Debbie Tucker Green’s ear for eye is now available on BBC iPlayer after making its BFI London Film Festival screening on 16th October 2021. David Gyasi who plasy US dad talks about how much the role made him think about his own children. Gyasi wanted to be a footballer (soccer player) when he was young, and ended up playing the part a number of times as an actor. His first role on screen was a small part in the film “What A Girl Wants” (2003) starring Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth. This was followed by a guest role on “Goal” (BBC, 2003), his first opportunity to live out his childhood dream. He got the chance again, when he had a recurring role as a footballer on the series “Mike Bassett: Manager” (ITV, 2005) and the same year played on “Dream Team” (Sky1, 1997-2007), another soccer related show. Gyasi eventually transitioned away from the sports-themed roles and appeared in a guest role on a number of shows, including a voice role in the animated children’s show “Chuggington” (CBBC, 2008-), “Law & Order: UK” (ITV, 2009-2014), and a supporting role in the feature “Red Tails” (2010). In 2012, he premiered on the mini-series “White Heat” (BBC Two, 2012), which tracked seven characters from their student days in the mid-1960s to the present. It was his first series regular role. The same year Gyasi appeared in small roles in two high profile features, “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012) and “Cloud Atlas” (2012). Gyasi collaborated with Christopher Nolan a second time, playing a small role in “Interstellar” (2014). His first role on American television was as a series regular on “Containment” (The CW, 2015-16) about an epidemic outbreak in Atlanta. ALT caught up with the actor between his busy schedule.
ALT:
Can you tell us who your character is, who is US Dad?
David Gyasi:
He’s exactly that really. I think with all the characters, there’s these generic names because we all feel part partly US Dad, partly US Mum, partly US Son, partly UK Dad, partly UK Mum and UK Son. When you watch it, that will hopefully make sense because essentially US Dad is someone that has to have a conversation with his son or with his family about how to survive in this world and how to protect your mind in this world. It’s a heart-wrenching conversation, but sadly one, a lot of people in this world know too well. So that’s probably how I would answer the question of who is US Dad.
ALT:
Yes, I was trying to get to know his motivations and his purpose. So you’ve covered that. As a father, how much do you resonate with this experience?
ALT:
Yeah, it’s funny, when they sent me the script, they sent another part, I think it was a mistake somewhere along the communication, and as I was reading the script, looking at it, I found that actually, the conversation that US dad has was the one that resonated with me most and really pierced my heart after reading. They all do, when you watch it, have you seen it?
ALT:
Yes, I have. I have. It’s reinforcing and really telling how, as people of colour, how we navigate this society, like shouting ‘this is how we feel, this is how we experience things!’
David Gyasi:
I have two children, I’m very fortunate. I’m very blessed and enjoy having children. But, what was sad about this was the timing of receiving the script. I received the script shortly after George Floyd was murdered, and with it being lockdown, my 13 year old was at home and very much feeling the vibrations of what was going on in the world at the time: pandemic, racial inequality blowing up. So I found myself having these conversations with him a lot earlier than I thought I would have to have them. I knew I would have them at some stage, but I was having to have conversations with him, and seeing things dawn on him was, well it was a whole heap of feelings. It was pride inducing and heartbreaking. I remember going for a walk with him in one of our hours allowed out, talking about the protests and he was saying, why are people rioting Dad? I said, well, it’s worth defining the difference between protests and riots. I said essentially 400 years of oppression and injustice has kind of culminated and come to a head at this point, and now we’re seeing the outpouring of that. His next home-learning was a history lesson and they were looking at the farmers uprising in this country, which was due to the hundred year war between France and England. His teacher said they came to the streets of London to protest, to riot and it’s like what you’re seeing now, but much worse.
What his teacher meant was that the amount of looting and burning down of buildings was much worse. As I was in my office and so in the background of his class, my son turned to me and said, ‘much worse? How can you compare 400 years to 100 years?’
I thought, wow, he’s got it. He’s seeing the world in a new perspective. I left that room and I went to try and work out. And as I was working out, I burst into tears, burst into tears because my little boy was having to grow up and realize these things. It was tough.
So in terms of how this piece resonated with me, and I think why when I read it, why US Dad really leapt off the page, was because I was going through a lot at the time, like a lot of people were around that time.
ALT:
In terms of the lockdown and what transpired with George Floyd, do you think that now we are actually addressing the UK problem, because before it was viewed by many as a ‘USA problem’ but now it is being addressed more, especially in our industries, the creative industries, they’re looking at things more.
