Anson Boon, 26, is an English actor who left college at 17 and found an agent after writing to 200 of them with a headshot and a monologue filmed by his mother in their garden. He went on to appear in Blackbird, alongside Susan Sarandon, and Sam Mendes’s Oscar-winning 1917, played Johnny Rotten in Danny Boyle’s Pistol and stars as Eddie Harrigan in the hit crime drama MobLand. He is single and bought his first flat last year.
Here, he looks back at the moments that shaped him, from learning to cope with rejection to working with Dame Helen Mirren, and discovering what fame feels like on a Ryanair flight.
Sometimes it feels like my head is going to explode. I am filming one character all week, then four scripts arrive for what might come afterwards. They are all good, so I cannot say: “I’m too busy to read for those.” Suddenly I have five characters, five sets of lines and several accents in my head. I ring my mum after work and try to explain it. She asks how I keep it straight. I don’t know. The stress can be insane.
I had to be obsessed with acting because there was no obvious route in. Nobody in my family worked in the industry and I grew up in Peterborough, away from London. I never wanted another job, so as a teenager I lived and breathed it. Some actors pretend they are not particularly interested in acting, as though caring less makes it look effortless and cool. I cannot do that. I love films, characters and every part of making them.
I dropped out of college at 17, searched “London acting agents” on Google and wrote to about 200 people. My mum took a headshot and filmed me performing a monologue in the back garden. I sent them out like I was flogging my goods and hoped someone would take me on. I did not go to drama school, so open auditions were my way through the door.
I managed to steal one line in one of my first television jobs. [Netflix period drama] The Alienist needed a large group of young actors, giving people without many credits a chance. I arrived on this enormous set with no dialogue, but somehow ended up with one line. The next job brought one scene, then a few scenes in an episode, then several episodes and eventually a film. I felt I was climbing a ladder one rung at a time, but I have never thought: “That’s it, I’ve arrived.”
I am still the person who rings his mum after a 16-hour day. She may not know what it feels like to keep 45 pages of dialogue and several accents in your head, but she listens. My dad ran a small garage-equipment business and my mum did the accounts. My parents could not advise me on auditions or agents, but they supported me through everything. Acting can be irregular, lonely and full of rejection, so having people who care about you rather than the result is incredibly important.
Working with Helen Mirren still feels like a dream. In MobLand, Eddie has an intimate relationship with her character, Maeve. I could not admire Helen more; she is extraordinary. Even after two seasons, I cannot quite believe I get to work with her. Whatever viewers saw between Maeve and Eddie in the first season becomes 10 times crazier in the second.
Playing John Lydon was the closest I have come to university. Covid stretched Pistol’s rehearsal period from two months to nearly six, so I attended the school of the Sex Pistols every day. I did not meet John, but studying him made me admire him even more. He has never publicly said he hated my performance, so I will take that.
Fame became real when I got on a Ryanair flight with my mates. After Pistol, I was recognised mainly by music obsessives or punks in Camden. MobLand opened that up. I went on a party holiday to Spain just after its first episodes aired and had not realised how widely people were watching it. Suddenly I was trapped in a tube in the sky with loads of people who knew who I was. Then strangers wanted to discuss work when I was out with my friends. Everyone was lovely, but it took adjustment.
I will never be the actor who hides in his trailer. My favourite part of the job is collaboration: working with actors, a director and a crew. I love seeing a make-up artist apply a ridiculous wig or lighting technicians turn machinery into a beautiful sunset on a monitor. If I have scenes at the start and end of the day, I spend the gap annoying the runners because I have wandered off to watch everybody else work.
Buying my first flat felt like a real achievement because an actor’s finances make no sense. There is no regular salary, annual leave or dependable nine-to-five routine. I wish school had taught me about tax, pensions and the boring realities of adulthood. I am cautious and reasonably good with money, although that is not a very sexy answer.
Balance sometimes means going to the gym on my only day off. A shoot can mean 14 to 16 hours door to door, so away from work I try to keep fit without becoming a slave to it. I also love pubs, food, holidays and my mates. Moderation is the goal, although acting rarely cooperates.
I do not want the acting obsession to disappear; I just want it to stop swallowing everything else. Acting has given me the life I wanted, but loving the work does not protect you from its pressure. I am trying to make room to breathe, see my family and live enough life to bring something back to the next character. Then another brilliant script arrives, and I want that, too.
The second season of MobLand is out on Paramount+ now
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