EastEnders’ Danny: Harold Pinter was my ‘ father figure’
COCKNEY actor Danny Dyer has revealed how one of Britain’s most celebrated playwrights gave him the confidence to embrace his working- class roots.
The EastEnders actor was cast by Harold Pinter early in his career and recalled how the Nobel Prize winner, who died in 2008, became a “father figure” to him.
Danny, 43, told a Sky Arts documentary: “I walked in the audition room and went up to Harold and said, ‘ Hello son, how you doing?’ and I felt the whole room just go, ‘ Ooh, oh dear’.”
But the act of bravado landed him the part and became the basis of a lifelong friendship. He said: “I don’t think anyone had approached him that way and I think he sort of respected that.
“He never wanted me to change or hide my working- class roots.
“It was the notion of not letting where you come from define where you’re going.”
Danny’s mum Christina has previously described how the actor’s relationship with his father, Anthony, became strained after he discovered his dad was having an affair.
Danny added: “I suppose around that time my dad wasn’t much of a father figure to me, and father figures are quite important mentors, especially important to young men and women.
“But I think that young, working- class men are a little bit lost and are in need a bit of guidance.
“He took on that role for me and I only really realised that later on in life, when I re- evaluated myself.”
He describes their relationship as a “beautiful thing”, adding: “Harold had given me the confidence that a lot of people had knocked out of me. When I was in a room of middle upper- class people, I felt that it was OK just to be me and Harold instilled that in me.
“He trusted me as an actor, he didn’t really give me any notes, and I just think he trusted me with the part. I didn’t realise how important he was to me, not just as an actor but as a man.”
● Danny Dyer On Harold Pinter on Sky Arts and NOW TV from Tuesday.