Speaking to Craig McLean in Radio Times magazine, Levi Brown discusses his leading role in Steven Knight’s This Town and fighting Ralph Fiennes on stage.
This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine.
For Levi Brown, the process of landing the part that could make him the next Cillian Murphy — that is, the lead role in a historical, Birmingham-set BBC drama by Steven Knight — was a “mad roller coaster”.
When he received the audition script for This Town, the 28-year-old was in Scotland, filming the ITV crime thriller Payback. “Normally, when you get a script, you’re looking at [what would be] all your bits,” says the actor who plays wordsmith, musician and all-round soulful dude Dante Williams.
“But I read the whole thing from an objective perspective. [And] it struck me how Steven had created this whole world. His writing is so rich, you just fall into it.”
Brown auditioned in London and was called in again the following week. Cue a full day of chemistry reads with fellow actors Ben Rose and Eve Austin. “Then three weeks after that, I got the role. It was very quick.”
To help bring Dante to life, Brown had local knowledge on his side: he’s from Dudley in the West Midlands. “Filming around Birmingham, we’d go past places and I’d be like: ‘Oh, that’s where that girl broke up with me!’”
He also worked closely with songwriter and poet Kae Tempest (who uses they/them pronouns), and together they wrote the lyrics to the songs Dante’s band perform in the series, while the music comes from South London-based music producer Dan Carey.
“It was a real collaboration. We spent the whole day with them at Dan’s studio, and they gave us insight into the way they see Dante’s mind. It was a bit of a cheat, really — I had two minds working on this one character.”
Growing up the son of a carer mum and counsellor dad, it took Brown a while to accept acting as his calling. “It’s precarious and terrifying! Especially being working class and having nothing to fall back on, apart from moving back in with Mum and going back to work in Asda.”
But he bit the bullet and landed a place at Guildhall, graduating only three years ago. His skills are still listed on the London drama school’s website: “Strong singer (bass); very good ear for accents; show dance; stage combat; acrobatics.”
“When you read it out loud, it sounds absolute bo***cks,” he admits, laughing. “But I promise, I could pass all of those. Even the acrobatics.”
In fact, they were recently put to test on the London stage. Brown is appearing in an internationally touring production of Macbeth, with Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma. He’s playing Angus, but also understudying the role of Young Siward.
“The other week, that actor got food poisoning in the middle of the matinee. The only scene he had left was the fight with Ralph. So I had to go on halfway through the show and fight Ralph in front of 900 people! I’d practised the fight once with him. That’s when those stage combat skills came in!”
This Town is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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