Pinter taught me not to hide roots – Dyer

ACTOR Danny Dyer has said playwright Harold Pinter taught him not to “hide” his working- class roots.

He was cast by Pinter, who died aged 78 in 2008, in a play early on in his career.

Dyer, 43, who was born in Custom House in east London, said he did not realise “how important he was to me, not just as an actor but as a man”.

He has made a documentary, Danny Dyer on Harold Pinter, for Sky Arts, and said that when he auditioned for the play Celebration, he did not know who he was.

“I walked in the audition room and, me being like I am and not really treating people any differently, I just walked in and went up to Harold and said, ‘ Hello son, how you doing?’ and I felt the whole room just go, ‘ Ooh, oh dear’,” said Dyer, inset.

He added that he does not think “anyone’s approached him that way and I think he sort of respected that”. Dyer got the part in the play and later got to know Pinter, and would sometimes stay at the playwright’s house in Notting Hill.

He said the playwright “never wanted me to change or hide my working- class roots, even though he did when he was younger”.

“It was the notion of not letting where you come from define where you’re going,” Dyer added. After winning a National Television Award, he said he felt “very emotional” as it came at a time he was rehearsing for a Pinter play and he realised he is “in the position I am because of him”.

“Harold had given me the confidence that a lot of people had knocked out of me,” Dyer said. “When I was in a room of middle upper- class people, I felt that it was OK just to be me and Harold installed that in me.”

Danny Dyer on Harold Pinter will be broadcast tomorrow on Sky Arts and Now TV.