CAMERON CHAPMAN would have dazzled in another field entirely had life gone another way. Or indeed, on another field, as his childhood aspirations were to excel in sport.
“I guess I just didn’t have the sort of talent you need,” he shrugs. “I loved sport. I used to swim 24 hours a week, play tennis and football quite seriously. But I was just, unfortunately, never good enough. If you ask any of my friends, they’ll tell you he really wishes he was a footballer.”
Well, it turned out alright for another lead actor in a genre show, one Mr Matt Smith…
“The producers of Lockwood & Co worked with him on Last Night In Soho. I remember talking to Nira Park, our executive producer, about how I wish I’d been a footballer, and she told me about Matt Smith. I think he was probably far better than me,” he laughs.
“I almost had a feeling everyone else had a head start,” he says of turning to acting seriously when he was 16. “That just excited me that that was a challenge. It gave me a real ambition and hunger for something, which I think maybe I was losing with sport fading out. I had a bit of extra drive to go and achieve something in this field.”
Landing the titular character in the Netflix adaptation of Lockwood & Co as your first gig is pretty big on the achievement list. But what of the people who inspired his journey to Portland Row?
ACTORS
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Denne historien er fra May 2023-utgaven av SFX UK.
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Making Alien - Jaws in Space - Forty-five years on from its original release, Alien continues to terrify. We dissect what arguably remains the most chilling instalment in the saga
The seven-strong crew of the commercial mining spacecraft the Nostromo seal their fate after reluctantly responding to a mysterious distress signal on a hostile planet. Here, a face-hugging alien from a derelict ship impregnates and later kills executive officer Kane (John Hurt) after its offspring is birthed onboard. After being unleashed, the fearsome newborn with acid for blood proceeds to dispatch the remainder of the crew.Ridley Scott's much more convoluted prequels have yet to reveal how the knowledge that led to this initial interception was acquired. However, the premise of the original Alien is perfect in its uncomplicated purity.
PURE AND SIMPLE
IN THE FINAL PART OF OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, SHOWRUNNER RUSSELL T DAVIES TALKS RELAUNCHING DOCTOR WHO
TO CAP IT ALL OFF
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF THE BBC SERIES THE TRIPODS
FRENCH REVOLUTION
THE WALKING DEAD SPIN-OFF SHOWRUNNER DAVID ZABEL ON BEING GIVEN THE TOUGH TASK OF REUNITING DARYL AND CAROL IN FRANCE
SILENT KILLERS
THE DIRECTOR OF HOLLYWOOD'S SPEAK NO EVIL REMAKE ON HORROR, COMEDY AND JAMES MCAVOY
BRING OUT YOUR DEAD
THE GHOST WITH THE MOST RETURNS FINALLY - IN BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
TEENAGE DREAM
JOE LOCKE HITS THE ROAD RUNNING
MOB RULE THE PENGUIN
GOTHAM'S UP FOR GRABS IN BRUISING NEW CRIME SAGA BUT WHERE IS THE BATMAN?
SEASON OF THE WITCH
AS MARVEL TELEVISION CARVES OUT A NEW PATH FOR ITSELF, WE SPEAK TO CREATOR JAC SCHAEFFER, PLUS A CAST OF STARS LED BY KATHRYN HAHN AND JOE LOCKE, ABOUT THE MAGIC OF WANDAVISION'S SPIN-OFF AGATHA ALL ALONG
Ghouls Allowed
Even silence can't save you at this year's Halloween Horror Nights