James Alexandrou talks about going from EastEnders to working with Harold Pinter

How has the tour been going so far, James?

The tour’s been going fine. We’ve just finished our first leg in Nottingham where we rehearsed it. I’ve been up there for five weeks. Yes, it’s been going really well so far.

You get really good value for money when you see one of Nottingham Playhouse’s productions. It feels like a huge production, which is weird for me. I’ve never been in anything which feels this epic. But it’s quite exciting at the same time.

Tell me about your character?

I play Paul Baumer, he’s the protagonist, I suppose. He narrates the play as well to the audience and shares a relationship with the audience which none of the other characters do. So, that’s been quite a challenge trying to keep the audience’s attention as well. He’s a World War I German soldier. It’s now a classic story of the tragedy of war, an Oscar-winning film, best-selling novel, it’s been great to be part of literary history in that way.

What attracted you to this role?

My interest was piqued by the phrase ‘all quiet on the western front’. It’s quite a common phrase, but where did it come from? But first of all I read the script and in that cliched way thought (adopts luvvie actor voice) ‘oh my goodness, it’s so good’ which it was. Then I did my research and found out what a great book it had been abd read the book. But as soon as I read the script I thought ‘this is an amazing part, it’s a huge meaty role to be involved in’ and I just threw my heart and soul into trying to get the part.

How did you prepare for the part?

Unlike anyone of our generation has experienced, even if you’re in the army now, it was just a completely different form of warfare they had to go through, trench warfare. It’s just amazingly dismal. We had a royal marine in for the rehearsal periods to drill us and tell us how to march.

My shirt was untucked at one point and he shouted at me and made me hold out books for five minutes. What I got from him was, and he has seen some horrific things in his time, on tour in Afghanistan and Kosovo, I think, but even he couldn’t compare to what they were going through in the trenches. They were basically just boys who thought they were going on a big jolly up away from home and had this almost comic book idea of what war is and what they were going into.

That was the hardest thing to prepare for, to put yourself in a mindset where you weren’t aware of propaganda, like we are now. You know, we have the internet, the news and everything is live and you see reporters in cross fire and stuff. But then it was just wide-eyed view of what went on and it was heroic. That was the hardest thing to put yourself in the mindset of ‘this is going to be great fun’ and get the big fall from that idea.

In regards to preparation, plenty of research, reading books. I read the book itself, which I was reluctant to do at first but I just wanted to be faithful to it as well, because there are so many fans of the book. But then again, it’s not a play about war or a play about how horrible it was in the trenches. That’s in there and that’s textured to the play, but it’s more about the relationships between these guys and the love they had for each other and the camaraderie they had above all else. And also how when faced with the enemy, eye-to-eye, the realisation they are exactly the same, all these guys are fighting for these higher powers. The posh nobs, as one of the characters call them, and that it doesn’t really concern them. They’re not fighting over their liberty, it was some little squabble from back in the day.

Since leaving EastEnders and taking on all this stage work, you seem to be seeking out quite deep and dark roles. Has that been deliberate?

I love what I do. I love acting but it’s not purely about me flouncing about on stage or in front of a camera, there has got to be something more. Otherwise, what am I doing? For instance, I didn’t like leave EastEnders and the character to go off and do a load of reality shows and get lots of money in the bank, not at all. I went off to do something meaningful and it’s a privilege to be handling such material like this. I’ve tried to pick pieces and plays, which I have done, that have some gravitas attached.

Has the stage work lived up to your expectations?

It has exceeded them really. It’s been amazing. I left because I wanted to spread my wings and I felt like I’d learnt all I could learn from being in EastEnders. I was there for 10 years, I grew up there and I felt I was at a point where naturally people my age were either already in drama school or. It was my time to go off and learn and I’ve been lucky enough to do that on the job, as it were. I’ve had an amazing time doing it.

It was quite brave to leave a steady action job.

