SEAN'S MY INSPIRATION

Stranger Things and Full Metal Jacket star Matthew Modine tells how 007 icon was his role model

- HEATHER GREENAWAY

STRANGER Things star Matthew Modine has revealed he was inspired to become an actor by Sir Sean Connery.

The 65-year-old, who plays evil Dr Martin Brenner in the hit Netflix series, says watching Connery play a range of different characters made him realise acting was the career for him.

Matthew, who shot to fame as Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket in 1987, has starred in countless movies and TV shows over the last 40 years and is one of the most respected actors in Hollywood.

The dad of two, who is rumoured to have officiated at his Stranger Things co-star Millie Bobby Brown's wedding last weekend, said: "I loved Sir Sean Connery bless his soul.

"He was a complicated man. He was the first person who inspired me to do what I do as he made me realise acting was a profession.

"When you are a kid and watch a movie you think they are happening for real instead of fiction. It was seeing Sean in so many roles that opened my eyes.

"I'd of course seen him in the James Bond movies. Then I saw him in The Man Who Would Be King and thought, "Wow! that's the same guy as James Bond'. Then I saw him in a very early movie where he was singing, called Darby O'Gill and the Little People. That's when I became conscious of what acting is and the rest is history."

Matthew, who plays the lead in new movie Hard Miles which hits cinemas this Friday, added: "I met him in New York City after becoming an established actor and we became friends.

"I told him about my father having drive-in movie theatres in California and that fascinated him. Being from Scotland he couldn't get over folk sitting in their cars all year round watching movies.

"I ended up walking in the Dress to Kilt fashion shows Sean ran which raised money for veterans both here in the States and in Scotland. He was also very good to my daughter."