The Stars Of Blue Story Are Arriving In Model
As the rain hits the roof of a images studio on an industrial property in South East London, two younger British actors are planning to take over the world. Stephen Odubola is attempting to influence Micheal Ward that he ought to transfer to Los Angeles. Like several good British chat, it begins with the climate, however that is no small speak.
“You’ll adore it. The climate is nice there and it’s like the house of the movie trade, Hollywood’s there. It’s the place you wish to be,” he says.
“I have to go there first,” replies Ward. “I have to go and see if it’s LA or New York. I won’t prefer it, however I really feel like I used to be destined to be in America.”
The speak of future is catching. “I see this movie as being step one there. I do know I’m on a much bigger observe to the place I wish to be. That’s the objective,” says Odubola.
“100 per cent,” says Ward. “It’s each actor’s dream to finish up in Hollywood. I do know for a undeniable fact that every part’s going to be coming quickly.”
Once you study that each actors are exactly one movie into their performing careers, it might sound smug; they’re not solely plotting a transfer to America, however plan to let LA and New York struggle it out for his or her affections. However that is no atypical movie, and these are not any atypical actors.
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They’re joint leads in Blue Story, the story of two schoolboy friends, Timmy (Odubola) and Marco (Ward), who dwell on council estates in numerous elements of South London – Deptford and Peckham – and whose lives develop into sophisticated, to say the least, by a postcode warfare between gangs within the two districts.
The movie – additionally a primary for writer-director, Rapman, aka Andrew Onwubolu, who primarily based it on his personal childhood in Deptford – is gathering warmth quicker than an asteroid coming into Earth’s environment. It’d simply be probably the most vital British image of 2019, and these males are its undisputed champions. So just a little confidence is allowed.
“We like to explain it as a contemporary Romeo and Juliet,” says Ward, referring to Rapman’s ‘signature’ rap narration of the movie which provides it a Shakespearean flavour. “However as a substitute of a love between a male and a feminine, it’s a love between brothers. The rapping provides it a USP. That is historical past. It’s going to be the primary of its variety and it’s going to do numbers.”
Virtually from nowhere, the three males are gatecrashing the bigtime. Virtually. Rapman made his title with the favored three-part YouTube drama Shiro’s Story earlier than being taken below Jay-Z’s Roc Nation umbrella and having this, his first function, launched by Paramount. Our stars have put the work in, too, having caught the performing bug at college and finding out the artwork ever since. Every had precisely the identical easy however efficient philosophy: discover one thing they get pleasure from and make a residing from it.
For Odubola, 23, it is a display screen debut of any variety, however Ward, 24, has a number of traces on his IMDb web page. After signing for an company, he entered “a form of spiral” of auditions, small roles, brief movies and music movies earlier than touchdown his first TV present, Netflix horror The A-Checklist, in 2018.
A 12 months later, he joined the forged of long-running and mightily-acclaimed Prime Boy for its third season. One other Netflix present, it’s set on a fictional housing property in East London, is backed by Drake and stars Kane Robinson (aka Kano) and Ashley Walters (aka Asher D). It offers with crime however is about an ideal deal extra. The identical goes for Blue Story.
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There’s crime. There’s violence, too. However at its coronary heart of the movie you’ll discover these age-old themes of loyalty (merited and misplaced), love, satisfaction, revenge, hope, friendship, the trials of youth and masculinity. It’s common, but in addition particular to the individuals who dwell in that world. Individuals like Odubola, who grew up on a council property in Kennington, additionally in South London.
“It was much like how Timmy grew up,” he says. “It was powerful, man. You get uncovered to numerous issues and, as a youngster, you’re nonetheless looking for your self as an individual, as a person. I can relate to rather a lot within the story. Sure scenes and emotions like friendship, peer strain, psychological well being states. Not lots of people actually get our tales, so I’m simply comfortable that this displays the lifetime of so many individuals rising up on a council property.
Odubola is extra softly spoken than Ward, however on this topic he speaks with intent and readability. These communities are a big, vibrant and essential a part of British tradition and but are painted negatively by the vast majority of each the press and the humanities. See a younger black man within the information and there’s likelihood he’ll be a sufferer or a perpetrator of against the law. Or he is likely to be a ‘cocky’ footballer splashing his cash on ridiculous issues like, say, a pleasant home for his mum.
“Once I determined I needed to be an actor, I didn’t actually wish to be in something associated to city life as a result of lots of people don’t painting it correctly. Once I learn the script I noticed an actual story that hasn’t been instructed earlier than. I needed to get entangled as a result of it’s the reality. That’s all I needed to be concerned in, the reality.”
Ward was born in Jamaica earlier than transferring to the leafy (effectively, leafy-ish) East London suburban city of Romford as a toddler. Even he – who can be seen via the identical prejudicial lens as any younger black man – had a skewed view of Blue Story’s world.
