On the radar: Reda Elazouar
Reda Elazouar of Reggie Yates’ upcoming film Pirates speaks to us about how much the trial and error improvisation is a necessary part of not only his acting but personal writing, and how fundamentally important the bond he formed with his co-stars was to understanding a character very similar to himself.
Interview Tom Wyche Photography Christian Trippe Assistant Tom Beck Grooming Alessandra Muroni
As context for the film, Pirates follows three eighteen-year-old friends, Kidda, Two Tonne, and Cappo, on their journey from North to South London in what is described as “the world's shortest road movie”. Set in 1999, these three run a pirate Garage radio station with the film exploring the friend’s relationship at a turning point in their life, when their priorities begin to shift beyond each other into adulthood. This is done through their desperate attempt to get into the hottest New Year’s Eve party of the millennium, and the lengths they’re willing to go to get tickets.
From what Reda has said so far, the relationship between all three of the main trio and their respective characters seems particularly personal and intimate, each very much reflecting aspects of the person that plays them.
What we've actually spoken about is that we see all of us in all of them. So of course, just because I played Kidda doesn't mean that I don't see myself in Two Tonne and Cappo as well. They are exaggerated and caricature elements of the people that I grew up with, and the elements that are in me. We’re all quite like Cappo, we can be boisterous like Two Tonne and we can also be in the clouds like Kidda. So I look at them more not as people but as quite exaggerated personality traits in that regard of how I relate to them. And yeah, they're all within me and I think within all of us.
That's really interesting, earlier in the conversation you also mentioned Reggie Yates working as the director too. What was it like acting for him?
You know, having the director also write the script, and also having him be there at the time the film is set was very beneficial because he was around the character's age at the time. So he had those first hand experiences. We went away to Suffolk for three days before we filmed, and it was just a couple of days just to bond there and it was actually at Richard Curtis' house which was really cool. We were looking at the table where he wrote Notting Hill, so it was amazing to have that inspiration and someone that was so encrusted in that era. And also, specifically from the culture and same part of London that Jordan, Eddie and I come from.
In terms of then going on to play Kidda, you’ve spoken about both the improvisation process for the audition of the film and the film itself. Getting into a space where you can improvise as Kidda and feel that comfortability playing around, what was that like?
You know what? I love improv and I always have. I love being able to just play because I think that's a very true test, it's like a comedian dealing with a heckler. If you freeze the show must go on in a way. So I love improvising. And improvisation comes to me quite naturally, but also because of how close I am to the character it was much easier to bridge that gap, and it felt right and accompanied by Jordan and Elliot. Even from the audition process, we all clicked, we were able to play and were improving. We auditioned all of us for about 6 hours in and out of chemistry reads.
“I love improv and I always have. I love being able to just play because I think that's a very true test.”
Did this then feel like a project where you get out of it what you put it in? You went through that intense audition process, you went through that much trial and error improv. Did you feel like you got as much out of that as you could have?
Yeah I definitely did feel like that we kind of left no stone unturned with our improv. Yes, certain scenes in the movie may be a minute long, but I remember that being eight nine minutes of just constant input. For example, the “Your mum’s Narnia” scene in the trailer. That was about seven, eight minutes long. We were driving around Waterloo in circles around the BFI IMAX, and the DOP Rachel Clark is filming in Jordan’s seat in the car, and I'm just kind of shouting at her like “Your mum's Narnia bro”. Jordan did tonnes and tonnes of improv so it set us up perfectly.
You can watch the trailer that Reda references here
The thing is there was a seven month break between the first 10 days of filming and the last week though. How difficult was it to re-enter the character space of Kidda like that after being gone for so long? Obviously, there was gonna be a re-entry process but did you feel like you could get back to the same space?
It's interesting because I think what makes this film special for me is the bond that I have with Jordan and Elliot, and by that extent, the bond that Kidda has with Cappo and Two Tonne and vice versa. And that bond was really allowed to grow because you know, the three of us have been through a very unique experience that’ll never happen again. And so in that seven month break, we grew a lot closer. I think we were all worried about this re-entry process and how long it would take us to get back in, but Reggie told us that “you guys were good before but you guys are so much closer now”. The brother dynamic was always believable but for him it was like “you guys have gelled further than I thought was possible.” So it really helped. I think it was just us speaking all the time. We have a group chat, spoke all the time on the phone, FaceTime. It just really helped keeping us close when we came back, ready to play again.
“What makes this film special for me is the bond that I have with Jordan and Elliot, and by that extent, the bond that Kidda has with Cappo and Two Tonne and vice versa.”
You've also mentioned that in the past you're a writer as well and I was wondering how that relates to this or has been affected by Pirates as a project. Has it had any impact on your work?
So, since I’ve improved for so long, improv is actually the way I write. If I'm by myself, I improv in my head and then kind of actually have to do it out loud. So, me having to brush up my skills of improv and making sure that improv was super specific to the character, and to the time, has made me write better and it’s fuelled my writing. I hadn't written for a long time before Pirates. But after Pirates, I've been writing for like the best part of this year. So it's helped me a lot to just be very specific and fine tune exactly how I work.
If you don’t mind me asking, what are you writing at the moment?
So I'm writing some stuff for myself. I'm… How do I say this? I'm writing a project that means a lot to me. Yeah… It means a lot to me and it’s about London, and that’s all I’m gonna say on it right now!
Super exciting to hear though, I can’t wait to see whatever you end up writing!
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