ICW: Anton Stephans, Actor and Musician

Tarantino Live is an exciting new rock musical-rock concert-film spectacular, the likes of which the UK has never seen. Or at least that’s what I’m piecing together after my chats with four of the stars of one of London’s newest shows, brought here from LA by For The Record. With a super diverse cast of some of theatre’s greatest talents, and a killer soundtrack played live every night, it promises to be a great night out - even if you don’t know Tarantino’s films! TBP got to speak with cast members Tara Lee, George Maguire, Karen Mavundukure, and here you get to enjoy the chat with Anton Stephans. We talked the show, feeling safe within this cast to tackle subject matter that is personal to him, healing through this show from a past experience with racism in the industry, what being Black means to him and so much more. Read/Listen below!

Brianna (TBP)
Hi, how are you?

Anton
It’s my day off so I've been really lazy!

Brianna (TBP)
Enjoy it because it’s gonna get busy isn’t it!

Anton
Well, it's been 18 hour days. It's been a bit long, you know, long days. We’re in technical rehearsals and technical rehearsals are long.

Brianna (TBP)
You must be exhausted!

Anton
Honest to god, I'm fucking knackered, but it’s a good knackered. When you walk away, and I’m working with - listen, you hear this right? You're a journalist. You hear this all the time, especially from actors - “I love my cast, we get on so well!” and meanwhile, they all hate each other - this is, it's the best experience I'm having. I'm loving our creative team, I've become really good friends with our producer. The cast! It is a very dark piece, some of it's quite dark. It's Tarantino right, so he makes us look at some very violent, ugly situations. But at the same time, makes you laugh. So you're able to process this really dark shit with a laugh, it’s a really clever thing to do.

Brianna (TBP)
It’s an incredible cast, when I saw the lineup I was like “My goodness!”

Anton
Isn’t it so silly, And I get to be a part of it, how mad! No, it’s so cool.

Brianna (TBP)
But you were one of the ones that I was like, Oh, my goodness! Because I saw you on The X Factor, and I loved your voice like, absolutely loved it. So what is Tarantino Live because it's this new crazy concept that I don't think we've really seen in the UK before?

Anton
You've never seen anything like it in the UK. When I say it’s interactive. It's almost like - it's film. It's animation. It's immersive. It's musical. It's violent. I mean, I play this character who was made famous by the wonderful and brilliant Samuel L. Jackson, Jules and Ordell and you know, he is a gangster. And people know me as being Mr. Nice Guy. But no one, no one is that nice! The image of me that’s out in the world is all cheerful but no one’s ever that nice! But this person is a very dark character he has an epiphany during the show about his life and decides to - well I won’t tell you what happens! But he has an epiphany in his life and it changes but I'm able to tap into early parts of my life because of it. The early part of my life was very dark and scary. There's my biological family, I witnessed a lot of domestic abuse, a lot of drugs, a lot of drug taking a lot of dysfunction. It’s funny how the word dysfunction has fun in it!

Brianna (TBP)
It really is, like who came up with that!

Anton
Right! And there’s a lot of drug-taking in the show as well. And so, for somebody who is, has been clean and sober for the last six years.

Brianna (TBP)
Oh that’s amazing!

Anton
Thank you. It's interesting to be in a show like that and I feel safe.

Brianna (TBP)
I was gonna say how are you finding that? Is it an environment where you feel like you're okay?

Anton
Oh, my God. I feel like, I mean, you’ve probably met Tara already, right?

Brianna (TBP)
Yeah, I spoke to her this morning!

Anton
Isn’t she a dream.

Brianna (TBP)
The most gorgeous person honestly.

Anton
Okay, so for me, I can just look at her and she's gorgeous. But when I stop looking at her as well and hear her soul, she’s just a beautiful human being. Like a human being - her beauty is reflected from the inside out. And you’re going to meet George as well?

Brianna (TBP)
Oh, so I’ve met George before.

