charisma, and showcases that raw, unvarnished energy that hasn’t diminished over the near two decades he’s appeared on screen. And he’s got no plans to slow down now. ‘I’m 33,’ he says. ‘A lot of my favourite actors were turning in their best work at my age. If that applies to me, that’s something to be excited about. At the moment, that is my main ambition, to figure out what’s next, and keep churning out my best work. And hopefully I never stop, you know?’

Amy Winehouse and Blake Fielder-Civil’s lives played out across the tabloids, who were reporting on their every move. What are your memories of that time?

I just remember it feeling very ruthless, and that there was almost an acceptance in the public that that level of intrusion was OK. I think we’ve learned by now that it’s not. I like to think that by now we have a little bit of a different attitude in how we respect people’s privacy, albeit if they’re in the public eye or not.

I don’t think Amy signed up to that level of harassment. I don’t think Blake did either. It’s something I do have quite an opinion on. I guess it is a real negative by-product of the success that she had.

How did Sam Taylor-Johnson pitch her take on this to you?

The fact that it was written by Matthew Greenhalgh [Nowhere Boy, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool] was a massive draw. I love Matthew’s scripts. I think he’s one of the best writers in the country. He’s a friend. It was that, basically. [Sam] just told me that it was me she had in mind for Blake, and she hadn’t really considered anyone else for it.

I had to go away and think about it, naturally. And then I jumped on as part of the process, and I got involved in finding Amy. So I was around for chemistry reads and auditions, if you will. And that’s when we stumbled across Marisa [Abela]. I just think she does something phenomenal with this role. It’s been a real joy from start to finish.

Was it a long process to find the right person for Amy?

Not as far as I’m aware. I just kind of turned up to this meeting. Marisa was one of the actors we were looking at, and she just smacked it out of the park. It was so obviously going to be her.

How did it feel playing opposite someone who is portraying an iconic figure with a distinctive look and voice? Did you double take at all?

Yeah, daily. Even as [recently] as watching the trailers that [just came out]. I’ve seen the film, and so I was experiencing that a lot, watching Marisa’s performance. It’s been one of the biggest thrills of my career, to watch her go about her work, and adopt this role, and put the amount of graft that needed to take place on her part in order to get this right.

I just feel like she’s come from such a place of understanding that it’s really allowed her to do something really phenomenal. It was a wild, wild thrill to watch her go about her work.

Did you have any hesitation about playing someone from such a recent moment in history?

I guess so. I mean, we’re talking 20 years on. It’s still historical in that sense. It’s surprising because obviously I have lived experience of that time. That’s quite unique.

I suppose the added pressure of Blake… obviously, Blake’s still around. So, naturally, there was that. It was important to me to get on a level with him. But, I feel a lot of nostalgia for this period, and it was great to bring that to the work. I’m younger than Blake, but I remember this time.

‘I FEEL A LOT OF NOSTALGIA FOR THIS PERIOD’

I remember Camden then. I remember the music then. I remember the fashion. It was cool to be from around there. The music that was coming out of that scene was amazing. It’s still amazing today. It was amazing to apply some lived experience to the role.

What was it like meeting Blake?

The meeting initially for me was not to go in and study him, because I think I was just going to be guided by the writing, and guided by what’s available of him out there. In terms of how he sounds tonally, and dialect, etc – that’s all out there.

I think one thing that was eye-opening to me was how much I got on with him, and how much I felt I could relate to him. Obviously, I didn’t have any preconceived notion that that would be the case, but I came away from the meeting just feeling like he was the type of geezer that I’d already met, or the type of fella that I already knew anyway.

I guess I put that down to the environment that he came up in, and being able to relate to that. You know, he likes his football. He’s a very devoted father.

I definitely, definitely got the sense that his love for Amy was very genuine. These were all bonuses. These were all things I didn’t even hope to acquire, but, having done so, [they were] invaluable to me in informing how I was going to portray him.

Have you spoken to him since? Has he had the chance to see the film?

We talk about football. He’s a Millwall fan, I’m a Derby County fan. All our interactions consist of football chat [laughs].

You came to fame at a pretty young age. Were there any aspects of their story that you related to?

I don’t think I ever attracted the kind of attention that Amy or Blake did. I definitely remember them being quite frequently in the news cycle at that time. There might be similarities, but they’re definitely distinct. I think there are certainly levels to it.

I didn’t have hordes of paparazzi loitering outside where I was living, trying to take pictures of me either looking good or looking bad deliberately, or just trying to spin stories, be it true or false. I’ve never had that, and, touch wood, I never will, because it appears to be fucking dreadful.

You’ve played real people a few times across your career. Does that change your approach at all, compared with a fictional character?

I’d like to think it was still the same. You’re still diligent. There is still that want and hunger to get it right, and the want to study, or what have you. I suppose it all depends on how much you feel the public already know about the original, and whether that sort of limits what licence you have, and how much detail you can invent, or how much detail you have to just recreate.

What is it you tend to look for in a role these days, and has your approach to what you’re looking for changed much since you started out?

