- [Director] Phones off everyone, please.
Make yourself comfortable,
we'll be here for a few minutes.
(laughing)
- Bit shady, isn't it?
(laughing)
- All right then.
- Drag meat.
- Okay.
- [Man] 11, take one.
(clapperboard snapping)
- Hi I'm Gena, I'm here with Ncuti Gatwa
from "Sex Education" and
here are his Netflix Nine.
I must say before we start,
I'm so happy to have you here
because I have been waiting
for so long
- Aww!
to get to speak to you.
(laughing)
I think you're great.
I love Eric as a character.
- Welcome to the Netflix Nine.
- Thank you for having me.
- Are you ready for the questions?
- I am.
- So my first question is about being
on set in general with "Sex Education".
Obviously, we're on the set today.
Quite a big cast, it
appears as if you're all
quite good friends from
Instagram, social media,
schmah, schmah.
Who makes you laugh the most on set,
or makes it hardest for
you when you're filming?
- Oh, easy, Aimee Lou Wood is a demon.
There's no way you can be
in Aimee Lou Wood's company
and not be like crying with laughter.
- [Gena] Really?
- Yeah.
If you're in a scene with her, good luck.
(laughs)
Good luck to you, because
you'll be crying with laughter.
- You grew up in Scotland,
correct?
- Mm.
So when you're away from home,
what do you miss the most
about Scotland and the culture?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You've been doing your research!
Look at you.
- I'm not just any interviewer.
- Okay, okay, then Gena.
Big man tings and everything.
So I'm, yeah, what do I
miss most about Scotland?
The people.
I miss the people, I think, like,
when I first moved down to London,
people must have thought I was mad,
'cause like where I'm from, like,
you pass people in the
street and you say morning,
even if you don't know them.
And then, that is not something
that happens in London.
- At all.
- At all!
- [Gena] Why are you doing that?
Stop talking to me.
- Yeah.
- People were looking at
me like, um, excuse me,
like, why you trying to kill me?
I think I miss, the kind of,
(laughs)
the manners, the manners and the warmth.
- Londoners are a mannerless people.
- I was gonna, yeah not really.
People don't queue for the bus, in London,
so it will just be like a free for all,
like grannies getting
elbowed outta the way.
- Grannies are the worst,
they'll be going in there.
- Grannies are the worst!
And they'll be hitting
you, like oh my God.
But Londoners have a vibe that
you can't get anywhere else.
- What's been your favorite
thing about being in Wales,
your experience of filming
here and things like that?
- Yeah, I think probably
just how beautiful it is.
- It is stunning.
It is so, so, so nice.
As I was driving here I was like, "What?"
- Yeah, it literally is like,
sometimes you're like
is this the real world?
Like is this in the UK?
- Yes!
- I did not think the UK
could hold such beauty.
The friendliness of Welsh people,
just the banter of Welsh people.
I'd say like Cardiff is
also really multi-cultural,
I was saying to you before,
like it's really, really,
really multi-cultural
and like, people are just
really friendly here.
- Okay, so in my opinion you already have
a personality that is
literally made for fame.
You're so hilarious.
- Aw.
But for you, what's it been like
to be propelled into fame this way?
How often do you get spotted?
What're you saying?
- Yeah, spotted, it's
definitely a daily occurrence.
It's definitely a daily occurrence.
Can't go to Tesco anymore.
(laughs)
No, I do, I definitely do.
Yeah, it's odd.
I was in America with
Emma and Asa doing press
the day that the show was released.
So, I hopped on the plane
coming back to the UK
with like my 500 followers.
Eight hours later, woke up
on the plane to like 700,000.
And I was like, yeah.
- [Gina] 700,000?
- 700,000, like a small country.
I was like, "Whoa!"
- That's actually wild!
- Hey!
Can you imagine?
I was like...
- Oh my God.
- What is going on, yeah.
My phone was just like,
- Wow!
like just going crazy out of control.
So, that was odd, and then
like people recognized me.
Bruv, it's so weird having
people recognize you.
- Yeah.
- And also, I live in Tottenham,
like I live in the ends.
