What do you do
before you shoot a scene to get into...
I just drink juice and eat food. I don't really...
I don't really-- I don't know man.
I don't think about it much.
You're just naturally talented.
He's a natural.
When you think about it,
that's when things start to go wrong.
I don't learn lines on purpose.
Bun that.
So, this season, you're not only an actor,
you're also an EP, an executive producer.
So, what does that mean? What do you do as an exec?
It means I can write you out.
That's what it means.
It means...
D'you know what, it means empowerment...
for us
because we can have some, you know, impact
on the stories that are gonna to be told
about the lives that most of us on this...
D'you know what I mean,
on this platform have led, d'you know what I'm saying?
You know, the beauty of Top Boy is
that it represents a certain people.
And I know myself 100%, and Kane,
have come from that life, d'you know what I'm saying?
So, who better to tell those stories
or be a part of shaping those stories
for the rest of the world to see?
You know, we've been involved in the scripts,
we've been involved
in like the journey of you lot's characters,
not only our own characters but kinda where you guys go.
It's good to have that position,
it's good to be able to...
to just be a bit more involved creatively
in what happens with the show.
I got a link
to Spain and Morocco.
About to come through with a big bit.
More money than you've seen in your life, bro.
Do you wanna be a part of it or what?
Part of it how?
By doing what you always done.
Selling food.
Your food, yeah?
I guess it is, yeah. My food.
From the first season,
that's when I really wanted to be in it.
I saw Dris, we were from the same...
How old were you then?
-Probably 14, 15. -OK.
I see Dris in the show.
We're from the same area, so I was like,
"Bro, you can't get man in the show? Bro..."
Didn't really work like that.
D'you know what I'm saying.
But then I heard they were doing auditions
for the next season that was coming.
I see one of my guys pull up with his cousin,
his cousin's an actor, he had an agent at the time,
everything.
I see him just walking past all of us,
doing his thing and cut.
I was thinking: Is that the power of an agent?
I need to find a way to get an agent or something.
I didn't even get to do the audition.
And then this time came around...
Remember my cousin telling me
she was like yeah she heard
that there's auditions for Top Boy
and I was like, "You sure?"
She said yeah, so, I asked my agent
to keep her ears open.
She was like, "I suggested you for it."
I was like, "Yeah?
A'ight. OK. Say no more",
you know what I'm sayin', and then, yeah.
Today, there's so many different routes to market.
Back in the day, you talked about the agent thing,
it had to be an agent thing, you had to have an agent.
"How do I get an agent if I haven't done anything."
The answer was, "I don't know".
You know, one of them ones.
But now, with the rise in social media,
where people like Des street casting,
there are many different avenues
into the game.
I told some of my friends,
"You don't have to go to drama school,
you don't have to have...", you know?
You can do it yourself, you can set up your camera
and learn a monologue and record it yourself,
hit up an agency on a DM, send it to them.
Shoot your shot.
We've had some interesting stories
of how people have got into the show
and I wanna hear yours 'cause I know you...
I heard
there was something to do with a barber shop.
Yeah.
So, I remember I was going back to school
and my hair was just horrendous.
I'm in the barbers and the barber
is doing some madness to people's hair.
I'm seeing zig zags, people's hairlines are back,
I'm thinking: Yeah, you need to get out
because this is not it.
So, then, as I was about to leave,
a woman came to us and said, "Audition for Top Boy".
At first, I was thinking she's not telling the truth,
she's just chatting
because Top Boy, that's a long time ago,
so what's going on?
But then she was like, "No, it's real.
I'll just write your name down in my book
and I'll give you a certain time
to come in to a certain place."
I was like, "I might as well
'cause I have nothing to do."
I went in and then, yeah...
The rest is history. You're here.
So, I love those stories, man.
Like, they touch me, man.
This season especially
has given such an incredible platform
for all the female cast
to have these dimensional characters
that have so much to them.
From the last season, Lauryn starts off like,
"Ha ha, champagne, boys!", all of that.
And then, towards the end,
it all goes terribly wrong for her.
But I feel like this season,
it's just a series of unfortunate events
again and again.
And the subject matter and the storyline
was not something I took lightly at all.
