Adam Deacon, star and director of the series “Nugget” Photo: Invision
Adam Deacon had a dilemma. After eight years of working on his cash-strapped film Nugget, a raucous action-comedy about chaotic East London wannabe gangsters, the actor-turned-director needed to convince Ed Sheeran to play the lead role.
But how did he do it? ? are you going to convince one of the world's biggest musicians to ruin his family man image by playing a homeless drug addict named “Crack Ed” and having the stadium-filling superstar – and there's no polite way to say this – defecate in the bushes? Nearby is an elementary school. Just before returning home.
Luckily, it turns out that Sheeran, who has previously had cameo roles in Game of Thrones, Yesterday and Bridges Jones's Baby, was a “huge” fan of 2011's Anuvahud, Deacon's first film as writer/director /stars, which earned him a Bafta Rising Star award. reward. The film was a parody of Childhood (2006) and Adulthood (2008), both of which starred Deacon, and both were gritty, no-parody British street gang films.
Over a Red Bull in a London hotel near his home in Bethnal Green, the trim and stylish Deacon reveals that “one of the first things Ed said was, 'I went to the cinema three times to see Anuvahood with my friends.' So, I fell.”
Deacon, who also stars in the film as lovable roadie Rico, whose bipolar disorder makes him even more clumsy, took him at his word. When it came to filming last summer, the scatological details of the scene were in the script, “but I don’t think Ed read it. And I was like, “Ed, did you know we're going to do some shit in the bushes?”
Ed Sheeran as “Crack Ed” in “Matery”
Shocked, Sheeran paused for a minute, then decided: “Let’s just let's do it”. “And fortunately,” Deacon continues, “we did this scene on time. When we finished, hundreds of school kids appeared out of nowhere, [shouting] “Oh, my God!” Ed Sheeran!”, falling asleep to such an extent that he had to get into a taxi and get out of there as quickly as possible.”
As well as Sheeran, Sumaterhood is busy with brilliant celebrity cameos: Jeremy Corbyn in a bank robbery scene, Jennifer Saunders as a loud, no-nonsense cop, Tamzin Outhwaite and Denise van Outen in hilarious drive-by performances. Everyone knew and/or loved Deacon in different ways from his earlier works. It all helps make Maternity a full-blown, hilarious British comedy that's a triumph on many fronts. And an excuse.
We're talking 10 days before its release, and while Deacon isn't taking anything for granted, early reviews have been strong. As he says with palpable relief, “I feel like I’ve been given a second chance.”
Ten years ago, the actor assumed that his Bafta would surely open a few doors. The 28-year-old from a council house in Hackney beat out a blockbuster field of fellow nominees Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne, Chris O'Dowd and Chris Hemsworth. His victory was so unlikely that when the winner's envelope was opened at the ceremony, the cameras couldn't even capture his reaction. Instead, they were nominated for him – and for Harvey Weinstein, whose film My Week with Marilyn starred Redmayne. When Deacon's name was read, they caught Weinstein's obvious distress.
Adam Deacon, behind the scenes of the film “Nugget” Photo: Colin Jay Smith
But his success did not come after leaving Bafta. The casting agents didn't show up; major proposals never materialized. “I was very naive about the politics in this industry. I thought people would celebrate the fact that this guy from a council estate had gone there. But I didn't realize [it would have been more like]: Who does this guy think he is? I never wanted to speak out against Harvey Weinstein. I'm just a guy from Hackney. I didn't realize how deep it could go. But yeah, the job didn't come after the Bafta. It was all a little strange.”
It just got weirder. In July 2015, at West London Magistrates' Court, a 32-year-old man was found guilty of stalking without violence in a case involving fellow actor Noel Clarke. Deacon bombarded his Childhood and Adulthood co-star and former friend with hundreds of messages, one of which was described as a “death threat” and in which he accused Clark of “bullying” and “sabotaging” his career. The dispute arose after the agreement to create Anuvahuda fell apart. Clarke, who wrote both previous films and directed the second, told the court they parted ways on the understanding, he said, that Deacon would not use the “hood”-based title for his comedy take. franchise.
