As creator of Brassic, actor Joe Gilgun poured a lot of himself into Vinnie – quite literally. Starting the series based on his own life experiences, the star has admitted Brassic is now its own beast, although his character, Vinnie, has struggles with mental health that are very real to him. Vinnie, for all his bravado, struggles constantly with bipolar disorder, and as we head into series six, he feels like his tight-knit group of friends are growing up without him as they get married and have kids. But that doesn’t stop him getting into some serious hijinks with them regardless. Speaking to Sky ahead of series six, Joe opens up on how his own mental health is mirrored in Vinnie, what to expect of the new episodes, and the final episode which could change the Brassic world forever. Do you know, honestly, dude, it hardly feels real. It almost doesn’t feel real, you know, you barely even want to trust the real success of it, I feel really proud of it. It’s been a bloody journey and I’m so humbled by the fact we’re six years in and it’s still so loved. I mean, if you’re not humble, you’re a d**k, you know? It’s mad, you know, the reaction is just insane. It always has been, people just seem to love it. It’s very strange. I would say it’s probably more for Michelle because she’s gorgeous. When you do finally meet me, it’s massively disappointing. There’s hairs in my nostrils that you are going to see eventually. I mean, you get close enough, you’re going to see that also I have a weird eyebrow situation that extends to my beard now I’m in my forties. So, yeah, they’re not really there for me. I think more than anything they’re there for Michelle. But it’s, you know, strange to me. I never, never predicted my life going that way where people turn up and watch you just do your job, you know? But it’s sweet of them to do it. They’re very supportive and they always bring us cakes, which is really nice. Oh, Christ. Everything. Well, all the lines are so unbelievably blurred between me and Vinnie. I don’t want this to sound negative either. It’s just I didn’t realise it would be this way. But as the series has gone on I’ve realised it’s also unavoidable, Vinnie is me and I am Vinnie. If I had a pound for every time someone said, “It’s just a job”, it’s not to me. This is my life, it’s my mental health. In a way, I am working out my own st by playing it out as Vinnie. But then someone shouts cut, everyone else moves on but I still have to deal with what’s going on in my head. I knew when I started this series that I wanted to be honest about my mental health so that others watching might be able to relate and be honest about theirs. I wanted people to know what it looks like to suffer with mental health, you know, sometimes you’re a shouting a*e that needs telling off. Sometimes you need support and a hug. But it’s rough when you’re playing it out and living it for real at the same time. But Vinnie is much cooler than me, actually. I look like Rab C Nesbitt in real life. That’s a good question. I’ve tried to keep him quite consistent, if I’m honest. I’m not wanting to tweak it because it’s who I am. It’s going to sound terrible printed out, but I turn up and I have to be myself. So it’s a very, very strange job. I’ll never have another job like it, where you turn up, be you on camera, and then go home and still be that bloke. There’s no fucking break from it, for sure. So, by way of the capers and s**t they pull, I’ve run out of my own stories. You know, I’m not El Chapo. I’ve not just got this bog roll list of crimes that I’ve done. I’d be in the nick if that was the case! So it’s massively embellished. It’ll be based on things people have said to me. Sometimes I’ll be on the phone to Danny [Brocklehurst] and just ramble along with one of these stories and it sparks an idea. I’ll be honest with you, we have the blueprint down, we know how the show runs, we’ve got an amazing team. And I try my absolute, my utmost, not to get involved because I think you need one single track of vision. When there’s too many people doing that, the story starts to dilute and as a result, the performances will too. I’m a gobse, if you put me in a meeting, I’ll try and fg dominate it, ruin everything. So I tend to chat some s**t to Danny and leave him to it because his writing is incredible. This series is intense, for sure. I would say that the deaths that have happened in this series - there’s a scarier edge to them and that’s symbolic of the people they are now mixing with. It’s not just petty s**t anymore, they are in the big leagues and with that comes f*****g chaos. Yeah, it’s really shocking. Do you know what it reminds me of? Have you ever watched Burn After Reading? There’s a scene where George Clooney shoots Brad Pitt’s character and it’s like, “Oh my God, in a million years I wouldn’t have expected that”. It was horrifying. I had the same reaction to this death. I was like, “Wow, that’s a big death. It’s really bad”. But to actually film it, dude, it was so gross! The guy who does our prosthetics, he’s a true artist. But he must have looked at some scary stuff to prepare for what he had to do for us. It was pretty gross though, there was corn syrup and stuff everywhere. But it looks so real. It was an amazing job on their special effects front, let’s put it that way. I think those scenes are often carried by the visuals. There’s a theme running through this series of this sense that Vinnie might be feeling left behind while everyone around him is getting married, having babies and generally evolving. How does he feel about that? Well, I just want to try and weave in the nuance of what we were talking about before, where the lines are blurred between me and Vinnie. Most series, I’m trying to talk to the audience about what I’m going through on my own at home, you know, and I’m as honest as I can be about that. I’m at an age now where everybody’s moving on, and I don’t want to. I don’t want a girlfriend, don’t want a boyfriend, don’t want kids, don’t want any of that stupid shit. I