Has drug-abusing Peaky Blinders star Paul Anderson’s luck run out?

Growing up in one of many much less salubrious elements of South London within the early Eighties, a younger man referred to as Paul Anderson used to dream of changing into a rock star. ‘I always wanted to be a frontman in a band,’ he recalled. ‘Not a footballer. Not an actor. Certainly not a policeman or a fireman.’

But an actor he grew to become, and one who, ten years in the past – by then in his mid-30s – sprang to fame courtesy of his commanding flip as gangster Arthur Shelby within the BBC drama Peaky Blinders.

The collection, a couple of fictional Birmingham crime household between the wars, grew to become cult viewing, not simply in Britain however all around the world – and Anderson’s efficiency because the tormented, drug-taking hellraiser Arthur was seen as key to its success.

Roles in Hollywood blockbusters adopted, together with alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in 2015’s bleak western The Revenant. For years, few might think about that Anderson’s future profession appeared something apart from starry.

Until now.

For, in a poignant case of life mirroring – or probably outdoing – artwork, his world appears to have slid off the rails in a approach that may have come as a shock even to the troubled and depressed Arthur Shelby.

At the top of January, it emerged that Anderson had been fined for possession of medication, together with crack cocaine, following an incident at his native pub on Boxing Day by which he had been discovered ‘inebriated’ and carrying a crack pipe. And barely had his followers digested this unedifying fall from grace than he was photographed final week popping out of a bakery close to his North London house wanting virtually unrecognisable.

Gaunt and together with his options closely lined, the shambling Anderson appeared maybe 20 years older than his 46 years.

The transformation, along with the medicine conviction, has led to hypothesis that Anderson won’t be invited to reprise his function as Arthur within the eagerly anticipated – and not too long ago confirmed – climactic movie model of Peaky Blinders, rumoured to start capturing in early summer time.

If so, this is able to be a bitter blow for Anderson, coming because it does towards a backdrop of the persevering with, glittering success of his co-stars on the present.

Only final week, Cillian Murphy, who performed Arthur’s formidable youthful brother Tommy, received the Best Actor Bafta for his mesmerising efficiency because the eponymous scientist in Oppenheimer. Meanwhile, Joe Cole, who performed one other brother, John, had been Bafta-nominated for an episode of Charlie Brooker’s darkish thriller collection Black Mirror.

Then there’s Tom Hardy, who appeared as London crime boss Alfie Solomons in Peaky Blinders and to whom Anderson grew to become so shut throughout filming that he referred to him as ‘my brother’.

Hardy has spoken candidly about his personal habit to alcohol and crack cocaine as a younger man, saying that he was ‘out of control’ earlier than looking for assist when he was 20. Since then his profession has gone from energy to energy, together with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in The Revenant.

All of which makes Anderson’s fall much more poignant.

Raised in Kennington, South London, the place his mum was a barmaid, Anderson dropped out of college at 14.

While dreaming of rock stardom he made cash by working as an unlawful ticket tout, incomes himself the nickname ‘Boycie’ after the wheeler-dealer buddy of Del Boy Trotter from Only Fools and Horses.

But working exterior the regulation proved the making of him. In 2008, aged 29, Anderson approached a Chelsea fan who wished a seat for the Champions League recreation towards Manchester United. The fan’s title was Nick Love, and he turned out to be a revered movie director.

In a scene straight from a film, Love heard Anderson’s gruff South London accent and determined that, regardless of his lack of expertise, he could be excellent for the a part of soccer hooligan Bex within the 2009 movie The Firm.

‘I happened to be outside, and I was handling the odd ticket or two and sort of exchanging them for money,’ Anderson later recalled. ‘He was with a bunch of friends, and I sold them tickets.’

Love loved working with him a lot that he forged him in his movie model of The Sweeney starring Ray Winstone. Anderson additionally appeared in Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows alongside Robert Downey Jr – and have become so decided to excellent his new craft that he enrolled at drama faculty, describing it because the ‘university experience I never had’.

In 2013 he was forged as Arthur Shelby, a personality that followers rapidly clasped to their hearts. ‘Lots of people say, “We love Arthur,” and I guess I do understand,’ Anderson as soon as informed an interviewer. It was additionally a component he got here to know deeply – maybe due to his personal demons.

‘The thing I love about him and why I like playing him is he’s not simply one-dimensional,’ Anderson has stated. ‘He’s robust and he will be violent and brutal, however he’s not simply that. He’s acquired this inside turmoil, this dichotomy: “I don’t want to do this but I’m doing it because it’s my life and it’s the way things are.” He’s not turning over a brand new leaf and being a God-fearing, pious, good man. He’s nonetheless struggling.’

With fame got here fortune. After elements within the 2015 crime thriller Legend and the 2017 western Hostiles alongside Christian Bale, Anderson purchased a £1.2 million mews home in leafy Hampstead, North London. He was rumoured to be courting jewelry designer Stephy Clark, founding father of cult model Steph Metal, though their relationship standing was by no means made public.

But in 2019 he stated that ‘I feel like an imposter a lot of the time in my life’ – and throughout the pandemic, it appears his behaviour began to unravel.

In January 2023, it emerged that producers had been investigating his conduct on the Peaky Blinders set after a criticism from a colleague, the main points of which haven’t been revealed. Then got here that incident on Boxing Day.

Police had been referred to as to the pub when a drinker informed the supervisor there was a scent of medication coming from the disabled bathroom after the actor had left it. Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court later heard that police had discovered an ‘intoxicated’ Anderson with a younger man and a 17-month-old child.

He was taken to a police station the place he was found to be carrying crack cocaine, a wrap of brown powder recognized as amphetamines, diazepam and pregabalin. He examined constructive for opiates and cocaine.

Anderson subsequently admitted possession of crack cocaine, in addition to class B amphetamines and two class C prescription substances. In mitigation, defence barrister Moira MacFarlane claimed he generally struggled to shed the expectations connected to his display screen alter ego when confronted by followers.

‘He is often recognised and does his best to please fans of the show by slipping into character,’ Ms MacFarlane defined. ‘He was recognised that Boxing Day and tried to play up for these people. And because of the lifestyle he leads, people often give him inducements.’ True or not, this appeared to make little distinction to the Justice of the Peace, who fined Anderson £1,345.

Where this conviction, and Anderson’s troubling bodily look, leaves his skilled commitments, no one is aware of. While Peaky Blinders author Steven Knight is known to nonetheless be engaged on the movie script, it’s unclear whether or not Anderson would – or can – now function in what has at all times been a pivotal function within the story.

However, plainly the actor himself has not given up hope of reprising the character that made his title. Last week, in response to a touch upon an Instagram publish the place a fan had written, ‘By order of The Peaky Blinders’, Anderson replied: ‘Forever.’

And allow us to not overlook both, that if life does mirror artwork, Arthur Shelby is nothing if not a person who goals of higher occasions. ‘My heart is a battered vessel,’ he proclaims in certainly one of his extra memorable strains. ‘But within, there still beats a fluttering pulse of a dream.’

One wonders if, regardless of his current setbacks, this troubled fallen star would say the identical factor.