Mood | Interview with Jordan Duvigneau (Anton)

Can you tell us what Mood is about?

Mood is the story of Sasha Clayton (Nicôle’s Lecky), boldly chasing her dreams and trying new things to achieve what she wants to become, which is a top musician. She goes down a path that, from the offset, she isn’t sure about, and she ends up mixed up in this world of social media influencing, and it’s rough. It’s tough for her, it’s not all it was made out to seem by this character Carly, who is played by Lara Peake. From there things spiral out of control. There’s good times and there’s bad times and in the end she has a realisation that it may no be for her but within that journey of trying to follow her dream, she sees the pros and cons to this life that she’s kind of been dragged into.

What initially attracted you to this drama and made you keen to play Anton?

Well, for one, the script was amazing. I hadn’t actually read anything like this before and the way Nicôle has written it and incorporated these massive musical references within Mood, I’ve not seen anything like that on TV before. So that was one thing that really attracted me to this show.

But with regards to playing Anton, when I was delving into the source material, I had the scripts and the book of the original play, Superhoe, and I was having conversations with the directors and with Nicôle and I found there was a lot to relate to. For one thing, he is from the Caribbean, I’m a Caribbean guy, so I loved that, you know. There were references of him liking stewed chicken, and I know what stewed chicken is, so it’s kind of felt like this guy was a bit of me. So, I think the fact that I could relate to the character and when I read the script, I felt like it was a very important story to tell, so both of those things combined attracted me to the role.

Why is it an important story to tell?

It’s important because ultimately because the story is about a girl boldly chasing her dreams and going about it in a way that she believes is right. But I think that this story humanises a lot of the people in that world because it’s not just glitz and glamour. There is always a downside to these things you know, and I think Mood really highlights that. I also think that in this social media generation that we live in, sometimes a false reality can be painted and Mood kind of breaks that.

How did you prepare for the role?

I read through the scripts thoroughly, not just reading my own scenes, I look through to see how Anton was spoken about in conversations with other people, when Sasha speaks about him to other characters, I wanted to see what that kind of interaction was like to build an overview of what this character was like. I did research on social media but it’s something we, as humans, experience all the time, it’s part of my day-to-day. And that is why the show is so important, because just by going on social media, I see influencers who may do what Sasha is doing. As well as that I also bought the book because obviously Mood was originally called Superhoe, which was a stage play. I read through the book thoroughly, so when it came to sitting down with Nicôle and the director I was prepared, and I had an idea of who Anton was already.

Can you tell us about the relationship between Anton and Sasha?

It’s a very interesting one. They are childhood sweethearts, so they’ve known each other for a very long time. Anton thinks he thinks he knows Sasha, but I’d say it’s a relationship where he wants the best for her, he wants her to pursue her music career but, within Mood you’ll see that because of certain events and certain things that happen, there’s a lot of falling out between the two of them.

What was it like working with Nicôle?

Amazing. Even from when we were doing our initial chemistry reads, I thought that we were on the same page and there was just chemistry and I think that having chemistry on set, on screen, it helped. I feel like when you’re comfortable as an actor that’s when you can produce your best work.

Do you have a highlight from filming that particularly sticks out to you?

I enjoyed the club scene because we had loads of supporting artists on that day and they created a real atmosphere. That kind of just stands out to me, I don’t know why but it was just a moment where it was kind of like, as an actor you’re, you’re literally having to live in the moment but you’ve got all of these people around you..

Could you describe Mood in three words?

Bafta, Bafta, Bafta… I’m joking. If I had to use three words to describe Mood, they would be unpredictable, audacious and relatable.