Ashley Walters seems to have lived his life on fast-forward. Before he turned 21 he had already had a No 1 hit, performed on TV and the West End stage, become a father and served seven months in prison. He has had another lifetime\u2019s worth of incident since \u2013 including seven more children \u2013 but at the ripe old age of 44, enough water has passed under the bridge for Walters to have some perspective on his youth. Not that all that living appears to have left a mark: when we meet in London, he\u2019s the picture of health, his face unwrinkled, eyes twinkling, hair cut in a crisp lineup.<\/p>\n
Back in the early 2000s, he fit a certain stereotype of Black British youth as Asher D, the rapper from deprived and supposedly crime-ridden Peckham, who rolled with the street-tough So Solid Crew, got into beefs with east London rivals such as Dizzee Rascal, was demonised by the tabloids and called a \u201cboasting macho idiot rapper<\/a>\u201d by the then culture minister Kim Howells.<\/p>\n So Solid Crew were trailblazing in terms of British hip-hop, but Walters\u2019 view of those times is far from rose-tinted. \u201cEverything other than the music, it was bad, it was negative,\u201d he says. \u201cThe music was very British, but if you looked at our style, our clothes, the jewellery, the cars, that was all the Americanised stuff that we wanted to bring into it.\u201d That also included guns \u2013 even if, in Walters\u2019 case, the firearm was a modified air pistol.<\/p>\n Asher D was never really him, he says. \u201cBehind the scenes, in all honesty, I was questioning if I was doing the right thing. Because a lot of our success was underpinned with street stuff: you can\u2019t go to that area because you might get shot; you can\u2019t do this because that person has had beef with this person; and it was, like, all this politics.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019d got in with the wrong crowd, he suggests, \u201cand it took me down the road of just not giving a shit any more \u2026 but the realisation came to me when that door was shut in the prison cell. And I was like: \u2018Hold on. How the f\u2013 did I get here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I wanted it to feel, look and sound the way it felt, looked and sounded to me\u2019 \u2026 Walters on the set of Animol. Photograph: Anthony Dickenson\/Sky<\/p>\n We\u2019re talking about his prison days because Walters is now revisiting them, from the other side of the door. He has just directed his first film, Animol, which is set in a young offender institution. It is by no means autobiographical (it was written by Nick Love, of Football Factory fame), but he says that a lot of it is based on his own experience and memories of being locked up. \u201cI wanted it to feel, look and sound the way it felt, looked and sounded to me.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a genre that comes with certain expectations: brutality, bullying, staff-inmate relations, internal hierarchies. Animol meets many of them. The tension winds up from the first scene, when the story\u2019s 15-year-old protagonist, Troy (Tut Nyuot), is coerced into smuggling in a phone. But the film also defies those expectations in surprising ways, not least with a queer romantic element that\u2019s sensitively and sensuously handled. In that sense, it\u2019s as much Moonlight<\/a> as Scum \u2013 \u201cslightly elevated,\u201d as Walters puts it. \u201cI didn\u2019t want it to feel grey and gloomy like the other prison-genre films.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Walters in his youth, these young men are playing roles, Animol suggests, concealing their authentic selves in order to navigate a landscape of fear, shame, trauma and codes of masculinity that has really changed very little over the years. \u201cEvery character in there, no matter how bad they are, no matter how manipulative or violent even at times, all of their actions are born from fear,\u201d he says. \u201cThe idea a lot of people grow up with, like I did, of masculinity: being hard, never backing down, stoic, keep your emotions to yourself and never cry in front of other people. I was brought up with those rules and those regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n Marginalised \u2026 Tut Nyuot as Troy in Animol. Photograph: Anthony Dickenson\/Sky<\/p>\n Troubled young men, masculinity, fathers and sons \u2013 one way or another, these have become recurring themes in Walters\u2019 career. There\u2019s a continuity, I suggest, between Animol and his recent role in the highly acclaimed Netflix drama Adolescence. He anchored the second episode as the investigating detective visiting the perpetrator\u2019s school, seeking answers. The technical aspect alone was a ballet dance \u2013 Walters had to hit multiple marks as the one-take episode roved around a chaotic secondary school \u2013 but on top of that, he delivered a soulful, understated performance as a father struggling to connect with his teenage son.