So like if someone just
grabs your arm in the street
or if someone just
comes up into your face,
you might get a slap.
- Yeah, exactly.
- I might slap you.
What are you doing there?
(Gena laughs)
What are you doing?
- So like a few times when
you're in Oxford Street
and someone grabs your arm,
it's like I'm like ready,
I'm ready, and then they're
like "Oh, my God I love you".
And then it's like oh
okay, this is so odd.
I don't know how to take this.
- So, other than yourself,
who is your favorite,
I'm not saying that you think you're
your favorite character but you're mine.
- Aw!
- So who's your favorite
character on "Sex Education"
and why?
- Can't decide between
Jackson, Aimee and Maeve.
I'd say probably between Aimee and Maeve,
like I love Aimee's storylines.
Like in season one I just
thought that was so great.
Sex is something that's
been so like geared
and manufactured towards male
pleasure and the male gaze,
and I think that her
storyline really highlighted
that it's not,
and figure out whatever
the hell you wanna do.
So that I really like.
Her storyline this year is sick as well.
But Maeve is just so bad-ass.
It's quite empowering.
Even Emma as a person,
whenever I stand beside her
I'm like who's gonna touch me?
Which one of you lot are gonna touch me?
None of you lot can touch me,
I'm with my muckie.
- I'm with my girl.
Yeah yeah yeah, I'm
with my girl right now.
So yeah, probably those two.
And Jackson, I mean Kedar's my boy.
- [Gina] Yeah?
- And Jackson, I just think having
a dark-skinned boy go through
depression and anxiety
and all these things
and pressure to achieve.
These are issues that we face,
you know, and they never get discussed.
And so I just rate his representation.
- I agree.
Fantastic answer.
You came through with the male gaze, okay.
- Thank you.
Come on, you know, I've got a degree.
(laughs)
- So you are a celebrity in my eyes,
just accepting it.
If I say it then...
- It's fact.
(laughs)
- So, since you're a celebrity,
if you could swap lives
with any other celebrity, who would it be?
I'll give you another option,
you could also choose to
be best friends with one.
- Okay!
- So, swap lives, or best
friends with a celebrity.
- Okay, now we're talking.
(upbeat music)
- I mean, it has to be Rihanna, hasn't it?
- Ooh, that's a good choice.
- It has to be Rihanna for
both of those questions.
I would want to be her.
I mean who wouldn't want to live that?
Come on!
And to be best friends
with Rihanna, my God!
That would be cool.
- She would look after you.
- She would look after
you, you'd have fun.
- [Gena] You would.
- But you'd also be part
of changing culture,
I mean that Fenty
Beauty, what she dropped,
like changed the game.
I want to witness that
alongside my best friends.
Rihanna, yeah.
But I'm happy for you, RiRi.
- Love you girl.
- I love you girl, I'm proud of you.
Yeah!
- A large part of Eric's storyline
is his relationship with his dad.
How that progresses and then
it culminates, obviously,
in, I think it's episode
seven, from the prom.
It was such a lovely moment.
- I want you to be proud and strong.
But you are so different.
It makes me feel scared for you.
- What was it like working
with your on-screen dad
and how did you get into
that space emotionally?
- It was so great working with Deobia.
He's an amazing actor and
he brings a lot of weight
and a lot of truth and
intention to whatever he does.
And it was just great to be around that,
like an actor who takes
it really seriously.
And offers quite a lot, more
than what's on the page.
'Cause that's what I try to do,
is like lift things off the page
and he's really good at that
and so it was great being around him.
You know what, just
like as two black actors
we have a shared experience in life
and so it was really
great to tap into that,
into the fact that we kind of just get it.
We get what the culture is.
We understood, do you know what I mean?
Quite a lot of it was us talking about it.
Shout out to Netflix and
shout out to the writers
and to everyone at "Sex Education"
because they're really
great at collaborating,
and quite often the
writers will ask me like,
"Is this right about this church scene?"
Stuff like that so they're really invested
in making things right
and gave us the freedom
to kind of like talk to each other
and see what works for us.
