Alfie Allen Looks To Step Out Of Lily's Shadow
HIS famous sister may have accused him of being a pot-smoking layabout but Alfie Allen is fiercely loyal.
The 21-year-old refuses to say anything about how his big sister, Lily Allen, is feeling after suffering a recent miscarriage.
He is currently in rehearsals for a huge UK touring production of Equus, which starts tomorrow in Chichester before going to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
He's happy to talk about anything except what his family must be going through.
While he's not as scary as his wild-eyed dad, Keith, he still has that steely Allen look and said: "I don't want to talk about it. And I think it's very rude of you to ask."
Trouble is, for the moment he is still famous for being Lily's brother and Keith's son, although Equus and a couple of movies this year will help him to become the latest member of the family to find fame in his own right.
Most of us first became aware of Alfie from the song named after him on Lily Allen's album, Alright, Still, with its lyrics: "My little brother's in his bedroom smoking weed, I tell him he should get up cause it's nearly half-past three."
And the pot-smoking seems to follow Alfie around.
He played gardener's son Danny Hardman in Atonement opposite James McAvoy and Keira Knightley.
In an interview on Radio 1, the actress also claimed he had a love of marijuana.
Alfie still isn't happy and not a little hurt at Keira's claims.
He said: "I wish she hadn't said it and I don't know why she said that.
"I haven't spoken to her about it yet but she didn't really know me to say that."
Sarcastically, he added, "Whatever she's doing is great isn't it."
Alfie, then, is no stranger to controversy and making the headlines for the wrong reasons.
But the fact he beat more than 200 actors to play the disturbed youngster who blinds horses in Equus shows the producers and the writer have faith in him.
And he knows there is a lot of responsibility riding on his shoulders in terms of the show's success or failure.
"I just have to get on and show people I'm definitely not turning into Amy Winehouse and I haven't been out for ages," said Alfie.
"Last week, I had friends over and we sat in the living room and talked. I'm just hibernating at the moment.
"I'm surrounded by lemon and ginger, lemon and honey, pastilles called Volcazones, alot of Olbas Oil and I'm really concentrating on my voice."
Alfie's part of Alan Strang in Equus is testing on many levels. Not only is this the first professional theatre job he's had but he's following on from a very successful run by Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe in London.
He has the baggage of being Lily's brother and Keith's son. And he has to appear naked on stage.
Alfie has been working out to get his body buffed and last week stripped in front of the cast for the first time. He laughed: "It was absolutely fine, really good. I'm perfectly comfortable doing nudity in character.
"But at the end when I'm lying on the block with the blanket over me, I still felt I didn't want to get up and get into my clothes in front of everyone.
"So I went to the toilets to get changed, even though I'd be running around naked in front of everyone."
Maybe Alfie's got the taste for stripping. He will be nude again in the movie, Flashbacks Of AFool, which stars Daniel Craig.
He won't, however, be the first Allen to get naked on celluloid. His dad Keith was seen naked and dead in a bed in Scots film Shallow Grave in 1994.
While Lily went into music, Alfie is following his dad into film. Given that the Robin Hood star is equally loved and loathed, did his dad ever try and dissuade him from following in his footsteps?
The usually bubbly Alfie said quietly: "He's very, very happy with me. He was keen on me doing sport but he's very supportive."
Reticent about press interviews, Alfie knows he still has to do his bit in terms of publicity for Equus but he regards questions about his famous family to be strictly off-limits.
However, in a previous interview, he admitted:"A lot of people have the misconception that I decided to become an actor when Lily became famous and have accused me of jumping on her bandwagon. But that's completely untrue. We get on brilliantly and I am immensely proud of her."
While the rest of the cast, including Simon Callow, who plays psychiatrist Martin Dysart, started rehearsals for the show on January 2, Alfie was called in a few days earlier to meet the producers and writer Peter Shaffer.
And to be told he had to learn his lines.
"Which I've done," Alfie added. "This is my first professional theatre acting job. I did stuff at school but this is my first gig and it's a pretty big gig to have.
"But there's no point in doing it if you don't believe in yourself."
Like his sister, Alfie had a difficult time as a youngster and was expelled from a series of schools, both state and private.
He was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder and was one of the first children in the UK to be prescribed Ritalin, the controversial drug said to help improve concentration and control hyperactivity.
He said: "I did have a problem concentrating on anything for more than 10 seconds. I was one of the first kids in the UK to go on Ritalin and my mum hated it and I hated it.
"We went to Ibiza and I was on Ritalin and, for a kid who couldn't concentrate, I read a 200-page book on King Arthur and my mum just hated it. She said it just wasn't me."
Then at the age of 12, Alfie was sent to a "boot camp" in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, under the care of a child psychiatrist and finally began to turn his life around.
His mother is Alison Owen, who was married to Keith for six years, and is a film producer with Elizabeth and Shaun of the Dead among her credits.
While Keith left to become an angry, fast-living icon of the London high life, fathering eight children to six women, his mum has been the constant presence in his life.
Alfie may have wanted to be an actor because of his dad but it wasn't until secondary school that he thought about it as a career. Until then, he wanted to be a racing car driver.
He laughed: "I just loved going fast. I still enjoy go-karting. I was also good at rugby and my dad wanted me to be a sportsman but I never thought I could do sports professionally." Alfie had planned to attend drama school but was instead offered a part in Stoned, a film about the late Rolling Stones musician Brian Jones.
Next up was Atonement and he quickly became friends with Scots star James McAvoy.
He said: "James was really, really nice.
"He used to get free clothes and what he didn't like he gave to me. He's very down to earth and doesn't like garish things."
Alfie's fledgling career is now well and truly off and flying.
This year, as well as Flashbacks Of A Fool with Daniel Craig, he'll also be seen in The Other Boleyn Girl with Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, which is released in March.
He said: "I auditioned for one of the main characters, George Boleyn, but it went to Jim Sturgess.
"But they offered me a part as the king's personal messenger and I had scenes with Natalie, Scarlett and Eric. Scarlett is lovely."
While most hot-blooded males would be happy to cosy up to Scarlett, Alfie is going out with Jaime Winstone, the daughter of actor Ray Winstone. The pair met on the set of yet another film, Boogie Woogie, which is also out later this year.
He laughed when I ask what it's like to have a girlfriend with a father like Ray Winstone but again said he didn't want to speak about her. But he added: "She's really, really nice. I really get along with her. I feel like I've known her for longer than I have."
He has introduced her to Harry Enfield, the comic who lived with his mum Alison for three years. Soon Alfie will be a famous name in his own right and admits Equus could have been written for him. He said: "There are aspects of my life I've brought to the character."
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