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a link he would make himself, Walters says, \u201cbut the theme, I guess, that runs through it is uncovering a marginalised group of people. And in the UK one of the biggest marginalised groups is kids.\u201d And especially young men. \u201cOver the years we\u2019ve been pushed into repression and keeping your mouth shut, not questioning things and not having conversations with your friends and your peers about how you feel about life \u2026 Men just don\u2019t do that. I think women find that a lot easier. That\u2019s why we find we have a lot higher suicide rates, especially in young men in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n Fathers and sons \u2026 Amari Jayden Bacchus as Adam Bascombe and Walters as DI Bascombe in Adolescence. Photograph: Ben Blackall\/Netflix<\/p>\n Walters\u2019 own struggle through this territory would make for a movie in itself. He was mainly raised by his mother, Pamela, who worked in local government. She enrolled him at the Sylvia Young Theatre School aged seven (as a child actor, he performed in the stage version of Oliver!, had a role in Grange Hill and studied ballet and tap).<\/p>\n His father was mostly absent, Walters says. \u201cHe\u2019d turn up one Sunday and then you wouldn\u2019t see him for four months. And then he\u2019d try and take me out, and then not take me somewhere and get drunk instead, and then I\u2019d have to come home by myself.\u201d He died in 2005, by which time they had made their peace. \u201cHe wanted to be a dad; he just didn\u2019t have the tools and the resources. And he didn\u2019t have the best start in his own life.\u201d Born in the UK to Jamaican parents, Walters\u2019 father was put in care, and was in and out of borstal, then prison, his whole life.<\/p>\n So when that prison door slammed on Walters in 2002, he felt as if he was repeating the cycle. Except he was a celebrity, so all the other inmates knew who he was. When he arrived that first night, \u201call hell broke loose\u201d. For hours, people shouted insults, and threatened to kill him in the morning.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a pleasant experience at all,\u201d he says. \u201cI was tried, I was tested, it was pressure, there was loads of fear. But I had no choice. It\u2019s an experience I had to go through, and actually it was one of the best things that happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n How so? \u201cIt pushed me to the thoughts I needed to have: who do I want to be? What do I want from life? And then, looking around me and seeing my circle of friends and entrusted loved ones, do they reflect that? And the answer was a big resounding no.\u201d<\/p>\n He was in effect starting again. \u201cWhen I came out of prison, I didn\u2019t know what I was going to do with my life, and a lot of doors were shut.\u201d His music career had ground to a halt; he didn\u2019t have an acting agent; he was not allowed to travel to the US owing to his conviction. Fortunately, the British film-maker Saul Dibb had written a role with him in mind: Bullet Boy, the story of a young ex-con returning to a very familiar set of troubles: guns, local rivalries, council estate life.<\/p>\n Breakthrough role \u2026 Walters, 21, in Bullet Boy. Photograph: AccuSoft<\/p>\n The film, and Walters\u2019 performance, were widely praised<\/a> and his acting career hit its stride: shows such as MTV\u2019s stoner sitcom Top Buzzer; a part in 50 Cent\u2019s biopic Get Rich or Die Tryin\u2019; the adaptation of Andrea Levy\u2019s immigrant drama Small Island. Then in 2011 came the role that pushed him into the mainstream: as Dushane in Channel 4\u2019s Top Boy, chief drug dealer on his Hackney estate, whose quest for bigger and better things takes him on what becomes an epic journey.<\/p>\n As with So Solid Crew, Top Boy<\/a> was accused of glamorising crime and violence, but Walters disagrees. The show went deeper in terms of character, morality and complexity, he argues. Many of the storylines and characters were based on real people and events. \u201cIt came from the source, so it felt real and rich,\u201d Walters says. \u201cOur whole thing was, we wanted the drug dealers to like it. If the drug dealers call us and go, \u2018Bro, that\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve seen myself portrayed properly,\u2019 then the rest should fall in place.\u201d<\/p>\n As Dushane in Top Boy. Photograph: Chris Harris\/Netflix<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just the drug dealers; Top Boy became a global hit \u2013 and people still identify him with the role. \u201cA lot of the time, if I walk down the street, my name\u2019s Dushane. I spend a lot of my time having to tell people that stop me: I\u2019m a 44-year-old man. I\u2019m not even a \u2018boy\u2019 any more. I\u2019ve got eight kids, three grandkids, I\u2019m paying a mortgage! Like, I\u2019m really not in that life.