Anton
So George is everything. I play, I play my most of my biggest scenes are with George. And I can't tell you how much of a joy - the man is just a dream. And this is the message he sent me the other night, I've not told anybody about it, actually. He sent me a message the other night, and he went “Hey, mate, thank you, too. I know you beat yourself up sometimes. But what you're doing with Jules is extraordinary. I should have said that already. It's just brilliant to watch.” Somebody like George saying that to me, because I admire his work.

Brianna (TBP)
Oh bless. No he’s so talented, so that’s yeah - lovely!

Anton
For him to say that to me. And we're doing some scenes where you know, I'm quite rude. He's like, I treat him like an annoying little brother, and he's called every MF in the world. But he’s cool. And we just have a giggle at work. And it's so - the whole cast are very supportive. Because you never know what people have been through in their lives. They all go to work professionally. But you don't know that people - look, lots of us come from dysfunctional backgrounds. That's why we end up being actors!

Brianna (TBP)
Yeah that’s why you’re drawn to the arts!

Anton
Because we want to tell stories, we want to express and tell stories. And it's a lot of people get that mixed up with showing off. And really what we do as actors is not show off, we're storytellers. We try to tap into our own pain a lot of the time, or our own joys and try and tell the story of the characters by tapping into our own experience, lived experience. And sometimes you can't find anything in your own life but you find something by learning. I feel so, at this point in my life feel so blessed. I had a not so nice experience in my last project, which was not so great. And I don't mind if anyone knows it. Leave that in. It was racist. I was othered. It was ugly. It was uncomfortable, not everyone because a lot were nice, but the voices were loud enough for me to want to have to step back and go, this is not what I wanted to have in my life. And I didn't even know it existed in our arts.

Brianna (TBP)
So this was your first experience of it in this industry?

Anton
Well, overtly. Because obviously-

Brianna (TBP)
It’s there in the sort of-

Anton
It’s there. But to see it play out, I've never been more appalled, shocked and disappointed. And so, I was pretty successful doing my own sort of one man shows at the time, I was alright, I wasn’t going to be poor any time soon - I had enough to go out for a Biryani every once in a while! And so yeah, so it was really disappointing to have experienced that. So when Shane our producer - Gareth, a good friend of mine, and then Shane our producer - reached out and said, Look, I'd really love you to be in the show. And would you be interested in doing it, I was like, if it's gonna be a cast, I need this cast to be a good company, to be cool. And I've never had so much fun in my life, people are supportive of each other. We're all checking in with each other if we're okay, because some of these scenes are dark and scary. And people are coming up and going, Is it okay to have a hug Anton? It's really nice to be - I’m the oldest. When did this happen? I’m the oldest in the cast. Does this look like the face of the oldest person in the cast!

Brianna (TBP)
It really doesn’t!

Both
(Laugh)

Anton
I'm loving that I'm getting older, and I'm enjoying my career and enjoying who it is I am in the world. And in the world of Tarantino, I get to do this role, which is great in this groundbreaking. So I mean, you're gonna love it. If you love Tarantino, you're gonna love it. If you don't know, Tarantino's work, you're gonna come along, and you're gonna experience something that you've never seen before. And if you've not been to a musical, and think, ooh, a musical, then you’re gonna really love this one because It's so cool!

Brianna (TBP)
And also, it's not musical tracks, if that makes sense. Like, it's actual rock songs. You know them, you’ve probably listened to them your whole life.

Anton
Oh my God, the voices are just amazing. I get to sing some incredible songs. And with these incredible humans who are good people.

Brianna (TBP)
And that's like, the most important thing.

Anton
I mean, it's the most important thing. And because I had that experience before this show, there's one person particularly on my last job who, Fia Hamilton, who is just a phenomenal talent in the world, why we don’t know more of her I don’t know, she's a phenomenal talent in the world. And if it wasn't for her, I think I probably would have just like, lost all - I would want to have just given up on the industry. I've seen such an ugly thing in our industry that I didn't want to do that. But yeah.

