JOINING FORCES
Noel Clarke and Ashley Walters are not only the stars of new big-action drama Bulletproof – it’s their passion project too. A creative force, the duo tell GEMMA DUNN why they hope it inspires others to follow suit
It’s important that we encourage our young people to take more control Bulletproof’s Noel Clarke
CAR chases, shoot-outs and full-on heists – Bulletproof is proof that high-octane action needn’t be reserved for the big screen. Set in London, the new Sky One series – directed by film-maker Nick Love – follows dynamic cop duo Bishop and Pike (played by Noel Clarke and Ashley Walters, respectively) as they tackle countless bad guys, all the while maintaining their loyal friendship, their relationships and moral code.
But while Bulletproof has all the tropes of a blockbuster drama – big, emotional storylines, blood-pumping stunts and Hollywood names like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’s Clarke Peters – its stars insist its originality means it cannot be defined.
“I don’t think there’s been anything like it,” reasons Noel, who co-created the show alongside Ashley.
“It’s definitely a buddy cop, action drama that touches on real themes of brotherhood, family and partnership – and it has a nice edge of humour with it.
“But it’s interesting – you can’t put it into a category in the UK,” he maintains. “And that is the point: anything that happens now will be, ‘It’s like Bulletproof’, because there hasn’t been anything like this before.
“It’s a passion project,” adds 42-year-old Noel. “But also I don’t think people were ready for a show like this (before). The time is now.”
For Ashley, 35, much inspiration came from US hit Bad Boys.
“I’m a huge fan!” he announces. “I always had that in mind; I’m not plagiarising, but why don’t we have glamorous car chases and explosions in our shows over here? It’s all very...”
“I think we should go and sit in the pub and investigate further?” Noel jumps in, smiling at his co-star, who he’s known for the best part of two decades.
“I’ve always been heavily influenced by American stuff – even the films I’ve done,” he says.
“When I was growing up watching film and TV, there wasn’t anyone that I saw that represented me, so I watched American films,” recalls the Londoner, who wrote, directed and starred in the film Kidulthood and its sequels Adulthood and Brotherhood.
“I watched Boys In The Hood, Kids, Menace To Society, Bully, all of those films that Larry Clark was doing, (Quentin) Tarantino. And I was like, ‘Why aren’t we doing that?”’
So to get to this point is quite something.
“It’s brilliant to have the opportunity to work with Noel,” says London-born Ashley, who also performed as rapper Asher D in garage band So Solid Crew.
“We were always trying to find moments when we could work together and for whatever reason we’ve always been pushed apart.
“We couldn’t be in the same show, because we represented the same thing... there could only be one black guy,” he says candidly.
“So now to have this opportunity to join forces, it’s more than powerful. We’re the gateway to the community that we are representing so we had to be the voice in that sense.”
“It’s important that we encourage our young people to take more control,” agrees Noel, whose previous credits include Doctor Who and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. “Because sometimes young people that look like us are not going to get opportunities unless they make them themselves.”
Of the fact that the show features two black male leads, he says: “We don’t want (race) to be a thing – it doesn’t matter. They’re just Bishop and Pike, but I think you can’t ignore the fact that they are who they are.
“When I was young you couldn’t be a main character – you had to be a sidekick,” he notes.
“But now there’s people that people can look up to and aspire to be. We’re leading the show, the show we created, which is not even a tiny web series!
“(It’s) unheard of in this country, which is shameful. But you’ve got to look at it as the glass is half-full – it’s shameful, but it’s a great thing and it will lead to more.”
Has he seen a change in the scripts he’s receiving too?
“Well, I do most of them myself, but there’s more opportunity now. Definitely,” Noel responds. “But that comes down to – I’m not going to try and be humble about it – things that Ashley has done, things that I’ve done. There’s no Kidulthood and stuff like that without Bullet Boy, there’s no Attack The Block without Kidulthood,” he elaborates.
“There’s a lot of people doing things now that we love and respect and we’re proud of them, but it all comes back to certain places – to the people before us.”
Next Bafta-winner Noel joins the likes of Sam Claflin and Timothy Spall in British crime thriller The Corrupted.
While he’s ruled out another chapter in the “Hood” franchise (“There’s a reason the last line of the film says ‘It’s done”’), he’s not ready to say no to a TV adaptation.
“We might try and do that, but it won’t be my character,” he confides, having played the main antagonist, Sam Peel, in all three movies.
“It will be like a spin-off with a couple of characters from the films and stuff like that. But it’s not really going to be Sam’s story, per se.”
Ashley, on the other hand, is set to reprise his role in series three of gritty London crime drama Top Boy this July. But, he says, being at the creative helm of a show has sparked a change in him.
“It’s made me realise that I have a lot more power than I thought in the beginning, so I am writing now, producing,” he says. “I am doing a lot of things behind the scenes.”
Does the duo think that Bulletproof can run and run?
“The way we’ve set it up is that it could potentially go on forever!” says Ashley, with a smile.
“I’m getting old!” Noel quips. “I am five or six years older than him, so I don’t know if I can go on forever!” he finishes. “But it can run and run, and if we can get a few seasons and then a movie out of it, I’ll be well chuffed.”