A Quote by Martin Kemp
When I was young, I first went into the theatre which opened up across from my house. My mum and dad put me in there, not to become an actor or anything but to get rid of my shyness, which was so bad, to the point it was painful. My time there was all about encouragement and improvisation.
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My mum was an actor until she started having children. I was the first child, so in a way I was the end of her acting career, which hopefully she's forgiven me for. She's still watches my show every week. It's funny because I didn't grow up in a household that felt like a theatrical household. My dad did a normal job and my mum had given up. But when I decided to try and do it - it wasn't the most alien concept.
Dad is my best mate and I can tell Mum absolutely anything. I really appreciate Mum and Dad. Why are we so close? Young parents, I think. The rock business keeps their minds young.
I'm always being told I've got an old head on young shoulders, which is probably due to the way my mum and dad brought me up.
My dad is an art director for BBC TV shows, and my mum does screen printing workshops. Both of my parents played instruments, too, and my mum used to have crazy house parties when me and my brother were young - dub and garage would be banging through my house.
When I was born, my dad was a scaffolder, and my mum worked in a chip shop. Then my mum taught herself how to be a hairdresser and ended up with her own salon; my dad became a postman and then a counter clerk. Our first house didn't have a bathroom.
The first time my mum and dad went to the theatre was at my drama school in third year.
People always want to ask me about my dad. Which I get because he's a phenomenal actor, and that's for the world, that's out there. But my mother is every bit as impressive and as important for the world as my dad is. It's just that she's not an actor.
I think the best advice I ever got about acting was from my dad, which was, 'If they don't buy the fish on the first toss, throw it back in the wagon and go to the second house.' Which is like an old Jewish fishmongers' story about how you become a successful fish monger.
My dad is Greek and my mum Jamaican. My grandparents brought me up for most of my childhood, but I saw my mum and dad all the time.
September 11 definitely opened our eyes, but when I was 19 or whatever on the last record, we just didn't care about anything. We were too young to care about anything. And then as you get older, you don't really have any excuse to be stupid anymore, to be in the dark. That just kind of opened everyone's eyes (which I probably wish it did to more people) that there's obviously something wrong, to try and figure out what it is and what's going on in the world.
So I told my mum that I'd opened a theatre. She said, "Are you having me on?" I said, "Well I'll give you an audition, but I'm not promising you anything."
My mum put me into the Sylvia Young Theatre School aged four, and I'd go there at weekends.
The first movie I really clicked with was 'Die Hard' when I was 6 years old, which is crazy that I was watching it that young. That was the one that made me want to become an actor.
When I got the role in 'Homeland,' it really opened something up. Other people respected me more as an actor, doors were opened, and I understood for the first time that it wasn't personal. All that rejection wasn't personal.
If you're lucky enough to come from, I was very lucky when I grew up, I grew up in a house fill of love, my mum and dad had no problem showing love in front of me, which I think is why I want to teach my kids how to love.
Being an actor in TV or movies is different. A film or TV actor, if put in theatre, won't know certain dimensions, while a theatre actor won't know certain things when he comes before the camera. So I think a film actor can learn emoting from this theatre counterpart, while the theatre actor can learn about camera techniques from the film actor.
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