INTERVIEW
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Madison Drew | 30/09/2024
"Fundamentally, I do not know what I'm signing up for" is something you don't expect an actor to say about a project (unless it's a very, very strict Marvel movie, where everything is under a huge lock and key). But Skins alumni Joe Dempsie (and a massive rota of actors including Daisy Edgar-Jones and Michael Sheen) will soon find themselves on stage alone each night, with no rehearsal or director in the experimental show: White Rabbit, Red Rabbit. "I don't want to speak for everyone else that's signed up for it,"-those also signed up for the same role as Joe on different nights include Paloma Faith and Miriam Margolyes- "but I would wager that for a number of them, including me, there's something about that desire to take yourself out of your comfort zone that keeps you alive."
Joe and others will perform at @sohoplace, with 600 people watching each night. At every performance, a different actor will be on stage. They receive a script they will perform live on the spot, without rehearsal. He feels less nervous about perfecting it as the audience likes to see mistakes, something he learned from his time as a live TV channel continuity announcer.
The 37-year-old has taken himself out of his comfort zone before, noting when he starred in a movie-musical where he had to learn how to sing and prides himself on being adventurous in his acting work, which is displayed during his current roster of projects and previous work including Game of Thrones and Skins. Dempsie talks to HATC in London with two series, Get Millie Black (Channel 4) and Showtrial (BBC), set to be released shortly, and just before jetting off to the Toronto Film Festival to debut Addition, a rom-com about mathematician Grace (Teresa Palmer) who meets Seamus (played by Dempsie) in a supermarket. As they start dating, Grace must figure out her recent OCD diagnosis with herself and with Seamus. On playing the role of someone learning about a partner's mental health condition in a very new relationship, Joe notes, "[Seamus] is not some faultless guy who has all his shit together and he's in a relationship with someone, who he discovers has OCD. How does he help her navigate that? I think we tried to play it in the film, in the context of their relationship, where OCD can become a little bit like an addiction. In the early stages of the relationship, or maybe any stage of a relationship, you hear about people who are suffering from an addiction, going to great lengths to hide that from their nearest and dearest. I think you've got this perfect storm of the early days of a new relationship where all you know is that you really like each other, but you are still trying to put your best foot forward. You're both performing to a certain extent, trying to present the best possible image of yourself for that other person."
From taking on the film, the actor hopes it not only authentically portrays OCD with sensitivity and dignity whilst having those with the disorder being able to see themselves on screen, but also that many can see the character Grace's behaviour and see the signs that began her diagnosis with the condition. Talking about the diagnosis of mental health conditions becoming more common later in life, "You hear about far more people getting diagnosed with things like autism or ADHD in adult life" and the factor of masking playing a role in it: "You hear about masking, particularly in girls with autism, because all the research has been done on men, and that manifests itself totally differently. You hear about masking and how utterly draining it is, but you almost don't realise, if you're not even conscious that you're doing it, you can't acknowledge what it takes out of you and what it requires of you."
Dempsie hopes that Addition (which he will watch for the first time when it premieres at TIFF) will be a frustrating watch for viewers "where two people that really like each other start pushing each other away and eventually, it gets to the point where there is no concealing anymore and it all hits rock bottom for her.” Exploring this element of the story was fascinating for the actor. "Ultimately, to what extent does a condition like OCD have to define you? It's not even a how-to. It's Grace's story; how this character picks her way through that, picks herself up and finds a sense of peace, if not without it, then with it."
Taking on roles like these, Joe feels immense pressure in various ways in every role. He felt it when filming Addition but also with his new upcoming Netflix series Toxic Town (starring Jodie Whittaker and Aimie Lou Wood), where he felt a new, unfamiliar environment, as an actor portraying a true story about the 2010 Corby Toxic waste scandal. "I felt a huge responsibility to do that character arc justice and to make that decision [his character] made, head versus heart. It was important for me to get that right, so I put a lot of pressure on myself while filming it. As we move into the postproduction phase, I've taken a keener interest than I have maybe before with how it's all coming together and how it's being presented" he expresses.
Rewind back to 2007, the year the iPhone was born, but some may argue more importantly, British teen-drama Skins premiered on E4. It would become a massive hit with audiences, and many on TikTok are still nostalgic for the show. Dedicated fan bases are well known now, but it was all born in the early 2000s, with Skins playing a considerable part in creating massive teen fandoms. Joe starred on the show as Chris Miles with the likes of Kaya Scodelario and Nicholas Hoult, this being their first major TV role that would lead to huge things for them afterwards. "The first episode aired, and the next day, life was different for all of us," he says. Like any person's normal reaction to it, Joe at the time found it hard to embrace the enormous overnight success of being involved in such a hot show. He describes the show's excitement as "really intense," even before the first episode was released. "The ad campaign was so relentless, the house party trailer with the gossip trap playing in the background, that this ravenous young audience was waiting to watch this show. It was infamous before it even began."
