- 04/07/2025
This week Chris Deacy is joined in the studio by Alfie Jepp to discuss the films; Whiplash, Boiling Point, Skyfall, and Rush.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Kent Film Club. I'm Chris Deasy and each week I'll be joined by a guest
00:18to dive deep into the impact certain films have had on their life. Each guest will reflect on
00:24the films which have meant the most to them over the years and each week there will be a Kent Film
00:29Trivia where we select a film that has a connection to the county. And now let me introduce you to my
00:35guest for this week. Inspired by fragments of his own family's wartime past to help preserve a
00:41generation's fading memories he is the voice behind the new podcast The Veterans Voice, Berlin Airlift
00:48sharing the untold stories of British veterans who took part. He is Alfie Jep. Great to have you on
00:55the show. Thank you for having me on it's a pleasure. Absolutely now I don't know your films
00:58advance but you've gone for Whiplash as your first choice. Indeed Whiplash. Where do I start with
01:03Whiplash? Favourite film of all time so I think it had to go at the number one spot. I think its
01:09storyline roughly reflects on what I want to do as an actor. I went into the industry sort of not
01:15knowing where I wanted to be that sort of thing and then I saw Whiplash for the first time I think
01:20in 2019 and it was exactly the sort of through line that I wanted to follow. Young man going straight
01:26into the industry through the educational standard and then he sort of gets picked up
01:30by a tutor and he is pushed to his absolute extremes which I think sometimes in this industry
01:36especially in the acting industry is necessary for you to grow and is necessary for you to build
01:41character. So I think Whiplash is definitely number one there for me. And indeed Oscar winning film and
01:48I mean this is one of those films isn't it that because of the character arc and the fact that it's
01:53based on a lot of people's experience or indeed their potential experience or their ideal experience
01:59of how they'd like to make it to the big time. It's the underdog story writ large.
02:03Of course. I think with this there's a fine line that you go through in any sort of creative
02:09industry or any other industry where you strive to be the best you can be and then there's perfection
02:15which is unattainable. With Whiplash they're striving for perfection which is unhealthy but then it sort
02:21of brings out other elements and sort of different characteristics from different people and it's an
02:27interesting relationship to sort of bond there between the tutor and the student. Yeah I think
02:35it's a great story and I think that it roughly reflects on past experiences and maybe future
02:40experiences that I'll maybe experience. Because that's what I was going to ask you and obviously
02:45you're not going to know the answer to this but I'm guessing that you can watch this in the future
02:49you can maybe dip into the film at different stages in your life and get something different
02:53from it almost maybe see this as a map as something that is charting your own journey. Yes I think
03:00with the characters and it's a point that I wanted to bring the the tutor doesn't necessarily have to
03:09be a real person. I think for me it's sort of my mind telling me okay you need to do this better this
03:15better this better when in reality no one's going to be perfect at anything that they do.
03:20I mean with with the main character in this with with Miles Teller's character he strives for
03:25perfection and he thinks he's got there in the end but at what cost and that's the sort of open
03:31ending that Whiplash leaves you with and it sort of makes you ask these questions like oh okay
03:36if he took things under a different route and he took different circumstances into account
03:41would it have been a better ending for him he might have not been perfect but he could have made
03:46more mistakes which might have made him learn more and sort of have a healthier way into the industry
03:52whereas he strove for perfection and he did a brilliant performance at the end with Caravan but
03:58what are the effects of that he says a lot in the movie oh I'd rather die at age 40 and have made my mark
04:05in the industry rather than die of old age and have done nothing is that healthy I don't think
04:10it is. You said something really important there about which relates to the whole educational
04:15experience that sometimes you can have a driver but that driver can be within you know you can have
04:20a supervisor or a tutor who's not necessarily saying I want this by next week because you you have the
04:27drive and you're not waiting for someone to tell you what to do that you're proactive and I think a film
04:32like this is so good isn't it a tapping into that sense that we all I mean everybody has something
04:37whether it's defined or undefined maybe you dip into it in a in a later stage of your life but a
04:42sense that you can't do without and you just build on this and so I can easily imagine that you're
04:47dipping into this again. I dip into it every now and then I sort of I reflect on this film when I think
04:53I've gone too far with whatever it is I'm doing whatever it is I'm working on I think oh hang on a
04:59minute I'm striving for perfection here that's not healthy so I re-watch it every now and then
05:03and I say to myself okay perfection is not attainable and that's okay and I think that's
05:08really important for everyone moving forward in whatever they want to do. And isn't that the case
05:12with so many people in life who say oh I'm not ready to submit this or I'm not ready to produce this
05:16or perform this because it's not there for my satisfaction I'm thinking well actually by the time
