"THIS IS ENGLAND '88" RADIO INTERVIEW WITH JOE GILGUN.

This is a very long interview. But it’s also great. Because it’s with Misfit’s Joe Gilgun (Rudy) who is up there in the Premier League of Most Quotable People Ever Interviewed by SFX, jostling with Joss Whedon and Tom Baker for the top spot.

This time he’s talking about "Lockout" the new sci-fi thriller co-written and produced by Luc (The Fifth Element) Besson. Well, he talks about it some of the time when we can keep him on track. He plays bad guy Hydell, who, despite the orange jumpsuit and tattoos isn’t much like Rudy at all.

SFX was just told to “ring this number”. We did, and what immediately followed wasn’t quite what we were expecting. But it was so much fun, we thought we’d share the whole experience with you. Hell, you might even learn something about Lockout…

(But be warned: there is a LOT of foul language. But it’s such a part of the rhythm and flow of Joe’s way of speaking, starring it all out seemed somehow to destroy the gritty poetry of his meaning, so please excuse us just this once.)

Dave Golder: How are you?

Joe Gilgun: I’m fine. I’m out in the warm. I’ve moved out to the woods for seven days. It sounds worse than it is. I’ve got electricity but I’ve got no hot water and, as you can imagine, all the things that you usually do… in the bathroom… you do that behind a tree or bush and you end up with quite a chapped arse. But it’s been ace.

Why are you doing it?

I’m just living in the woods, fucking hell, you shouldn’t need a reason. I think it just clears me head to come out here. We’ve got a generator, you see. So I fill the generator and live rough for a few days and it sorts me out, having nothing and nobody around, and then I go home. It’s not like I want people to feel sorry for me. Quite the opposite, it’s fucking brilliant, fending for yourself for a bit.

Sounds quite cool. An adventure.

You work things out, in your head. For example – pot kettle black. I never really knew where that came from. I thought why would anyone buy a black kettle at all? And why would they get in an argument about who was blacker? I thought it were ridiculous. And I sat there was like “Ooooh! the fire does that! The fire makes them go black!” So yeah, shit like that, you think it because you’re left on your own for a long time. You think the maddest things.

I’d never thought about that before, either.

Get at it man! Get yourself a lot of food and a lot of beers or water, and go… whatever… and set yourself with some sort of fire arrangement. Obviously you need to be at t’woods, because you need wood, to make your fire, and cook your food and boil your kettle and things like that.

I think if I was doing it I wouldn’t take my phone with me so a journalist couldn’t suddenly ring me me up in the middle of it.

Tomorrow I’ve gotta go, and get my head back into work mode. This is a good thing because tomorrow, I’m shooting in Dublin. I don’t know if you’re even interested in this, but I’m shooting in a period drama thing, which is fucking so ace, I can’t even tell you, I’ve grown a moustache and everything. It’s epic, it’s grown over my lip and I can curl it. I look like Charles Bronson after a famine.

 Welcome to my new Blog!  I've been away for a while, but now I'm back ..... and hopefully with a bang!

You may recognise Joseph Gilgun for his role as Woody in This Is England, but it is his latest turn as Misfits’ newest and most intriguing ASBO superhero, Rudy, that’s got everyone talking. IDOL headed down to the set in the deepest depths of South London to talk crying on cue, fashion and being saved by Shane Meadows.

You’re an actor now, but I read that you started doing fashion design?

Yeah, I was in Coronation Street when I was 8, but I came out of it and didn’t do anything for ages. I got really spotty and started puberty and I hated everyone for quite a few years. I did various courses at college, I did an art course and I was shit at it, because I couldn’t keep up with the academic side of it, which shouldn’t be what an art course is about. I was good at the creative stuff, like drawing but I just couldn’t read or write very well.
I was starting to get in to girls a bit more and I wasn’t very interested in my academics, I’d just finished secondary school and I was one of those kids that didn’t really give a shit. Eventually I got on this Year 0, which basically means if you didn’t get the qualifications from school then it allows you to get into university… and renders your GCSE’s completely fucking pointless. I did the fashion degree and this one time a girl challenged me about wearing the same jeans two days in a row. I was having a really bad day and I was losing marks because of my writing and spelling so I just threw my folder out the window and fucked off, ‘Sod it, I’m so sick of this shit.’…You know, I predicted the gypsy dress and I got a really good mark!
I said, ‘This time next year, all girls will be wearing gypsy dresses.’ And I was right. The thing with fashion is that you have to live it, if you’re going to do it as a career. Everything has to be about the changing of trends and I didn’t live it. I didn’t like it that much, that I wanted to live the shit, it’s very fickle.

How did you get back in to acting from that?

Well I was always on and off, but for some reason I just wasn’t very successful at all…(laughs). I think I was trying to do everything I could in every audition that I went to and sort of ruined it. What I’ve worked out now is if I try or start acting professional, I fuck it up. I just have to not think and just be. Try not to act, if I can help it.