Deacon was banned from contacting Clark, with his lawyer saying his client “had mental health issues” and had “increased use of skunk marijuana as a form of self-medication.” The court also heard that Deacon had been suspended under the Mental Health Act in January that year after being arrested in January 2015 for threatening a neighbor in Bethnal Green with what was often described in reports as a “machete”.
Noel Clarke and Adam Deacon pictured in the film “Adulthood”, 2008
Today he is at pains to emphasize that “it was never a machete! It was a samurai antique that I bought in York while I was filming East is East,” he says of his appearance in the 2005 production of Ayub Khan-Din’s play. “I would never go out on the street with a machete. The way they wrote about it was offensive to read. Because this never happened. I'm not saying that what I did was in any way right. But it was drawn for a different situation than what actually happened.”
He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. “When I was in hospital in Mile End, on the ward, the doors weren’t locked,” Deacon says now. “But you can’t leave the hospital. You'll be there until they think you're healthy enough. I stayed there for a good few months. I feel like it made me a lot stronger, but I didn't know how I was going to get back into the industry. I thought it was all over. I literally thought: there is no turning back.”
In April 2016, Deacon was found not guilty of affray and possession of an offensive weapon and thanked the jury for “taking mental health so seriously”. But while he may have been found not guilty, he also found himself unemployed. Only “slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly,” he says with strong feeling, “did everything start to fall into place.” He credits Kathy Burke for attacking him in 2017 by casting him in the play Retreat. “She is great. She was very supportive and encouraging. She said: “Get famous for your work again, Adam. Forget all the nonsense in the industry. Just be famous for your work again.”
Inspired by this support, he took Burke at his word, redoubling his commitment to the script “Motherhood” while trying to raise money to make a film that bravely prioritized his own mental health. But he was constantly refused.
“My personal problems were made public, but it didn’t help. There was a real stigma around my name regarding my mental health. When you go out there and try to talk to [film] companies and they read about your past on the Internet, yeah, it can scare people.”
It means, “We're not going to trust this guy with all of our money”?
“Yes, and I understand that. People were very skeptical – could I do this kind of work? So I had a lot to prove,” admits Deacon, now 40 with a clear head and a compelling vision of his personal and professional journey—and now backed by major studio Paramount, which is producing and distributing Sumotherhood. At the time, however, his mental health was as much of a mystery to him as it was to everyone else. As he says bluntly: “I was sick. I didn't know I was bipolar.”
Adam Deacon wins Rising Star award at British Film Awards Academy of Film, 2012. Photo: Leon Neal
Was it also true, as his lawyer said, that he was self-medicating excessively with skunk? The deacon pauses, then chooses his words carefully. “I was smoking a lot of marijuana at the time,” he admits. “But I don’t think it was just that. A combination of many things led to this breakdown. Stress in the industry. I was in an on-off relationship with my [now] ex-girlfriend. And obviously I never knew I was bipolar,” he says again. “So the way I was living – staying up late all night, forgetting to eat – I didn’t realize how important that was for someone who has bipolar disorder.”
“But I guess I was against it too this,” he adds. “I had things in the industry that I will talk about someday.”
It is reasonable to assume that these things are partly related to Noel Clarke. Following the feud between him and Deacon in April 2021, Clarke was accused in a Guardian investigation of multiple allegations of bullying, verbal abuse and sexual harassment. He denied all charges. A year later, the Metropolitan Police said that after a “careful assessment” of the allegations they had “determined that the information did not meet the threshold for a criminal investigation”. Clarke is now suing the newspaper for £10 million in libel.
Materity is now in cinemas. Photo: Colin J. Smith
When I insist on explaining the roots of the controversy that began over Anuvahud, Deacon weighs his words again.
“A lot has happened, actually. Lots of things I couldn't control. It was not a fun time. But it all came down to this: I felt like I had his blessing to go and do this movie. And then when I did the film, it was a different story. So it seemed like I couldn't win one way or another.
“One day I will talk about everything. Because there has been a lot of talk about this lately and there must be a time when I publish my story. Because that's not all we hear.”
Why doesn't he want to set the record straight now? “I just feel like I’m in such a positive place right now. I just want to stay in this place. I want to be known again for my work.”
With the giddy, joyful and supremely perfect “Motherhood,” Adam Deacon does just that at his best.
Motherhood is in cinemas now
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