The Krays: Dead Man Walking actor NATHANJOHN CARTER sat down with us to discuss the upcoming film and future plans.
Q. When did you decide you wanted to become an actor?
I loved studying drama at secondary school, although coming from a hardworking but poor background, it was impossible to think about further education and fronting the prices of the elite schools, such as RADA and Guildhall. It wasn’t until my early 30s that I was blessed with a true moment of clarity and realised it was acting that ultimately fuelled my creative hub. There was no going back from then onwards.
Q. Did you go to drama school?
I love acting for film and decided to get the best from the best. I went to NYFA in New York and adopted the Method technique which I further developed here in London with Sam Rumbelow. I then went to Ivana Chubbuck in LA and learnt her mystic ways and the Power of the Actor. I studied Meisner in Barcelona and later spiritual acting guidance from Bernie HIller who showed me how to stop acting and start living.
Q. What was your first acting job?
My brother and I created a small production company in Galicia, Spain where the family still live and we just started creating short films and music videos. The first short film was called ‘Sinceramente’ and I basically cry and contemplate suicide for about 9 minutes until eventually God appears and tells me to pull myself together. Tough one! Take after take! Real tears.
Q. Do you prefer to be on stage or screen?
Without a doubt, screen.
Q. How did you get the job playing Ronnie Kray?
If it hadn’t been for Jonathan Sothcott’s insistence it would never have happened. My old agent didn’t communicate to me any of the interest shown from Jonathan regarding auditions. Fortunately Jonathan saw my personal email at the very end of my showreel and contacted me personally. I prepared a self-tape casting and met with him the following day. The rest, well, we’ll see on the 9th September won’t we!
Q. Were you nervous about filling shoes as big as Tom Hardy’s and Gary Kemp’s?
Not at all. We might be painting the same landscape but the pictures will all be unique. That’s the beauty of acting as a form of art.
Q. What’s your view of Ronnie Kray the man?
All my Londoner friends have a story to tell about the twins, in some way or another. Life was so different back then. Post war, poverty, sticking together through thick and thin. Understanding mental health. Everything was word of mouth too, not Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. No. you had to build a reputation by doing, and Ronnie did. Good and bad. But he did.
Q. How is your portrayal different to the others?
I vaguely remember watching the 1990 movie when it was released and I haven’t seen Legend or Rise and Fall so I don’t know what the others did. I can say that I chose to play Ronnie as a mixture of Robin Hood and the Joker, contemptuous for authority and anarchic in his beliefs alongside a strong desire to control his own environment. Not forgetting a large appetite for destruction.
Q. What’s next for you?
A short film in Italy about a man running from his past and an American TV episode about the Boston Strangler. I get to play the detective this time.
