terrible shows” I won’t name the names
of the shows, “Well, I’m going to cross all
those shows off my list, I won’t have to do
those kind of things anymore. It’s all going
to be plain sailing from now on.” And then
the following year I did every one of those
shows on the list because I couldn’t get
any other work. I mean, I’m here to do a
job and sometimes it’s a brilliant piece
and sometimes it’s just to get me through
a couple of months and, you know, it’s…
it’s very hard. I’ve been lucky with most of
the things I’ve done. One of the rules I have
is I want to have a good time while I’m at
work so that’s kind of fundamental and that
generally happens. So, even if it’s a job I
don’t want to do then there are things that
you can get out of it, you’re often working
with really nice people. If you’re doing less
than you think you should be doing, then
that’s a humbling experience in itself and
maybe it’s a lesson to not to get too big for
your boots.
Jason: Talking of people that you’ve
worked with, come on, dish some dirt.
Who is a prima donna?
Dan:
I really wish I could give you a
list of absolute pains in the arse. I did get
offered an episode of EastEnders once
and it was Ricky’s stag night and it was
the entire male cast. I think there were
going to Ramsgate or somewhere, I think
the idea was they were putting Ricky on a
ferry to go to France so he would miss the
wedding to Bianca. It was to play the sort
of head of a group of other lads and there
was an arm wrestling competition with the
Mitchells. Now, I turned it down because
I didn’t want to go and be in a hotel in
Ramsgate with all the boys off EastEnders
at that time all on a jolly because I
thought it would be awful. It would be
uncomfortable and one or two stories
I’ve heard made me not do it. So, I’m not
saying that the whole cast of EastEnders
are bad people and it was a particular time
etc, etc, etc, but I certainly didn’t want to
do that. But, in terms of actors, maybe it’s
me and maybe I’ve been lucky but I’ve
not really got a bad word to say against
anybody, which is pathetic really.
Jason:
What about the big screen?
Dan:
I’ve popped up in a couple of
movies. When I was in my mid-20s, I was
in a fairly big budget British movie at the
time, it was about £3 million and it was a
film called Up on the Roof, which if you
look in Halliwells Film Guide it’s got the
worst review of any film you’ve ever seen
in your life. It was around the time of The
Full Monty and we were being touted as
this massive film. It was really going to take
off and it died, died a death. My film stuff
has always been little bits. You know, I did
a bit in the Pirates of the Caribbean so met
Johnny Depp and he was very nice. I had
a very nice scene with Jude Law in a film
called Black Sea which was great because
my character was the sort of catalyst for
the story from this one scene and it meant
that in the trailers there was a load of my
scene. So, people are going to the cinema
going, “Oh blimey, I’ve seen your new
movie.” I’m going, “Hold on, it’s not my
movie. It’s kind of Jude Law’s movie really.”
Because they’d used that scene in the
trailer it meant that even people who never
saw it thought I was the lead in the movie.
I did a bit in a Mike Lee but it’s hard to get
in those things because it’s all about your
status and I like to cruise around slightly
off the radar and that suits me in certain
ways but it also means that I don’t have
celebrity profile, I have profile within the
profession and it’s more bearable. It’s nice.
Jason: The way that we first met is when
I was in a Brighton pub, you walked in and
I thought, I know him. Do you get a lot of
the “I know you from somewhere” rather
than “I know who you are.”?
Dan:
Yeah. I’ve now learnt to say to
people “It’s Daniel Ryan, just Google me
because I don’t know what was on telly
last night.” Do you know what I mean?
There’s a vast array of channels repeating
shows and someone might have been
watching a Doctor Who, someone might
have been watching a Heartbeat, someone
might have been watching, Pirates of the
Caribbean. I don’t know what has put me
in their mind for that day.it used to become
a joke with me and my wife Sarah that
we’d be out and they go, “Oh, can you
just tell us what you’re in.” So, I’d say the
thing that I most thought it would be and
they’d go, “No.” I’d list something else.
They go, “No.” I’d go through about five or
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