I think so, definitely. The more you do it, the more you learn. In my case, there’s been a lot of learning on the job, and I don’t think you stop learning. New challenges are always welcome. They’re always exciting. But I think what remains the same is that I was told from a young age to be considerate as to what I’ve just done, and hope that what you do next brings a different inflection, and brings a different set of challenges and requirements.

That’s why, whether it’s TV, film or theatre, it can be enjoyable to bounce off one, and then straight off into another. If they are different, then that’s thrilling.

Do you remember when it first struck you that you could make a living this way?

It still is the dream to be doing this for a living. Not many people get to do this, where I’m from. I count myself incredibly fortunate. I think when I initially started to believe it was possible was when I got into the [Televison Workshop] in Nottingham, because careers had been developed from there previously, and so it was proven that it could be done.

I got into that workshop when I was 13. Whereas any experiences with drama before that might have just been fucking about at school, and just an hour where you weren’t sat at a desk.

It was great that drama was compulsory at my school, and so we had to do it.

I enjoyed it, and got referred to the workshop in Nottingham. I guess that’s when I started thinking, ‘Hold on, there’s a chance I could have a pop at this, and make it happen.’

When you started out in acting, did you feel like an outsider because of coming from a working-class background?

I think I still do, to be honest. To be fair, I think there’s always that. It’s not typically a working-class vocation. So that is omnipresent. I think any other workingclass actor would agree. That’s just the way it is, you know? It’s something to be proud of, I think.

Have things improved since?

I think diversification is apparent, and, you know, I want to believe that diversification is happening. But I don’t think that things are any easier for people from a workingclass background now – not compared to when I started out. If anything, I think there were more roles and more opportunities when I was starting out than there are at this current moment in time. For example, where I trained, the school that made drama compulsory, can’t afford to do that any more. They took drama off the curriculum about 10 years ago. It starts there, really, doesn’t it? Opportunities, and getting into the industry. All I’ve seen is those channels cease to exist. And you would have thought it would have gone the other way.

Working with fellow Midlander Shane Meadows on This Is England must have been a formative experience?

Oh my God, yeah, totally.

That was my first film, and Shane’s way of working was very improvised, and very spontaneous. I don’t think any of us really knew the narrative. I don’t think Shane did until he got into the edit. It was a great way to work. It was quite difficult, then, to understand what a script was after working with Shane… I look back on that experience very, very fondly.

What else felt like big turning points in your career?

It’s hard to think of one, definitely. Of course, meeting Angelina [Jolie, director of Unbroken] was very influential – that kind of opened things up in the States for me in a way that probably wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t met her. But, you know, I think focusing on the here and now – I think every job you do is defining in some way. It’s looking out for the next one. I think you’re only as good as your next one.

Skins was established by the time you joined, but it has proven to be such a crucible for young talent, with so many cast members who have gone on to do great things. What do you attribute that success to?

I think that a lot of it was how it was cast. And now we’ve seen the Skins cohort go out and achieve brilliant things in the industry since then. It appears, coming out of it, that it’s been available to a whole new generation now. People will still approach me and want to talk about Skins, which I love, because I’m immensely proud of that show. It lives on, and I think that’s a testament to the great writing that we had. Skins employed a lot of young writers. I think it made things more authentic on the page.

I jumped onto Skins when it was already two seasons in, so it was already this thing. Another great time. Another thing that I look back on and feel immense pride for.

‘EVERY JOB YOU DO IS DEFINING IN SOME WAY’

Starred Up was another big moment. Did you sense that when you were looking at that job?

It felt good while we were making it, for sure. Again, it was quite a relaxed approach with the script and with the dialogue. It was very loosely structured, so we could bring our own interpretation, and no two takes, really, were the same.

What was amazing about that was, because we had the one location – Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, and obviously it’s set in London – we just had freedom to shoot what we wanted, when we wanted. So we kept it chronological. We shot that story pretty much start to finish, which is unheard of. It’s a great luxury if you can afford to have it. We obviously benefitted by just having one location to arrange for the whole shoot, which is, in itself, a rarity.

It felt really good while we were making that, and I’m not surprised that it did as well as it’s done.

You’ve gravitated towards a lot of intense roles. Do you find that stuff hard to shake, or can you leave it behind at the end of each day?

Not at the end of each day. I think when you’re in it, you kind of stay in it, to a degree, especially if you’re on location, and you’re not going home – you have the opportunity to stay in it. And that’s great, because you can then just bounce into the next day. You’re kind of already there. That’s an amazing sensation.

But whether they’re intense or not, it’s nice to stay in that. I think at the end of a job, you put it away, and you say ‘ta-ra’, and you go and do whatever you need to do. Being on a roll is great. Bouncing off one job straight into another - that’s also great. It’s just staying at it, because it is a muscle. It’s important to keep it up, whichever way you can.

Did you ever get intimidated when you started working with big US names like Angelina Jolie, Jodie Foster, George Clooney, and Michael Mann more recently?

I do, yeah. I get nervous. I think the first day on set – the biggest ones especially – there’s always nerves. And I think that does apply when you’re working with big names, big titans, big heavy-hitters. That just comes from a place of earnestness, and wanting to deliver.

