Paapa Essiedu On Love, Politics And His Most Challenging Role To Date
Paapa Essiedu understands the power of love. Case in point, his latest film role in The Outrun, where he plays the ex of a woman in the throes of alcoholism, a character portrayed by Saoirse Ronan. In flashbacks, their romantic chemistry is so tender, it feels like an invasion of privacy to see it on screen. ‘It was hard. We had to explore a relationship that spanned several years through quick snapshots – but Saoirse is the best there is,’ he says.
Right now, the actor is worlds away from the remote Orkney island where much of that film is set. He’s shooting The Scurry, a horror movie directed by Craig Roberts, while simultaneously rehearsing Death of England, a series of three interconnected state-of-the-nation plays at the National Theatre. It’s a lot, and the latter is getting to him a little. ‘Pray for me,’ he says. ‘I’m terrified. I don’t know if I can do it.’ Talking over Zoom, Essiedu is thoughtful, funny and generally nonchalant, though a subtle undercurrent of panic is clearly there; a one-man play marks uncharted territory.
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‘I could easily have spent the summer watching football,’ he says, ‘but it felt like an opportunity that would challenge me.’ If anyone is up to the job, it’s Essiedu, who, at 34, already has the CV of a luminary. His first job was at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Christmas show before he went on to star in King Lear and become the company’s youngest actor to play Hamlet, as well as the first Black actor to do so. He has performed in shows by renowned British playwrights, from Caryl Churchill to Harold Pinter. And last year he garnered huge acclaim in the play, The Effect, alongside Taylor Russell, in a story following two clinical trial patients who don’t understand whether their intense feelings are down to drugs – or love. His work on screen has been just as compelling. Beyond a breakout performance in his friend Michaela Coel’s explosive I May Destroy You, he’s played demons in Black Mirror, managed a criminal empire in Gangs of London and saved the world as an action hero in The Lazarus Project.
The Death of England trilogy takes a searing look at post-Brexit Britain, through intersecting stories that confront what it means to be ‘British’ in the 2020s. ‘I’m a child of the African diaspora; it’s impossible not to be politicised in terms of what the contradictions of being British are. It’s impossible not to live in what is a kind of liminal space; not being Black enough, not being British enough...’
He says the recent general election and the play’s depiction of the UK as a polarised nation couldn’t feel more prescient. ‘There is a pleasing framing that the election gives the play, but what’s happening internationally as well as domestically feeds into how we’re feeling about being British and the people who are supposed to represent us.’
Days before we speak, Essiedu signed an open letter calling on Labour leader Keir Starmer to stop arming Israel if elected. ‘The situation is so heartbreaking. It’s easy for us to feel frozen in the face of what’s happening in Gaza, Sudan and the Congo. This is not about me judging anyone... But I think we must be aware of inertia and be diligent in our response.’
For Essiedu, his art and politics are interlinked. From the start of his career, he has worked behind the scenes with organisations like Open Door – which mentors potential drama school students – to improve access to the industry. ‘It’s f*cked up. We work to lobby the Government to take seriously the responsibility to economically support artistic institutions. How do we make the theatre not just a space for a person with certain resources?’
Essiedu saw his first play, Don Juan, on a school trip to the Donmar Warehouse. ‘I was blown away. Everybody deserves the opportunity to access that,’ he says. It proved something of a sliding-doors moment. Prior to that day, Essiedu had never considered acting as a profession and planned to attend medical school. Instead, he went on to land a place at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he befriended Coel on day one. ‘Michaela has always been the person she is now. I hope she would say the same of me. We’ve been there for each other at very important times in our lives.’
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In a full-circle moment, he is now working with the star of that 2006 Don Juan show, Rhys Ifans, for The Scurry, but Essiedu is yet to share how much the performance affected him. He flashes a coy smile, ‘I’ll tell him when the time’s right’. Besides, the real credit, he says, goes to his mother. She died during Essiedu’s first year of drama school, but her unconditional love instilled in him the confidence to change his career before it had started. ‘She was a single Ghanaian woman in 2008, whose kid had a place at medical school. It’s like, ‘“Bruv, don’t f*ck with that?!” Mad respect to my mum for allowing it. Walking away from stability was a big gamble. I’ll be forever grateful.’
‘The Outrun’ is in cinemas from 27 September and ‘Death of England: Delroy’ is at the National Theatre until 28 September.
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