Dyer says he ‘went crackers’ in his role in cult Welsh film
FORMER EastEnders actor Danny Dyer is fronting a new two-part Channel 4 documentary – and it’s a far cry from his first film role a quarter of a century ago, Human Traffic, which he made in Cardiff and released in 1999.
How to be a Man sees the 46-year-old, who is also known for roles in films including The Football Factory, explore toxic masculinity.
A synopsis for the documentary reads: “With traditional gender roles a thing of the past, he questions whether men have lost their sense of identity and what it means to be male in the 21st Century.”
How To Be A Man isn’t the first time that Dyer has turned his hand to presenting and between 2019 and 2022 he fronted BBC game show The Wall. During this time he was also starring as Mick
Carter on
EastEnders – a role he left at
Christmas 2021.
And recently the sweary national treasure has been reminiscing on his debut film roll, as
Moff in Human Traffic, a film that captured the clubbing era in the city during the late 1990s and also starred John Simm.
For his role in ‘90s flick Human Traffic, Dyer spent a decent amount of time in Cardiff and created, with filmmaker Justin Kerrigan, the iconic bathroom scene where he signs off a drug-dealing phonecall with Simm’s Jip, by screaming
“nice one bruvva!” Reflecting on his role in the film he told Empire Magazine: “I just went f ***** ’ crackers on it, which I was allowed to do. Moff being the biggest f ****** cane-head in it – I could really play that. It was my first outing to really express my... Cockney-ism, whatever you want to f ****** call it.”
He added: “A lot of distribution companies just didn’t want anything to do with it. They were saying, ‘You gotta reshoot it. There needs to be some sort of moral ending.’ I mean, it’s not f ***** ’ Oppenheimer. It’s not gonna make you feel thick while watching it. You know what I mean?”
Dyer lives in Essex with his wife Jo Mas. They have been dating since 1992 and married since 2016. He has two daughters Dani and Sunnie, as well as a son called Arty. Dani appeared on Survival of the Fittest and won Love Island 2018. Danny and Dani also co-host a Spotify podcast called Sorted with the Dyers.
In 2016 Dyer featured on the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? During his episode it was revealed that Dyer’s blood has links to both William the Conqueror and Edward III.
As of 2024 Dyer’s net worth is estimated to be around £4m. Danny Dyer: How To Be A Man is available to watch on Channel 4.