Katie Piper interviews Stew Castledine about his role as Vince in King of Kommunication. London UK December 2006.

KP. Good afternoon. We're here in the heart of the West End of London with the star of King of Kommunication, Stew Castledine. Hello Stew.

SC. How you doing Katie

KP. I'm really good thank you. So tell us about this new film. It's rocking Bollywood at the moment!

SC. I know, so I hear, I can't believe it. That wasn't the intention when we started out. Evidentially India loves King of Kommunication so who am I to argue.

KP. So are you and the team going over in January to the film festival?

SC. I think the director Perry Stevens is going over there and I'm trying to get over there as well and lend it our support and see where we can take it.

KP. Now you've got a very interesting background. You didn't start out as an actor did you?

SC. No, for my sins I was a premiership football player for about nine years. I guess we're all actors anyway, we get kicked and roll around the floor. Yeah I played for Wimbledon in the premier league for nine years. I always did bits of TV presenting and acting while I was playing so it was nice and easy for me to cross over to this when I finished playing.

KP. So it came quite naturally to you. Did you find that when you went to castings you would be cast like Vinny Jones, in these hard man, macho, roles?

SC. You kind of have to be judicious in your use of your contacts of a previous life. For instance, I had a part in the Pink Panther movie with Steve Martin and Beyonce. I played the part of a footballer, so in that case it was a benefit that I was an ex-player. For other things you keep it quite because as you say you don't want to be pigeon holed. You don't want to be cast as a certain type. So there wasn't any need for my character Vince, who was an Elvis fan to have any footballing background so I kept it quite for that audition.

KP. While we're on the subject of Vince, he was an Elvis fan and the story line was he was communicating with his girlfriend Peggy through web-cams. Tell us a little bit about how you filmed this because I believe you never met the actress who played Peggy

SC. It was bazaar! The first time I met Chantal, Chantal Brown who played the part of Peggy was actually at the opening night of the film. So we had the big premier in London and I never even met her, so it was really bazaar. Yeah it was a bit strange like you say, we were interacting but I never met her on set but that was just the way the film was set up.

KP. So that really put your skills as an actor to test. You were given this task, it was thrown at you, and you had to do it. Did you find it easy or a challenge?

SC. I didn't find it too bad. To be honest it was slightly more difficult for Chantal because she filmed her part first so at least I'd seen her, I'd seen the work she'd done so I was able to bounce off that slightly. Which made it easier for me? It was reasonable difficult but you know…

KP. You took it on!

SC. Well I tried!

KP. For those of you who haven't seen the film you actually suffer an electric shock.

SC. That's right

KP. And from a push of a button you are multi lingual. So when I was watching it I really wanted to know did you have to do lots of research, learn lots of languages or was it good dubbing?

SC. No I genuinely had to learn the languages. That was fascinating. I can now run off any number of Elvis stylee speak in Spanish and French and Portuguese, allsorts.

KP. Well that's going to be very useful isn't it?

SC. Well you never know when you need a little Elvis.

KP. So what does 2007 hold for Stew Castledine?

SC. Well hopefully a lot more work. I've been doing quite a bit of work for the BBC, presenting. I've been involved with a lot of property shows so I'm hoping to continue some of those and with the sport as well be involved with some sporting programs. And then acting wise I've had a couple of parts in films, commercials and looking forward to getting more work. Onwards and upwards.

KP. So you've got a wide spectrum there. Is property your niche?

SC. Along with my wife I buy and sell property, that's the thing we have on the side, property developing. All helps pays the bills! So I do that, juggle a few balls and keep the property things going along with the acting.

KP. So we should look out for you in the spring on BBC1?

SC. Yeah that's true. I've got a part in Hotel Babylon. See once again that was a football connection. There's a football team that visits Hotel Babylon and I managed to get a part in that so that will be coming out on the BBC soon.

KP. We'll keep our eyes peeled for that. Also guys the King of Kommunication is at the Bollywood film festival in January. And that's directed by Perry Stevens, starring Chantal Brown and the lovely Stew Castledine. Thank you very much Stew.

SC. Thank you very much.

An edited version of this interview can be seen on www.youtube.com/perrystevens along with other reviews and film clips.