I, Daniel Blake’s Dave Johns on filming first sex scene at 64 with Alison Steadman
EXCLUSIVE: The actor says he was nervous to strip off and climb into bed for a scene with the Gavin & Stacey actress
Dave Johns laid bare benefits system injustices in hit movie I, Daniel Blake – but now he is baring all as a lover in his 60s.
Aged 64, he is stripping off to film the first sex scenes of his career and climbs into bed with Gavin & Stacey star Alison Steadman.
He can’t believe his luck, even though he admits he was starstruck before Alison put him at ease.
He says: “I never thought I’d be doing that. It’s all right if you’re a kid and you want to get your kit off and you can get straight in.”
In the touching rom-com, 23 Walks, Dave plays a pensioner of the same name who falls for Alison’s character Fern as they walk their dogs and one thing leads to another.
Dave adds: “In the film it’s nice to see the relationship and love of these two people. They meet in an ideal situation – lots of lonely people walk their dogs and strike up conversations in the park, and this just asks what would happen if that develops.
“The love scenes are touching and tender, and true to life.”
Dave became an unlikely film star at the age of 59 when I, Daniel Blake scooped a BAFTA and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Until then, he had made mainly small screen appearances in unnamed roles.
He’d worked as a bricklayer before turning his hand to comedy, and admits he was about to give up stand-up when director Ken Loach got in touch about I, Daniel Blake.
Dave may have won all the plaudits for his hard-hitting performance as a man who falls foul of the benefits system following a heart attack in the acclaimed film, but there’s no doubt the better known name in 23 Walks is his co-star Alison.
Her scene-stealing performances as Pamela, the nosy mother-in-law from Ruth Jones and James Corden’s comedy smash hit Gavin & Stacey have made her a household name.
Even Dave admits being nervous at first.
“I was a bit sort of like, ‘Wow, I’m working with Alison Steadman’.” he says.
“But when I went on set, straightaway we had a laugh and had this nice chemistry together. When we weren’t filming we made up these two little daft characters who talked to each other in funny voices, and we’d sing snippets of musicals when on our breaks.”
In the movie, his character has lost his wife and struggles with loneliness, which draws him to Steadman’s equally lonely character.
While Fern, whose husband left her for a younger woman, is prickly with Dave at first, romance eventually blossoms between the pair.
“Dave feels lonely, even though he’s got a family and his dog,” he says.
“Loneliness is an awful thing to contemplate. We are all social animals and this is why lockdown has been so difficult.
“But you never see love stories of old people. When you get into your 60s, you can become invisible. People don’t see you – you walk into a bar and girls don’t go, ‘Woo, check him out!’
“Kids think, ‘When you’re old, you’re dead!’ But you’re not, and the film shows a different side to being older.
“You just become this nice old bloke. But your life doesn’t end at 60.”
Since winning best newcomer at the Empire film awards for I, Daniel Blake, Dave has gone on to write a stage adaption of it and star in eight other movies.
He jokes about being treated like Brad Pitt on red carpets across Europe at the height of the Daniel Blake hype.
He says he still gets “stopped three or four times a day”, especially in his native Newcastle, where Daniel Blake was mainly shot.
But his daughter Macey, 15, keeps him on his toes when it comes to his newfound stardom.
“She just rolls her eyes,” he laughs. “If people stop me on the street and ask me for a selfie, she says, ‘Oh Dad, man it’s so embarrassing’.”
But he is still taking Macey to see his new film – despite the sex scenes.
Dave says: “We’re going to go to the cinema in Newcastle to see 23 Walks.
“She did say, ‘You don’t have sex do you? It better not be embarrassing! I don’t want to see my dad doing it!’
“I said, ‘Oh God – I’ll tell you when to close your eyes’. But it’ll be more embarrassing for me.”
But he smiles: “As she’s got older I think she does enjoy the films and she is proud. She makes me laugh.”
In Newcastle, people are still keen to discuss I, Daniel Blake, says Dave.
And he felt it himself when told to sign on for benefits after losing work due to Covid-19. “When we had shows cancelled I was told to apply for Universal Credit,” he says.
“Imagine me turning up at the Jobcentre, they’d think, ‘Oh my God’.”
While work has picked up for him now, Dave fears fallout from the pandemic could mean more people struggling.
In I, Daniel Blake, the main character is trapped in the system, fighting to keep his benefits despite being unable to work.
“Now furlough is coming to an end, a lot of people will realise how awful Universal Credit is,” says Dave.
“The only thing they’ve changed since the film four years ago is the awful Vivaldi hold music.”
While Dave has taken on lighter roles, such as last year’s Fisherman’s Friends, he’s still hoping 23 Walks will touch a nerve with the British public.
But he isn’t just all about social commentary, and says he is preparing something “totally different” next year.
“I never thought I’d get into films in my late 50s,” he says.
MirrorCeleb