don’t know why anybody would. But it’s tough at times, you know, you do look around and you think, “Am I doing the right thing here? Because everybody else seems to be outside. No one seems to be frightened of one another. And I’m terrified of all that.” I’ve got a real thing with being abandoned. I think there’s a few folk that I know, actually, I’ve spoken to a few people just recently about this feeling that never really goes away. I think when you’ve got BPD or bipolar, abandonment, it’s fucking massive. It feels like your world’s coming to an end, and it’s really bloody real and very intense. You know, eventually you will come to and you’ll go, “Jesus Christ, I’m a f*****g maniac. That was insane.” But you don’t spot it when you’re going through it. I think poor Vinnie has been struggling, and I’ll be honest, when he struggles, I struggle, you know, I can’t turn it off. I’m ruminating on a big thing that was a huge problem for me and I’m having to act it out over and over again. And then we move on. It doesn’t exist anymore for everyone else but in my head it’s still going on. So what Vinnie feels is how I feel all the time. It’s exhausting, but it’s also the reality of someone with mental health issues and I don’t want to shy away from that because I’ve always wanted Vinnie to be the voice for those of us who struggle for real. I want people like me to know I see you, I see what you are going through and I totally understand it. You are not alone. Yeah, I’m trying to say it’s alright to make mistakes. The worrying thing now is we’re living in an age where, Jesus Christ, people are actively looking for mistakes or flaws in your sense of humour or whatever the case might be. They’re looking for a reason to be offended, it’s just painful. It’s like, get a f*g helmet, dude, life’s hard. It’s not meant to be easy, and people can be more than one thing, they can make mistakes but still be a good person. But what this show proves is if you have true love, and I’m not talking sex, I’m talking connection, then you can make mistakes and not have your world come crashing down. Mistakes are normal, it’s how you learn, so look beyond the b*t. F*****g full on naked! And I’ll say this as well, it needs knowing those actors were naked in the coldest, wettest, most miserable conditions that the north of England has to offer. But honestly, I think it’s just an excuse for Tom and Aaron to get their pecs out. They’re so bad at that dude. Honestly, the pair of them. More so Aaron, he’s obsessed with that s**t . He’ll find a way to look hot if he can. Like, you could give him a carrot, put him in a field and go, “Right, look sexy”, and he’ll find a way to do it. He is one sexy man. Tom’s a hot dude too. The pair of them make me sick! But I don’t blame them. I would but I don’t have anything impressive, it’s like I was born with two backs! Do you know what? That’s those f*g idiots slipping things in! We’ve got a lot of actors that just do whatever they want. I’m not joking! Tom’s the worst for it, you know, he’ll go, “Right, I’m going to sneak peacock into this conversation”. And he’ll do it. There was one scene where he leans into me and he whispers “chapped bs” into my ear. It got into the final edit and fans spotted it! I swear, this lot are lawless! But you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love the lot of them. Can you see me in sparkly spandex? Fk off! I’d rather gouge my eyes out. I hate all that celebrity bs. When did we turn our art into a competition, like who can be the best at this or that? I’m not here for that s**t. I want to do my job and go home. They’re all in danger at the end of this series, I think fans are going to be like, “okay, what does this mean for the show?” We’re leaving them with a massive dot, dot, dot over the future of everyone. It’s huge, dude. I’ll let you into a little secret, we don’t know yet how they are going to get out of this situation! We came up with the idea and then were like, “We’ll think of something later!” It’s like when Erin whispered in Vinnie’s ear, we had no idea what she f*****gsaid. Everyone’s like, “What did she whisper? Like, d******s. Whose idea was this?” It was David Livingstone! And the cliffhanger this series was David Livingstone’s idea as well. So, we’re waiting for him to come up with another genius idea to get them out of this very deadly situation. Do you know what? We’ve floated the idea of doing a movie. I wanted to do this idea where, you know how the cartels used to build submarines to move their shit? I thought we could build a submarine but instead of going to Isle of Wight, the gang end up somewhere hot, like, “F**k, we took a wrong turn somewhere, missed it by f*****g miles”. It’s basically an excuse to film in a hot country because after years surviving in the pissing rain and cold, we deserve it!How excited are you to be back for series six?
What’s it like when fans turn up to watch filming?
What does the show and Vinnie mean to you personally?
How do you think Vinnie has changed since series one?
Six series in, are the shenanigans the gang get up to still loosely based on things that have happened for real in your life?
How would you sum up series six?
One death is pretty shocking and gruesome, what was it like to film?
Do you think the key is showing that people aren’t one thing, they can be naughty but loving, mean but have a funny streak?
This series the gang must save Gideon from a naked cult, how naked is that episode?
The gang make a couple of references to Strictly this series, are they really fans?
So would you ever do Strictly?
This series ends with the biggest stunt in Brassic history, what can you tease about that?
Maybe a movie could happen instead?
Series 6 is available exclusively to stream on Sky Max and NOW – the home of Brassic
See Also
Brassic: Series 5 | Sky MaxBrassic season 5: release date, plot, cast and everything we knowBrassic: Season 1 | Rotten TomatoesBrassic cast tease series seven details ahead of season six cliffhangerSee Also
Watch Brassic on Sky Max