Last night (March 5th, 2022), BAFTA hosted a session for the EE British Academy Film Award nominees in the leading actor category, with Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog), and Stephen Graham (Boiling Point) as the points of focus.
The EE BAFTA Film Awards will take place next Sunday (March 13th, 2022) at the Royal Albert Hall; the event is hosted by Rebel Wilson, and will be broadcast on BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC iPlayer at 7:00pm GMT.
Graham is an English actor, perhaps best known for his role as Andrew ‘Combo’ Gascoigne in This is England (2006); and, more recently, he starred as Patrick Mulligan in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, a detective hellbent on capturing Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson).
Boiling Point released in January of this year (2022), and has received many nominations after receiving critical acclaim.
Graham spoke to Mariayah Kaderbhai from BAFTA about his role as Andy Jones, a chef who, on the busiest night of the year in one of London’s most popular restaurants, struggles to juggle a health inspector at his work, personal crises and, an overbooking that could send him over the edge.
On the topic of getting into character, Graham said that he always has “a little pad or something with me when I'm getting into a character and you just jot stuff down, information down and it goes from, you know basically that kind of Stanislavsky stuff.”
“But,” he continued, “you're creating a whole life about where he was born, what school he went to, what his mum and dad were like, and you build a back story that you can then go anywhere with in that respect...”
Boiling Point is loosely based on the life of Philip Barantini, a film director who used to work in kitchens and was in a rough place.
“You can pluck an idea from one of the sparks. It’s whatever idea is the best idea in the room. And that way you don't take it personally and you're solid within that character and that structure, that construct of the character that we've created.”
The movie used real kitchens to film its scenes in, and Graham appears to have felt a sense of pride while doing so “...because of the kind of nature of what those kitchens are like and the atmosphere that's in them. And also it's a very work hard, play hard kind of industry.”
Being a chef can be a tough job, so Graham and his team wanted to capture the ups and the down, including “at the end of the service there's a release amongst everybody. So we wanted to try and capture that atmosphere.”
The actor added about his time on set: “It was the most exciting job I've ever done...”
Graham discussed how there was a “difference in the ages amongst all of us, but also in the experience of us, someone brand new and you feed off. You watch them and you marvel at them, at what they do and you go wow, and it excites you again.”
Boiling Point clearly meant a lot to Graham, as he stated that “it was one of the most amazing experiences apart from getting married and the two kids I have. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.”
Finally, Graham moved on to speak about working with rising directors and actors, saying how much everyone wanted to “...make it as real and as authentic as possible and diversity was our key component. So that we all felt it massively.”
“At some point we all need to be given an opportunity. Otherwise, we'll never get that opportunity and we'll never know what we're capable of".
Boiling Point seemed to be a learning opportunity for many, as Graham spoke about his fellow cast and crew: “...one or two of our cast who you know it was only their second job. And one of them now is doing a huge Netflix series and she's just landed another big feature film and she's flying.”
“... that is what we really wanted to capture here and we wanted to try and make it a truthful and authentic as possible.”
Boiling Point is available to watch via Amazon Prime Video now.
Watch the trailer for Boiling Point below:
Written by Melissa, who you can follow on Twitter @melissajournal
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