Celebrity Interview - Scott Maslen
Top of The Bill
Scott Maslen Top of The Bill
SCOTT MASLEN - DS PHIL HUNTER ON ITV'S THE BILL - TALKS EXCLUSIVELY TO ANNABEL MILNES-SMITH ABOUT "LIFE ON THE BEAT" AND HIS UNEXPECTED MOVE TO EASTENDERS AS NEW CAST MEMBER JACK BRANNING.
It was my dear friend Ingrid Tarrant who very kindly arranged for my interview with Scott Maslen. Needless to say with Scott's smouldering good looks - together with his being one of the principal faces in The Bill, with powerful story lines to match - I was extremely nervous (and that is the understatement of the month), on meeting him. So I asked darling Ingrid to accompany me. It was just as well.
On arrival in St John's Wood, this silver-streamed sports car pulled up alongside of us, and out stepped what I can only describe as a Greek god. Scott, sporting dark sunglasses and a leather jacket straight out of Top Gun, not only literally took my breath away but my ability to speak to boot. Not great for a journalist attempting an interview.
Anyway with some reassuring words from Ingrid, as she steered me towards a favourite haunt of Scott's, I realised this was business and I had to stop behaving like some star-struck teenager.
Having read numerous television media reports about Scott's sudden departure from The Bill to star in Eastenders, I was intrigued to discover what prompted the move?
"I was approached by the BBC and it wasn't something I was looking for. They came looking for me with a lovely offer and it was the end of my contract with The Bill, which I had worked on for five years, so it was a welcome move for me and time for a change."
Are you going to find it challenging?
"I make everything challenging. That's the deal really. It's not what I envisaged myself doing but I am really looking forward to it. It will be a gruelling schedule and is a different sort of story line; domestic based. Having starred in a police drama, it will certainly be a test."
Who are your favourite characters on Eastenders?
"Funnily enough, even though I have been cast as Jack Branning, the family members I like and also the new characters who have come on board. Also Ronnie Mitchell and Kevin Wicks, with whom I will be working quite a lot, and the old school like Ian Beale and especially Dot, who is going to be my mother-in-law. She actually had it written into her contract that she was allowed to smoke on set!"
As a young boy, was it your dream to become an actor, or a soldier since you joined the Marines?
"I think it was more sports and football I was obsessed with when I was a kid. I never thought I would become an actor; that is for sure. I have, though, always been a little bit of a show-off. I think the military career was appealing when I was 16 but it was not something I desired. I fell into this job, which was perfect as I never really had a direction I wanted to follow."
Do you see yourself as an action man?
"Yes, in a way, as I love action. However, it seems it is a genre I just naturally get stuck in, as people always see me as that kind of actor."
Do you see The Bill as a true portrayal of the police force?
"Yes, as they are well informed by the police and have many advisers."
When you were shooting scenes among the general public, were you ever mistaken for an actual copper?
"Early on, when nobody knew who I was, we were chasing this villain down an alleyway behind a restaurant, where this couple were smoking. I grabbed the guy and threw him against this wall and was fake-punching him. They threatened to call the police. I replied, tongue in cheek, 'I am the police!'"
I gather prior to your career now you were involved in nightclubs?
"When I was at drama school obviously I was not swimming in money and had to make a living as well, and looking ahead most actors, almost 95 per cent of them, do not make any money, so I have always had the need and desire to keep myself moving. I made a short film with a friend of mine called How To Breed Gibbons. It was rather off the wall but you have to see it; it is rather funny. "We screened it in Berkeley Square, which only seated 200 people, and 800 people turned up. I kept on sending them on to this after party place and by the time we got down there it was so crammed that the owner said, 'Can you do this on a regular basis'? He asked me for an offer, I gave it, he accepted. In hindsight I wish I had asked for more. Consequently I ended up running a nightclub for nine months. It was called Studio Valbonne in Carnaby Street. It was carnage working all those hours. I turned into a nocturnal creature and became this vampiric thing."
So while you were starring in The Bill, what were your highs and lows?
"The highs were the people I worked with and becoming a major character in the programme. The only low was exhaustion."
What are some of your funnier moments while filming?
"Well I am a bit of a clown and love pulling pranks on people and setting them up. It is just childish, puerile behaviour. One of the ways I loved setting people up was getting them on takes. They will all be really serious and run to the cars, and I always locked the car doors. So they went slap bang into them. It is hilarious."
You also filmed a series in Romania on people trafficking. What was that experience like?
"The storyline was very hard-hitting. It is quite sick. You learnt that all these women were being brought into Romania and then exported out to all sorts of different places for prostitution. It was deeply shocking, together with the country being very black market and gangland driven. I realised how terribly lucky I am to live in England."
Scott is seen as a heartthrob and I totally agree. I wonder if he is somewhat of a ladies' man...
"No, I certainly would not describe myself as that. My missus would kill me. I do get that tag but it is not one I use myself. I would be rather narcissistic and an idiot if I did."
Do you ever suffer jealousy because of your looks?
"No, I don't think so. People just don't like me because I am loud and boisterous. I think they find that threatening and get annoyed with me because I draw attention."
Have you ever been stalked?
