After getting in shape to play Sugar Goodson in the new Disney+ series ‘A Thousand Blows’, Stephen Graham’s workouts have become a family affair. Speaking from the red carpet at the BFI London Film Festival, Stephen also remained tight-lipped on the upcoming ‘Peaky Blinders’ movie.
He reunites with ‘Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight in the new Victorian-era British boxing drama, alongside Malachi Kirby and Erin Doherty. ‘A Thousand Blows’ launches on Disney+ in 2025. Report by Burtonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
He reunites with ‘Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight in the new Victorian-era British boxing drama, alongside Malachi Kirby and Erin Doherty. ‘A Thousand Blows’ launches on Disney+ in 2025. Report by Burtonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Thanks for your time. I appreciate you. Please tell me, where does Sugar rank in the list
00:04of menacing, intimidating, strong characters that you've played? Is he perhaps the toughest
00:08of all?
00:09Yeah, I'd say so. I'd say Sugar is definitely the toughest character I've ever played. Yeah,
00:16without fail, I think, yeah.
00:17And I mean, it's clear in the promos that we've seen of yourself, the physical condition
00:22you get in, is that essentially, does that all build upon the character? Did you need
00:25to get into that big shape to portray someone so menacing?
00:28Yeah, hugely. As soon as we kind of came up with the concept and the idea, and the fact
00:33that he was a bare knuckle fighter, a survivor, we kind of looked, I worked very closely with
00:40my trainer, two trainers. I had a boxing trainer, and I also had a trainer who helped me with
00:46my weight lifting and my diet and everything. So Rob did all my training physically, and
00:50Graham did all my boxing training with me. And it was five days a week, so it was very
00:55intense, do you know what I mean? And that's what we wanted to use, that kind of, it was
00:59important to have that physical element, to show that he's a fighter, and that also carried
01:04on into his life, and how he's got to where he's got to. He was a fighter and a survivor,
01:09do you know what I mean?
01:10It's all for a role, obviously, for this role that you're playing, but are you now inspired,
01:13is Stephen Graham inspired to train five days a week?
01:16Yeah, well, I don't do five, I do, no, actually, I do like four, maybe, I suppose, four and
01:21With my son, with Alfie, me and Alfie do the gym a lot, and with our Grace's boyfriend
01:25now, and Josh as well, so, you know, it's really, it's kind of, it's been infectious,
01:31and the rest, it's spread to the rest of the family, do you know what I mean? So we kind
01:35of work out together now, which is great.
01:36I love that. And obviously, at first glance, A Thousand Blows does look like just purely
01:40a boxing period piece, but it's so much more than that, isn't it? Because I'm learning
01:43a lot about the 40 elephants in this pick-boxing world. Are you happy to be able to show both
01:47sides of this world in Victorian London?
01:49Yeah, completely, and, you know, I think one of our objectives was to show how these
01:55people survived, how these people managed to survive on a daily basis back then, and
02:00if you look at it properly, you know, there's no villains, there's no heroes, there's no
02:04real villains, everybody's trying their hardest to survive and make it, do you know what I
02:10mean? And for us to be able to show how diverse it was culturally back then, and it wasn't,
02:15you know, racism, of course, existed, but it wasn't a big key element, and that was
02:20one of Steve's things that he really wanted to bring into the piece. It was more of a
02:25class divide, right, you know, because everyone was in the same boat, everyone had to survive.
02:30So surprisingly, when you look at the historical content of it, you know, it was a big melting
02:36pot as it is today, but a lot of these people, especially in the East End, they got on with
02:40each other, do you know what I mean? You looked after each other and you did whatever it took
02:44to survive, basically.
02:46It's the latest in, you know, what has been a brilliant list of collaborations between
02:49yourself and Stephen. Today, there has been a press release about the Peaky Blinders movie
02:54which is coming out, so what can you tell everyone about this, or is it all real for
02:58Shush at this time?
02:59I can't say nothing, I haven't even started filming yet, so I don't know what's going on.
03:02Can you tell me when you start filming?
03:03I can't tell nothing, no, I can't tell you nothing.
03:06But this is, like, yet another brilliant collaboration between you two. Is this a collaboration which
03:11you hope does spark more projects over the years? Can you see some work that's going on?
03:16You know, I'd love to. Steve's a wonderful man and he's very creative and, you know,
03:20he's one of the people who I look to if we've got an idea, that's one of the first doors
03:25you want to knock at, do you know what I mean? And he's great and he's such a wonderful collaborator.
03:30So hopefully, you know, these things carry on in the future.
03:33Fantastic, thank you so much for your time, I appreciate you, enjoy tonight.
03:36Cheers, mate, thanks a lot, thank you.