Interview with Cucumber and Banana's Freddie Fox and Fisayo Akinade

7 January 2015

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Can you explain a bit about Cucumber and banana, and who you play?

Fisayo: I play Dean in Cucumber and Banana. He is a 19-year-old gay guy who works as a mail boy in Henry Best’s office. Cucumber focuses on Henry and Lance, and their relationship, which breaks down after a terrible, terrible date that they go on. Dean, up until that point, has been a fairly peripheral figure in Henry’s life, he’s not been that involved. But after the events of the date, Henry ends up living with Dean and Freddie, and adventures ensue. In Banana, you get to see a bit more of Dean; you see a day in the life of Dean and what he gets up to.

Freddie: I play Freddie Baxter, who lives with Dean in the warehouse, and he also works at the insurance company that Henry and Dean work at, but in the canteen. He is 25, incredibly sexually confident, sexually powerful, and is an object of desire for Henry throughout the story. Initially there’s a very hostile dynamic between Freddie and Henry.

 

What was it that attracted you to the role?

Fisayo: I’d never read anything like this. You get lots of auditions, and some of them you see and you think “Yeah, I want this,” and others you think “Maybe not.” This was just one of those moments where I said “This is actually perfect, this would be such fun to do.” And Dean made me laugh on the page, just reading him I thought, “I have to do this.” Also, it’s Russell T Davies, who’s a genius, and it’s Channel 4, who produce some of the best dramas around, so it was sort of a no-brainer to go for it.

Freddie: Yeah, simply put, the scripts are so good and the stories are so interesting, the characters are so layered, and they all go on such incredible journeys. When I initially heard about the project, and the part I was up for playing, I was a bit ambivalent about it, because it sounded quite similar to parts I’d played recently. But then when I read the scripts and I realised there was no-one like this man, and there would never be anyone like this man on TV ever again. I realised I had to go for it.

 

Freddie, your character’s a little cool and heartless, is that fair to say?

Freddie: In certain respects, he is heartless about certain things, but ultimately, no he’s not. He has got a heart, and a big one, but he just protects himself with an armour of sex and outward expressions of beauty. That’s so he can control other people, but that’s only there because it’s hiding aspects of his life that he simply will not show. As the friendship between Freddie and Dean and Henry grows, and they become more cemented together by their proximity at the warehouse, you see a much more humane and sensitive Freddie emerge. That’s why it’s such a layered, interesting character.

 

You’ve described him somewhere as a nymphomaniac who gets his entire validation from sex. Is that right?

Freddie: More or less, yeah. He’s been sexualised from a young age – long before most of us are – and he happens to be very good at it. So he uses it as a way to protect himself and as a weapon, and also, because he’s good at it, as a way to validate his position in the world.

 

Is it fun to play a character like that?

Freddie: What do you think?! [Laughs]

 

Fisayo, this is your first TV role, and it’s a massive one. Is it daunting, turning up on set on day one as one of the leads?

Fisayo: Yeah! Especially when you’ve got the talent you have surrounding you. But actually that was a really big help on this job. You had Vincent, who was just the most open-hearted, warmest man imaginable, and he made it very easy for me. So quite quickly into filming it became joyous just to be there, and the nerves started to go away. But it was terrifying. You do the audition, then you discover you’ve got the job, and you think “Yes, I got it!” Then about a day later you think “Shit! Now I actually have to do it.” And you’ve got to sustain a character for five months. But it became such a joy.

 

 

You also get your knob out quite a lot, albeit in a modern chastity device. How far into filming did you have to shoot that, and what was it like?

Fisayo: [Laughs] I think it was two-weeks in. I was so nervous about it. Originally, they were going to use a prosthetic. I had to try it on so they could get reference pictures, and that was a story in itself.  Me and poor Andrew, our production assistant, had to get into a changing room in Top Man, I had to get naked, and he had to help me put it on. So we’re best friends now.

 

Why were you doing it in a changing room in Top Man?

Fisayo: We were shopping for clothes for [my character] Dean. So we tried it on there. Then we went somewhere near Media City to try it on, and so on. So by this point I’d worn it so many times, and the prosthetic was proving a bit troublesome and a lot more painful than just wearing the device, so I said I’d just do it without the prosthetic. The prospect was terrifying but as soon as I had my trousers down and I was doing it, it was fine!  The crew were great about it. It was actually quite freeing, and it helped to get into the mind-set of Dean because he doesn’t care about things like that. 

 

Was it specially made for you, or do these things actually exist?

Fisayo: These things really do exist - I had no idea! It’s part of the culture of men that like to dominate or be dominated. “You can’t get aroused until I say you can,” that sort of idea.  In the script it gave a website where you go to find this stuff, so I went online and looked, and I was like “Oh my God, you can actually buy this stuff!” Trying it on was awkward. I will not be wearing one again.

 

Your character is also a little bit on the, er, ‘speedy side’ isn’t he?

