His name is not Nobody
Louise Bolotin meets Darren Darnborough, a young British actor working very hard to become a somebody in the cut-throat world of Hollywood
It’s 27 years since British screenwriter Colin Welland yelled, “The British are coming!” when he collected his Oscar for Chariots of Fire. It’s fair to say that the British presence is now firmly established in Tinsel Town, even if it’s not always obvious. For every Chiwetel Ejiofors who gets the Hollywood call after scoring a homegrown box-office hit, many others head for LA under their own steam to work in the film industry, either as actors or in other jobs.
Darren Darnborough is one such Brit who made the journey west. Having cut his screen teeth on British TV staples like The Bill, EastEnders and Holby City, a love of travel and a day at a seminar on working in Los Angeles persuaded him to give Hollywood a go. And although not a household name yet, he’s finding success as an actor, screenplay writer, director and producer.
One of his films, Nobody the Great (2007), is having its red carpet première during the prestigious Bel Air Film Festival, which is on right now, and may be up for some gongs. Nobody has had only one previous showing, at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose two years ago where it won the Viewers Voice Award for Best Film.
It’s a comedy about two young men who are getting ready in their apartment for a double date with two attractive sisters, when a couple of terrorists trick their way in. Flatmates Jack and Basil are forced to take matters into their hands and there are plenty of plot twists to keep viewers guessing right until the end. It was inspired by the revelations of torture at the now-notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Says Darren: “Nobody the Great is a very lighthearted look at some quite dark subject matter. Comedy can be a great way for people to relate to serious topics and add some poignancy. This film explores people’s attitudes to how we deal with things and people you might think are questionable, depending on the climate at the time. Nobody looks at how you would react if you suspected that someone in your house could be a terrorist.”
Currently, Nobody the Great runs at just 47 minutes as it was cut for potential release on US television. Darren acknowledges that if it picks up any awards on Tuesday evening in Bel Air, director Kara Miller might well be tempted to recut the film for a cinema release. Here in the UK, it look as if we might be waiting a while to see it.
Alluding to the solid British presence on the Hollywood circuit, Darren says all the films screening on the red carpet night on Sunday 15 November are being shown under the banner of “Brits in LA”. They form an eclectic mix of shorts, full-length features and documentaries, all linked by the British talent involved in creating them.
As films become increasingly international in terms of casting, funding, location and production, it’s fitting that the next film we’re likely to see Darren in is Gracie, a US-funded thriller shot on location in London with a British cast, in which he plays a people-trafficker who loses the young woman he’s smuggled into the UK and then goes on the hunt for her across the capital, while she saves a suicidal girl from jumping into the Thames.
Darren was associate producer for Gracie, which has just completed test screenings in LA and should be released during 2010. He’s currently busy writing a screenplay with Timothy Linh Bui, who wrote and directed Powder Blue (2009) as well as juggling other film projects that are destined for theatrical release in the not too distant future.
One thing’s for sure, Darren Darnborough is a name to keep an eye on among the Brits busy building their careers in Tinseltown. You heard it here first