{"id":7799,"date":"2021-11-25T12:37:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T11:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1519499"},"modified":"2021-11-25T12:52:08","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T11:52:08","slug":"elliot-edusah-had-best-time-of-his-life-working-with-reggie-yates-on-pirates","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/elliot-edusah-had-best-time-of-his-life-working-with-reggie-yates-on-pirates\/","title":{"rendered":"Elliot Edusah had \u201cbest time of his life\u201d working with Reggie Yates on Pirates"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 25 November 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Elliot Edusah might only have left drama school in 2018, but the young actor has already picked up some mightily impressive credits. In the last few years, he\u2019s had a small role in Sam Mendes\u2019 award-winning war film 1917, starred alongside Anthony Mackie in Netflix actioner Outside the Wire and played a part in Steve McQueen\u2019s Small Axe series of films on BBC One.<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s one of three leads \u2013 along with Jordan Peters and Reda Elazouar \u2013 in Reggie Yates\u2019s directorial debut Pirates, a joyous ode to the UK garage scene that follows three teenage friends desperately trying to gain access to the hottest Y2K New Year\u2019s Eve party in London.<\/p>\n

Edusah plays Cappo, who has just returned from his first semester at university, and he recently spoke to RadioTimes.com<\/a> about his experience working on the film, reserving particularly effusive praise for his first-time director.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved working with Reggie,\u201d he said. \u201cI told him I had the best time of my life filming this film, I love this film, this film is my baby \u2013 it means so much to me. He just created a place where we could hit him up all the time. He was like, \u2018WhatsApp me, call me, text me \u2013 even if it\u2019s 1 o\u2019clock in the morning or 11 o\u2019clock at night.\u2019 And he never at any point let us feel like we were alone. I think that\u2019s what made Pirates so special and precious to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edusah explained how as part of the process to build chemistry between the three leads, Yates would take them away on weekend trips, including one excursion to the house of a close friend: Richard Curtis.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of Reggie\u2019s mentors,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd he showed us the table that Love Actually was written on, and all the greats that Richard Curtis has done were written on \u2013 which is also at the table where Reggie started Pirates. And I think that was a moment for us because we kind of were like, \u2018Wow, this is going to be big!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it was a time for us to just bond, connect, chill, cook, eat, have banter,\u201d he added. \u201cThe highlight of the whole weekend was just eating a vegan curry that Jordan had cooked and watching Trading Places with Reggie. He just wanted to show us all the films that really inspired his comedic essence, or just his inspiration for Pirates. He just wanted us to be as tapped in as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>As it happened, Edusah already had a certain degree of natural chemistry with both Peters and Elazouar prior to filming \u2013 he was the year below the former at drama school and had met the latter while working on the aforementioned Outside the Wire \u2013 but he said that the trio became very close throughout the process, which came in especially handy when it came to improvisation.<\/p>\n<p>Edusah explained that Yates gave them lots of leeway to \u201cbend and flip the lines\u201d, and although he says that all three stars are accomplished improvisers, this aspect of the film did come with challenges as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe tricky thing with improvisation in 1999 is you can\u2019t use 2021 slang,\u201d he said. \u201cSo you kind of have to understand the lingo and slang and the culture, and what the pop culture was so that when you do throw in improvisation, it\u2019s relevant to the time, and to the pop culture at the time as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, Edusah was already fairly well versed in the world of UK garage \u2013 his dad was a big fan and he remembers his older brother and sister listening to the music of Ms Dynamite and So Solid Crew when he was growing up. His research, then, wasn\u2019t so much concerned with the music itself but about the clubbing scene at the time \u2013 but he explained that he was delighted to have the chance to pay tribute to a music genre that doesn\u2019t always get its dues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always loved the music and it\u2019s always been a part of my life,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just reminds me of my childhood and summer days whenever I listen to garage and it was such a time in London and in the music culture \u2013 because the thing about garage that\u2019s different to a lot of the different genres now is that garage is all about love.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t hear a garage song about hate or killing somebody or violence or anything. It was all about love. And people connecting and people spending time together and people enjoying each other\u2019s company. And I think that\u2019s what made garage so beautiful and that era so beautiful.\u201d<\/p> <p>This taps into another aspect about the film that Edusah reckons is so exciting \u2013 the chance to tell an entirely positive story set in London, especially one focusing on three people of colour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you watch TV shows, there\u2019s very much the stereotypes that you see all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s important that people see a London that is true, and that they can relate to and recognise, because this is the first time I\u2019ve seen a story about three ethnic boys of colour in London that doesn\u2019t involve, drugs, extreme violence, knives, or anything of that sort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it\u2019s like, I think it\u2019s revolutionary. I think it\u2019s important that people see a London that is real but also a London that you know, people can connect with. Because that is a part of London, don\u2019t get me wrong, all the other stuff. But there is a community that\u2019s full of loving people that just want to crack jokes and have fun. And there are also boys from that community that aren\u2019t the bad boys, aren\u2019t the gangsters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause us three, we\u2019re just three boys who think we\u2019re cool. So I think it\u2019s important to kind of highlight those kids, because they often go forgotten, because they\u2019re not the most extreme or crazy. it\u2019s important to highlight those kids and make them kids feel like they\u2019re special, because they are the majority of kids in London.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pirates is released on Friday 26th November 2021. Check out more of our\u00a0<a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/movies\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">Film<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0<a href=\"\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Patrick Cremona Published: Thursday, 25 November 2021 at 12:00 am Elliot Edusah might only have left drama school in 2018, but the young actor has already picked up some mightily impressive credits. In the last few years, he\u2019s had a small role in Sam Mendes\u2019 award-winning war film 1917, starred alongside Anthony Mackie in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":7800,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/elliot-edusah-had-best-time-of-his-life-working-with-reggie-yates-on-pirates.jpg",2161,1440,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/elliot-edusah-had-best-time-of-his-life-working-with-reggie-yates-on-pirates-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/elliot-edusah-had-best-time-of-his-life-working-with-reggie-yates-on-pirates-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/elliot-edusah-had-best-time-of-his-life-working-with-reggie-yates-on-pirates-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/elliot-edusah-had-best-time-of-his-life-working-with-reggie-yates-on-pirates-1024x682.jpg",800,533,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/elliot-edusah-had-best-time-of-his-life-working-with-reggie-yates-on-pirates-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/11\/elliot-edusah-had-best-time-of-his-life-working-with-reggie-yates-on-pirates-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Patrick Cremona Published: Thursday, 25 November 2021 at 12:00 am Elliot Edusah might only have left drama school in 2018, but the young actor has already picked up some mightily impressive credits. In the last few years, he\u2019s had a small role in Sam Mendes\u2019 award-winning war film 1917, starred alongside Anthony Mackie in…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/7799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}