5:19PM, Sep 25, 2009
Reggie Yates is best known for his cheery presenting persona, but now we're about to see his dark side in new ITV drama Trinity.
The presenter will be playing the role of student Theo Mackenzie, who comes to a college where there's more to the eye than what it seems.
If you were to describe Trinity how would you go about it?
“Whenever I have described the show to people I’ve said that it is everything you’d imagine a red-brick university to be, but with a real weird mix of mystery, murder and humour all thrown in. If that makes any sense!
It has everything that the glossy, American teen shows have - it ticks all of those boxes. It has the really attractive girls, the jocks in the form of the Dandelion Club, and it has the sort of issues that anyone can relate to.
But then it also has a really dark undertone running right through the series. It’s a bit of a weird mish-mash, but I definitely think it works.”
How would you try to explain the mystery element to the drama?
“Everything that you expect in the show goes out the window really quickly. It feels at the beginning that it’s a show about class, romance and love.
Then it all flips on its head and becomes about murder, mystery and intrigue. I think it’s great as you never quite know what going to happen next.”
What is Theo like?
“Theo has been described as the eyes of the audience. There are so many outlandish and ridiculously huge characters in the show that he acts as the ‘normal’ person that you can identify with. He reacts in the way that any of the audience would if they found themselves in the same situations. He’s quite a normal guy in a very, very surreal situation. He takes things in and reacts as any normal person would in that scenario.”
There are some very graphic sex scenes, how did you feel about filming those?
“There’s a lot of sex in it. Particularly in the first half hour. I got really lucky because all of my sex scenes are the before or after moments.
Fortunately for the audience they won’t see nearly as much of me as they will of Christian. His were actual proper sex scenes and full nakedness. He has panting and moaning. Whereas all I had to do was the kissing, rolling in and out of bed and then the embarrassed moments afterwards rather than the stuff in between. No pun intended but it was a relief.”
So how did you feel about having to get naked?
“The only thing I was really worried about was getting semi-naked to be honest. The director made me get my bum out in one of my early scenes, but it hasn’t ended up being used.
I’m not sure what’s more mortifying for me to be honest, having to drop my pants down and show my butt in front of the entire crew, or them deciding not to keep the cut? It’s not a big deal I guess, I’ve mooned people a million times, but this is on camera. It was quite weird to do that, but its all part of the acting experience.
I’ve been presenting for so many years that I’ve got used to that element of control and always having everything my own way really. This was completely out of my control, and I had to do it for the scene and the character. And, at least I didn’t have to go as far as Christian with the nakedness.”
How was it working with the rest of the cast?
“We all got on really, really well and went out together loads. There were about nine or 10 of us that used to go out dancing a few times. We ended up in a really weird Electro club in West London at one point which was quite a bizarre night.
Since filming finished I still see them; myself and Christian went to the football the other day. So it was great having to do those slightly dodgy scenes with Isabella because we are just mates. It certainly makes it easier.
When you’ve got a bunch of young people going through the same experiences whilst making a show, I think it’s surprising that you all have more in common than you think you would.
We’re all from such massively different backgrounds. Ellen’s from Wales, Mark is from Scotland, I’m a Londoner; it’s a cool situation to be in and have people there to go through it with you who understand.”
How did you find working with Charles Dance and Claire Skinner?
“They are really cool. Claire is really funny; she’s got a great dry sense of humour. Charles and I got on really well; in fact we’ve been trading emails since filming finished. Charles was really complimentary about me and my performance which means a lot coming from an actor of his stature.
I have a funny thing with Charles because I’m obsessed with Eddie Murphy, and he was the bad guy in an Eddie Murphy film called The Golden Child.
He had the character name Numpsti in it. I always wanted to scream ‘Numpsti’ at him whenever I saw him. So when we finished filming the show, I happened to bump into him in Camden and I confessed this to him. Now he’s in my phone as Numpsti and he always signs off his emails with that name as well! He’s a legend.”
Have you always wanted to act?
“I started out as an actor, and did a whole bunch of work for quite a long time. I did a year on Family Affairs, Grange Hill, The Bill. I spent a lot of my time doing drama when I was younger, and all throughout my teens I was in plays and performing on stage.
I never really intended to be a presenter, it was something that sort of happened and I found I really enjoyed, but acting is where my heart is and what I really want to do more of. I enjoyed the experience on Trinity and I 100% want to do more.
It’s quite tough at the moment because I’ve got so much on with the presenting and the radio show. I also have a production company and we are developing some shows so I’m doing so many different things, which is great, but it makes it difficult to commit to one particular acting job I guess. But I’d really love to do more.”
Find out when Trinity is showing on TV
