20 years of Bullet Boy: how one film inspired an entire genre of British cinema and television

COMPLEX: This year marks 20 years of Ball boy, a film that essentially launched the “British cinema” phenomenon. So, first of all, thank you for doing this and opening so many doors. What about the Ball boy the storyline that initially attracted you to him?
Ashley Walters: When I got out of prison and had my first meeting with (the film’s director) Saul (Dibb), he gave me the script and told me that he and Catherine Johnson, who had written the script , had always thought of me for the role. What made me want to make this film were the similarities between me and the character, they were uncanny! I just got out of prison and the main character just got out of prison too. I didn’t want to go back to the same life as before, so I had to make a change, and Ricky did too. This is essentially what attracted me to Ball boy: I saw myself in it. I had a strong ambition to change my life, to reform my immediate surroundings that I thought were bad for me, in order to make a change in my life. Ricky also because he had a friend he had unwavering loyalty to, which basically got him killed in the end. We come from the same world, and being a black boy growing up in a low-income neighborhood and under a system designed to suppress you rather than uplift you was very relatable.

When the film was released, it became a staple of the national curriculum in secondary schools, demonstrating that it transcends cinema and is also becoming a very useful tool used in youth spaces and critical thinking. I remember being so proud of it because it gave me an idea of ​​life that Ball boy was going to have. I didn’t know it would have this legacy and to be honest it’s been suppressed for so many years and isn’t easily available or pushed too far. But it would be nice if it was one of those films that comes back every year somewhere, in one way or another.

Before being in So Solid Crew, when you were a kid you briefly played in Barn Hill. Then, in 2000, you starred in the British film Storm damagebefore landing your first starring role as Ricky in 2004’s Ball boy. Did you have difficulty finding your place in the world of theater after so many years in music?
I didn’t find it difficult, but maybe that’s because I didn’t see myself becoming an actor. Even when I was acting, it was just something I did out of passion rather than seeing it as a viable career. I guess in that regard, that’s why I doesn’t Finding it difficult. I started taking acting more seriously Ball boy and saw it as a career option. That’s when politics became an issue and the rough side of the industry came into play, including pigeonholing, being pigeonholed into specific roles, and not being allowed to explore my range as an actor. To change that, I had to turn down some jobs to be considered for other roles because, at that time, all roles were pretty much the same. In reality, my main successes have been Armored And Best boy. A lot of my supporters come from those shows. But I was also regularly on television at the time Barn Hill. I would also say I was one of the few black people on television at that time, and in the West End – that was way before music too. Storm damage And Ball boy But it gave me practical experience in the field, that’s for sure.

What are some of your favorite things in Ball boy?
Saul’s cinematic choices, the marriage of his experience, which until then had been mainly documentary, his experience and his skills in cinema actually gave Ball boy a style which I believe had not previously been adopted in the UK. What Saul did with this film was tear up the rules, making a camera act like a fly on the wall, allowing people to breathe and live in that space as much as possible. I think it created a new style of film and also made it normal for us to see this kind of film, this kind of ending and harsh reality on screen. This, in turn, has inspired filmmakers to be braver in stripping away all the bells and whistles, focusing more on the drama and characters, believing that a good story that one can relate to is enough to carry a film. For me, that was the best thing about the movie; it highlighted something we all knew so well, but in such an authentic way that it felt like we were watching a documentary. There was constant reliance on improvisation and many actors had never acted before.

All this and these similarities could be what made Best boy so big too. I think, without Ball boythere probably wouldn’t be any TV shows like Best boy. Ball boy It was such a great experience and there were a lot of amazing moments with the other actors and the director, but it was so long ago – twenty years ago, it’s hard to remember. And sometimes the key moments we tend to remember are the hardest… I want to revisit the film in a positive way, so I’m the least negative I can be about it, but for most of it From the movie, I wore bulletproof armor under my clothes. That’s how volatile it was to film in and around the area we were filming in.

When Ball boy was filmed, tensions between gangs in Hackney and neighboring areas were very high; it was often called “Murder Mile”, so it must have been a very tense time in general.
It was a tense time for most of the actors who were mostly non-actors and were from the area because they understood these tensions. But for a predominantly white film crew, they didn’t understand the nuances of territorial gangs and all that. It was difficult, and most of the time it wasn’t the easiest shoot – I have to be honest about that. But it was a really important learning experience.