The nervousness is definitely there, and it’s something you feel. But you have to use it to your advantage, and you have to use it as another source of energy. And then eventually that subsides. Eventually, you get comfortable, and that subsides. And then you’re in a place where you’re out of your comfort zone.

One of the things I like best about this job is to throw yourself into an environment that you don’t necessarily know or feel comfortable in, and then to find your feet. You sink or swim.

‘THE FIRST DAYS ON SET THERE’S ALWAYS NERVES’

Do you try to balance projects based in the UK with those in the US?

I guess so. It’s what’s speaking to me at the time. Currently I’m looking at plays because I haven’t done theatre for quite a while. That’s where my focus is at the moment.

I love working out there, and I love working over here. What’s great about this job is that it’s all over the place. You can find yourself in these really amazing locations that you’d have never got to see. You make decisions in real time based on, ‘What is speaking to me?’

Talking of locations, The North Water took you to extremes. Did you relish filming in those freezing conditions?

I look back on it today and it blows my mind where we were. It was challenging, for sure, but I was feeling hugely fortunate. Not many people get to go up to the Arctic, and get to shoot, and make a series there. It was great, yes, and the people that we had on board as well on that – it just added to the enormity of that experience. Colin [Farrell], Stephen [Graham], all the lads involved. Andrew Haigh directing.

It’s another thing I look back on in sort of disbelief. We were living in cabins on this icebreaker ship. There were some evenings where we’d finish shooting, and we were getting some shut-eye, and the ship was on a voyage, off to our next location somewhere with more ice. We were constantly chasing ice. It was not something I ever pictured myself doing.

The reality of it was mind-blowing.

You’ve not done much blockbuster franchise material. Has that been a conscious choice?

Just the way things have shaken out. There’s never been a conversation where I’ve turned around and said, ‘Look, I don’t want to do that.’ There’s no exclusivity involved there. It’s just literally the way it’s shaken out. The jobs I’ve ended up doing are ones that we’ve taken on board at the time, decisions we made at the time.

Again, there’s never been any real want to pursue that either.

Have you ever had any auditions for superhero stuff that hasn’t worked out for whatever reason?

[Laughs] No comment.

Your name’s often on lists of potential James Bond actors. Is that something that would appeal?

I mean, listen, if something like that comes my way, sure. I’d just treat it the same way: I’d read it, see who’s directing. Do they want me? Cool. Let’s chat. Is the script belting? Then cool. OK, let’s definitely chat.

It’s not something I’m going to turn my nose up at. I’m sure there’s a long, long list. I’m sure that list is highly competitive, and I’m sure that there are some phenomenal actors being considered for it.

If I’m somewhere along that list – brilliant. That, in itself, is an achievement. But, again, a lot of that stuff – as you find with quite a lot in this industry – is out of my hands. You just roll with the punches.

Would you be nervous of any project on that kind of scale, with the level of global fame that would come with it?

I suppose, yes, it is something to consider. But I guess by now it’s just part and parcel of what you do. If something you’re in is really that successful, then that’s great. If loads of people have taken to it, and have enjoyed it… I’m an actor. That’s the point.

I don’t know. To answer your question properly, I think you’ve got to have something other than that. I think this is important for any artist. There has to be something that takes you out of that, that you can escape from and be without that. I don’t think that’s why we make things. We make things to tell stories, and to move people along the way. Any of the other stuff that you’re referring to, I think is secondary. But, yeah, of course it would make you nervous. Of course it would.

Do you stay off social media to help maintain a degree of privacy?

I’ll be candid, man – I’m not on social media because I just can’t be arsed. I just can’t be arsed with having something that lures me like that, to scroll at it, and to gawk at it. It’s not for me, man. That’s all I can say.

Looking ahead, you’ve got Series 2 of the BBC’s SAS: Rogue Heroes coming up. What can we expect?

I think the same again. I think it’s belting. I think it’s a good, honest telling of these lads. Stephen Woolfenden is directing it this time. I’ve seen it. I love it. I can’t wait for people to see it. I had a lot of fun on that job. A lot of fun. It’s tough, but it has to be. Playing Paddy Mayne is good fucking fun. I was over the moon with how [Series 1] got received, and obviously it’s a Steven Knight script, isn’t it? We’ve got everything going for us when that’s the case. He’s delivered again. I hope that we have.

Are there any films or shows of yours that you’re really proud of but didn’t get seen as widely as you might have hoped?

Oof. I don’t know. I’d probably feel like a dickhead saying it, you know? There’s not a job on my resume that I’m not proud of, and that’s a great position to be in. I’d point to every one of them, and feel a level of fondness about it, and feel very justified as to why we made that. That is right up until this present day. I think the easy answer to that is all of them.

And finally, any roles or genres you haven’t tackled yet that you’d love to?

There are definitely directors out there, and there’s definitely actors out there that I’m eager to work with, more so than any particular genre. I wouldn’t want to jinx it [by naming names], but the list is long. I’m very keen to tick them off.

BACK TO BLACK OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 12 APRIL.