The cast was the same age as their audience, all in their mad party days. Dempsie was caught between nineteen-year-old Joe and his Skins character, Chris. "I wanted to go out. My mates were all at university in various parts of the country, and I wanted to go and have mad weekends. I thought the best way to deal was if the people [wanted] Chris, then let's give them Chris. I suppose Chris isn't good for your health, but would I have been doing that anyway? Maybe."
From the amplified experience of being on Skins, he realised that level-fame was too intense for him as an actor, with his mates becoming almost bodyguards out and about whilst the show was airing, when Joe wouldn't want to let people down when wanting photos with Chris Miles. "That may have informed the kind of work I pursued for a long time. Skins was mostly character drama, and my character was mostly quite comedic. That's why I got so lucky with that role [of Chris]. I got to be the most fun and hedonistic one but then have the sad and dramatic end." Life would repeat itself as Chris was back in a huge fandom in 2011, with Season One of HBO's Game of Thrones, where he was naïve again to the enormous success the show would have. "It was HBO, which is a high watermark for TV drama, so you're going to be good, they're going to spend money on it, but I had no idea it would be the juggernaut it became. So, I guess I've had peaks and troughs of that sort of fandom, that intense fandom."
Looking back on the effect of social media on fan culture and the two major projects he has been a part of, he is at peace with it. "I've been very lucky that I've never really had people say nasty, horrible things to me, never had a period of abuse, which I think a lot of people say they've experienced," he admits. "I don't know how it would feel to experience something akin to a social media pile, and to be confronted with a lot of abuse all at once, you can convince yourself that's just the whole world. I think it's quite hard to get perspective and realise that it's always going to be just a handful of people. The intensity of a fandom has been intrinsically exasperated by the internet."
Growing up in Nottingham was vital for Dempsie for all these huge acting roles to have happened to him. His parents cared for him and his younger sister Lauren, who has cerebral palsy, and had both their best interests at heart, allowing Dempsie to pursue his hobbies as a kid. "When you have a member of the family that has such sort of complex needs, it inevitably means that to a certain degree, the family then revolves around seeing to those complex things, and I think that my parents were always keen that I didn't feel like I was being left out or didn't feel like I wasn't getting enough time or attention. I never felt like that was the case. But I think as a result of that, my parents and particularly my mum always had the barriers open to things that I might have been interested in, and she fostered and facilitated those interests. Another aspect of that might have been, if it was something like a hobby, then that means it got me out the house for a couple of hours." he says.
He started at thirteen when he auditioned for the Junior Television Workshops in his hometown, which were well-known for casting child actors outside of London. Instead of going out bowling with his mates during the school holidays, Joe went and auditioned. Although he didn't get into the programme that year, Dempsie got the acting bug after that audition: "I just got a buzz that I never had from anything else before." A year later, Joe did succeed in getting a place in the group and spent two nights a week honing his craft and building up his ambition to become a professional actor one day. He also credits the programme's accessibility for starting his acting career, which is becoming rarer to find for kids today.
To wrap up the interview, we ask Joe what now brings him joy. His immediate answer involves a scene from an episode about money and happiness from comedian Jon Richardson's docuseries, Jon Richardson Grows Up. Outside of Jon Richardson's TV shows, Joe is obsessed with iced vanilla matcha lattes, which is a relatable fixation right now. "I felt like this summer, an iced matcha latte outside in Soho has helped me reconnect with London as a city again. It's given me a lot of joy," he confesses. We end the conversation there, letting Joe continue his non-stop work tour, which will bring him back to Soho in a couple of weeks. Joe will then unfortunately not be greeted by a sweet green drink but with an envelope containing a script for him to open on stage, ready to perform it for the first time ever for not only himself, but also for the massive audience around him.
All five parts of Showtrial will be available from 6 October on BBC iPlayer.
Amongst many stars over seven weeks, Joe is set to perform in White Rabbit, Red Rabbit for one night only at @sohoplace.
Photography Chloe Maylor
Fashion Director & Styling Chloe Oldridge
Grooming Corrine Gibbons
Creative Alice Gee & Chloe Maylor
Styling Assistant Amelia Connolly
Styling Assistant Annie Grace
Look one, Jeans and Top, Gant. Jacket, Vintage Giorgio Armani. Trainers, Jak.
Look Two, Outfit, Paul Smith. Shoes, Vagabond.
Look three, Suit, Vintage Dior, Sylk store. Shoes, Vagabond.
Look Four, Jumper and Jeans, Ami Paris. Trainers, Jak.