Brassic

Joseph Gilgun interview

Joseph Gilgun talks about returning for a sixth series of Brassic.

How excited are you to be back for Series 6?

Do you know, honestly, dude, it hardly feels real. It almost doesn't feel real, you know, you barely even want to trust the real success of it, I feel really proud of it. It's been a bloody journey and I'm so humbled by the fact we're six years in and it's still so loved. I mean, if you're not humble, you're a dick, you know?

What kind of reaction do you get after all these years?

It's mad, you know, the reaction is just insane. It always has been, people just seem to love it.

What's it like when fans turn up to watch filming?

It's very strange. I would say it's probably more for Michelle because she's gorgeous. When you do finally meet me, it's massively disappointing. There's hairs in my nostrils that you are going to see eventually. I mean, you get close enough, you're going to see that also I have a weird eyebrow situation that extends to my beard now I'm in my forties. So, yeah, they're not really there for me. I think more than anything they're there for Michelle. But it's, you know, strange to me. I never, never predicted my life going that way where people turn up and watch you just do your job, you know? But it's sweet of them to do it. They're very supportive and they always bring us cakes, which is really nice.

What does the show and Vinnie mean to you personally?

Oh, Christ. Everything. Well, all the lines are so unbelievably blurred between me and Vinnie. I don't want this to sound negative either. It's just I didn't realise it would be this way. But as the series have gone on I've realised it's also unavoidable; Vinnie is me and I am Vinnie.

If I had a pound for every time someone said, "It's just a job", it's not to me. This is my life, it's my mental health. In a way, I am working out my own shit by playing it out as Vinnie. But then someone shouts 'cut', everyone else moves on but I still have to deal with what's going on in my head. I knew when I started this series that I wanted to be honest about my mental health so that others watching might be able to relate and be honest about theirs. I wanted people to know what it looks like to suffer with mental health, you know, sometimes you're a shouting asshole that needs telling off. Sometimes you need support and a hug. But it's rough when you're playing it out and living it for real at the same time. But Vinnie is much cooler than me, actually. I look like Rab C Nesbitt in real life.

How do you think Vinnie has changed since Series 1?

That's a good question. I've tried to keep him quite consistent, if I'm honest. I'm not wanting to tweak it because it's who I am. It's going to sound terrible printed out, but I turn up and I have to be myself. So it's a very, very strange job. I'll never have another job like it, where you turn up, be you on camera, and then go home and still be that bloke. There's no fucking break from it, for sure.

Six series in, are the shenanigans the gang get up to still loosely based on things that have happened for real in your life?

So, by way of the capers and shit they pull, I've run out of my own stories. You know, I'm not El Chapo. I've not just got this bog roll list of crimes that I've done. I'd be in the nick if that was the case! So it's massively embellished. It'll be based on things people have said to me.

Sometimes I'll be on the phone to Danny [Brocklehurst] and just ramble along with one of these stories and it sparks an idea. I'll be honest with you, we have the blueprint down, we know how the show runs, we've got an amazing team. And I try my absolute, my utmost, not to get involved because I think you need one single track of vision. When there's too many people doing that, the story starts to dilute and as a result, the performances will too. I'm a gobshite, if you put me in a meeting, I'll try and fucking dominate it, ruin everything. So I tend to chat some shit to Danny and leave him to it because his writing is incredible.

How would you sum up Series 6?

This series is intense, for sure. I would say that the deaths that have happened in this series - there's a scarier edge to them and that's symbolic of the people they are now mixing with. It's not just petty shit anymore, they are in the big leagues and with that comes fucking chaos.

One death is pretty shocking and gruesome, what was it like to film?

Yeah, it's really shocking. Do you know what it reminds me of? Have you ever watched Burn After Reading? There's a scene [spoiler ahead] where George Clooney shoots Brad Pitt's character and it's like, "Oh my God, in a million years I wouldn't have expected that". It was horrifying. I had the same reaction to this death. I was like, "Wow, that's a big death. It's really bad". But to actually film it, dude, it was so gross! The guy who does our prosthetics, he's a true artist. But he must have looked at some scary stuff to prepare for what he had to do for us. It was pretty gross though, there was corn syrup and stuff everywhere. But it looks so real. It was an amazing job on their special effects front, let's put it that way. I think those scenes are often carried by the visuals.

There's a theme running through this series of this sense that Vinnie might be feeling left behind while everyone around him is getting married, having babies and generally evolving. How does he feel about that?

Well, I just want to try and weave in the nuance of what we were talking about before, where the lines are blurred between me and Vinnie. Most series, I'm trying to talk to the audience about what I'm going through on my own at home, you know, and I'm as honest as I can be about that.

