We Met 'Milky' and 'Shaun' From This Is England

Before meeting Thomas Turgoose and Andrew Shim, the actors behind the characters Shaun and Milky from This Is England, I had prepped myself with a bunch of 90s-themed questions. The two actors were in Stockholm to promote their new miniseries This Is England '90 at the Stockholm Film Festival and I had envisioned us reminiscing about Disney films, Frosties and Power Rangers like the 90s/80s kids we were. This didn't happen.

As I was telling the actors about my cozy idea while we were setting up the interview, Turgoose told me he didn't remember anything from the 90s. Mission failed. So instead of discussing the golden age of cartoons and 'The Rachel', we used our 20 minutes wisely and talked about botched tattoos, growing up in rough areas and why being Hollywood famous doesn't appeal.

VICE: Growing up in the 90s, do you guys remember wanting to become actors at all?
Andrew Shim: No!
Thomas Turgoose: No! We were both kind of similar, we were both kind of brought up on the streets, in rough areas and then this kind of life came along, it was a bit mad.
Shim: I didn't even like drama when I was in school.
Turgoose: I fucking hated it.
Shim: Yeah I couldn't stand it.
Turgoose: The only thing I liked was my teacher.
Shim: I didn't even like the teacher. Nottingham where I grew up is known for its gun crime, it's even nicknamed 'Shottingham'. It's basically the gun capital of England. And I grew up there, on the wrong side of the tracks, and somehow I managed to stumble across this career. Shane [Shane Meadows, the director of This Is England] kind of took me and Thomas under his wings.

So the thought of becoming an actor was too big to even dream of?
Turgoose: Yeah, when I was younger, I charged them money for the auditions because of that reason. I thought, me being where I'm from and all, "I'm never going to be put in a film" so I wanted as much from it as I could get. So I was charging them money to audition. For the first audition, I charged like five pounds, then ten pounds for the second one and for the third one I asked for playstation games. Because from the start I was like "this sort of thing never happens to kids like us" so I just really wanted money out of it.

I feel like Eric Cartman would do something like that. Demand money.
Shim: He would!
Turgoose: I was a hustler. Like if anyone wanted me to do something, I always wanted money.
Shim: I would even give him money to fart on demand. One pound per fart.
Turgoose: I used to be able to fart on demand.
Shim: Yeah and in one session, I'm sure he made like eleven pounds. But I'll tell you who else he [Turgoose] reminds me of: Stewie Griffin.
Turgoose: Yeah. I have a tattoo of him on my leg that I'm getting removed. It was a drunk thing, I kind of woke up in the morning, I was laying on a sofa and I was like "what the fuck is that" and so I pulled my shorts down and there was Stewie.

At this point we demand to see the tattoo and we kind of understand why he wants to get rid of it.

VICE: Who did this to you? Why, why?
Turgoose: Yeah I was just pissed up, just drunk. I just remember getting really drunk and then my mate thought it would be a good idea to pull a tattoo gun out.

If you guys hadn't been casted in the film This Is England ten years ago, what would you been doing today?
Turgoose: I would probably be working. And because of the area I lived in, I lived in a really bad area, I would probably have gone down the drugs route…
Shim: And I would have been selling it to him.

Aw, that's sweet. At least you guys would had kept in contact.
Turgoose: Yeah our paths would have crossed somewhere. But my old man has been working at an oil refinery for like 25 years so he's quite high up and he gets a lot of my friends jobs there nowadays so I would probably be working there as well. Or God knows.
Shim: I can't even say where I would be to be honest, because the area I grew up in was just like where Tomo [Turgoose] grew up. The path I was going down even after having done my third film…I wasn't a bad kid but I was involved in bad stuff. It literally could have gone any way. I could have started a business or be in prison.
Turgoose: It's just because of the area you're in. You can be the best person in the world but still take the wrong path.

Does Hollywood appeal?
Turgoose: The money does. The fame doesn't.
Shim: I mean if Hollywood came calling tomorrow I'd go, but…
Turgoose: I'd hate to be that kind of famous. I'm really interested in Justin Bieber's life because of what he's like. I watched a documentary about him. And in it, he wants to go out for ice cream, and they have to take like four cars that will go in four different directions and he has to get into the boot of one, because of the paparazzis. I would hate that. And the stuff me and my mates get up to…
Shim: Yeah, how we are on a night out – we would probably not get hired again if the paparazzis caught that.
Turgoose: Yeah, I like a drink more than I like Hollywood.

I'll drink to that. Thanks guys!

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. This Is England '90 can be streamed from C More from the 1st of December.

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