Mood | Interview with Paul Kaye (Kevin)

Can you tell us what Mood is about and the role you play in the drama?

Sasha (Nicôle Lecky) is a young, talented singer and is very ambitious, she falls out with her mum, her step-dad and her step-sister, Mia, and she’s kind of kicked out the family home. She gets into a bit of trouble with the police, and she’s off in the big wide world. It’s a very cautionary tale about the pitfalls of seeking success and the perils of social media and the complications that can arise when you fall into bad company and get manipulated and compromised. I’m playing Kevin, who is Sasha’s stepfather. They have a tricky relationship, I think Kevin means well, but he is a phenomenally irritating man and it’s a pretty spectacular clash of personalities. I don’t think there’s any bad intention on his part, he just can’t handle her.

Were there elements of your character, Kevin, that you could relate to?

There are elements to my father that I sort of brought to Kevin, I remember when me and my twin sister were difficult teenagers, he just couldn’t handle us. Our relationship got a lot better in later life, but we just drove him insane and he was a typical Libra, he wanted balance, he wanted everything to be under his control and it kind of wasn’t, you know, and it must have been hugely frustrating for him. I think I did go back to that with this role, because I’ve turned into my father basically.

What was it that interested you in this project and role?

I read the script and I was blown away by it, I think Nicôle is an extraordinarily talented writer, I found it wildly entertaining, very anarchic, but there’s such beautiful pathos and sensitivity woven through every aspect of Sasha’s journey. It makes you laugh and it makes you cry, and I just I adored the script. So it was that along with the whole energy in the first readthrough, it just really felt like an exciting project to be a part of. I knew Jessica Hynes was doing it and I hadn’t worked with Jessica for probably over 20 years, since we’d done Spaced. It’s a fantastic company of actors, I kind of haven’t really worked with anybody outside of our little family unit, but I’ve loved doing our scenes, they’ve been incredibly awkward because of the dynamics of this sort of dysfunctional family, and we’ve had the time to really explore it and really try and get as much out of these brilliantly written scenes as possible.

What was it like to work with Nicôle?

It was wonderful and it’s been thrilling watching Nicôle work. She’s so forensic and she’s got such a vivid idea of what she wants and how she wants to make people feel and I think so much of it is deeply emotional. It’s the sensitivity with which she treats everything which is just beautifully pitched. It’s wildly funny and it’s, as I said, really anarchic, I think it’ll be great entertainment, but you just can’t help but feel for everything that she’s going through and pray she’ll get through it unscathed.

Why do you think it’s an important story to tell?

It feels like a really, really important piece of work because it deals with so much, It deals with homelessness and it’s something I’ve often thought about because I’ve got a son who’s late 20s, he’s still at home, all his mates or most of his mates are still at home, they can’t afford rent and certainly can’t afford to buy, and you think if they fall out with their parents when all their mates are at home with their parents, where will they go, you know?

And, the online economy is explored, the worth that social media provides for young girls growing up and the question of whether it’s possible to be famous without fully embracing all these different platforms. I don’t think you’d ever get heard of, so you have to take that stuff on and straddle that fine line between self and avatar and image and identity, and empowerment and exploitation because Sasha initially feels that she’s in control, which quickly descends into her finding herself in very sinister and brutal situations and Nicôle describes how easily that can happen so well and it’s terrifying.