The Next Big Thing: How Enola Holmes Actress Louise Partridge Became Sid Vissius in Danny Boyle’s Gun

“I was nervous about playing this young prince with the long hair,” said Louis Partridge, who won his first role as a British nobleman in 2020. Enola Holmes (And its future sequel). But after dead rocker Sid Vicious became the protagonist of FX’s Sex Pistols series Gun“I don’t think it’s a big concern anymore.”

To star in Danny Boyle’s helmet show, the 18-year-old Londoner recorded himself on tape as a punk rock icon, playing his mother’s famous girlfriend Nancy Spungen (whose Vichy murder was accused). In the videos, he jokes: “I will never see the light of day again..” He interrupts two meetings and then a call with Boyle (who is also an executive producer) and Partridge travels to a 2-month group camp where he and his constellations learn to play the Sex Pistols. There he learned to play the bass guitar, mastered the vicious dick accent and got used to wearing false dentures, all through the chaotic channel the band was known for.

“I wasn’t afraid of breaking props or anything, because I know it wouldn’t be Sid,” Partridge said, noting that there was a lot of backup equipment on set. “It’s very rare to have that freedom.” And as for that accent, as a sleek Brit who “just had to be more fashionable one day”, he worked with a vocal coach to completely change the way he spoke and used it “as a means of penetrating a real character. I’ve never had to do this before.”

The actors also received their education from meetings with band members Steve Jones, Glenn Metlock and Paul Cook. Which, according to the actor, provided precious tangible details throughout the mythology surrounding the sexual weapon.

“Everyone has a story about them or everyone has heard something, so there’s a lot of gossip,” says Partridge. “I just heard from people there, it was a blessing because you get real, unfiltered opinion. They really knew Sid, quite the opposite. [him] Like this punk icon, he was your friend. ”

However, not all musicians were so warm: frontman Johnny Lydon (as well as Johnny Rotten) called the show “the most disrespectful bullshit I’ve ever had” and threatened to sue the producers.

“You want to have everyone’s full support in an ideal world, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. “I just hope he sees the genuine effort and care that goes into it.”

The project is far from the case when the band first appeared on television and in film, including Gary Oldman in 1986 with Sid Vicious. Sid and Nancy. Joking: “I don’t want to compare myself to Gary Oldman; “I’m never going to win this fight,” Partridge said. Gun Taking a different approach, he told the story from the band’s point of view and met Vicious even before he was a member of the band. “He’s not this nihilistic figure; He’s a little abusive, but he’s not that star. You see Sid doing this in episodes. ”

And knowing very little about the Sex Pistols and the 1970s British music and culture in which they were featured, “I realized there was more to it than guitar thumping, loud music and violence. “There was real feeling and there was movement behind it,” Partridge said. A mysterious death at age 21.

With previous documents paddington 2 and netflix series medicinePartridge Has Just Been Filmed in an Apple Psychological Thriller DisclaimerWith Cate Blanchett and Kevin Klein, however, he admits, “If I could do things like Gun I think I’ve been doing this my whole life.” And given his mother’s concerns mentioned above, some aspects of his acting were hard to shake: “My mom keeps saying I’m talking and suddenly I’m putting Sid’s spotlight on it, which annoys her a little.”

A version of this story first appeared in the May 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.