Brianna (TBP)
Well, it instills fear in you as well. Because even though you've had all of these good experiences before that, it's then like now that you know, it's there. It's like am I gonna have to face it again? Is it this the next time I do this?

Anton
Exactly, exactly. And being really fair, it wasn't, it was not all of that cast, it was a very small group, but the small group was so loud that it drowned out any positivity and as much as the producers tried their very best and they really did their very best to make things better. Those - that kind of stain is hard to remove you know, you can't get - the bleach wasn't gonna work.

Brianna (TBP)
It's always gonna be a little echo.

Anton
Yeah it's just gonna be there. And that was really hard to deal with and I didn't want to face that again. And being in this cast is like, it's like the light - it’s like everyone turned the lights on. Even though we are literally in this really dark room, it is like all the lights are on.

Brianna (TBP)
I mean, honestly, I can literally see the joy just like shining from you like-

Anton
Oh, thank you!

Brianna (TBP)
Because you’re right I do these a lot and you do see people and they're like, “oh, it's the best cast!” but you can't fake this level of joy.

Anton
You can’t fake it. You can’t. My director sent me a message this morning as well. Listen to this, he just went “I feel so lucky to have you in this.” That's our director who is brilliant, Anderson is just so brilliant. And for somebody like me who's - my process is slightly different to other people. I try and take a measure of, I listen to the other actors and I'm often thinking, even in the middle of doing the lines, I can stumble my way through because I'm thinking about if this is real, or if it's - what I'm doing has to be authentic, and honest and true. And so that can take me a little bit of a moment to organise. And I know other actors are like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. But to me, it takes a little bit of time. And when I'm singing a song, it has to come from a place of truth. Otherwise, audiences will never get it. They’ll just go “Oh that’s a pretty voice.” So I don't want that, I want people to be affected by it, to walk away feeling as if they've had a moment that's connected.

Brianna (TBP)
So I want to talk about how, speaking of that truth and honesty, these are characters like you say that Samuel L. Jackson originated he's, they're so well known for him. How do you go about going “I'm going to do them, but I'm doing them as Anton, I'm not doing an impression of Samuel.”

Anton
Well, I'm actually just being Jules. My understanding of Jules. Yeah. And yeah, there is an echo of this brilliant man Samuel L. Jackson, and he is brilliant. I mean, I've got a screensaver on my phone, him and a bunch of other black actors who I admire greatly. And, you know, what I do is try again, to come from a place of truth. I research the role as I would with any other role. Understand, try and understand where this character is coming from, I tap into my own experience. And that's what I have done. I grew up - my early part of my life with my biological family, who I have so much compassion for, and I've learned to have compassion for them. It wasn't always that way, I was angry for a long time. And I'm not angry at them at all. I have so much compassion and understanding now.

Brianna (TBP)
Isn't that the most freeing moment, when you let go of anger?

Anton
When you let go? Thank you. When you let go of anger, and you say, “This person hurt me, and it affected me, and that hurt has somehow given license for me to hurt myself in lots of ways.” I look back at that and I'm really grateful to them. Because they gave me life. They tried the best way that they could to help me but they couldn't. But they also showed me a place where I never ever want to be, you know, showed me a life I never ever want to live, and I don't live that life. I live a life that is beyond any of my wildest dreams. It's extraordinary. I'm able to be around and work with the most amazing people.

Brianna (TBP)
I literally have a question about this, about these incredible people that you've worked with, because the list is insane. Like it's a mind blowing list of people. And I wasn't gonna, I don’t want to ask like who was the best, what's most amazing memory -

Anton
Simply the best.

Brianna (TBP)
Well, when I read that (Anton toured with Tina Turner) I was like, does that memory become a lot more special now in light of, you know, obviously, she's passed, she's no longer with us?

