The musician Will Poulter has always wanted to play in a movie: “A dream role for me”
Although it might not seem anywhere near as glamorous a job as being in movies for a living, appearing in music videos is a surprisingly common venture for mainstream actors. Current industry darling Stephen Graham, for instance, has been in loads of them, for the likes of Sam Fender, Kasabian and Arctic Monkeys, and Will Poulter did one back in the day for UK hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks.
That’s not the only connection between Poulter and Graham, however, far from it. Not only have they both played head chefs in successful culinary dramas on both sides of the Atlantic, Graham in Boiling Point and Poulter in The Bear, the younger actor has also cited the stocky Liverpudlian as a major inspiration for his own career, especially his pivotal role in Shane Meadows’ 2006 drama This is England.
Poulter has had rather less of an up and down time of it, compared to his compatriot; once he had his breakout role as a child actor the year after that in the British comedy film Son of Rambow, he barely looked back, and by his teens he was appearing in big-budget fantasy fare like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
After a spot of university, Poulter was back in the game in seriously impressive fashion, immediately landing a place alongside Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis in 2013’s We’re the Millers, which was a massive comedy hit that came from nowhere to make a $250million profit on a budget of just $37m and put him in the sights of Hollywood casting directors.
It was the same year he played a caretaker in that music video for Rizzle Kicks, and the movie also saw him doing a bit of cringey lip-synching to Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes’ rap verse from the classic TLC hit Waterfalls, something he would have had no problem at all with given he has often shown his appreciation for hip hop and rappers, including the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and Jay-Z.
In fact, given the opportunity, you’d see him making another 8 Mile, as he once told The Independent, saying, “I’m a big fan of hip hop, so if there was ever another film about Eminem, that would be a dream role for me. But I don’t think it would be appropriate, so I’d settle for a supporting role”.
While he may not have got a chance to make a rap film, he did make quite an unusual movie in 2021 called The Score, which was unrelated to the final Marlon Brando movie from 2001, but was still about a heist, just set to 23 different musical tracks written by the film’s other lead actor, Johnny Flynn, who played David Bowie in the 2020 biopic Stardust.
Most recently, Poulter had a part in the Boots Riley comeback comedy I Love Boosters, but he has several projects in the works, including a romantic drama opposite Rachel Brosnahan called Saturn Return, and a major crime thriller with Adam Driver named Rabbit, Rabbit.
That one is a TV series about a convict on the run who takes several people hostage at a truck stop, requiring the FBI to carefully negotiate to free them. Produced by Netflix, it’s being directed by Philip Barantini, the man who had such monumental success with none other than Stephen Graham on Adolescence.
