Dani Dyer lands first lead role in British thriller ‘O31’
DANI Dyer has landed her first leading film role in new British thriller ‘O31’.
The ‘Love Island’ star has been cast as Nancy Francis, a young girl suffering with grief following her mother’s murder who is also coming to the realisation that her brother could be responsible for her death.
The 22-year-old actress - who is the daughter of ‘EastEnders’ actor Danny Dyer - has had smaller roles in movies such as ‘We Still Kill The Old Way’ and low budget horror ‘Heckle’, which also starred Clark Gable III, the grandson of the Hollywood legend of the same name.
‘O31’ will be directed by Jamie Weston and was written by Joshua Whincup and Miriam Ahmed and it explores issues of race, politics and religion in society.
Talking about the inspiration for the project, Whincup told Deadline: “It’s about race, politics, religion, homosexuality and how these are seen in society. We’re trying to hold a mirror up to society and while we’ve come a long way from slavery, just because people don’t have chains around their necks, doesn’t mean that they’re still not enslaved.”
Whincup admits that he and former ‘Coronation Street star Ahmed set up Rocco Winks Productions to bring more diverse stories to the big screen.
He added: “The reason we wanted to set this up was to start talking about these taboo subjects, like knife crime and gangs in London, I believe there’s so much creativity and it’s not exploited enough. I think we focus on the negatives but at the same time, there’s a lot of fantastic things that are happening out there with young people, whether they’re black, white, gay, straight, transgender, it doesn’t matter. That’s what we’re trying to get across in this project.”
Dani is currently a contestant on the ITV2 dating show and is a fan favourite alongside boyfriend Jack Fincham.
The couple have been together from the beginning, however, they have recently been split into two separate villas causing upset for Dani.
Whincup hopes that her role in ‘O31’ will show the world that Dani is more than just a contestant from a reality show.
She said: “It’s an extremely challenging role; it’s just not Dani Dyer from ‘Love Island’, it’s Dani Dyer the actress, we’re going to give her that platform to explore this character and explore these subjects.”