Mike Bailey interview - Skins

Despite being a likeable, intelligent, and hip teenager, it's easy to imagine that Mike Bailey is one of the least popular people on his Performing Arts course.

While other students will doubtless spend a lifetime waiting tables and waiting for their big break, Mike has managed to jump the queue so successfully that he's just landed one of the lead roles on a brand new drama series, Skins.

Today, in the unfamiliar surroundings of a central London members' club, an endearingly nervous Bailey is fidgeting his way through his first interview. If his touching and sensitive performance in Skins is anything to go by, it will be the first of many.

Have you always been into acting?
Yeah, pretty much. It was something I started doing in primary school.
Even then, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd answer 'an actor'. I've done drama all my life, and I've done ITV workshops away from school, and I'm studying performing arts now at college, so it's always been something I wanted to do.

Had you done any professional acting work before Skins?
No, this is my first big thing. I mean, I've done plays and stuff, just as part of my course, but nothing as big and as good as this. It's always been little amateur things, the sort of thing you do just to get a bit of experience, to say that you've been on the stage. Albeit in front of about 60 people. So to go from that to being one of the main characters on a TV programme is amazing. Not many people get to start off like this. I haven't even done any extra-work in Casualty, like most of the rest of Bristol has.

Have other people on your course been jealous of you landing such a plumb role?
I think they're happy for me. The casting director came into my college the first day she was down in Bristol, and she audition all of us. From then, we kind of wanted at least one person to be in it. Three of us were called back for recalls, and it was narrowed down to me in the end. One of us got through, and I think people were pleased about that. I would have been happy if it hadn't been me but someone else had got through.

There have been a lot of attempts to make dramas about and for teens. What makes Skins different?
I think it doesn't hold back. Everyone knows the issues about kids, what happens, what they really get up to. Skins just gets straight to the point.
It's been written really well like that. Another important thing is that it's being played by people who are teenagers. A lot of dramas done now, you're looking at 30-year-olds playing 18-year-olds, so they can't relate as well to what they're playing. And the writers aren't afraid of being realistic, of a little bit of controversy.

How much input did you have on the character of Sid? Were you allowed to give suggestions about him?
Yeah, pretty much. Sid is actually based on one of the writers. I didn't want to get to know the writer too well, because I wanted to be able to make the character of Sid my own. But we were certainly given a chance to have our say, to give our input into the character. So we could stand up and say 'Actually, I don't think my character would say that'. Or we'd put in a few lines, do a bit of improvisation. I think we got a lot of say in our characters because they wanted it to look as realistic as possible, so we had to be comfortable with the parts we were playing and the lines we were saying.

What is Sid like?
He's basically the sidekick to Tony, who's the coolest guy around. He does whatever Tony says, like a little kid following his mum. But he also gets bullied by Tony quite a lot. He doesn't realise it, but he is getting verbally and mentally bullied, to the extent where its beginning to get through to him. But he keeps following Tony around because he's in love with Tony's girlfriend, and without Tony he couldn't be anywhere near her.
He's a good guy, he knows where his loyalties lie, he has a lot of friends, but he has a really bad family life. He doesn't get on well with his dad, who thinks he's a waste of space. But he's got a big heart, he's always there for his friends.

Did you put elements of yourself into him?
There are elements of myself, definitely. I put aspects of myself into him, as any actor does into a character, but I wouldn't say I based him on myself. I could relate it to people I know who are like him.

Do you see Skins more as a comedy or a drama?
There's very definite elements of both in there. It does cover all the issues of life as a teenager, but it does it with a very comic approach, so you don't exactly feel like you're being taken through the issues. I think it's somewhere between the two. It's probably more towards drama, but there are some brilliant comic moments in it.

How accurate a reflection do you think it is of being a teenager today?
I think it is dramatised a little bit - it has to be, TV has to be watchable. If you wanted to watch real teenaged life, you could just stick a bunch of teenagers in a room and film them for a reality show. This is a drama, it's got to be entertaining, so you've got to move things along a bit quicker. But I think it portrays the realities of teenage life quite well.

Some would argue that a drama about teenagers and drugs and alcohol and sex should carry an obvious moral message. What would you say to that?
I think this is based around real life, that's the key. Real life doesn't always carry an obvious moral message every time you do something. If it's going to have an element of realism, you can't just tack a really strong message on the end of every story telling young people what they can and can't do. In some programmes, there might be a moral at the end of it, but only if that's the way real situations happen.

What was the experience of filming a TV series like? Was it everything you expected, or was it a lot of boredom and hard work?
I thought it was amazing. I found it really weird to call it a job, in some respects, because it was something I'd always wanted to do, and loved doing. In some respects it was absolutely what I'd expected, but in some respects there were things which I didn't know would happen. But I loved every minute of it, and as soon as it finished I missed it so much. It was just brilliant the whole time. Working with wicked people, there wasn't one person that I didn't like. I didn't care if I had to be up at 6am, and work12 hours. I was happy to do it.

With the subject matter, drugs and sex and so on, would you be happy to sit down and watch it with family members, or would that be embarrassing?
Oh, it would be really embarrassing. My nan has said 'Don't worry about what you've done on the programme, I won't mind,' but I'm thinking 'Yeah, but you're my nan!' That's why I reckon for each episode I'll go to someone else's house to watch it. For the first episode, we've got people coming round, but I don't think I'd necessarily sit there with my mum and dad watching it. I would get quite embarrassed, knowing what I'd done, knowing what was coming up next.

SERIES STARTS AUGUST 21 ON CHANNEL 4