“The media wish to demonise these folks,” he says. “They don’t know what leads them to be in these conditions or the aftermath. I didn’t even know. The script was a revelation to me. I used to assume, ‘What’s fallacious with these folks?’ However you don’t perceive. That’s why these tales are so vital: it’s educating me, it’s educating you.”
The violence and risks confronted by, specifically, younger black males in working class areas can’t be ignored. They actually aren’t in Blue Story. Violent acts are central to the plot and, as tends to occur with such acts, issues don’t prove effectively.
With the nation in what seems like a fug of melancholy and optimism in brief provide, it makes you marvel if issues can get any higher – if there’s hope on the market for younger folks surrounded by pressures, prejudice and dangers. The excellent news is, each Ward and Odubola are brimming with hope. Confidence of youth meets confidence in youth.
“A thousand per cent,” says Ward. “I imagine we’re going to a spot the place there are much more alternatives and instructions that folks can see themselves getting into. Individuals used to assume, ‘I wish to be on TV’. Now it could possibly be director, cameraman. Individuals from our world don’t realise these alternatives are on the market, however now we are able to ask pals, ‘Have you ever ever considered being a sound man? A author?”
“There are methods of stimulating somebody’s thoughts to assume wider and I really feel like that is the time for it. There’s extra content material being made, which implies extra alternatives.”
They two are actually taking advantage of the alternatives afforded by Blue Story. They’ve attended awards exhibits, premieres and now they’re on a photoshoot sporting designer fits.
Ward has been modelling since his teenagers, however they each take a look at house right here. Slender, athletic, handsome males, items hold on them like they’re supposed to hold. However the garments we’ve put them in in the present day aren’t their typical model. Odubola loves a potent sweatshirt, whereas Ward likes his garments with quantity, “like my persona”.
“One in all my favorite outfits I’ve worn was on the BET Awards,” he says. “It was this pink Casablanca look. Double denim. It was sick, man.”
On the identical time, they’re additionally very conscious that alternatives for black actors to get good roles are restricted, and that this drawback is exacerbated if you happen to’re working class. Any success for the celebs and makers of issues like Blue Story and Prime Boy needs to be cherished.
Not that the humanities or every other trade ought to bear the burden of attempting to even up society; we’ve a authorities that’s supposed to do this. However, as each males level out, a movie like this could result in a higher understanding of points similar to knife crime, which in London reached a nine-year excessive in 2019.
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“I really feel just like the movie goes to create consciousness and would possibly change some folks’s lives,” says Odubola. “There are components that we as filmmakers can’t management. Communities have to step up and create extra alternatives for these younger youngsters as effectively.”
Ward provides: “It’s not going to occur in a single day. When the film comes out, possibly 10 folks out of 1,000 would possibly take this message severely and put down the knives or search for alternatives, however at the very least that’s 10. And in one other 12 months it could possibly be one other 10. All these tens would add up. I do know for a undeniable fact that we’re going to enhance as a result of we are able to’t keep it up going like this. It’s ridiculous.
“Masculinity is unquestionably in situation. In some conditions, it might all be solved by communication, being mature and simply letting your satisfaction go. Lots of males don’t like to do this. That’s comprehensible, however on the identical time, was all of it price it?”
With such performing chops, Ward and Odubola’s confidence in their very own futures is effectively positioned. You possibly can solely think about a really sharp upward curve of their profession trajectories and fame ranges as soon as Blue Story, as Ward says, does numbers. After that?
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“I wish to emulate Kevin Hart,” says Ward. “He’s impressed me. What he’s achieved, created historical past, that’s what I’m attempting to do. I’m attempting to be a legend. The one approach you could be a legend is if you happen to create historical past.”
“I’d love to enter completely different elements of the trade, to direct possibly. I’d love to provide a movie, have my title on massive tasks. These are all aspirations that I do know I’ll be capable of obtain, however all in due time. I see the imaginative and prescient and it’s nearly chasing that.”
Aiming low once more, then.
“Speaking about being a legend,” says Odubola, “I don’t know what trigger I’d wish to assist, however finally, after I’m at a sure place I’d wish to department out and assist different folks. For those who’ve obtained energy and also you’ve obtained a platform you would possibly as effectively use it for the benefit of different folks.”
Confidence is a strong factor: confidence in your self and in others. It could actually nudge us ahead when it’s simpler to face nonetheless or retreat. It could actually result in nice issues, it could possibly result in silly issues, however it does at the very least make us do these issues.
It’s guess that these males will do issues that can breed confidence in others who, in flip, will do issues that breed confidence and so forth. Then, possibly, a special circle can start.
Blue Story (@BlueStoryMovie, @ParamountUK) is in cinemas November 22.
Credit
Photographer: Kirk Truman
Artwork path: Luke Sampson
Stylist: Sarah Ann Murray
Stylist assistants: Bethany Parkinson and Jess Gwyneth
Grooming: Keshia East