05:21it is ready for your satisfaction the gold post will have moved or maybe somebody else will have
05:26found the niche that you're that you're cornering. I mean the amount of projects that I've worked on
05:31especially within my three years of acting training at university where I've sort of said to myself just
05:37before I go on stage or whether or not I go on in front of a camera I'm saying hang on a minute am I
05:42ready am I is this the best it can possibly be and a lot of the times the answer is no but that's okay
05:48because you need to make those mistakes especially in education it's the best time to make those mistakes
05:53so I think if there's anyone out there that's thinking oh hang on a minute it's not quite what
05:58I want it to be that's okay and it doesn't need to be people underestimate what they can do in
06:02say two or three decades and they overestimate what they can do in the space of six months to a year
06:07I think people just they need to give themselves a little bit more time and they need to be a bit
06:12kinder to themselves and they say when they say okay I want to do something and I want to be great at
06:16it but I don't have to be perfect at it yeah well it is time now Alfie to move on to your next chosen
06:23film and you've gone for Boiling Point Boiling Point this film I got introduced to it in 2021
06:31by a man called Kieran Shale now Kieran we worked together on my first on-screen debut it was a short
06:39film called Tender and it was a it was a mixture of whiplash and Boiling Point as you can see behind
06:45me where a young chef wants to do the absolute best he can at what he does he's pushed to the
06:51absolute limit by someone who's been in the industry a lot longer than he has and that sends him spiraling
06:57down into chaos now I only played a small role in that but to see that sort of story develop and
07:02through Boiling Point as well when I re-watch it over and over again it's a one-shot movie and I think
07:07it perfectly captures the chaos of a kitchen I don't know whether or not you've been in a kitchen
07:13like a working kitchen it is absolute chaos from the moment that chefs walk in to the moment that
07:19they leave they're locked in and tempers rise and it is perfectly encapsulated in Boiling Point which
07:25is why I think the one-shot take is is so crucial and it's almost mythological it's the the finding
07:32order out of chaos yes and it goes back to the very origins of the universe almost that sense of
07:37okay something here is chaotic it's a mess but you have to do something with that and finesse it
07:42and find and again similar to what we're saying about Whiplash that quest for perfection yes attainable
07:49or otherwise I think I think the the cooking industry is very similar to the acting industry where
07:54tensions can rise very quickly and that can lead to people's success or failure I think with those
08:03changing circumstances I really do believe that it can lead a lot of people to be at their absolute
08:10best and as we see in the film at their absolute worst you see so many characters especially Stephen
08:16Graham's just spiral into and descend into this slippery slope where at the end he can't sort of bring
08:23himself back because he's so lost in what he's trying to achieve in the kitchen and I think again it's
08:30it's got a running theme these two films where you're going to strive for perfection of course
08:34you're going to strive for perfection but it's never going to come and you need to you need to
08:38be okay with that and and when it doesn't come and I find this I mean the Rocky films are another good
08:43example of that in some of them he wins sometimes he loses but it almost doesn't matter because you can
08:48win through defeat because it's it's part of a journey it's not the end of the process it's you know the
08:54whole relationship between journeys and destinations does that apply with boiling point absolutely and I think I look back
09:00on it and it's something that my parents really drove into me growing up and still today when
09:06I'm trying to do things for myself and my career all anyone can ask of you including yourself and I
09:12think that's the the number one person that you need to listen to is yourself the only thing that
09:17anyone can ask of you is to do your best and once you've done your best at anything that's when you can
09:22look back and say okay things might not have worked out but at the very least I learned I learned from
09:26the experience I got something from it and I tried my best so why why am I complaining I've got
09:32something from this and if I didn't try my best then what can I do to make sure that next time I take
09:39all the opportunities I can now obviously there's a theme running through both of these choices
09:44and is this something that you randomly saw and thought oh I like this or did you was it pointed out
09:52to you or or did you seek this out because you expected that it might deal with these important
09:58things I to be completely honest both of these films took me completely by surprise I got given
10:06these films via recommendation by friends and by co-workers and they were like you know what just have
10:11a have a watch and that's I think how most people fall in love with films maybe they've not even heard
10:17of I'd certainly never heard of these two films before I'd watched them they're like just have a watch
10:21just see what you think and sometimes you're going to look at films and you're going to be like oh
10:24no it's not really for me I didn't quite understand it and that's okay but sometimes and on a very rare
10:28occasion you're going to watch a film and you're going to think I really resonate with it and it's
10:32those messages that you resonate with the most that you stick to and that's why they have such