Stupid as well (he laughs). My dad couldn’t understand it. ‘Why do you want to do that? You’ve got a regular job there and regular money’. To go off into the big, bad world of acting which is very fickle. It was a huge decision. It wasn’t anything I took lightly. It was something that was well thought out and well planned. And it has been scary and hasn’t been at all consistent but the work I have done I think has been really good quality and really well received, so that sort of backs me up a bit and puts my mind at rest I’m not being slagged off.

Do you think, coming from a soap or TV acting background, people don’t expect you to do so well?

Yes. Which is fair enough I think. People ask me do I get pigeon holed, but yeah of course. If someone sees you on telly for 10 years as the same character, of course people are going to instantly recognise or attach you to that character. It just spurs me on all the more to do a better job.

As soon as you do become complacent, and think you’re the bee’s knees that is when you will trip up and fall. It spurred me on and made me all the hardworking and try to do good work.

You’ve taken some refresher training, haven’t you?

I did. It always comes up but it was literally a few weeks at a drama school. I do try as much as I can to get to classes. It’s nothing to shout about, a lot of actors do it. It’s good, I just feel like I’ve got so much to learn still and I think everyone has. It’s one of those things where you never get to a point and go ‘right, I know how to act now’. Every actor is steeped in insecurity and self doubt and that’s just part of the job. It’s about dealing with that and still being able to come out and give a realistic performance at the end.

I’m intrigued about your part in the Radio 3 production of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, starring the great playwright himself. What sort of an experience was that?

Well, bizarre. It was a radio play but to actually be with the man himself was amazing. When I found myself in a room with Harold Pinter, Michael Gambon and Gina McKee, I was looking around thinking ‘what the f*** am I doing here?’ ‘how they hell have I landed this job?’. I was very lucky but completely intimidated at the same time. There was a moment which was (again, adopts luvvie actor voice) ‘one of the highlights of my career’.

Also with people who have been in the business for so long, they’re well aware of the impact they can have on somebody. Everyone makes you feel very welcome and very calm, I didn’t feel, well I always feel like I’m treading water, but I didn’t feel like that too much then.

How did you land that part?

I have no idea, to be honest. (Bursts out laughing) Erm, they asked me to read for it, I went and read a few pages and they offered me the job. It was very mad. I owe a lot to Thea Sharrock who was the director of that, she’s a major player in the theatre world now. She’s very young director and I went to the Anna Shears theatre, she was also a former student there. She had read I’d just come out of EastEnders and being very generous offered me to come and read for it, being an Anna Shears girls as well. So yes, very lucky and I managed to do the job.

Are you much of a theatre-goer yourself?

I try. I should go a lot more than I do. I try and go at least once a month. I should go quite a bit more. It’s not bad. But I try and watch a lot of film. That’s my big thing, I watch a film a day and go to the cinema once a week. But I should go to the theatre more often. There’s that Government scheme which I’ve heard about briefly about free tickets for under 26s, which I think is a great idea. Theatre has got such a staid reputation when it’s not, it can be exciting. It can also be extremely f****** boring and extremely bad but you can say the same for film. But there’s a lot of exciting theatre which is not just some artists’ back-catalogue put on stage to a storyline. There is some very exciting and dangerous theatre out there and that’s the sort of stuff that gets people going and people should see.

Theatre is such a leap for some people. It’s a shame to think their first time will be their impression of theatre and if it doesn’t capture them… If it’s there and offered for free people will go. That’s what so amazing about theatre, it’s live and every performance is going to be different. You’re seeing emotion live and raw and on stage and at any moment it could all fall apart and which is not the sort of sense you get when you go to the cinema. At the cinema it’s well rehearsed, well shot and the best stuff is put out there. But in theatre, the actors and the production and the lighting guys all have to roll with the punches. If something goes wrong they have to deal with it and that’s what’s exciting about it. It’s when things go slightly off beat it can be at its best.

Have you ever had to deal with a performance which has gone wrong?