I'm at an age now where everybody's moving on, and I don't want to. I don't want a girlfriend, don't want a boyfriend, don't want kids, don't want any of that stupid shit. I don't know why anybody would. But it's tough at times, you know, you do look around and you think, "Am I doing the right thing here? Because everybody else seems to be outside. No one seems to be frightened of one another. And I'm terrified of all that."

I've got a real thing with being abandoned. I think there's a few folk that I know, actually, I've spoken to a few people just recently about this feeling that never really goes away. I think when you've got BPD or bipolar, abandonment, it's fucking massive. It feels like your world's coming to an end, and it's really bloody real and very intense. You know, eventually you will come to and you'll go, "Jesus Christ, I'm a fucking maniac. That was insane." But you don't spot it when you're going through it. I think poor Vinnie has been struggling, and I'll be honest, when he struggles, I struggle, you know, I can't turn it off.

I'm ruminating on a big thing that was a huge problem for me and I'm having to act it out over and over again. And then we move on. It doesn't exist anymore for everyone else but in my head it's still going on.

So what Vinnie feels is how I feel all the time. It's exhausting, but it's also the reality of someone with mental health issues and I don't want to shy away from that because I've always wanted Vinnie to be the voice for those of us who struggle for real. I want people like me to know I see you, I see what you are going through and I totally understand it. You are not alone.

Do you think the key is showing that people aren't one thing, they can be naughty but loving, mean but have a funny streak?

Yeah, I'm trying to say it's alright to make mistakes. The worrying thing now is we're living in an age where, Jesus Christ, people are actively looking for mistakes or flaws in your sense of humour or whatever the case might be. They're looking for a reason to be offended, it's just painful. It's like, get a fucking helmet, dude, life's hard. It's not meant to be easy, and people can be more than one thing, they can make mistakes but still be a good person. But what this show proves is if you have true love, and I'm not talking sex, I'm talking connection, then you can make mistakes and not have your world come crashing down. Mistakes are normal, it's how you learn, so look beyond the bullshit.

This series the gang must save Gideon from a naked cult, how naked is that episode?

Fucking full-on naked! And I'll say this as well, it needs knowing, those actors were naked in the coldest, wettest, most miserable conditions that the north of England has to offer. But honestly, I think it's just an excuse for Tom and Aaron to get their pecs out. They're so bad at that dude. Honestly, the pair of them. More so Aaron, he's obsessed with that shit. He'll find a way to look hot if he can. Like, you could give him a carrot, put him in a field and go, "Right, look sexy", and he'll find a way to do it. He is one sexy man. Tom's a hot dude too. The pair of them make me sick! But I don't blame them. I would but I don't have anything impressive, it's like I was born with two backs!

The gang make a couple of references to Strictly this series, are they really fans?

Do you know what? That's those fucking idiots slipping things in! We've got a lot of actors that just do whatever they want. I'm not joking! Tom's the worst for it, you know, he'll go, "Right, I'm going to sneak peacock into this conversation". And he'll do it. There was one scene where he leans into to me and he whispers "chapped bollocks" into my ear. It got into the final edit and fans spotted it! I swear, this lot are lawless! But you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the lot of them.

So would you ever do Strictly?

Can you see me in sparkly spandex? Fuck off! I'd rather gauge my eyes out. I hate all that celebrity bollocks. When did we turn our art into a competition, like who can be the best at this or that? I'm not here for that shit. I want to do my job and go home.

This series ends with the biggest stunt in Brassic history, what can you tease about that?

They're all in danger at the end of this series, I think fans are going to be like, "okay, what does this mean for the show?" We're leaving them with a massive dot, dot, dot over the future of everyone. It's huge, dude. I'll let you into a little secret, we don't know yet how they are going to get out of this situation! We came up with the idea and then were like, "We'll think of something later!" It's like when Erin whispered in Vinnie's ear, we had no idea what she fucking said. Everyone's like, "What did she whisper? Like, dickheads. Whose idea was this?" It was David Livingstone! And the cliffhanger this series was David Livingstone's idea as well. So, we're waiting for him to come up with another genius idea to get them out of this very deadly situation.

Maybe a movie could happen instead?

Do you know what? We've floated the idea of doing a movie. I wanted to do this idea where, you know how the cartels used to build submarines to move their shit? I thought we could build a submarine but instead of going to Isle of Wight, the gang end up somewhere hot, like, "Fuck, we took a wrong turn somewhere, missed it by fucking miles". It's basically an excuse to film in a hot country because after years surviving in the pissing rain and cold, we deserve it!

Brassic is on Thursdays at 10pm.