Anton
I was, I was out. I was having a - I’m doing a documentary with the BBC, they're doing a documentary on my life.

Brianna (TBP)
Oh well, that’s really cool!

Anton
I know, that's nuts, isn't it? That's happening this summer whilst we're doing the show. And while we were having one of those production meetings, the news came through and I couldn't process it actually. The lead journalist on it, Rob Brown said to me, by the way, this has happened and I was like “…okay. Right then.” But then a flood of happy memories and all I truly have taken away with me from that, is sing with the voice you've got. Sing with the voice you’ve got. Sorry.

Brianna (TBP)
No of course, take a moment.

Anton
It’s funny isn’t it. I was in my 20s, I was a child really. I’m 53 now, and I look back, and it's with a mix of so much gratitude for that moment, for those moments, you know? 270 shows around the world and living a life that - with a talent that taught me to go on stage and live every minute of that. And I do, and you see me, I do live every minute, I give everything I possibly can to my audience, because I got taught that from the very best people. And that is what I'm grateful about, and I never really got it. Because when you're younger right, you think I’m all that, I’m earning money, okay! And it's no longer about that for me. It's funny, it changes and it's changed. I just look back on all of that, and I haven't been a backing singer for a while, and I don’t want to be a backing singer ever again. The made such a big deal of it as well, on The X Factor. Meanwhile, I've been on Broadway, I’ve been on the West End!

Brianna (TBP)
But were there moments in that, like when you're stood there and you're singing with Tina Turner, or Elton John, or these huge names, is there a moment where the child version of you comes to the forefront? And it's like, how on earth is this my life?

Anton
Wow, no one has ever asked me that. No one has asked ever me that, and it’s every time it happens, right? God, why are you making me cry, what’s wrong with you?

Both
(Laughs)

Anton
God! I stand on stage - and from where I come from people like me, we don't get to do that. Like this out of their way. This is why I have to thank my chosen family, my adopted family. Because I've been given a world, a place and a space to be myself and to be loved enough to be able to go into the world and do what I'm doing. But yeah, there's a part of me. I've never wanted to do anything else. I've never had, you can ask any of my childhood friends, I've only ever wanted to do this. Apart from, I thought I might want to be a barrister at one point!

Brianna (TBP)
There's a lot of performance in being a barrister!

Anton
There’s a costume!

Brianna (TBP)
There’s a wig!

Anton
There’s a wig, and it is very performative, and it’s also trying to find the truth so I can see why I would have wanted to do that. But yeah. I've really only ever wanted to do this. And I get to do the thing. I mean, there are people who've trained, who have trained all their lives. And I get to do it, and people can train all their lives and never get to do it. I get to do this. And, I mean, I was talking to the PR guy, and we were going through who we would like to invite to the show. And I was looking through my phone and I've never thought about it before. It does run, like a who's who, so the child part of me again went oh my God. All of these people are extraordinarily talented people. And, and even the ones who aren't actors are really brilliant at what they do. And I think I just, I'm so fascinated by really good people.

Brianna (TBP)
Yeah. I mean, that is literally why I do what I do.

Anton
That’s why you love George!

Brianna (TBP)
It is why I love George! If you mention my name to George he’ll tell you “Oh yeah, that’s the president of the George Maguire Appreciation Society.”

Anton
Well I am seconding that!

Brianna (TBP)
There are t-shirts, so if you would like one. (Laughs)

Anton
Yes please! Give me a t-shirt, I will wear it to work proudly. You know, yeah, I mean, there's that if you look at your life, and you go - and it's recently I'm a year in remission.

Brianna (TBP)
I saw, yeah, that is amazing news!

