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| Cerebrum Photo: Courtesy of FrightFest |
Centring on the troubled relationship between a father and son, Sebastien Blanc’s feature début Cerebrum, which is screening as part of Frightfest 2022, deals with themes around loss, guilt and the lengths that people will go to to try and hang on to those they love. Tobi King Bakare plays William, a young man struggling to regain both his physical abilities and his memory after waking from a coma, whilst Richard, the father who is looking after him and struggling to find the right moment to break the news of his mother’s death, is played by Steve Oram, one of the UK’s most distinctive actors and a man frequently seen in genre film. Ahead of the festival, Steve and I connected for a chat and began by talking about his approach to choosing roles.
“I've done leading roles,” he says, “but a lot of it comes down to what you look like, and I look like I do, so I'm a character actor. And actually, I’m very happy with that, because I think you get more interesting parts. You get to have more fun.”
This film provides him with a substantial role, which he still sees as a character part. Audience sympathy is primarily with William, but he enjoyed having the space to work on his character and something more with it.
“To me, it was a very familiar kind of dynamic with this rather imposing dad because the first half of the film starts off with me and Tobi's character in a house together with me being horrible to him, you know? It's true horror, really. You're trapped in a place with someone who isn't that nice. it was the chance to work on something that really came from something believable, and something real, and it's such a common thing, especially between men, fathers and sons who don't really get on at that time in life, you know, when you're in your late teens. Dad's successful and bossy, basically. That's a familiar dynamic. But yeah, it was good fun is good to do that, and hopefully with nuance, rather than just doing horrible things. I always like to try and play it with truth and play it real, and with some gentleness as well, even if it's horrible.”
I venture that, to me, it felt very clear that Richard loves his son, despite some of his behaviour.
“It’s because he thinks he knows better,” Steve says. “Because he thinks he's just some young idiot – and he’s right in some ways, you know. You should go to college and and work hard and stuff, or else... he knows that that's true. It’s just the way he says it.” He laughs.
We discuss research and the character’s professional background.
“My research was more based on character really,” he says. “I mean, I think the details of being a neuroscientist, I did do some reading around. I got into what mindset you would have to be as a scientist, a very exact kind of person. The research was mainly in the characters and dynamic Like, thinking about the dynamics and the relationship with the wife and how the child affected it and all those kinds of interesting nuances and tensions that go into the family. So I wouldn't say I was a qualified neuroscientist. I’d just do small jobs on small brains.”
He has a lot of praise for co-star Tobi.
“He's a proper actor. He's brilliant. He was just a very nice guy, very easy to work with. Because we didn't know each other, we'd only met each other through two rehearsals before we started filming so we had to become friends quite quickly, and we both found that easy to do, so that made that whole thing quite a lot easier. Because we have to do a lot of shouting at each other, we had to feel comfortable with each other. I think that he's a brilliant actor. He's done three films and he's already a star. He’s very charismatic and has all the gears, so it was a pleasure to work with him.”
We talk about comedy and the ways in which it intersects with making people uncomfortable.
“That's my whole career really!” he exclaims, laughing. “From Sightseers and, and things like that. I think comedy is a massive part of our lives, especially as British people, we laugh all the time. At whatever. At funerals – in terrible, sad situations. Laughter is something that we do all the time and it's funny, it's just a part of our language. I like showing that side of human nature, because with dark characters, there's always light. No-one's just horrible and evil, most dark characters are quite normal and socialised. So that's what we were trying to do. There's some very nice scenes that Seb had written with the laughing and things like that, that were just lovely. They make you forget for a second, which is quite nice, isn't it? And then there's something about them that isn’t quite right.
“I liked I liked doing the scenes with Tobi that were quite intense because I don't often get to do that kind of acting. Like telling him that his mum was still alive. There's a couple of things like that where Tobi was clearly really upset and I enjoyed working in that acting space. You know, it felt like there was jeopardy and it was really good. Tobi's very intense and has a presence, a force, and you feel it and it's it's really good to be a part of that. I enjoyed those scenes probably the best.”
We briefly chat about Mind-Set, which was released earlier this year and deserves a lot more attention than it has had to date, before looking back at his foray into directing with the incomparable Aaaaaaaah!. Does he plan to direct again at some point?
“Well, I would like to,” he says, telling me about a TV project he’s been developing. “My favourite thing to do is writing and also acting, but I'd love to. I've been trying to persuade people to give me money for years! It’s quite difficult but I will keep on trying. I’d love to do another Aaaaaaaah!”
Aaaaaaaah! premiered at Frightfest back in 2015, he recalls, and he’s thrilled to have another film screening there.
“Frightfest is such fun, it's just kind of joyous. It has more in common, I think, with a music festival than with a film festival because the fans are such great fun and it's so beautifully curated by Alan and Paul and Greg, and it's lovely. So it's the perfect place for Cerebrum.”
He’s a big fan of genre films himself, he says.
“I love horror films – from being a kid, that was probably the thing I like the best. And also sci-fi and comedies as well. I think it's a place where people feel freer, genre type festivals. People feel free to explore different ideas than in certain main mainstream festivals, which can be a bit generic or a bit snooty, which is actually the worst thing. Frightfest is definitely not snooty, so it’s the perfect place to be.”
