Читать книгу Rise of the Footsoldier - In My Game, The Choice is a Jail or a Grave - Carlton Leach - Страница 7

(Ricci played the role of Carlton in

Rise of the Footsoldier)

It’s 1 March 2008 and I’m sitting in a pub somewhere in Epping listening to the sound of voices singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Someone walks in carrying a cake with my face on it – but this is not my night, it’s Carlton’s. I blow my nose for the fiftieth time (Jesus, this fucking cold is driving me mad) and I watch him as he blows out the candles – he’s happy.

My mind flashes back to the first weekend we spent together, when I was an eleven-stone jobbing actor wearing black glasses and flat cap. I saw Carlton, with his arms covered in tattoos and a big grin on his face, and thought, Fuck, we look nothing like each other. He wasn’t as big as I’d seen in the photos, but that shark-eyed look was still there, make no mistake.

We spoke about the films I’d done and the training I was going to have to do and it dawned on me that I’d probably bitten off more than I could chew. After a few pints of Guinness, Carl and his mate Steve took me to off to Cats lap-dancing club in Basildon to introduce me to some more of their close friends. I was transported into a world of cage-fighters, ex-paramilitary, black belts and women. ‘This is my fiancée, Anne,’ said Carlton with his arm wrapped around a really tall, good-looking blonde who was one of the dancers at the club. I shook Anne’s hand as she stood there topless and I thought to myself, Whatever you do, don’t look at her tits.

I was woken up the next morning by Carlton. ‘Come on, son, get up – I wanna take you with me, show you a bit of work.’ Despite a steaming hangover, the next thing I knew I was sat in McDonald’s guzzling a supersize Cola. We listened to an Asian father and his son telling us about a wedding that had gone wrong – the bride’s old man was chasing him for £30,000 compensation. He looked me straight in the eye as he told us this and spoke to me as though I was part of the firm. He said the other fella had hired the services of some lump to put the pressure on. To cut a long story short, I was then treated to a Little Chef veggie breakfast paid for by a wad of fifties the size of a brick!

That was nearly two years ago. I laugh at Carlton standing next to the cake trying to make a speech. I’m lucky – you make a lot of friends in my work. On this job I made family.