Actors talk a great deal about luck.
Feeling lucky is the mantra of the green smoothie-drinking beautiful people.
A lot of that talk is bullshit.
Successful people rarely believe that their own talent, beauty or graft played no role in their rise.
Many see success as their due.
That if it vanished, their freedom of choice and opportunity would go with it.
(Not the case for theincreasing numberwhose privileged backgrounds would cushion any such blow).
To really know the luck of success, the alternative has to be a real place to you.
Hes just filmedThe Aliens, a sci-fi comedy series for E4 from the producers ofMisfits.
Hes worked enough to recognise what a rare opportunity it was to work with Shane Meadows and that cast.
And when he calls himself a very lucky bastard, you know he means it…
This Is Englandis known to have quite a different process to other TV dramas.
How did it work for your character?
How have you got here?
So I said, Right, this is what I think…
So I always remembered that and I always played that with Gadget.
Even if I take the piss out of him, we still love each other very much.
The thing is withThis Is England, youre always thinking as yourself.
How did that one come about?
Shane sits you down a lot, and talks you through it.
Hed say what would Harvey do now?
The heroin was the excuse for kicking her out.
Harvey doesnt like the fact that she was using Gadget.
I think the heroin was just an excuse.
Harvey loved Gadget, that was his best friend.
Harvey is a joker, hes a laugh but also hes fucking angry.
Hes always the first one to throw a punch in a fight, isnt he?
Harvey was very similar to me in some respects.
I think Harvey was a younger me.
Harvey was the more piss-taking, angry me, which is fucking amazing to play.
Its therapeutic [laughs] It really is, cliche that it is, its fucking beautiful to play.
With that clique, thatThis Is Englandlot, youre doing something thats magic.
How is it to film lots of scenes that dont get used in the final cut?
Theres lots of that.
Theres so much of that.
You never really know whats going to be on camera, and Shane doesnt, until the end.
There were workshops towards the end ofThis Is England 90to conclude it.
We didnt really know how it was going to end.
There were all sorts of different stories, all sorts of different things filmed.
Wed sit in a room and workshop it and eventually decisions are made.
Its so organic, it really is.
Youll tell Shane a story and hell go Right, well put that in and it just works.
Apart from Flip and Higgy!
I dont know what the fuck they are.
Theyre beautiful but they aint themselves!
Whats the main lesson you learnt onThis Is Englandthat youve taken into your other jobs?
I suppose its keeping your character sacred.
Your character, you own it.
Thats something you have to grab hold of onThis Is England.Your character isyourcharacter.
Its quite easy to get kept in the back inThis Is England.
It was an ego thing as opposed to a creative thing.
What I say aboutThis Is Englandis theyre like my best friends back home.
Normal, working-class, beautiful people who Im creative with.
If Shane was going to do another one, you know itd be good.
You know he wouldnt do it if it werent good.
Its like doing a play, the workshops, rehearsal.
You just feel as though youre adding to something.
Youre working on something as a team.
Youre not just coming up and doing your words and pissing off, youre actually part of an ensemble.
Fuck me, yeah.
Massive, massive deal.
It was great to work in the green screen studios and all that sort of stuff.
It opened my eyes and I got to see a completely different world.
I got to see LA.
I got to live in Vancouver for two years, eventually.
I thought, if Im going to be here, fuckingdo somethingwith me.
Ive got a boy at home and its crucifying me being here and not working.
Wonderlandwas incredible, butOnce Upon A Time, I found it quite soul-destroying.
My mam came out for three months eventually because I just wasnt doing owt.
I found it sort of unfair.
The fan reaction was definitely that your character, Will, was under-served on the main show.
Originally, they asked me to come and said I was going to be in all these episodes.
So the contract was written.
I didnt really know what I was doing there.
The last year was hard, but Im so glad Ive done that.
Im really happy I did that and got to experience that.
I think I did the right thing.
No, Im happy I did what I did and I think I did the right thing.
It hasnt put you off going back to America?
No, not at all.
The fact of not being used, it could happen here.
And I know a lot of actors even onThe Alienswho were hanging around a lot.
But hanging around for ten months…
Might your character reappear in future seasons ofOnce Upon A Time?
They didnt kill me.
I get on really well with the writers, Eddie and Adam [Kitsis and Horowitz].
Id need like a guarantee though that Im going to be doing something worthwhile.
Did they ask you to do an accent on Once?
No, they just said pack that Derby shit in basically.
It was a bit too hard to understand.
I did have to, lets say, smarten it up, refine it a bit.
But I didnt take it away from Derby.
Have you seen the super-cut of all the times you say bloody hell on the show?
I have seen that.
He says it an awful lot.
Once Upon A Timereunited you with Robert Carlyle didnt it?
Youd worked with him years ago onSummer.
Hes a good bloke.
Hes a wonderful, wonderful man, incredible actor.
I spent a lot of time with Bobby.
The whole cast were incredible, they all welcomed me, theyre all wonderful people.
I just wasnt working enough by the end.
Having been used to workshopping and improvising onThis Is England, Id imagine other jobs might feel restrictive?
Its about not being scared to fuck about a bit.
Often on set, I have a little fuck about.
But can you get away with that on something likeOnce Upon A Time?
Until the director goes dont do that!
I dont really care.
If they say Thats not working, you stop.
Otherwise, I just try and do what I thinks right.
You improvised onBeing Humanwith Tom?
They sort of allowed me onBeing Human.
I was sticking to script, but I was making it my own.
Because by the end of Being Human I completely had Tom.
Not even the writer could sway it.
I knew what I was doing.
The script supervisor would start saying Michael… and the director goes [waves hand].
Theyd let me get away with a lot on that.
Did they stop you at any point?
I never really went too far away from Tom.
Id never start going into a Shakespearian monologue out of the blue!
I think Im an instinctive actor.
Thats what people have said, that I am.
People obviously like working with you.
Youve got a track record of starting off in small parts that get progressively bigger.
Tom inBeing Humanwas a recurring character who became a regular.
Will inOnce Upon A Timestarted in the spin-off but then ended up in the main show.
That must be cheering?
[Unsure] Yeah.
Maybe I do shit auditions!
I think thats probably it.
I think Im very fucking lucky.
I think thats what it is.
Theyve had range, a journey that theyve trusted me enough to go on.
I think youre selling yourself a bit short.
I genuinely think that luck is a massive factor.
Michael Socha, thank you very much!
The Aliens starts on E4 on Tuesday the 8thof March at 10pm.