"No. I have got some hardcore fans who send material in, but thank heavens I have not been followed. Please spare me from that!"
How do you deal with the fame?
"It's been alright because with the job I am in you have to be in the public eye, but luckily enough if you deal with people respectfully they don't get in your way. However, I have heard that going into Eastenders is a completely different animal. The paparazzi element has started a little bit now but as long as you are not crawling out of nightclubs at 2am in the morning doing silly things that are going to get you into trouble, there really is nothing to worry about."
Ingrid interjected at that moment, recalling that when Scott was doing the North Run in aid of charity, women were screaming at him, "Arrest me, arrest me!" I asked, and did you? "Only if they have been naughty."
You also did a bicycle ride in aid of the Rhys Daniels Trust...
"That is when I first met Ingrid. It was an amazing journey. It is one of those stories that you go through hell and wish you had never done it, but at the end you see why you did. When we finished we rode into Cardiff hospital and there were all these kids wired up, in a bad state, many on their way out, and they congratulated us. I was in bits. They made the journey we made nothing compared to what they were going through."
What is the best and worse moment of your life?
"The best time is a cliché. It was seeing my son Zak being born. The worst things in my life I tend to put into places where I cannot remember them."
How do feel about being seen as a sex symbol?
"I do not set out to be perceived as one. All I do with regards to looks is based purely around my work. I do not get up in the morning and go, 'Oh this is my sex symbol outfit for today.' It is not, shall we say, my daily application. I suppose it is something I take as a compliment. My best friends actually keep my feet on the ground by calling me Monkey ..... And jug-eared ....." (As this is a family magazine, we'll leave the full names to readers' imagination.)
Who would you aspire to be like?
"As an actor I always aspired to be like Gary Oldman, who is from the same part of town as I am. We were both born in south-east London. If I could ever reach the levels that he has, I would be a very happy man."
What other theatre and film roles have you undertaken?
"I've worked at the Lyric Hammersmith and the Open Air Theatre but I had large debts and unfortunately it does not pay enough. I have also had many film roles including Al's Lads where I played a boxer called Dempsey."
You appear very macho but you must have some fears...
"I am not at all, although I might appear it. I am a sensitive and emotional character. Most of my mates think I am a girl in many ways. I was brought up by all women: my mum, sister, aunt and my girl cousins, including a very strong grandmother as well. My father wasn't around that much and it wasn't until I was 13 that my little brother came along. I have quite a few womanly traits in many ways, one of which is that I sulk and once a month I get really annoying!"
Do you cook?
"Yes, I love it. I learnt from my mum. It is one of my passions, although I am vegetarian. I have actually planned to go away to Tuscany to do a cordon bleu course in cooking. We will be learning five different cuisines - northern African, Thai, Italian, French and Japanese."
Why did you become a vegetarian?
"When I went into modelling I was 15 stone (97 kilograms) and a big lump so I had to lose weight. The quickest way was to cut out meat. I took that on and it just grew on me. It was not a moral choice."
What was your impression of the modelling world?
"I had a great time. I travelled everywhere with it and saw things I would never have seen. I became completely consumed by it as a young man but after five years I got very tired of it."
Who did you model for?
"Armani, Versace, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, among many others. I have worked for most of the designers in some way, shape or form."
What about your family?
Estelle, my partner of eight years, and I have a son, Zak, aged six and a half. He is a bundle of energy and is playing instruments at the moment. He is a funny little thing. I am seeing him play the guitar this afternoon and whereas the other children are playing classical music, Zac is playing a rendition from Black Sabbath."
You won the "best dressed man Marks and Spencer trophy". So who are your favourite designers?
"At the moment I like the Zenia stuff, and recently Oswald Boateng and many of the Savile Row retailers."
Have you ever been approached to be James Bond?
"Now that would be great. Please put that message out there. Des O'Connor said I would make a good Bond. It would be great."
With your busy schedule, you must have find time to wind down. How do you manage to switch off?
"I've re-found an old passion that I used to do before I started acting. That is fishing. I do, however, always put them back. Recently I spent an absolute fortune on fishing gear, which my missus found out about. She went absolutely ballistic. I am one of those suckers who needs all the accessories."
Do you listen to music as a distraction? In which case, who are your favourite bands?
"Don't go there. (Ingrid bursts out laughing.) She knows I cannot stand Robbie Williams. At the moment I like a jazz band called The Sound Stylists. They are brilliant. I also love certain types of music because of Estelle. She is a singer-songwriter and has just signed to a Latin Brazilian label called Curve Music and is doing really well. Her father is also a flamenco guitarist in Spain."
How do you see yourself in 10 years time, besides being James Bond - hopefully?
"I would like to see myself in a home that's paid for and one that I like, have more kids, and enjoy the finer things in life with my friends, and stay healthy. It may be here or in America. I am not a great fan of it but with my industry, if I want to reach the heights, I will have to be rational and consider it."
Well, rational or not, Scott is certainly going places and his next port of call is Eastenders. Now anyone who knows the show realises that is where many a budding actor's career is sealed. However, Scott is already at the top of his field, so the next step, once he has made his mark on the BBC's hottest soap (which I know he will), can only be in one direction. Yes, that's right, as the next 007. Watch out Daniel Craig!
