TV tough guy Danny Dyer said “toxic masculinity” is a thing and “there are lots of lost young men who don’t know how to behave and we need to stop it”
TV tough guy Danny Dyer has voiced his opinion on “toxic masculinity” being a very real thing.
The actor, Mick Carter in EastEnders for nine years, is also known for presenting hard-hitting documentaries like Danny Dyer’s Real Football Factories. In 2004 he starred in the Nick Love film Football Factory which put the spotlight on hooliganism.
He said he would “play up” to his public persona as a hard man at the height of his fame when he was typecast. And admitted he’s “still obsessed with masculinity and the ridiculousness of it”.
But the 47-year-old believed men should do better and urged them not to be afraid of opening up and talking about their feelings.
He recalled how there was “violence in the air” during his upbringing in East End of London, he went to rehab for drug addiction in 2016, and how therapy and meditation helped turn his life around.
He tells today’s Desert Island Discs he knows his trauma came from male “abandonment issues” after his father Anthony left when he was just a child.
The star, who is now a father and grandfather himself, said: “Men do need to open up a bit more, we do need to talk to each other. I envy women that can gossip and talk about stuff.
“I’m still obsessed with masculinity, the ridiculousness of it, but also it’s okay to be masculine and it’s okay to not be that in touch with your feelings, but to be able to speak about it when you’re playing pool or sitting in a car.
“Therapy is difficult for me one-on-one, tissues, and all that waiting for you to cry. It just makes us shut down slightly.
“Toxic masculinity is a thing but it’s not necessarily because you’re a male, it’s because you’re not a very nice human being. We’ve got a lot of lost young men out there who don’t know how to behave and are frightened and we need to stop it.”
Danny also discussed his early career – “jumping the barriers” at stations to get to auditions and working with playwright Harold Pinter. After winning a role in Celebration, he and
Pinter, who was also from the East End, developed an unlikely friendship. Danny described Pinter as a father-figure, adding that when he in 2008 aged 78 “this really sent me on a spiral of madness, the guilt o f not being around him anymore.
“I was a bit of a lost soul and angry at the world”. He also touched upon his memorable appearance on Who Do You Think You Are?, in which he learned he was related to King Edward III. “I’m not a royalist, so as much as it excited me, it didn’t really.
“The one that excited me was Thomas Cromwell who was my 15 times great-grandfather.He was someone from Putney who rose through the ranks to be Henry VIII’s right-hand man, for good or bad, who had no right to. [He] reached out from the area he was from, similar to myself.”
●Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 10am today and on BBC Sounds
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
