Rake in Progress: Ariyon Bakare
Ariyon Bakare tells The Rake why Mr. Loverman, the acclaimed BBC series about elderly gay love in the black community, can act as a springboard for sensitive conversations.
I meet Ariyon Bakare at the bar of the Soho Hotel in central London on a cool October morning. It’s the week that marks his 30th year as an actor, a career in which he has performed alongside the likes of Jude Law and Warren Clarke. He’s had roles in The Dark Knight and Life as well as the critically acclaimed T.V. show His Dark Materials. But despite his long and varied C.V., and the numerous interviews he’s done over the years, he approaches ours with a refreshing zeal.
Bakare, a former dancer, turned to acting early on and never looked back, picking up roles in British staples The Bill, Casualty and Holby City before landing a long-running gig as Dr. Ben Kwarme in Doctors. Television work has proved his bread and butter, and now, his latest work, the BBC drama Mr. Loverman, might be his best yet. It’s an important show on many levels, and Bakare’s performance, alongside Lennie James and Sharon D. Clarke, is nothing short of spectacular.
How did you start out?
I guess I always wanted to be an actor. When I was younger, my father would always say — and this is especially true in Nigerian families — what do you want to be when you grow up? I would always go ‘actor’, and then I’d get a clout on my head. He would say, ‘You should be a doctor or a lawyer’. So I never followed the straight route. I grew up in Leytonstone, went to New York, studied dance, decided I didn’t want to be a dancer any more, came back to London, and auditioned for drama school. It was plain sailing from there on!
So you experienced two great cities at a young age?
It was an amazing time to be in New York, the 1990s. I was very young, 17, 18. I was homeless for quite a lot from a very young age, before I went back home and stayed for about a year. Then I said, ‘I’m going, I want to study dance’. This was before the internet, before social media, before you could even contact people easily. So I remember just being there on my own — it was just something I wanted to do. New York was this amazing place where you could meet so many different people, and so many people looked after you, and kind of guided me through my dance. I was very lucky.
Then you turned to acting. What kind of jobs did you get early on?
In your early career you take everything that’s given to you. I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve done all forms of acting, including theatre. My first job was with Jude Law, opposite him. Then I went straight to do a film opposite Paul Bettany. I did work for some really great people in the beginning of my career. It was in a time when, as a black man, people were just starting to go, ‘O.K., we can see you divert and go into other roles’.
What do you look for in a script?
When I look at scripts now, I try to make sure the character sits well with me. Do I see the arc of the character? Does it have an emotional arc that I can connect with? So I look at a part and go, How close is that part to me? What do I need to do? What characteristics I don’t have? And then I go out of my way to work on those things and bring it alive. So I look for parts that let me do that.
When you’re not working, what do you do to decompress?
Music, writing, travelling. And buying clothes and watches at the moment. I love travelling on my own and being on my own. I’m the epitome of a lone wolf. I could get up now and go, I’m going to Paris’. I’m that sort of person. I had one a few weeks ago, when I was in my house waiting for a reply from an audition. I had a look on the internet and thought, I’m going to go to Ghana, and went. It’s a way for me to find my creativity again, and to get back in my head. I like that idea of divorcing myself from society, because I’ve got so much going on. If I’m not writing, I’m thinking about photographs, I’m thinking about poems I’d like to write. I’m a living and breathing existential crisis.
What is the premise of Mr. Loverman?
It’s about Barrington Walker, who’s been married for 50 years to a woman called Carmel. Barry’s played by Lennie James, and Carmel by the fantastic Sharon D. Clarke. He has a family, a house and is upwardly mobile. But he also has another secret, that he has a lover, Morris De La Roux, who I play, who he has been with for 60 years. So we’ve had a love story from Antigua all the way to London. It’s a story about love, family secrets, and the damage that a secret has on a family. And it’s about coming out. It’s a beautiful story written by Bernardine Evaristo, script written by Nathaniel Price, and directed by Hong Khaou. It’s very deep, and one of the hardest things I’ve done, but one of the most brilliant things.
What makes it so powerful?
It’s a story we’ve never been able to hear. We never see a story about gay love, elderly gay love from the black community. But it’s also so universal. I want it to be a place of comfort and solace for those who feel lost and want to open up but who don’t have a springboard to that conversation. Because everyone’s coming-out stories are individual. No one should force anybody to come out. It’s their story and it’s their journey, but when they do, it’s important to be a person whose hands are open, whose heart is open, and whose mind is open.
It was 2022 when it became legal in Antigua to be gay. In Nigeria it’s still illegal, and in so many other countries it’s still illegal. In the black community, these are discussions that are really hard to have with your family, based on so many things, from superstition, religion, toxic masculinity — it’s a hard one. So this show demonstrates the dangers of keeping that secret and how it affects other people. It just touches you. When you get to episode three and four, if you’re not crying... when you get to seven, jeez. It’s one of those ones that just hits you.
We’re always used to seeing the same tropes, story wise, so when something like this comes along it’s so refreshing, because there is another way. There isn’t just the street trope, the crime trope; there is something else, there is a human story. These stories have been with us for years and years, but now we’re in the landscape where people are like, ‘Let’s plant some seeds and let this grow’. That’s what we need to see, and Mr. Loverman is a springboard for that.
Digital Technician: Derrick Kakembo
On-Set Styling: Mollie French
Grooming: Sheree-Jourdan
