David Hayman interview The Hatton Garden heist, home and humanitarian aid
When acting and action go hand in hand
Doing your own stunts brings a credibility, he says, If you dont, the audience notice almost imperceptibly, and theres a lack of truth.
Which is why Hayman squeezed through an exact replica of the 18 inch high hole into the vault.
I was struggling, it was really tight – can you imagine Ray Winstone doing it for the film? Hes a big boy. He does, Ive seen it, but they had to fake it, he says, referring to The Hatton Garden Job, one of two films currently being made about the crime, such is the interest in the story of the £14 million safety deposit heist in the heart of Londons diamond district over the 2015 Easter weekend by a gang of six men with a combined age of 448.
You might not notice Hayman in the street, but hes a familiar presence on our screens and stages. He laughs at the news that hes going to grace the magazine cover – with this face! and grimaces – but its an expressive face, with keen blue eyes and a spare bone structure, that can flip from menace to compassion in a moment. Its the face I was born in, so thats the face Ive got, he says.
Born in Bridgeton to a cleaner and electrician, Hayman was an apprentice in a steelyard when instead of catching his bus to work in Drumchapel, he walked into the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and told them he wanted to study acting.
However I phrase this its a bit w asterisk asterisk ky, he says, but perseveres. I was crippled with shyness as a teenager, but found myself walking up the steps in my boilersuit, covered in engineering grease and iron filings. I burst through the registrars door, and a voice says, I want to be an actor! There were only two people in the room, so it had to be me saying it. I didnt really know where the voice was coming from. It was weird, something pulling me. I dont remember it being a conscious decision, I just found myself there.
Graduating, he went straight to the Citizens Theatre and by 20 was playing Hamlet, and later Lady Macbeth too in a landmark all male production, before his screen debut in A Sense of Freedom in 1979.
With a 50 year career behind him, hes as busy as ever, and literally a perfect fit for Hatton Garden and the part of Daniel Jones, 61, the youngest gang member. Yes, I aged down for this one, he smiles.
Like many, Hayman remembers letting out a bit of a cheer when the heist hit the headlines.
I thought, God, thats amazing, the audacity of it. These old geezers manage to break into one of the most heavily fortified safety deposit boxes in the world, f asterisk asterisk asterisk it up the first night, go back again with another driller, finish the job, and get away with it. But then the daft buggers… his voice drifts off, wary of spoilers, into a wheezy laugh, courtesy of the baccy pouch sitting on the table between us, and he wipes his nose with a bright red paisley bandana.
Most guys their age are stood at the corner of the bar, drifting away, but not these ones. And no one was injured. But theyre a bunch of gangsters and when you go into it, theyre all psychopaths. My character, Danny, seemingly went to bed wearing his grannys goonie, wore a fez at night, locked his door at six oclock because he was so institutionalised by prison, peed into a bottle and communicated with the dead. So theyve all got their wee quirks.
This TV version of the story focuses on the relationships among the gang members as much as the execution of the crime. Its the infighting – the others are a sort of jolly romp, but ours is very gritty, ugly. Its men eating each other, taking chunks out of each other, through their greed. The POWER [he delivers the word in a whispered roar], the play… Its very tense, has very deliberate pace, pulls you in. I think its quite compulsive.
Its about illegal land deals and rip offs, British gangsters, a sort of Long Good Friday. I play a cop, he says.
Hayman is often cast as a cop or criminal – however, his other new film, Fishermans Friends, set in a Cornish fishing village, is a departure from type.
Its gentle, no sex, violence or swearing. Its just about good people. Corrupted? Theyre just arseholes, bad guys, so its nice to have the contrast.
He loves comedy too and due out in the autumn, are three episodes of Dads Army. Of the 80 made, three were taped over, so UK TV has re shot them in front of a live audience at Pinewood Studios.
