Danny Dyer has explained that he was forced to hire his own son in his new movie Marching Powder after struggling to find a child to play this role.
Danny, 47, is set to star in the new film Marching Powder, which sees him reunite with Football Factory director Nick Love.
The role is set to explore what it means to be a working man in modern society battling toxic masculinity and sobriety.
In a charming twist, Danny’s real-life son Arty plays his child in this new movie.
‘Yeah, [my son filmed with me] which was a revelation to me,’ he said in an interview with Metro. ‘I mean, I have a son in Marching Powder. He was the same age as my son, and it’s got some naughty dialogue in it because we’re trying to highlight the fact that my character is a s**t dad, he’s not been very available.
‘They couldn’t find anyone to play this child. And there’s some really intimate stuff between me and my son in this that I don’t think I could have pulled off with someone else’s kid.’
‘There’s a whole babysitting montage segment where’s the first time I babysat him, and we just improvised, me and my boy.’
He added in an interview with LadBible that ‘no other kid would do it’.
‘So the casting director said, “Look, you might have to drop this part because we’re not going to be able to get a child to do this. They just won’t allow it,”‘ he recalled.
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Despite his son’s talent, Danny revealed that he didn’t believe that Arty was likely to follow his dad’s footsteps into the dramatic arts, and really, he just loved taking time off from school.
‘I don’t think he’s going to be an actor, I don’t think he’s got any interest in it. He loved getting seven days off of school to kind of work with his dad, although he was tutored and that pissed him off slightly, but he just had a bit of fun with me and it was really lovely to be to do it. It was quite emotional.
‘I think that that sort of stuff will really touch a lot of men. The way we interact with our sons, it’s important.
‘There’s some stuff in there that I think will choke a lot of men up. You know, my character does love his son very, very much. He’s just not very good at conveying it, and it’s a real journey for me, for him.’
Continuing to gush about his only son with his wife Joanne Mas, the actor said he wasn’t sure that his son would want to be an actor, but he’d be sure to support him if he did.
‘He’s got a bit of talent in there, Arty, but he’s got f*****g amazing brain as well. So he’s probably going to be like an engineer or something.
He’s obsessed with planes and we can be out and he’ll look up in the sky and there’ll be a plane, and he’ll tell you exactly what engine it’s got, what wings it’s got. F*****g amazing.
‘I’d like him to be a child. I don’t want him to be famous because I know how toxic that can be. Giving away your anonymity is a huge thing to do and especially for child stars. So who knows?’
He then added that if there was a sequel to Marching Powder, perhaps they would reunite on screen again.
‘Listen, if it does well, there could be a sequel, and then he’ll be back with me but I did enjoy it. You know, there is a thing called nepo babies and all that. But why wouldn’t you help your kids out? If you can open a few doors, just like any parent would in any industry.’
Danny revealed he is already thinking about retiring or ‘semi-retiring’ when he turns 55.
He said he’s like to be in a position to be selective about the roles he is in: ‘I would like to think that now I’m in a position where I can actually choose and not do the obvious roles.
‘And I have done some obvious things, but I needed to pay bills.’
Marching Powder is in cinemas on March 7.
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