Oh yeah. I have. The last play I did, In My Name, was great because we took it from above a pub theatre in Islington, the Old Red Lion, and took that within a matter of months to the West End. We were on the cover of the New York Times art section because it was such a f******* good play. It was so raw and such a young company – the writer was 26 – it was very good. I’ve never had an experience like that, working on a brand-new play which is hot out of a printer, edited as we go along and the writer is getting ideas from us and we’re taking ideas from the director, such a melting-pot of ideas and work. That said, because it was so raw and so many changes happened at the last minute, things did go wrong on stage. But because we knew the characters so well and had worked on it so hard, we could just roll with the punches and sometimes that was when our best stuff came out.

That’s more for the actors to enjoy, but you do get that sense of energy in the room.

You mentioned you were a film lover. Any movie parts coming up?

Possibly, but nothing I can really say. If I was to say ‘yeah I’m getting into film’ and then nothing ever happens I’m going to look like an idiot. I’ve been consciously, since leaving the show, been doing theatre. I’ve done a few auditions here and there for film but nothing really that captured my attention. So I stayed to theatre. But after this run I think I’m going to try and doing something new and find a different way of working

Anything in the pipeline you can mention?

There’s couple of little things, but I can’t really say. You’re not going to see my in the jungle or skating on ice, or anything though. It looks hilarious but I’m never going to do it.

It says on the James Alexandrou Wikipedia page you were offered the lead in Equus but turned it down. Is that true?

They need to change that on Wikipedia. They say I turned it down. Of course I wouldn’t have turned it down. But it is partially true. Basically the director of The Homecoming directed Daniel Radcliffe in Equus and he came to the end of its run, it was going to go on a national tour and they inquired about my availability. So they looked like they were interested but, I don’t know if you’ve seen Equus, or Daniel Radcliff in real life, or Alfie Allen who is playing the part now, but they’re a lot shorter and more slight than I am. I’m 6ft 2 and 14 stone. And these guys are small, slim and athletic young men, I don’t think I could get on someone’s shoulders and run around the stage for 10 minutes like they do in the play. That’s probably a big thing to do with it.

Wikipedia is not an encyclopaedia. I didn’t turn that down. I would love to have had the opportunity to turn that down but I didn’t. I wouldn’t have turned that down anyway, I would have jumped at it. There was some stupid quote of me in the paper saying (adopting mock east end accent) ‘I’d never take my kit off .’ Talk about pigeon holing as an EastEnders character. I’d happily take my clothes off for Equus, of course. (he laughs)

How did it feel growing up in EastEnders?

It’s funny, only recently I’ve started to look back at it in that way because when you’re in it you don’t really think about it. It’s just what you experience. But now, looking back, I had very good grounding – solid parents behind me, and family and I’d never had any airs or graces. I went to normal school, did normal work and normal chores at home so I never really felt abnormal, if you like. It was just missing school some days to go and mess around on a set.

In the same breathe it is hard. There are certain things you have to deal with. Going to supermarket with your mum when you’re 14 is different. But it just becomes part and parcel really.

What would be the ultimate storyline to tempt you back to the soap?

Good question. It’s not something I’ve thought about. I’d go back if the same guys were still there. The friends you make on set is one of the best things about it. But at the moment it’s not really a consideration. It like asking you would you go back to an old job. At the end of the day it is a job.

It wasn’t offering me anything new. If it was something new and exciting for the character of Martin, then possibly. We’re talking years, I think.

I’ve grown up in it. I know actors my age, even my sister who’s training, who would jump at it, there’s nothing wrong with that at all. But the grass is always greener, I suppose. I haven’t got it on such a pedestal anymore. I’m not talking bad about it. It’s a great job and a great place to work, I owe everything to that show. But it’s not exciting for me anymore.

Is there anything else you’d like to add or confess?

I love the honesty ‘just give me some scandal now’. But no, nothing.

James appears in All Quiet on the Western Front at The Churchill, Bromley Nov 4 to Nov 8. 0870 0606620.