And so that was very helpful.
- I love that.
Speaking of bringing
characters off the page.
(laughs)
- Yeah, oh my God.
What is this now?
Gena?
(laughing)
Gena what have you got planned?
- Imagine if I was like...
When I first watched Sex Education,
what struck me about your
character were the little
like punctuations in speech
and things like that.
But there's a scene where Eric and Otis
are walking down the bridge.
(laughs)
- Like, you're a hidiot.
- [Eric] Look at you laughing...
- [Otis] It's not funny.
- [Eric] Like a dickhead.
- [Otis] Shut up.
- [Eric] Like a fool.
- [Otis] All right.
- [Eric] Like a hidiot.
- [Otis] Go clean yourself off.
(laughing)
- You were like, um, there's plenty more
scary bad fish in-a the sea.
- In-a the sea.
- Who wrote that?
It was so authentic though,
this is why I already felt
like I was friends with you.
It was so real to my
experience with my friends
and how we speak.
How much of those sorts of things,
those punctuations, little
things that Eric does,
how much of that is improv from you?
How much of that is written for you?
How much of yourself did you bring to it?
- Well, I think the success
of Eric, if I may say so,
like it's definitely,
100% down to the writers
that we've got and Laurie Nunn,
shout-out for writing a
nuanced, gay, black character.
Like, shout-out for that.
But definitely I was
allowed to ad-lib a lot,
and kind-of change things up a bit.
"Sex Education" very generously
gave me that freedom,
and so I though yay, like just thought
I wanna make this authentic.
I don't wanna make it a caricature,
but also I want to have fun.
And if Eric were really here
he'd be talking like this,
so I'm gonna make him talk like this.
Yeah, I will take a
bit of credit for that.
Yeah I will.
Yeah I will take a bit of credit for that.
Quite a bit of that was me,
but I was very generously allowed to.
And like it was always
kinda like a conversation
between me and the director.
But yeah I had to bring a bit of culture.
- Yeah, no, I loved it.
- Had to bring a bit of culture.
- It worked fantastically well.
This is a dark question,
no I won't ask that one.
- You can ask me whatever
you want, I trust you.
- All right.
This is dark though.
But is a good question.
- Okay, cool.
- Say you died, right?
(laughing)
- Wow!
(knocking on table)
Lord!
- Hear me out, hear me out.
Obviously, God forbid.
We rebuke it.
- God forbid, we rebuke that.
We rebuke it.
- What would you want
to be on your tombstone?
This is your message, this
is what Ncuti was about.
What's your message?
What embodies you?
- I would say, oh, God!
I don't really give advice,
but what I would say to anyone is
you're stronger than you think.
Everyone has an untapped strength in them,
that they can overcome anything.
And so I would say you're
stronger than you think.
And then also, a very wise woman once said
"You're doing amazing, sweetie".
- Oh, that's good.
- So, I think those ones. I
would like the world to know...
(laughing)
It's gonna sound like,
I'm like the world is
doing okay without me,
that's not how I mean it to sound.
- It's gonna be hard.
- I know it's gonna be hard.
- Y'all gon' struggle, cause I'm dead.
- 'Cause I'm dead, but you know,
like you gon' be okay, you good.
No not like that, just like...
(laughing)
Just like I want the world
to know that they're strong
and they can...
Oh, God, let's cut this.
Let's cut, let's cut.
Let's cut it.
(laughing)
- It's gon' be hard but y'all amazing.
- It's gon' be hard for you,
but you're all right, you did okay.
- Ncuti, thank you so
much for chatting with me.
- Thank you.
- It's been an absolute pleasure.
This is your Netflix
nine, thank you so much.
- Yeah.
- How's it going, you good?
- Yeah.
- Okay, great, good.
- [Director] Yeah all good?
- Don't wanna offend my best friend,
do you know what I mean?
(laughing)
Sorry.
- Gena, we've got to
look out for each other.
- No, we've gotta look out for each other,
like honestly dude.
- Besties and that, besties.
(laughing)
- [Director] Whenever you're ready.
- Oh okay.
