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“I think every actor would love to have find a character where they can full immerse themselves,” says Jay Lycurgo. “Because once you have that, you’re gonna strike gold.”
Thankfully for the fast-rising British actor, it’s happened to him in near quick succession, with two roles that have offered him “the playground to find the truth in what these characters are.” And struck gold Lycurgo has.
Netflix’s drama “Steve,” which premiered in Toronto, saw him tackle the raw emotional complexities of the upbeat yet troubled Shy, a lost young man at a last-chance reform school.
Lycurgo’s first major film performance captured people’s attention almost immediately. He won the British Independent Film Award for best supporting
actor there was widespread disappointment when he wasn’t recognised by BAFTA for the Rising Star category.
Not that he needed it. Eight months on and, after a brief trip to world of “Peaky Blinders” for “The Immortal Man” movie spin-on, he’s back with something very “Steve”-y in Clio Barnard’s “I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning.” The film follows a group of close friends who grew up on a working class estate in Birmingham and are now trying to survive adulthood as they battle demons old and new. Lycurgo plays Ollie, the “comic relief” who helps bind the group (which also includes Joe Cole, Anthony Boyle, Lola Petticrew and Daryl McCormack) together, but someone also struggling with drug addiction.
“I love these characters, I love those stories — it’s just so real,” he says. “Shy and Ollie, they both breathe in this world and it doesn’t feel artificial.”
“I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning” also brings Lycurgo to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time, with the film bowing in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar. We’re actually chatting from the back garden of Carlton Hotel a full week before the premiere, with him having been flown out as a special guest of Louis Vuitton (and kitted him out accordingly). This relationship is something that came off the back of “Steve.” “They were like, ‘Who’s this depressed kid? Let’s get him a bag!’” Lycurgo jokes.
Even without his new designer gear, it’s been quite a year for the 28-year-old.
Born in the town of Croydon in London, Lycurgo had an early role model in his dad, the footballer David Johnson, who himself would work in the same sort of education institutes depicted in “Steve” after he retired from the game. “So I always had ambition in my family, with my dad saying that you can go and do what you want to do.”
Sadly, this ambition wasn’t enough to get Lycurgo into the BRIT School at the age of 15 (“I thought acting was just trying to get a tear down your cheek”), but driven by an “naïve energy” he would later get a slot on a three-year course the ArtsEd drama school.
“I don’t think people really believe that I wanted to do it because I was just messing around,” he says. “But then once it got to second year and third year, I really started to take it seriously. And I said, I think I can do this. Drama school really taught me discipline. It really did. And from then, I just started working.”
Like most Brits, Lycurgo would make his debut in BBC daytime drama “Doctors,” earning £800 ($1070) for the privilege. “And I thought, I’d made it, I’ve made some money!” he says.
Other small roles on TV and film would come — Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” and Matt Reeve’s “The Batman” — before he landed a regular slot on HBO’s “Teen Titans” about young superheroes in Gotham. “So by the time I was 23/24, I felt like I was going in the right direction,” he says. But, as he notes, he “always wanted to do roles like ‘Steve’ and ‘I See Buildings’”
When “Steve” came his way, Lycurgo remembers thinking, “Nobody else is getting this — I had real motivation, especially with my dad working in schools like that.” Serendipitously, news that he had got the part came just a day after he learned he’d missed out on Ari Aster’s “Eddington” (the young police officer role that went to Micheal Ward).
There’s a Cillian Murphy throughline connecting Lycurgo’s most recent — and accelerated — trajectory.
Murphy produced “Steve” after being given an early copy of Max Porter’s book by the author and would play the school’s frazzled head. On set, Murphy mentioned to his star that he was doing the “Peaky Blinders” film, “The Immortal Man,” and a few months after production wrapped the audition came through, with Lycurgo donning the show’s iconic flatcap for its big screen spin-off. And with “I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning,” Murphy is friends with Enda Walsh, who adapted Keiran Goddard’s novel.
While he’s not sure how much direct involvement Murphy had, Lycurgo does note that having him in his corner “is a powerful thing — especially with those eyes!” He now considers Murphy a “mentor” and messages him regularly.
With “Steve” having put him on the map, “Peaky Blinders” underlining his studio skills and “I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning” giving him his Cannes stripes, Lycurgo — who recently signed with CAA — is enjoying his period in the sun.
“I feel like I worked from 21 to 25. It was great, and i was going on sets and working and grateful, but I was just an actor – there’s no life experience,” he says. “So ‘Steve’ finished, and then I did ‘Peaky’, and ‘I See Buildings’ but after that I didn’t get anything — and we’ve been being picky. So the last 10 months has been me loving myself honestly. And it’s been really great.”
But there is more coming, with Lycurgo noting that an upcoming project will take him into the genre world. And, of course, he’ll willingly join Murphy in whatever he’s making next.
“I’m really happy,” he says. “That’s the truth. I feel in a really good spot and very confident with the work that I’m putting out now. And the last 10 months have been the happiest I’ve been.”