Fisayo: I think Russell said to me “He just wanks too much, and he gets very excited, because he enjoys sex. But because he’s only 19, he’s not really mastered the subtleties of it.” He’s very much, like, “Put it in, let’s go,” he gets very excited. Because he’s young, and he’s not learned to take his time and feel it out a bit. He enjoys it so much that he can’t control himself, bless him!

 

The shoot involved living in Manchester for five months. Was that fun, and did you get to know the place a bit?

Freddie: Speaking as a non-Mancunian I was probably the one doing the most investigating, as Fis knows it like the back of his hand. I got to know it intimately and I love it. We saw Stockport, the suburbs, Didsbury where my character is from, so it’s great to hear the accent there. We went out a bit and had some fun.

Fisayo: I wanted to be sure people were having a good time, so we went out for dinner a lot.

Freddie: We went at lot to this restaurant called Turtle Bay, it's Fis’ favourite and it soon became my favourite - it was the starting point to a good evening.

Fisayo: It has excellent cocktails. But poor Freddie was on this ridiculous diet he had to follow to maintain this amazing body, so he wasn’t drinking that much and he wasn’t eating anything fun. Apart from when I made him.

Freddie: Actually, the best night out was when Fis made food for me and Con [O'Neill] and Vincent [Franklin]. He made this incredible Mississippi Mud Pie. 

Fisayo: I’m quite proud of that. I think it’s my speciality.

 

Did you go out and check out the gay scene in Manchester? What else did you do in the way of research?

Fisayo: I joined Grindr for a bit to see what it was about. That was an eye-opening experience! I'm gay so I didn’t really need to do the research in terms of going out in Canal Street and all that sort of thing. We had a few nights out there, but not that much.

Freddie: Yeah, we didn’t do as much of that as I’d expected. The first time I went to Manchester it was for a show about Boy George and we went out a bit then. For this we shot a lot on Canal Street and the atmosphere kind of pervades, even if you’re not there on a night out. There’s still a buzz there which Russell really wanted to convey. It’s very, very magnetic, and you can feel what it’s about without having to experience it.

 

Freddie, is it true that you stayed in accent throughout the entire shoot?

Freddie: Yes I did.

Fisayo: On our final day of shooting, when me and Freddie had filmed our final scene together, he said in his normal voice, “Well, that’s it then, Fis.” And I thought “Who the hell’s this?!” It was quite a shock because for five months he’d been speaking as a Mancunian. 

Freddie: The accent’s really important for me. I’d never taken it as far as I did with this but thought “I’m not going to get this wrong.” I stayed in voice the whole time, even when I was at home with my parents. They didn’t like it at all, but they are actors so they understood!

 

What was it like working with the older actors?

Freddie: I think I can speak for both of us here when I say we learned a lot from the older actors. I’d like to point out they’re not old, just older than we are! They have more experience, and all of them also had a bedrock in the theatre, which was great because Fis and I have that too, so we had a sort of shorthand. 

Fisayo: It was very collaborative. The crew and all of the actors all felt like we were in it together. It never felt like they were doing their thing and we were doing our thing. And that was really led by Vince, Cyril and Julie. They created an environment where you could suggest things. It was really lovely to have these older guys leading the way. And they had some hilarious stories.

 

You’re both young. Do you still feel like you’re learning your craft?

Freddie: Definitely.

Fisayo: One of the biggest things I’ve learned hasn’t really been to do with acting, it's how to be a good lead. Vincent set up an atmosphere very early on of everyone, cast and crew, being on the same level, so there’s no room for ego. It really made everything so much easier for everyone because Vincent had created this level playing field. 

Freddie: That really was one of the most special things on this job. The atmosphere created by Vincent and Russell on set was such that you really, really wanted to come in to work every day. As actors, we have the best job in the world, but occasionally it can be made difficult by ego and by not listening to each other and lack of communication. And on this job, it was just brilliant, and as a result, I think we all felt like we were doing our best work.

 

Have you seen Queer as Folk?

Freddie: I hadn’t seen it before this job started, but I have now. I loved it. It was a brilliant piece of drama, and the writing was whip-sharp.

 

It was quite controversial when it first went out on Channel 4 15 years ago. Do you think some of the more risqué elements of Cucumber and Banana might cause a kerfuffle this time around?

Fisayo: Whether there are risqué bits or not this show will cause a kerfuffle anyway. It’s very modern, this, it’s not a rehash of Queer as Folk, it’s a very different show - I don’t think there will be any more or less than there was for Queer as Folk. 

Freddie: There should be, as well. Anything that moves public consciousness and public morality forward, which one hopes this show will do, has got to cause a stir otherwise it’s not done its job properly.

 

Do you think Queer as Folk changed the nature of TV, or what was considered acceptable in a TV drama?

Freddie: I do yes. Everybody who I’ve spoken to who was conscious when Queer as Folk went out says it was a complete game-changer. It completely changed people’s perception of young, gay men especially. Suddenly they were successful, cool, sexy, out there, fun people you wanted to spend time with - not a stereotype.  Obviously that was massive when it came out.

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Cucumber launches on Channel 4 at 9pm on Thursday 22nd January with Banana following at 10pm on E4, and a serving of Tofu at 10.30pm on 4oD