The action-packed, high-octane, alternative musical 1 DAY caused quite a stir when it was released late last year. Not just for it’s controversial portrayal of Birmingham gang culture set to hip hop and grime music, but also for the quality of acting from leading man Dylan Dufus. We speak to the young actor who plays Flash in the movie, about uniting Birmingham, filming documentaries for Channel 4 and linking up with Wiley…

How’s it goin’ Dylan?

Yeah man, I’m well bruv. Living and breathing, I can’t complain.

So the DVD for 1Day – The Movie is out now, have you been into an HMV yet to see it on the shelves?

Nah, I haven’t even been in there, that’s what I’m trying to do today if I get the chance I’m gonna run to one quickly.

Just run in and clear out all of the copies off the shelf?

[Laughs] Yeah that’s what I wanna do!

The film actually came out November time I believe, but there’s a lot of excitement around the DVD release, because a lot of people didn’t get to see it the first time round because of the authorities and what not.

Yeah, they tried to block the film, that’s what it was. They put the barriers up. They tried to say the film couldn’t be shown in Birmingham in case it incited fights, or gang warfare or something, or some kind of craziness. The local police were going round to the cinemas saying they shouldn’t show the film for security reasons, so the film actually got banned from Birmingham.

Because of that is there an extra excitement on the DVD release?

Yeah, well actually the bootleg DVD got out, and it’s gone crazy, I’m getting messages from all over the world, saying that ‘we watched this film and we love this film.’ It’s like, most states in America, someone has sent me a message from Canada down to the south, saying they’ve seen the film and they love it. So it’s bigger than England. In England they just love it anyway by just seeing the bootleg, they wanna support it and see a sequel. They understand what’s going on right now. That’s what we’re trying to get out there, support the part one and the DVD, even if you’ve got it on the bootleg, so we can get some of this money and get part two made.

Ah brilliant. So you said it’s had this international impact, but what about if we concentrate on Birmingham, what’s it done for the city as a whole, has it brought any unification?

Of course, yeah definitely, the kids’ minds have gone somewhere else, they’re dreaming again, they’re thinking, ‘yeah, if Dylan did it, we can do something.’ I know Dylan from up the road, he’s on the TV, he’s on the billboards around the place, he’s doing his thing. The kids have got something else to look forward to apart from drug-dealing, gang-banging and what not. We’re trying to filter it out of their system as it’s becoming more of a culture now, it’s not even just like certain kids are doing it. It’s getting a bit crazy. We’re trying to get the kids’ minds right, and getting them to dream again. But yeah, loads of things have happened, like artists coming down from London, working with the kids down there, making little tunes, and just getting their minds right. A lot of good things have happened man, it’s very uplifting for my community, definitely.

Amazing, what about for yourself, what sort of impact has starring in a film done for you? How’s that changed your life?

It’s changed my life in so many different ways. Like I said, it’s uplifting. I’d done a bit of cutting hair, but that was lself employed, so the film was my first ever job that I’d received a cheque from. So just that in itself was motivating for me, to say if I can do this now, so I’ve been writing, I’ve made documentaries, I’ve written some short screenplays, so I’m just trying to get them done as well. My documentaries are being shown on Channel 4, so yeah a load of different things. And like I said, I’m trying to create a script for part two, because it’s been such an uplifting thing, just totally uplifting

What can you tell us about the sequel?

Yeah, that’s what we’re trying to get the money for right now. That’s why we want everyone to go and buy the DVD. Please go out and buy the DVD so we can raise enough money to get part two up and cracking.

Is that gonna be set over 2 Days?

[Laughs] Without giving too much away it’s gonna be the prequel. That’s where our heads are at with it..

Ah Ok. You mentioned you’ve done some documentaries for Channel 4, can you shed a bit more light onto what that’s about?

There’s a short documentary about an excluded child; the way they exclude you. Because me personally, I don’t think they should exclude kids from school because obviously the kids are in a learning process so when you go to school you’re gonna make mistakes because you’re young and you should be allowed not to get excluded. Once you exclude them from school, they’re kind of excluded from society. They don’t go through the same process as everybody else. The experience of school and college and it’s harder for them to progress in life. They don’t realise that excluding a child is finishing his career before it’s even started. I don’t think the government really understand. If I made a DVD about that, when kids are excluded from school their parents still have to work, they got to do things throughout the day, who’s gonna look after the child? That’s when the streets come and take them on, so you understand, it’s like a cycle, and it needs to get cut down the middle. There’s another one I made that’ll be shown on Channel 4, off the back of the 1 Day film, it’s about the way murders affect the young black kids in the area; about how they can be here today, gone tomorrow, which is foolish. We need to get their minds right and explain to them that killing your brothers makes no sense whatsoever and that unity is the key.

