Stephen Graham broke down in tears as he spoke about his father being his biggest supporter during a heartwarming interview on Wednesday.
The actor, 51, stars in the popular Netflix series Adolescence. He admired Robert De Niro in his childhood and even had a poster of him from the movie Taxi Driver on his bedroom wall.
Stephen was raised by his mother and stepfather Mike, whom he fondly refers to as Pops. Despite this, he maintained a strong bond with his biological father, also named Stephen.
Appearing on Capital Breakfast with Jordan North, Chris Stark and Sian Welby, Stephen told how his dad was his biggest supporter.
He said: ‘I had posters on my wall, of Taxi Driver, and different actors that my dad had got me.’
‘And then you ended up working with them,’ co-host Jordan North said.
‘Telling your dad…’ fellow co-host Sian Welby added. ‘It must have been the proudest moment.’
Becoming emotional, Stephen said: ‘It makes me….want to go on it…’
Reflecting on his excitement, he shared, “I told my dad, ‘Guess who I’m going to be working with?’ He asked, ‘Who?’ I replied, ‘Mary has asked me to work on a film again.’ He responded, ‘That’s fantastic, son!’
‘I went ‘yeah’ oh…I’ve gone! You know, he proper backed me. And me mum. They supported me throughout everything. Do you know what I mean?
‘All the struggles you go through and everything. Me contact lens has fallen out! And he was, yeah, you can imagine it was unbelievable.’
‘Did he believe you?’ Sian asked.
‘Yeah he did,’ Stephen said.
‘I bet he was gobsmacked wasn’t he?’ she said.
‘He was, he was such, he was so proud,’ Stephen said, tearing up.
‘Oh we didn’t want to make you cry today!’ Jordan said.
‘That’s alright, you got me contact lens out. Sorry,’ Stephen replied.
‘But how incredible for him to have witnessed that moment,’ Sian said. ‘Because thank god he was there do you know what I mean to hear it.’
‘Exactly and sometimes all it takes is one person doesn’t it,’ Stephen said. ‘To help you achieve your goal, or to believe in the dream you have. It takes that one person and my dad was that person. And my mum.’
Adolescence, written by Stephen and Jack Thorne, was only released on Netflix on Thursday, but has already made waves and earned huge praise for its storyline and videography.
Stephen takes on the role of Eddie Miller, the dad of a young boy called Jamie (Owen Cooper), who is suspected of stabbing one of his classmates Katie (Emilia Holliday).
However, the star’s triumphant successes have not come without challenges – one of those being that he suffers from dyslexia.
The learning difficulty poses obvious obstacles when it comes to reading scripts and learning lines, twin staples of the actor’s craft.
Stephen’s wife Hannah Walters, whom he has been married to since 2008, has offered her husband invaluable support, carefully vetting the scripts put before him and ensuring he makes the best decisions for his career.
‘I’m dyslexic, so I struggle,’ Stephen revealed on a Bafta Sessions panel in 2019.
‘My missus actually reads the script and says whether or not I’m doing it. She’s made some good choices.
‘I have to read it and read it and read it, then make it look like it’s the first time I’m saying it.’
The task is made easier by the fact that the couple have their own production company, Matriarch Productions, which they established in 2020.
Formed with the aim of providing a platform for underrepresented voices and stories, the collaboration yielded the Bafta-nominated film Boiling Point the following year, in which Hannah not only served as an executive producer but also appeared on screen.
As Stephen has revealed on Act on This, an online platform for TV actors, dealing with dyslexia necessitates a painstaking and methodological approach to his job.
It is one he undertakes not only for personal reasons, but also out of a clear sense of collective responsibility to his colleagues.
‘I read the whole script and we can talk about the script and I find my way into my character and what’s happening through the journey, said Stephen.
‘It’s a technique that me and Hannah have developed; it’s not just me, I know a few other people do it.
‘I break it down in bite-size chunks, so I know exactly what I’m shooting on what specific day.
‘If you’ve got a couple of big days on the bounce, it’s no good having it all in your head.
‘It’s good to have it roughly there, but as soon as we finish work, I’m going back to my hotel room to sit and learn those lines for the next day, so when I come in the next day I’m ready to go.’
He continued: ‘Different actors their own techniques, and I respect all of them.
‘If I was to give any kind of advice to any actor, [it would be to] do the work – because you need to do the work in order to make it look like you don’t do the work.’
Capital Breakfast with Jordan North, Chris Stark and Sian Welby Global Player weekdays from 6am – 10am across the UK and on Global Player.