Watch: Hatton Garden trailer [DigitalSpy]
I played Private Frazer, he informs me, unnecessarily, as he whips out his mobile and shows me a photo of his transformation, all whiskery eyebrows above gobstopper eyes.
Hes demonic, he says and laughs.
At which point, I have to make him say it: Were all doo oo oo oo med.
From Private Frazer to Lear, Malcolm McLaren, Jimmy Boyle, cops and hard men, Hayman has made a career of contrasts.
Sectarianism is a particular hate, having been banned from his Rangers supporting grandads house for two years after singing Wild Rover with his brother at a gathering.
He thought it was a rebel song. And that attitude is still here. For gods sake, knuckle dragging, weve got to evolve! I LOVE watching football – why do you have to spoil it with racism and bigotry?
Another area hed like to shine a documentary light on is toxic masculinity, which he sees as widespread, from Donald Trump to Parliament to playgrounds.
Whats that doing to our kids? Because I play a lot of hard men – with a face like mine, I dont get other roles – if Im in a position with toxic males who may respect me as a performer, maybe Im the best person to say, Oi! What the f asterisk asterisk asterisk are you doing? Go back home and beat the shit out of your wife cos your team got beat – does that make you a man? Id love to be able to really challenge them, use the language they use. See what reaction that gets.
With operations in ten countries worldwide, starting in Scotland with community projects and Kiltwalk, and beyond in Palestine, Afghanistan and Malawi, its where Hayman spends time when hes not acting – hes been to Afghanistan nine times. Talking about it, his relaxed demeanour is replaced by a new air of urgency.
In Afghanistan two out of every five children are dead before their fifth birthday, he tells me. The life expectancy of an adult in Afghanistan is 43 for men and 45 for women. Its the same in Malawi.
Spirit Aid is the reason Hayman moved from directing back into acting, from London to Glasgow, to raise his three sons with Alice, a former social worker.
I had just started Spirit Aid and had to create space in my life for it. As an actor if Im involved in a movie its just five weeks. I dont have three months prep and three months post production.
Watch: Final Hatton Garden heist suspect found guilty [Evening Standard]
In addition to his sons, who work in Spirit Aid with him, theres now his baby granddaughter, a little nine month old lovebomb that has hit our lives, and I worry about what shes going to inherit, he says.
We have to get off our arses and commit to creating a world we all say wed like to live in and the world we all say wed like to leave our children.
Spirit Aid has mobile clinics in Afghanistan, looking after internally displaced peoples camps, and isolated mountain villages that hadnt seen a doctor in 24 years. The kids were dying, he says. Malaria and gastro intestinal diseases being the main cause, and respiratory infections rife in Afghanistan, all compounded by a lack of antibiotics and basic medicines.
In Palestine, Spirit Aid organises creative classes for children, to help them deal with the fact their land is a prison, while in Malawi the organisation feeds children at school, increasing attendance and qualifications. There are workshops where women can make clothes, learning skills and most importantly earning a wage.
Gallery: Inside the Hatton Garden heist [Microsoft Photos]
Ask Hayman whether Spirit Aid is more important to him than acting and he doesnt hesitate: The humanitarian work means more. Yet he prefers to hang in the background, hating the white saviour mentality – you know, look at the white man keeping little black babies alive. I want to do it discreetly, kind of run away in a sense, he says, still shy.
His compassion, he says, comes directly from his mother, an angel barely disguised as a human being, always saw the best in people, fought on behalf of the underdog. I remember saying to her when I was six or seven, Mum the worlds in a mess and it needs sorted. And I want to help to sort it. And she said, Do ye son? Good for you.
Maybe I should have done that sooner, started earlier. Because its worthwhile. Entertainment is the opiate of the masses, actings just acting. Its all me, me, me. And then, Thats enough about me. Tell me what YOU thought of my performance. He laughs. If I could find a sugar daddy with millions Id be doing Spirit Aid full time.
Or maybe he could just squeeze his way into a vault stuffed with millions of pounds. After all, we know hes the perfect fit.
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