Daniel Mays: "You do not make me hear a soundproofing of Liam Neeson" | Movie

II'm going smoothly with Daniel Mays and I start with an easy question. Has he ever thought of committing a racist crime at random? Well, it's an actor, it's an interview that takes place shortly after the publication of That Liam Neeson Interview.

We are looking for more than a few puffs of the latest movie these days. When we interview actors, we look for titles and shockwaves.

"You're not going to make a comment to me about Liam Neeson," says Mays. "It was an extraordinary admission, was not it? It's ridiculous to go out with. No sympathy from Mays. And phew, at least, he recognized the reference, and do not just think that I think he's racist. Is it, though? This is my second question. "NO, I'm not, I'm firmly in the non-racist camp."

Another icebreaker: who Is he wants to kill? "I am a very placid human being," he says. "I do not want to kill anyone. I guess I've played a lot of bad people in my career, so frustrations or fears can show up in any role. "

Back to his latest film, Fisherman's Friends. Not a story of extra-strong pastilles, but a comforting British comedy based on the true story of a group of fishermen and singers from Cornwall who signed a label and made a successful record. He was romanced with a love story for more well-being. Mays plays the fish, or at least one fish out of the water: a London record director abandoned by his deer colleagues in Port Isaac.

"You appreciated?" Mays asks me. Well, who's asking questions here? I did it, I told him. This is a nice family entertainment: think of Full Monty, Calendar Girls or swimming with men, but with less exposed flesh. "It's a project that addresses the mbades," he says. "I'm not afraid of that. This is a box that can be checked. I think the film succeeds, it's the pathos. Yes, I have the pathos.

We drink sparkling coffee at a club of London members. Larger than we could expect (Mays, not the cafes – Mays says it's bigger than everyone else expects), currently bearded and refreshing, this is not what we expect. is not an arsey but he says that the role of cynical urban music is an badet to the actor. Which are? "My God, it's a difficult question," he says. "I do not know if it's a level of commitment to things. I remember what Mike Leigh said to me: "What I like about you, Danny, is that nothing is forbidden. You have just thrown yourself straight into it.

Leigh, who portrayed Mays as an abusive thug in All or Nothing in 2002, often comes back in our discussions. Now 40 years old, Mays has him to launch his career, to make him the actor. "I like this element of investigation," he says. "It all comes from Mike Leigh – trying to find a hook, trying to find little nuggets of information that you can apply. And it's just about getting saturated in the world you're in. Something will come out instinctively, be it a gesture or a mannerism. It's a question of specificity. When Mays became Jason's character in All or Nothing, people were afraid to get close to him, including the makeup artist.

Two years later, he plays Imelda Staunton's son in Vera Drake, Leigh's 2004 film about a 1950s woman who practices illegal abortions. He tried to take his ideas of saturation in everything he's done since, whether he's a villain or a cop (a lot of cops, actually), a son or a dad, a train thief or a big diarist . Memoriously, he entered Ronnie Biggs, breathing life and adding layers of complexity to the character, alongside Mrs. Biggs of Sheridan Smith; and as Sgt Danny Waldron, he appeared to become a brilliant protagonist in the third Line of Duty series until Jed Mercurio killed him criminally in the second episode.

He is just as proud of his role in the heartbreaking drama of last year's Mother's Day. He played Colin Parry, Tim's father, the 12-year-old boy killed by the IRA during the Warrington bombing. He felt that he had to have a strong performance to the real people affected by the blast and the events and found the drama all the more moving that his son, Milo, was the same age as Tim when he died. He is also proud of Guerilla, the mini-series set in London in the 1970s in the context of British black power movements. "I like to participate in projects that look at the world we live in, the society around us, provoking debate, asking questions."

Mays does not come from a thespy background. He grew up in Buckhurst Hill in Esbad. His father was – still is – an electrician, his mother was a cashier at a bank. "I kept dancing, playing or printing Frank Bruno or Prince Charles."

Continue, give us your Frank. "No, I can not do that now, all that, it was laughter." He laughs more and more Bruno: "Hey hey hey." Yeah, not bad, although I'm not sure that he's completely saturated Bruno's soul.

So, although his father needed to convince him that it was a good idea, Mays went to the Italia Conti theater school and then to Rada. The theater followed (a lot of excellent things at the Royal Court), a few pbadages in soap operas and pilots, and then Mike Leigh. Meanwhile, his three brothers became a cricket man, a salesman and a money dealer.

Can we have Prince Charles please, now? "No, I mean …" he buzzes, chic. Again, not bad. Aside from playing Samuel Pepys once in ITV's The Great Fire, Mays does not play much in the upper clbades. He spoke out against favoritism towards public school actors in the past, although pic-posho was a few years ago, he says, and he seems to have faded. He was involved in a Rada initiative, trying to find more children who were not from Eton, or even from Italia Conti. "I think that's the most important thing: you get genuine kids from the working clbad, giving them a chance, allowing them to try. You must have a platform in this industry where these stories must be told. "

A concrete example is something else that is happening at the moment. Two For Joy is a film directed by photographer Tom Beard, who only had a limited release last year and is now available on video on demand. Mays plays a caretaker in a caravan park by the sea and the film addresses mental health, abandonment and parenting. One of three children – a boy named Badger Skelton, who plays a hypnotic show while barely saying a word – had never played before.

So, what is it that annoys Mays now? Brexit, no surprise. "I went to the theater school, I went to Rada, I'm in this London bubble for as long as I can remember, which is to be as inclusive as possible and to accept all people from different countries, from different backgrounds, from religion – that's who I am. To climb the drawbridge, you know, we are an island breed. It's completely foreign to me.

He recently went to a meeting of his former football team in Esbad. "Invariably, it went all the way to Brexit, and so many people there – friends I had not seen in years – were mentality: we want our country back." a way. Oh, and his parents also wanted to leave the EU.

It's interesting, but it's hardly Neeson? One last try, is it safe to lose nothing of the bad? Something in time, in Esbad maybe? No?

So where are we? An excellent, hard-working, surprisingly well-grounded actor who departs from kinship and political background is neither racist nor murderer. Still, he makes a pbadable Frank Bruno.

Fisherman's Friends is released on March 15.