\u201d<\/p>\n After Top Boy, his next act was something of a breakthrough, albeit a tainted one from today\u2019s perspective. Bulletproof was a buddy cop series that unprecedentedly featured two Black leads: Walters and Noel Clarke. The two of them spent years trying to get the series made, pitching it as a British Bad Boys, and being told it could only work if one of the characters was white. When it came out on Sky in 2018, the show was a success, running for three seasons, but it was cancelled after allegations against Clarke came to light in April 2021.<\/p>\n At the time, Walters put out a statement saying his thoughts were with the women who had made the allegations. He and Clarke have not spoken since, he says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want to hate on anyone. Everyone has got their own journey and everyone has their own story to tell, and I think when they are ready to tell it, they will tell it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s no coincidence that my life\u2019s changed, like, amazingly.\u2019 Photograph: Jamie Salmons\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Walters had been going through his own struggles around that time. He had been an alcoholic and a drug user \u2013 predominantly cocaine \u2013 for about 15 years, and things had come to a head a few months before, in November 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe in the first year, alcohol and substances were great,\u201d he says. \u201cThey helped me perform, they helped me be more lively at parties and network with people that I was shit-scared to talk to before.\u201d<\/p>\n Does he mean performing on set? \u201cPerforming on set I was freer, maybe wilder \u2013 who knows how I looked at that point? I felt I was doing a good job and giving people what they wanted, but the truth is, very, very quickly it stopped working, and started to hold me back.\u201d<\/p>\n The breaking point came during lockdown, after an argument with his wife about his drinking and drug use. He had been married to Danielle, the mother of his four youngest children, since 2013 (his eldest child is now 27, his youngest 10).<\/p>\n He immediately sought help. \u201cThe next morning, my wife dropped me at rehab and I was there for four weeks, came out and I\u2019ve never drunk or drugged since and it\u2019s coming up to six years in November. So, very thankful for that. Sad it took me so long to get there, and there\u2019s a lot of amends to make with family and kids and friends, but one of the best things I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d He also moved out of London in 2021, and now lives on the Kent coast. \u201cIn the last six years, it\u2019s no coincidence that my life\u2019s changed, like, amazingly. The truth is, nothing started working for me until I was clean and sober.\u201d<\/p>\n Walters and Stephen Graham at Netflix\u2019s Golden Globe afterparty in January. Photograph: Gonzalo Marroquin\/Getty Images for Netflix<\/p>\n That includes his sensitive turn in Adolescence, and his new career as a director, which began with a short film in 2021, Boys, then episodes on multicultural school drama Ackley Bridge and underrated Victorian crime series A Thousand Blows. The latter came thanks to his old friend Stephen Graham, who starred and co-produced the series \u2013 they\u2019ve been mates since the 2004 sitcom Top Buzzer. After that, Graham cast him in Adolescence. Graham now plays the welfare officer in Animol. He gives the young inmates a stirring talk about shame that ends the film on a cathartic, hopeful note.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a tender, tactile sort of film where you\u2019re seeing men hold each other \u2013 even the ones that are not gay, they\u2019re embracing each other,\u201d Walters says. \u201cThere\u2019s love, and I\u2019m like that with my friends. I kiss my friends on the cheek, my stepdad will give me a kiss, I still kiss Mum, I\u2019ll kiss my kids. I wanted to show that on screen, like how boys are with each other, even in the worst environments, even when they\u2019re going through the worst things.\u201d<\/p>\n The theme resonates with Walters, of course, but this is also him challenging those codes of masculinity and male relationships that shaped his own life, and his father\u2019s, and many others besides. \u201cI realised that vulnerability is part of a man\u2019s DNA as well,\u201d he says. He\u2019s breaking the cycle.<\/p>\n Animol is out on 30 October in the UK<\/p>\n Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ashley Walters seems to have lived his life on fast-forward. Before he turned 21 he had already had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-946718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}