- NEWS
- COMPETITION
- DIRECTORY
Joe Cole has spoken about his desire to "push on" from Peaky Blinders and pursue film work.
English star Joe is recognisable to fans of Steven Knight's gangster series as John Shelby, the younger brother of crime boss Thomas Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy.
He's now swapped the mean streets of 1920s Birmingham for a Thai prison in the gritty new film A Prayer Before Dawn, where he plays Billy Moore in the true story of an English boxer jailed in one of Thailand's most notorious prisons as he fights in Muay Thai tournaments to earn his freedom.
"It's Cillian's show, and it's a big ensemble, and we all chip in," Joe told Time Out London of Peaky Blinders. "It was a fantastic experience, but I wanted to really push on and do stuff like this film. I was like: 'Okay anything else? No? Cool, let me go and do other things now.'"
To prepare for playing Billy, Joe trained for months to learn Muay Thai techniques and got a few "bumps and scrapes" when cameras began to roll on Jean-Stephane Sauvaire's feature.
Based on the real Billy's 2014 memoir, A Prayer Before Dawn: A Nightmare in Thailand, the 29-year-old actor explained that he was drawn to the film as it's a genre he has always enjoyed watching.
"I was always looking for a role like this," he admitted. "I found those male-character-study prison films, like Bronson and Hunger, to be the most encapsulating kind. I did a film called Offender about a young offenders' institution, and that touched on it.
"This took it to a whole new level: playing a real guy, an addict, a fascinating dude - with a physicality and emotion that meant putting everything on the line, and using my body as a tool. I was like: 'Wow, this is gonna be hard. Bring it on.'"