David Gyasi:
Yeah, I think so. I think the conversation has evolved, whether pre George Floyd or post. For example, with the England footballers that missed the penalty, if that had happened before George Floyd, I think we would still have had the outrageous response that those players received, and the outrage from the public, because we know that those words, those symbols, the pictures of banana emojis, we know that that is racism, and we can put that in a box. But, now the conversation is more sophisticated. So when Dominic Raab might say something about taking the knee as more submission than it is a sign of protest. I think there is a more educated awareness out in the public to wonder, is that something to do with systemic racism that he’s talking about now? Is that what people are getting at when they talk about this constant gnawing away; the fact that people are able to see that we may have had slavery abolished in this country years before America did, but now we’re looking further, looking at the history of big businesses over here, where farmers were still profiting from slavery. Linking that triangle reflects, I think, that there is more awareness out there. Therefore, in answer to your question, yes, the two countries have been linked in that way.
ALT:
Debbie Tucker Green, were you familiar with any of her work prior to this? Is there anything specific you like about her writing?
David Gyasi:
I remember being in university and there was a member of my year at uni called Danny Lee Winter, who made a point of going to see lots of plays. I remember him saying, oh my goodness, David, I’ve just seen this play by a writer called Debbie Tucker Green. To quote him, he said, ‘She is our modern day Shakespeare.’
Sadly, I never got to see any of her work whilst I was a student, but then I had the opportunity to play a part in a short film she did for Channel 4, for an upcoming series. I remember reading the piece and thinking, I know these people, I know this family. I felt like she was representing a family similar to the one that I grew up in, similar to the ones that came and visited me, my cousins, my friends, and who I would go and visit. I thought that that’s a real gift. Before I had even read it I was already, you know, like, yes, I want to be involved. And then I was like wait, is this Debbie Tucker Green? I always talk about heartbeats with characters and with pieces, and then when I read it…I just feel like she nails the heartbeat of her piece so much. What I mean by that is you can feel that the piece is alive. You can feel what the piece is saying, how it’s penetrating you and the audience, that heartbeat, that constant, and her writing is so vibrant with that heartbeat, in my opinion, that I would struggle to even change a punctuation mark in her work. I think she has such a gift. I can’t speak highly enough of her as a writer, as a storyteller.
ALT:
A bit about you, what has lockdown been like for you, were you still working remotely?
David Gyasi:
To be honest, the first lockdown, I suppose a lot of people say this, was quite nice. I work away from home a lot and so it was nice to be at home, to be with the family, and to just have a pause, to meditate a bit more, read a bit more, sit out on my balcony, ponder and think of creative ideas. That was wonderful. I did various bits of work that I could, so ear for eye was one, I did a drama podcast…I didn’t even know there was such a thing, it was almost like a radio play, but it’s a podcast for audible. I then completed a series for Amazon, and I ended up finishing that towards the end. It got busy toward the end. I started a production company with my wife, that’s really exciting now, and we have had some really vibrant ideas come to us, and some that we thought of during that time. In a nutshell, that’s how lockdown was for me, getting closer to the family and just a great bit of pause, rest and recuperation.
ALT:
Where do you call home?
David Gyasi:
Where I call home now is where the family home is, which is Buckinghamshire.
ALT:
One last question. Why did you become an actor?
David Gyasi:
Why did I become an actor? I think it’s interesting because there’s a picture floating about somewhere from when I was in nursery where I did a play. I played an African chief and the nursery nurse called my parents in and said you should take this guy to a drama school.
My dad was like ‘What?’
She said, ‘yeah, a performing arts school.’
He said, ‘I did not come to this country so that my children could be concerts.’
So he sent us off to a private school and I never really looked at it again until I was probably about 15 or 16, when I did a school play. I saw how by entertaining, by telling a story, we were able to change the atmosphere in a room, and that really interested me.
I was always kind of charged by my parents as for various reasons they thought it was really important that whatever we did, there was six of us, we had to have a degree to do it. Essentially it was about options. They wanted us to have good options and for life to be easier for us. And they felt that a degree was a way to achieve that. But for me, I just thought to study at that level I have got to really love something…and I fell in love with storytelling. I fell in love with all the different ways that you could do that, practitioners such as Boal, who is the Forum Theatre guy. The way that you could do something that could cause a ripple effect that could cause a discussion to go on beyond the piece. I loved that. I love that.
I think personally I just love, I’m a fan of people to be honest. I love people. And when I read these different characters and characteristics, it really excites me and interests me. I want to know more about who this person on this page is. And then, I sometimes get the honor to jump into that person’s skin and make those words, which are two dimensional, make them three, or sometimes I like to think four dimensional, that’s where the heartbeat comes in. So if we can embody the character and say the words on the page, and then we can even start to feel what they feel and resonate what they feel, I love that kind of alchemy.
I hope that answers your question, it feels like it’s something that does all sorts of things to me, excites, charges, inspires, the whole gambit of wonderful things. I really enjoy it.
ALT:
If you could say in a, perhaps in a sentence, what would you like the audience to take away from ear to eye?
David Gyasi:
Empathy.
