No.1 for Interviews - Chris Brazier
Chris Brazier

No. 1’s Nadine Hawkins caught up with River City’s latest charismatic recruit to debate whether his character Ewan is a bad lad or just misunderstood and to find out what he thinks of Glasgow.

Chris Brazier is the latest actor to head north of the border to join Scottish soap River City. Having graduated from drama school in 2004, Chris has had stints in The Bill, Hollyoaks and also spent a season on Dream Team. The 28-year-old joined River City as Ewan, son of Shieldinch’s resident gangster, Lenny, joining the Murdoch family. Ewan was quick to immerse himself in his dodgy Dad’s underworld business. He has caught the eye of the Shieldinch ladies and has already had a fling with Kelly Marie before moving on to single mum Joanne Rossi.

What made you decide to audition for a soap in Scotland when you were based in London?
I got phone call from my agent in London and he said he had a breakdown of a character to email through to me. As I lived in London, I hadn’t heard of the show so I did a bit of research on the River City website which obviously has clips of it. There are some real classic ones of Lenny, my on-screen dad, at his best. When I realised he was going to be his son I thought, ‘Yeah! I want a piece of that action!’

Did you find it difficult to move away from London?
I lived in Shepherd’s Bush with a couple of friends before I got the part. You always read things about Glasgow about how it’s really violent and stuff but I love it – I think it’s brilliant! I know not to take what I read in the papers too literally as I am from Nottingham and it gets loads of bad press but it’s fine too. I have not really had any trouble.

Glasgow is like a second home. I actually prefer it because it’s easier to get from one side to the other – you can walk in 20 minutes or so. You try and get from one side of London to the other and it takes forever. When I lived in Shepherd’s Bush I used to go and visit my best mate who lives in Battersea. On the map it is three miles away but it takes a minimum of 45 minutes to get there, the longest it has taken me was two and half hours! I got my A to Z out once and tried to walk along the river, after an hour I thought I should be there then I realised I had missed out two pages on the map! It was awful I was wearing sandals and I had a huge blister!

How did you get into acting?
I always wanted to be an actor. My mum and I traced it back to when I was about four. She asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said a fireman, a soldier, an astronaut and a milkman and she said well you can’t be all those things – have you thought about acting?

What was your first big break?
I graduated from drama school in 2004; Dream Team was my first big audition. I was there for a season, it was a good crack! Then I did a couple of plays. I decided to move back to Nottingham because I grew up there but then I fell out with my agent and it just became really difficult to get work. I was there for a year and a half before I realised I had to move back to London if I wanted to be taken seriously as an actor. When I got back I started working in a restaurant and one day these two guys came in who turned out to be agents, I showed them some of my stuff and they took me on. My first audition was Hollyoaks, I was there for a couple of episodes. It was great as I caught up with my old Dream Team cast member Ricky Whittle who plays Calvin.

What is the worst ever job you have had to do?
I have done some short films that, erm, how should I say it? Pushed the boundaries! My friend is a director and she asked me to do a short film with a couple of sex scenes. I read the script and thought it sounded alright – she was taking it to a festival in Italy. I didn’t think anything of the sex scenes but the film ended up at an erotic festival! I suppose at least the scene stood up! [Laughing] It’s all about art. It was tasteful honest!

What is your relationship like with the rest of the cast?
The cast are really close I call Frank (who plays Lenny) Papi! From day one we hit it off. I am really close to my on screen family.

How do you feel about your character and all his dodgy goings on? Will we see him getting any nicer?
He is nice! I love my character I think he is great! In his mind he doesn’t see anything wrong with the way he is or his actions, he is kind of on his own mission, it is just other people don’t really come into the equation! He doesn’t think he is being bad. He has had a bad background and a tough life; also he was a Marine, which obviously makes it difficult to adjust to family life.

Would you say you bear any similarities to him?
Yeah I am well ‘ard! [Laughing] There are some similarities – I actually based him on my best friend who is in the forces. He has had a similar background, which has meant I have had a lot to feed on from my own knowledge and experience to build into the character. If the character was real I do think I would be his friend. At the moment you have only seen a certain side, but now his storyline is starting to become clearer with the appearance of his mother. Viewers will start to be able to fill in the blanks. He’s not a bad lad! It will all become clear!

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