Born in Alvaston, Derby, in 1990, Jack O’Connell made his film debut in 2006 as reluctant neo-Nazi Pukey in Shane Meadows’s This Is England, before landing the part of Cook in Skins. Following turns in Starred Up and Harry Brown – for which Michael Caine labelled him a “star of the future” – he was cast as the lead in Angelina Jolie’s 2014 film Unbroken, about a second world war bombardier and Olympic athlete who ends up in a prisoner-of-war camp. In 2015 he won the EE rising star award at the Baftas, and the following year appeared in Jodie Foster’s Money Monster. O’Connell stars opposite Sienna Miller in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at London’s Apollo theatre from 13 July.
1 | Book
Tao Te Ching
Nobody knows exactly when this was written, but the earliest record of it goes back to the fourth century. It’s like an alternative Bible, but it’s not a story, just varied philosophies. It’s a very enlightening read. From what I’ve gathered so far it teaches that a lot of your desires, and anything that is based on fear, or success, come from a bad place, so it teaches you to be more appreciative about stuff we take for granted. That’s very basically put, but I’m only halfway through. One of my friends passed this to me and now it’s my go-to book. I like a good read. Mainly nonfiction – I quite like factual stories.
2 | Music
I’m really into this band – I’ve seen them four times: twice at the same Glastonbury, one in the early afternoon, one in the evening. God knows how they were able to do two gigs, but they were, and I was there with them. Great band, got a really good sound. There doesn’t seem to be any emphasis whatsoever on their image, they just are what they are and it comes through in their music as well: a lot of the stuff they sing about takes quite a transparent view of things. It’s rock’n’roll. They’re quite raucous up there, and their frontman, Lias [Saoudi] definitely has an energy about him – he’s quite effortlessly, enviably cool.
3 | TV
This is a sport I’ve been watching a lot of recently. It’s an ancient game of Gaelic and Irish origin – it even predates Christianity. It’s a great game, fascinating to watch, ferocious. The ball travels farther and quicker than in any other sport. Basically, there’s a little ball, they’ve got sticks called hurleys, there’s posts with a goal net, and it’s three points for scoring a goal. The ball was introduced in the 1800s, so I don’t know what they were playing with beforehand – maybe it was just a tussle-up with clubs. Only since 2009 has it been compulsory to wear helmets. If you compare it to football, if the wind changes players seem to fall over; in hurling there’s too much pride for that. Have I ever played it? No, never – I don’t dare.
4 | Restaurant
Lupins, Borough, London
I’ve been going here every lunchtime on my break, because I’ve been rehearsing nearby – it’s no exaggeration, every day I come here at the same time. I’m actually here now. The menu always changes, little small plates, very fresh. The ingredients are class, and the kitchen’s very visible in the restaurant as well, so it’s always very reassuring. The food is very British. You can get oysters if you’re an oyster fan, and they’re straight from Cornwall, and you can just taste the freshness. The menu’s quite vast, but I go for the asparagus and burrata near enough every day – I take no shame in disclosing that.
5 | Place
Parliament Hill Lido, London
I went to this lido on Hampstead Heath yesterday, and it was very good. Nice place to splash around, and it was great weather for it – a cycle through the park, lots of jolly-looking people enjoying the time off. Once I got to the lido I was very impressed – it’s quite an old-looking building, post-Victorian, with a stainless steel pool; very interesting, and I was surprised at how clean it was. Next time I’ll probably be in the pond – it was closed though yesterday, unbelievable. I prefer the pond – I like a bit of wild swimming.
6 | Film
I was invited to a screening of this last week. It’s a very honest telling of a man’s struggle to claim the social financial support he’s entitled to, and it deals with all the pitfalls that are set in place to make life almost impossible for people. It was quite heartbreaking at times, quite hilarious at other times. Textbook Ken Loach. He has a quite particular style of working, in that not a lot of his cast will know the entirety of the story, and in Ken’s films that works beautifully. I heard that for the final scene a lot of the actors were unaware of what was going to happen, and it just led to something very fresh and of the moment.
7 | Sport
He’s a young boxer from Ireland and I really think he’s one to watch. He’s got a great style – he’s super-bantamweight but very soon he’ll be dominating that division. He’s just fought his first professional fights, so he’s 3-0 now, knockouts in all of them. He won at the weekend in Australia and the other fella had to throw the towel in, or his corner did. I love boxing. There’s a lot of discipline involved, it’s a very technical sport; not a lot of people realise that. You don’t “play” boxing – you can’t just go out and have a knockaround with the lads. Every time you step in a ring you’re taking a risk, and these lads put it all on the line. Especially when you watch two good fighters going for it, it’s amazing.
