BILLY MURRAY | INTERVIEW
On our TV screens as Eastenders’ Johnny Allen or The Bill’s Don Beech, our gaming rigs as the voice of Captain John Price in Call Of Duty, and at the pictures in more films than there’s space to list, one-time Kray Twins sparring partner Billy Murray has a brand new movie out, Nemesis, where he’s the head of a London crime family…
Many Nemesis reviewers have been praising the performances of Nick Moran and yourself, but for me, the scene with you and Bruce Payne’s character Damien Osborne reminded me of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino meeting in Heat. It was masterful. You must have loved doing that scene with him!
Yes, I did, but I didn’t want to do it. He wound me up terribly. He wouldn’t speak to me. He wouldn’t talk to me for about two hours before we were supposed to do it. I had never met him before, and he explicitly told Jonathan [Sothcott, Nemesis’ producer] he didn’t want to meet me as it would enhance the scene. I just thought, what a load of bollocks. But it worked! It worked for him, and it worked for me. I sat down at the table with him, feeling like I’d like to rip his head off. He planned it that way. You’ve got to admire someone that knows what he’s doing like that. He’s a very clever man. Bruce Payne was a delight to work with.
Wow! Now you’ve told me this, that scene is made even more impressive knowing that you were pissed off with him.
We had not spoken one word until they said, “Let’s try one [take]”. I walked in – this was the first time I had seen him – and he kept out of my way. I sat down, we did the scene, and I think they brought the first take. We did some close-up shots, but the scene you see is all from that first take.
The rest of the Nemesis cast are an equal mix of established and fresh talent in the acting world. Did you have words of advice to calm any nerves?
The only advice I give to anybody that’s not been doing it long is “less is more”. It shows if you’re trying too hard, and I’m not saying any of them did, but some actors feel that it gets noticed if they’re not doing something. Yet it will get noticed if you are doing something you’re not meant to be doing, if you follow what I mean.
For instance, Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott is excellent in it, as she did a scene in the movie that took great, great courage. There is also a scene with Johnny Palmiero – it’s the scene where we burnt him in the car. I made a point of telling him how wonderful he’d played that part because he was so good at it.
That scene… I thought that when the car blew up, the look on your face seemed so real. Did it really take you by surprise?
Yeah! It shocked the life out of me. What you don’t see there is when I’m walking away from the car, I’m walking through like nine inches of mud – and I’ve ruined a £500 pair of shoes! And it looks like I’m stumbling, but I’m not stumbling, it’s this damn mud. So when I turned around and when the car went off like a bomb, it shocked me. Brad Pitt wouldn’t do that, would he? [laughs] He wouldn’t get that close. I was only about 20 foot away when it went up. I didn’t even think they would use the bit where I’m rubbing my hands; in my head, I was just thinking how well the production team had done!
What is it that makes this genre of film tick all the right boxes for you now?
Because it’s not expected – making a film is all about how much you can make them for. And it’s about locations, and stuff like jets. Jonathan got all those flights. I have no idea how he does it but he makes the budget stretch. He should be in government! Also, he dresses so smartly he came to my house in Turkey about ten years ago, and sat there sunbathing in a shirt and tie.
It would be criminal not to ask you about your time in The Bill. What is it you miss the most about being Don Beech in that show?
I miss the social life we had when I was in The Bill. I loved it. I had a wonderful time – I met some lovely people, and I’m still in contact with them. I was only signed up for six months, and expected to go after six months, too. But I got called into the office, and they said, “we know your contract’s up in about six weeks, do you fancy staying on a bit?” I said, “how long?” and they said, “how long’s a piece of string?” And I was there nine years later.
If social media was as strong then as it is now, I think it would still be about. People loved the show, and people would jump at the chance to appear in it. I even brought Roger Daltrey in to play a drug dealer. The character was supposed to be 21, but they upgraded it to 40-odd years old – just for him!
Nemesis is out on Mon 29 Mar on digital platforms.
words CARL MARSH