Mike
Bailey
Sid
Despite
being a likeable, intelligent, and hip teenager, it's easy to imagine
that Mike Bailey is one of the least popular people on his Performing
Arts course. While other students will doubtless spend a lifetime waiting
tables and waiting for their big break, Mike has managed to jump the
queue so successfully that he's just landed one of the lead roles on
a brand new drama series, Skins. Not only that, it's the first
ever wholly original, standalone drama on E4. And it's made by Company
Pictures, producers of the multi-award-winning drama Shameless.
No
pedigree can guarantee a project's success, of course, but those waiting
for Bailey to appear in the biggest turkey since Christmas will be left
disappointed. Skins shares the warm-hearted comedy and the
daring realism of Shameless, as well as its lack of patronising
moral absolutism. It is also a real rarity in TV - a drama about teenagers
that is actually performed by teenagers - and all the better for it.
Today,
in the unfamiliar surroundings of a central London members' club, an
endearingly nervous Bailey is fidgeting his way through his first ever
interview. If his touching and sensitive performance in Skins
is anything to go by, it will be the first of many.
Have
you always been into acting?
Yeah, pretty much. It was something I started doing in primary school.
Even then, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up,
I'd answer 'an actor'. I've done drama all my life, and I've done ITV
workshops away from school, and I'm studying performing arts now at
college, so it's always been something I wanted to do.
Had
you done any professional acting work before Skins?
No, this is my first big thing. I mean, I've done plays and stuff, just
as part of my course, but nothing as big and as good as this. It's always
been little amateur things, the sort of thing you do just to get a bit
of experience, to say that you've been on the stage. Albeit in front
of about 60 people. So to go from that to being one of the main characters
on a TV programme is amazing. Not many people get to start off like
this. I haven't even done any extra-work in Casualty, like
most of the rest of Bristol has.
Have
other people on your course been jealous of you landing such a plumb
role?
I think they're happy for me. The casting director came into my college
the first day she was down in Bristol, and she auditioned all of us.
From then, we kind of wanted at least one person to be in it. Three
of us were called back for recalls, and it was narrowed down to me in
the end. One of us got through, and I think people were pleased about
that. I would have been happy if it hadn't been me but someone else
had got through.
There
have been a lot of attempts to make dramas about and for teens. What
makes Skins different?
I think it doesn't hold back. Everyone knows the issues about kids,
what happens, what they really get up to. Skins just gets straight
to the point. It's been written really well like that. Another important
thing is that it's being played by people who are teenagers. A lot of
dramas done now, you're looking at 30-year-olds playing 18-year-olds,
so they can't relate as well to what they're playing. And the writers
aren't afraid of being realistic, of a little bit of controversy.
How
much input did you have on the character of Sid? Were you allowed to
give suggestions about him?
Yeah, pretty much. Sid is actually based on one of the writers. I didn't
want to get to know the writer too well, because I wanted to be able
to make the character of Sid my own. But we were certainly given a chance
to have our say, to give our input into the character. So we could stand
up and say 'Actually, I don't think my character would say that'. Or
we'd put in a few lines, do a bit of improvisation. I think we got a
lot of say in our characters because they wanted it to look as realistic
as possible, so we had to be comfortable with the parts we were playing
and the lines we were saying.
What
is Sid like?
He's basically the sidekick to Tony, who's the coolest guy around. He
does whatever Tony says, like a little kid following his mum. But he
also gets bullied by Tony quite a lot. He doesn't realise it, but he
is getting verbally and mentally bullied, to the extent where its beginning
to get through to him. But he keeps following Tony around because he's
in love with Tony's girlfriend, and without Tony he couldn't be anywhere
near her. He's a good guy, he knows where his loyalties lie, he has
a lot of friends, but he has a really bad family life. He doesn't get
on well with his dad, who thinks he's a waste of space. But he's got
a big heart, he's always there for his friends.
Did
you put elements of yourself into him?
There are elements of myself, definitely. I put aspects of myself into
him, as any actor does into a character, but I wouldn't say I based
him on myself. I could relate it to people I know who are like him.
Do
you see Skins more as a comedy or a drama?
There's very definite elements of both in there. It does cover all the
issues of life as a teenager, but it does it with a very comic approach,
so you don't exactly feel like you're being taken through the issues.
I think it's somewhere between the two. It's probably more towards drama,
but there are some brilliant comic moments in it.
How
accurate a reflection do you think it is of being a teenager today?
I think it is dramatised a little bit - it has to be, TV has to be watchable.
If you wanted to watch real teenaged life, you could just stick a bunch
of teenagers in a room and fil;m them for a reality show. This is a
drama, it's got to be entertaining, so you've got to move things along
a bit quicker. But I think it portrays the realities of teenage life
quite well.
Some
would argue that a drama about teenagers and drugs and alcohol and sex
should carry an obvious moral message. What would you say to that?
I think this is based around real life, that's the key. Real life doesn't
always carry an obvious moral message every time you do something. If
it's going to have an element of realism, you can't just tack a really
strong message on the end of every story telling young people what they
can and can't do. In some programmes, there might be a moral at the
end of it, but only if that's the way real situations happen.
What
was the experience of filming a TV series like? Was it everything you
expected, or was it a lot of boredom and hard work?
I thought it was amazing. I found it really weird to call it a job,
in some respects, because it was something I'd always wanted to do,
and loved doing. In some respects it was absolutely what I'd expected,
but in some respects there were things which I didn't know would happen.
But I loved every minute of it, and as soon as it finished I missed
it so much. It was just brilliant the whole time. Working with wicked
people, there wasn't one person that I didn't like. I didn't care if
I had to be up at 6am, and work 12 hours. I was happy to do it.
With
the subject matter, drugs and sex and so on, would you be happy to sit
down and watch it with family members, or would that be embarrassing?
Oh, it would be really mebarrassing. My nan has said 'Don't worry about
what you've done on the programme, I won't mind,' but I'm thinking 'Yeah,
but you're my nan!' That's why I reckon for each episode I'll go to
someone else's house to watch it. For the first episode, we've got people
coming round, but I don't think I'd necessarily sit there with my mum
and dad watching it. I would get quite embarrassed, knowing what I'd
done, knowing what was coming up next.
By Benjie
Goodhart
Skins
Series 2
The
Return of Skins
An Introduction by co-creator
Jamie Brittain
Episode Guide
Cast and Characters
Writers and Contributors
Skins
Series 1
April
Pearson (Michelle) Interview
Hannah Murray (Cassie) Interview
The Making Of Skins - Co-Creator Bryan
Elsley
Skins Series 1 Episode Guide
Skins Series 1 Cast and
Characters
