I’ve gone through a lot — but now I am back to being Adam
OR once, Adam Deacon is using his words sparingly. The 33-year-old actor, writer, direc tor and occasional rapper may have made his n a me o n s c re e n a s a c a p t iv a t i n g motormouth but now, perched on the edge of a sofa in a basement West End o f f i c e , h e ’s h a l t i n g l y re l a t i n g the circumstances that led to being accused of brandishing a sword outside his Bethnal Green home.
“It all seemed like one big blur,” says Deacon. “I remember coming out of my flat and I remember getting into an altercation with someone but I can’t remember actually pulling out the knife. It was just really…” He grapples for the right term. “Surreal.”
It’s as good a word as any to describe an incident — which took place on January 6 last year and involved an oblivious neighbour Deacon thought was trespassing — that served as the eye of a whirling personal storm for him. Already facing trial for harassment of professional mentor-turned-rival Noel Clarke, the 2012 Bafta Rising Star Award winner and Kidulthood star now found h i ms e l f c h a r g e d wi t h a f f r ay and possession of an offensive weapon — that three-foot implement he explains away as one of a few “art-type pieces” in his flat.
“I was doing things out of character and it just wasn’t me,” he says. “That’s what I really want to put across. I would never normally do [these] things but I just wasn’t well at the time.”
In fact, the Hackney-born performer had been battling undiagnosed mental health problems. Not long after the unfortunate business with the waved blade he was sectioned by police. He spent (by his calculations) roughly four weeks receiving treatment in hospital, was ultimately deemed not criminally responsible in the affray and weapons c a s e a n d , h av i n g b e n e f i t e d f ro m 18 increasingly healthy months, now f e e l s g r a t e f ul t hat t he aut hori t i e s intervened at the time.
“I think someone had to step in,” he s ays , re a s oni ng t hat t he f our- day periods of total isolation he would need to have after fini shing a job hinted that he had a problem. “I was doing things that were out of character and something had to be stopped. I take my hat off to the NHS because they got me better. I will never do those