The lead characters in your first films Kidulthood (2006) and Adulthood (2008) were male. Was it challenging writing your new film, 4.3.2.1., about four girls?After Kidulthood, I was called in to a meeting and told that I didn't write women very well. I was very annoyed. If you're pulling me in to tell me how to improve on the film's flaws, OK. But just telling me I didn't write women very well? Great, thanks. I was so angry that I went home and wrote the script for 4.3.2.1. in a month.
So you didn't find it difficult?
No, but I never thought I found it difficult on the first film either! This guy told me that no girl he'd ever met behaved at all like the women in Kidulthood. I said: "You probably don't know many girls then…" The kind of person I am, if I could remember his name I would name him.
You have a small part in 4.3.2.1., but Adulthood puts Sam, the character you played in Kidulthood, at its centre. Were you consciously writing yourself a meatier role back then, to help establish yourself as an actor?
Sam's wasn't a huge part in my first film – the horrible bully, one-dimensional, no sympathetic side, just an arse – but I was too old to play the lead, who was supposed to be 16. When Kidulthood was doing well, and I started thinking about writing a follow-up, the only character I could think of expanding was Sam. Why? Number one, he would have the biggest journey to go on. And number two, I wasn't going to be stupid enough to write another film where I wasn't playing the lead character.
Sam's wasn't a huge part in my first film – the horrible bully, one-dimensional, no sympathetic side, just an arse – but I was too old to play the lead, who was supposed to be 16. When Kidulthood was doing well, and I started thinking about writing a follow-up, the only character I could think of expanding was Sam. Why? Number one, he would have the biggest journey to go on. And number two, I wasn't going to be stupid enough to write another film where I wasn't playing the lead character.
If you wrote 4.3.2.1. before Adulthood, why has it only now made it to cinemas?
The few people who saw the script told me that it would have no audience in the UK. So I put it in my drawer. Then I wrote Adulthood and we know what happened with that. It was the second-highest grossing British film that year. It did all right. Bafta. Can't complain. Then, of course, people asked me if I had any other films I could make. Well, funny you should say that. (He mimes blowing dust off a script.) Here's a film I just wrote called 4.3.2.1.
The gym that you were working in when you got your first acting break appears in 4.3.2.1. Is it an important place for you?
I worked there from 15 onwards. I was the water slide attendant – "Go, wait, go, wait" – then I was a life guard and a gym instructor. It was five minutes from my house (in west London) so it was a convenient place to work, but I realise now it was a great place to meet people in the industry. Film producers, heads of model agencies, that kind of thing. I was the guy everybody spoke to. I met the playwright Rikki Beadle-Blair there; I think he also taught aerobics there or something. It was through him I got my first acting job. And I met my wife there (Iris, with whom Clarke has a son, Samuel).
How old is your son now?
He's two this week. By the time he's six or seven, I hope I'll make something he can actually watch. I've got a plan for a children's film. I'm not going to let him watch the other ones until he's of a decent age.
How have your films been received in America up to now?
They haven't really. Fan-wise, they've gone down well. Industry-wise, they don't seem to get it. They thought Kidulthood and Adulthood wouldn't sell, so they only came out on DVD.
4.3.2.1. is partly set in New York – will it travel better?
I think so. The films that I've written and directed to date aren't necessarily the kind of films I like watching. 4.3.2.1. is starting to go more in a way I want it to go. I want to do more commercial things. I want District 9, I want… maybe not Independence Day, because we don't have the budget, but I want event movies. I can't always be making "British films". Why should we be making films about corsets and horses and girls learning to drive when Americans send over an event movie and make five or 10 million?
The director Kevin Smith plays a small role in your new film. Are you a fan of his?
His films inspired me a lot and he came to the industry in a similar way to me. He couldn't get in, so he made Clerks by himself. I couldn't get in, but by hook or by crook I made it. Kevin's a nice guy. I like people who engage with their fans, who show some modicum of respect to the people who buy your fucking stuff.
Is that what you do?
I'm a nice guy to anyone I meet, until they show me they don't deserve niceness. I'll turn very quickly. But I'm pretty pleasant overall. Young kids who like Doctor Who, 16-year-olds who were fans of Kidulthood… It's all good. I can go from (adopts voice): "Ooooh, where's the Doctor?" to (adopts voice): "Are you dizzy, blood?" Part and parcel of the job.
Were you happy with the way your Doctor Who character, Mickey, bowed out at the end of the last series?
He married Freema (Agyeman, playing Martha Jones), which I didn't mind; it was a good character arc. A lot of Mickey happened by accident. I came in and played him quite badly in season one. We didn't know what Doctor Who was going to be – it was a kid's show, right? So there's me, doing the big eyes, grinning like an idiot. It's partly my fault, I didn't rehearse, but I wasn't really told about the tone of the show either.
Season two, Russell T Davies started writing the character more towards me, because he knew me, and Mickey became a little bit darker. By season three, Kidulthood had been out, so I had the stubble and low-cut hair. And then in my last episode I've got a huge beard because I was in the middle of filming Neil Marshall's Centurion. So mostly by coincidence, Mickey has this arc from nerdy guy to bearded freedom fighter. I thought that was cool.
Speaking of freedom fighters, you mentioned event movies before. Do you ever see yourself as an action star?
I don't think I'm egotistical and I know what my limits are: I'm a black guy who's probably losing his hair. But I'm happy to play roles that I'm given and I'm happy to play roles that I write. And yeah, those roles will probably be more about being the cool action star than the nerd.
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