INTERVEW WITH FILM DIRECTOR

MICHAEL ELKIN

In this month’s issue of GHQ, we speak to first time director of the forthcoming movie Break set in London’s gritty world of professional Snooker. The film stars Sam Gittins, Rutger Hauer, David Yip, Jamie Foreman, Scott Peden, Adam Deacon, Terri Dwyer, Sophie Stevens. HERE’S THE CHAT!

1 Growing up in South London what was your memories good and bad ? I have nothing but love for south London and to be honest, I don’t really have bad memories, only good ones. Don’t get me wrong, there were ‘bad days’, as a group of mates hanging out together, we did get into plenty of scrapes as did most lads and we certainly had some scary moments, but these were always outweighed by the good times.

There was a great little club local to us called The Bon Bonne where everyone used to go and I had some great times in there. People used to travel from quite far to go there, but a lot of us knew each other from the area. The music was great, the atmosphere was amazing and the girls were stunning. That’s south London for me. In my younger days, we all used to hang out on the estates kicking footballs about on a summer day. There used to be a thing called a ‘Red Bus Rover’ which was about sixty pence and enabled kids to travel anywhere and I remember being aged around ten or eleven, me and a load of mates would hop on a bus to Oxford street or somewhere and just run amok. Great days. Many of my closest mates today have been with me since the red bus rover days. We’re a very close-knit bunch.

What were your first jobs ? I did an apprenticeship as an electrician when I first left school, but never saw it through. I had the worst attention span ever and just got bored easily. My dad, who over the years had been in the pub game, had mini cab offices and other businesses. He bought a jewellers in Walworth when I was in my late teens and I enjoyed the time I worked with him. We used to buy a lot of scrap gold, most of which was probably stolen with hindsight. We used to get quite a few dodgy characters come through them doors. He sold the shop and moved to the coast after a few years, but I stayed in London. I worked on building sites as a labourer on and off for a while then I ended up working the doors of a few London Casinos. The Ritz was one. Aspinalls in Mayfair was another. I loved it at first, but got bored and left to become a gambler. I absolutely love the gee-gees and put myself through a short college course studying horses. I have NVQ qualifications in horse management. I would literally travel the country with a few grand in my pocket backing horses that I’d had my eye on. I survived for a couple of years and this was my only source of income.