Sounds really, really deep. Both those documentaries are things that you can relate to personally. When things like that have happened in your life, how did you overcome that, to be in the position that you are today, starring in a film and having a prospective acting career?

Willpower. I’ve always wanted it to happen and it’s been a dream of mine to make it happen. It’s like I willed it in a way to happen, because, anyone who’s known me for a long period of time has always said he’s gonna do it. So 1 Day’s director Penny Woolcock helped me to do it. It’s very, very difficult. I’m not gonna say I was lucky because it’s possible for everybody to make it, but you have to make sure your mind is open up to the bigger world. I’m lucky to have my mum around, and have my dad around, who gave me the guidance I needed in life. A lot of young children out there don’t have their mum and dad around, so don’t get the parents pushing them. I had a lot of influence from people around me saying, ‘you can do better with yourself, keep trying’, so yeah I was lucky. There’s a lot of kids who aren’t as lucky as me but they have to know in themselves that they can make anything possible – the world’s your oyster, you can do what you like.

We’ve learnt that when it came to actually casting the role of Flash, you weren’t the original choice, but through various positions on set, you ended up getting the gig.

I helped Penny Woolcock with script consultancy. I first met her in 2006 when I sat down with her and gave her a few ideas, but further down the line on the day of auditions I was standing in for the role of Flash and Penny was watching and she says Dylan you’ve got the part and that was that. A month later I woke up one day and we started filming and that was it. My first experience; I had no former training before and like I said I loved every minute of it.

You touched earlier on the controversies and media hype about the release of the film, but a lot of the people, if not the majority of the actors have had some sort of dealings with streetlife, so did you think it was doubly important for this film to be shown cos it was helping those people directly to better their lives?

The truth of the situation is that whilst the film was being made in Birmingham, the crime-rate actually dropped in Handsworth where we live and also where it was filmed. For the people to have something to focus on other than the everyday struggle was like a light shining into the place. There was a great atmosphere cos Handsworth always gets put in the media for things like gun-crime, but never is there a spotlight cos something positive has happened and people in the film would probably never had a job before, so for a lot of them the making of the film was a big, big thing and it was very uplifting for everybody that was involved. So a lot of people have done a lot of things from it after as well.

We really enjoyed the musical element of the film, cos usually when we think of musicals, things like The Sound Of Music and Grease pop into our heads…

[Laughs] Yeah that’s exactly what I thought when I first heard about it . That was the first thought that came into my head.

…Yeah so there’s a lot of hip hop, grime etc in the film. How did you feel about the musical element of the film?

I’ve always loved music and had a passion for hip hop cos that’s what I’ve grown up with, so for us to actually have it in the film, make it happen and make it actually work, it was a great experience. It was Penny Woolcock’s idea and then we had some great producers who were local talent as well so it was crazy. It kept on going afterwards and I’ve just done some projects myself and I wasn’t even really an MC until I started doing this film and I had a platform and when the opportunities arose I just ran with it and now I’m doing a few things with Wiley. A lot of the kids put their heart and passion into it, that’s what they do. Look out for all of the artists who were in the film, we’re just gonna keep pushing and pushing it with songs and mixtapes. It’s all about mixtapes

You mentioned Wiley there, we spotted you in his A-List video…

Yeah I did that as well. As I say, I’ve been networking so I’ve got some music coming out in the summer hopefully, with Wiley on there. It’s more pop kind of commercial. So look out for that.

How did you link up with him?

It was through the film. He’d seen it and loved it and I was doing some work at a music shoot he was at and we just went from there and we became friends from there

Your cameo in the video, that probably wasn’t the most difficult role you’ve had to film right?

No it wasn’t! [Laughs] I was introduced to a sexy lady and then I had to just sit back and relax so it was quite easy really.

Alright for some! Have you got any more challenging roles coming up?

Well besides part two, I’ve just received a proper agent so she’s putting me up for some Hollywood work as well so hopefully you’ll see me on the big screen soon again, and we’re just waiting for the casting director to come back at me. I’m just putting my grind in and hopefully something will come out of it sooner than later so just look out for me.

1 DAY – The Movie is out now on DVD from Momentum Pictures [DVD RRP £15.99]

1daythemovie.co.uk

Tags: 1 Day The Musical, Dylan Dufus, Film, Grime, Hip Hop, Unwind, Wiley