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Singer and actor Jordan Stephens on landing a part in ‘Star Wars’

The former Rizzle Kicks star on how he ‘blagged‘ an acting career

Isabelle Aron
Written by
Isabelle Aron
Features Editor, Time Out London
Jordan Stephens
Photograph: Prexa / Prexshrestha
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In 2016, I was cycling to Grange Studios on Latimer Road for a rehearsal with Wildhood, my new band after Rizzle Kicks. On my way, I checked my phone and an email came up. It said I’d been offered a part in a film called ‘Los Alamos’. I got to Grange Studios and looked through the script after I’d signed an NDA. It mentioned Darth Vader and Stormtroopers. I was like: This is ‘Star Wars’, that’s crazy. I rang my agent from Latimer Road. This was on the Monday and they wanted me on set on the Friday. I thought: Are you kidding me? I didn’t audition. The casting director saw me in another thing and liked me so she cast me in ‘Rogue One’.

My acting career started when I got an audition for a show called ‘Glue’. Since then, I’ve been blagging an acting career. At the time of ‘Star Wars’, I wasn’t bothered about acting. Being a pop star was too much pressure so I put Rizzle Kicks on ice, started making grunge music and dyed my hair green. Then I got a part in ‘Star Wars’. It’s an example of the ridiculous spaces I find myself in as a creative. The boundaries seems to be limitless in terms of where I can end up.

Jordan Stephens’s single ‘Wicked’ is out now.

Read more from this series:

‘Hamilton’ star Giles Terera on the pizza that changed his fate.

Candice Carty-Williams reminisces about the Camberwell market of her childhood.

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