Anton
Yeah, and so when I say a value life - I go to work and I'm missing work on my day off! Because these people are so great, and they’re so lovely to be around. And we're creating something that's brand new and exciting. And it's frustrating as well, there’s all the stuff that comes with hanging around, standing around for hours. But I mean, I love my job, I get to do a job that I love most. And there have been people in my life who have told me that I can never have that. You know, we had that famous man who said, no one at Radio 1 will ever play you. Well, I've been on Radio 1, and I've performed live. And you know, while they're still scratching around trying to do the thing that they're doing, I’m living my best life with wonderful people, and I'm grateful for that. Not downing them, because you know, God bless them, wherever they are, whatever they're doing, I don't wish anybody any ill. But I'm just really grateful for what has been in store for me. I mean, not last Christmas, the Christmas before we were planning my funeral. We were sitting on the beach with my sister, my sister, Esther Baker, she’s a famous artistic director. And we were sitting on the beach she and I, with my adopted sister sitting on the beach, and I say, look, here's where the papers are. This is where you can find this. This is what I'd like the service to be like. This is where we're at because that was gonna be my third round of radio-chemotherapy. And then that was Christmas. That was new year. So that was new year. And then my brother Johnny and sister Jenny came, and my sister Jenny, my sister in law. She had had breast cancer, but she was a triathlete. So she ran to every one of her appointments.

Brianna (TBP)
Wow. That is strength beyond strength.

Anton
Right? She wrote a book about it called Running for my life. Extraordinary, brilliant person. We both looked at each other in a way that only people who have been in that dark place can, and I said I know what I can do. I can walk. And back then, at that point I was using sticks because I couldn’t walk. But I walked to every one of my appointments and back, and I got better.

Brianna (TBP)
That is amazing.

Anton
It’s a shift. It’s a shift in mind. Not everyone gets better, and I know that this disease is horrible and could come back at any time. And it did, this is the second time that I've had that. And so this - when I tell you, I am grateful for my life. I'm so happy. I have got brilliant friends. I've got rid of all the crap. Because sometimes you can hold on to people right?

Brianna (TBP)
Yeah. When there’s a sense of like, a loyalty.

Anton
Because you’ve known them a long time, but they're just a shitty human being and they’re shitty in your life. And I’m not hanging on to them, not anymore. You show me who you are. I believe you. Yeah, that's it. And I'm quick to drop the rubbish and keep the really good people around me that don't tell me always that I’m great, and that I'm brilliant. But tell me the truth. That say you know, “Anton, shape up, sort yourself out.”

Brianna (TBP)
It’s real people. You don't want people that are just gonna stroke your ego you want people that are gonna keep you grounded.

Anton
Every God Out is what I call the ego. So I'm a Christian so I try to bring - or I’m more spiritual I guess - but try to bring a sense of God in rather than a sense of God out, if that doesn't freak anybody out too much but you know.

Brianna (TBP)
No, of course!

Anton
That's the truth of who I am. And that's the principles and how I live my life - it’s with faith, love and care for other people. Respect, understanding, a bit of sass!

Brianna (TBP)
Got to have a little bit.

Anton
Gotta look good, gotta have bit of style, your own style whatever that is, gotta lean into it! You know, and this is what this show is, the show is full of style.

Brianna (TBP)
So I have my last question, and it is what does being Black mean to you?

Anton
Everything. Oh it’s a rhythm, there’s a rhythm that we have, we have a sense of the world and style. We are a jubilant, triumphant and resilient people. We’re caring, because every day I leave this house, and I will be - I have some kind of bias, some kind of thing happened. And I'm able to deal with that with grace. All of us do that, we deal with that. Sometimes we fall down sometimes we make mistakes, but mostly we deal with that with grace and understanding and fortitude. And we're able in all of that able to sing, dance, eat great food. Love ourselves, love each other. Are you kidding, we're the best. And I have a full white family, so without me they are salt and pepper! Without the spice you know, gotta get a bit of jerk chicken up in there!

Tarantino Live opens today, June 9th, and runs until August 13th at Riverside Studios Hammersmith. Get your tickets here! Use code BP20 to get 20% off your tickets.