What attracted you to the role of Alfie?
Well I first got involved after Pawel saw me in "A Room For Romeo Brass" and found what I did interesting. We then met in London and got on straight away. We were able to relate to each other. At that point, Alfie wasn't a character and we created him as we went along through workshops. I also have to say that I was out of work and Pawel took an interest in me and was very encouraging. I also liked the fact that Pawel, being a documentary maker, wanted to make a film about people and he got good performances because he treated us foremost like people.
Was there scope for improvisation?
There was. At first we didn't rehearse but just had discussions during which time Pawel tried to feed things into my head. I was aware however that I couldn't just wing it because I didn't want it to feel fake.
Your character changes throughout the film.
Yes, and Dina's character is very much a catalyst for that. Alfie is someone who is dormant, just waiting for something to happen. When he pulls up the shutters on the arcade one morning and sees this Russian lady and her son. his life alters.
There are some wonderfully humorous little moments.
Again these emerged from our discussions where Pawel gave us something to work on. One such scene is where Artiom and I are decorating the flat. The scene on the boat is another of my favourites. There was also a run of about four days were everyone was totally tuned in, and out of that came some fantastic scenes.
The relationship between Alfie and Artiom is very evocative.
He was a great kid, really likeable and we just hit it off straight away. We taught each other swear words. He was really intuitive and a fascinating little guy, very honest and also very unassuming. He took the whole film in his stride and had absolutely no agenda.
