I think to myself "Good ion you for starting when you did." I'd been talking about going to the gym for years - I'm one of those people who will go to the gym, and then you won't see me again for six months. It was just so difficult for me to get started on.
And then I found myself on the dole - I always swore I wouldn't - so I thought I'd at least make a start on the gym thing. And I took it really seriously, doing the six-meals-a-day thing.
You constantly feel full and end up forcing yourself to eat. It's a really weird feeling. But now I'm looking a bit buffer.
So it didn't mean rushing down starting from scratch when this came along, I just kept up my routine. Now I don't feel as paranoid about taking my top off as I would have done.
- You're originally from Manchester. What's it like being back there filming?
I absolutely love it. It's only the second job I've had here, everything else has been down south, so for me it's a complete thrill.
It's my hometown, my family still live here, so it's great. Manchester's a wonderful city and I love it, and I'm very glad to be part of a show that's so popular here.
- Growing up in Manchester, did you know estates like the Chatsworth?
My estate was kind of similar to it. It's all been knocked down now, I couldn't believe it. That's where I grew up. It was a predominantly white estate - I would say we were one of three or four black families. My best mate was from one of those other families, and he's a scriptwriter now, and we've been lifelong friends.
But it was very similar, there was all sorts going on, the usual scallies about the place. There wasn't a big racial divide or anything like that, if you were from the estate, pretty much like the Chatsworth, you're part of the community.
There was a certain loyalty to each other on the estate, people looked after each other, it was quite close-knit. I always wanted to be an actor, so I was really focused on that, but growing up on the estate, there wasn't much to do. You'd get 11-year-olds driving cars.
- Seriously? 11-year-olds?
I'm telling the truth! I don't want to say his name, but most of the time he'd be chased by the police in whatever car he'd nicked, and we'd be watching that as youngsters thinking "Flippin' heck, he's only 11 years old.
He's absolutely amazing behind the wheel. How the hell did he get that skill?" It wasn't really our style. We'd occasionally get involved in a little scrape, but that certainly wasn't my chosen route.
So a lot of stuff that goes on in the show I had seen growing up on our estate.
- You mentioned having had a period on the dole not so long ago. What dos a role like this mean to you?
I count my lucky stars that I got involved in the show. It's right up my street, it's gritty, not afraid to shock, and the characters are rich and wild and funny.
That's definitely a good starting point to me. And it's not exciting being on the dole. I've tried for a while to find a role that might establish me enough, and I think this role might do that. There's a lot of good storylines they've written for Jackson. For me it's a dream job.
Shameless Season 8 is out on DVD now.