It was kind of interesting, we were half filming Top Boy
during the pandemic,
domestic violence was at an all-time high.
So, I actually got in contact
with a domestic violence charity
in order to speak to them and help me navigate
how to, you know...
tell the truth with my character
and what she goes through.
Curtis, please. Can I have some privacy?
I'm only going in there to try some things on.
Please.
No, she's right.
She needs her privacy.
Thank you.
I'll go with her.
Oh, yeah. Go on.
Come here.
What's wrong? Baby, what's wrong?
Please, please, I'm just so ashamed.
Look, I feel so ugly and bloated
and I don't want anyone seeing me like this.
It's only Vee. Eh, you're beautiful to me.
To me?
-Did you just say that? -What I meant was you're...
-What, I disgust you? Yeah? -No.
Come here, come here.
Hey, it's all right.
Can I please be by myself?
-One minute, please? -All right, just don't cry.
You go.
Please can I have some money?
Although I've come from a different background
to the characters in the story,
I've been given such an amazing storyline.
As someone who came into the show
as a new person,
it showed me for the first time
that it was a possibility
that I could be in something like that.
To be honest,
the whole experience was quite nerve-wracking.
I mean, I'm so lucky that I had Saffron and Jazz.
Like, they were so supportive.
Saffron, we had loads of bants,
we had so many LOLs.
-Constant laughing. -Yeah.
One of my first scenes was kind of like a mad scene
that was so challenging.
I didn't really understand any of the language,
it was so new to me to be, like, in front of the camera
in such a different way.
It's so interesting,
you can do as many acting classes as you want,
you can train as much as you want
when you're at home,
but, actually, being on set is the lesson.
I like your style.
It's not my style, it's just me.
OK, well, I like you.
I think you look really great.
That was your cue...
to say something really nice,
preferably without me having to prompt you.
I mean,
when Li said to me she wanted to hook me up,
I wasn't expecting her to look like you.
What's it like being recognised
in the show?
Like, doing your own thing, you're still at school.
Are girls running after you?
-No. No girls. -Yeah, yeah.
I think, in general, I still live a normal life
'cause I still live with my mum.
However, I am more recognised
in certain places which I go.
More doors are open for me,
but, in general,
I try to keep to myself, quiet,
and to focus on what I need to do.
No, I saw you filming a music video
in the middle of Shoreditch,
so I don't know what you're talking about!
When you were there like, "Ay".
I was like, "Is that Aaron?" and you said, "You cool?"
and then you went back to it.
No, that was my friend who I was supporting.
-Yeah... -But I think...
No, but, in general, I do like to keep quiet
and just perfect the art of acting, so...
In sixth form, I'm at home trying to work on my accent
or doing auditions.
Looking back on your Top Boy legacy,
what does all that mean to you?
How does it feel to be sat here today?
When we started this thing,
we didn't even know it was gonna get made.
When I read those first scripts
that Ronan wrote
and I see people getting shot in their head
and fingers getting cut off and all this stuff,
that stuff had never been on TV before.
This life, the story of this life
had never been told
in the way that it was about to be told
at that moment.
Me and Kane would be on set shooting scenes,
night shoots,
doing these crazy things,
actually looking at each other feeling like:
Is this actually going to get put out?
Are we wasting our time?
Are they gonna put this on TV?
And to see what it's grown into,
there was no point where we sat there thinking:
This is going to be huge, know what I'm sayin'?
We just didn't know what the beast would be.
So, to be able to sit back now,
see it on Netflix,
see it doing well in the States and Europe.
-Billboards... -Billboards and whatever.
Times Square.
Yeah. It's like... It was no easy thing.
Why do you think Top Boy is still relevant today?
I think it's relevant 'cause it depicts real life.
There's actually youths
that come from a deprived community
that go through these real-life situations.
It's important that these stories are told
so people can get an insight of how it actually is.
It's not senseless in a way,
everyone's doing something for a reason,
everyone's trying to live and survive,
everyone wants a better life.
People thought I was a wasteman
on the last one because I missed with the shotgun.
Were you getting challenged about that?
Everywhere I'd go, "How could you let him
overpower you with the shotgun?"
Yeah.