10:37influence on you as a person and you as and other people and so do you find that you're effectively
10:43it's your life do you find it's that autobiographical sense that in watching a film like this
10:47you know you may not be working in a kitchen but effectively you identify with what's going on
10:52here and you find the parallels with your own circumstances I think it's definitely something
10:56that I can relate to the most which is why maybe I draw so such a strong connection to it of course
11:02if you if you find something that you draw connection with the most you're obviously going to be you know
11:09drawn into it the most you're going to be engaged a lot more than if you watch something and you're kind
11:14of like I don't really get it it's from a different viewpoint and that's okay you can have different
11:18viewpoints and you can sort of learn from those as well but if something's happened in your life or
11:22you're going through something and you watch a film and you see those particular circumstances
11:26all those scenarios happening in that film or to that character you're gonna you're gonna resonate
11:31with them a lot more well that's about all the time we have for this first half of the show
11:35however before we go to the break we have a Kent film trivia question for you at home
11:40which world war ii films shot scenes on location at ford amherst in chatham was it a darkest hour
11:48b saving private ryan or c enemy at the gates we'll reveal the answer right after this break don't go
11:56away
11:56hello and welcome back to kent film club just before the ad break we asked
12:10you at home a kent film trivia question which world war two films shot scenes on location at fort
12:16amherst in chatham was it a darkest hour b saving private ryan or c enemy at the gates and now i can
12:23reveal to you that the answer was in fact a darkest hour several scenes from the production were filmed
12:30at fort amherst including in its tunnels which itself was used during world war ii as an air raid warning
12:37command post did you get the answer right well it is time now alfie to move on to your next chosen film
12:43and you've gone for skyfall a little bit off the trail from the from the past too um it draws
12:51nice enoughly well nice enough parallels to the podcast that i've done recently with the military
12:57theme but skyfall was released in 2012 i watched it in 2012 i must have been about
13:02eight or nine years old at the time and i absolutely fell in love with it it was my first
13:09bond film i think my favorite bond film the soundtrack is gorgeous i think adele did an amazing job and i
13:15think daniel craig's portrayal as bond is the greatest there has ever been and in my opinion the
13:22greatest there ever will be yeah and i i mean i do a radio show as well and bond always comes up and
13:28it's interesting that people are very particular you know the bond that they grew up with are i'm
13:32very much of the roger moore generation but actually maybe talk about the quest for perfection in films
13:37earlier there's a lot of this in bond these are a current figure and in a sense there's a sense that
13:42he's always has to be at the top of his game he has to be it's literally do or die absolutely um at
13:47the start of the film he sort of draws away from that he goes into i think hiding for a quite a while
13:53a period of time after he gets shot off of a bridge and then he sort of comes back into the
13:59frame not quite the same person as he was in the previous films he's got injuries he's getting older
14:04all of these circumstances are changing around him and he's trying to get back into the game and i
14:08think his arc throughout skyfall perfectly encapsulates his journey through that you see
14:12many characters that both we've seen already in the bond series so we've got m and then we've got
14:16new people like q who bring a new sort of playful element with the technology into the frame as well i
14:22think the villain is incredible the the depth behind that sort of anti-hero used to work for mi6 and
14:28then sort of defected because he got betrayed i think all in all skyfall is the perfect bond movie
14:34and when you consider something like the pierce brosnan the world is not enough that came out
14:38just before the millennium and there was talk then of gosh you know he has an injury has a ski injury
14:43he's he's hobbling around on crutches is that okay to have james bond you know with imperfections
14:49but also that's part of it isn't it because like with the previous films that you were talking
14:54about you know what happens when there is chaos what happens when things don't go right how do
14:58you pick yourself up from that point and again and i don't mean it to happen weirdly enough but it sort
15:04of links back to that old thing with perfection you look at previous bond movies you look at previous
15:10bonds and it's not necessarily seeded in reality there's sort of absurd things going on all over the
15:15place and sort of gadgets and cars and machines and and villains that are just not of this world
15:22skyfall and all of craig's bond portrayals are a bit more seeded in reality in that sense and it sort
15:28of allows you to resonate with bond a bit deeper you can you can relate to him in certain scenarios and
15:34especially with the perfection topic he's trying to be the best person he can be but what is that
15:38driven him to struggles that real people in the real world face i think i think skyfall is a perfect
15:44portrayal of bond and a perfect movie for the series and in a way when you consider that the
15:49last of the pierce bosnia film was it die another day and you see him in an invisible plane and in a
15:53way it was starting to get into the sort of the sort of thing that you might have expected roger
15:57moore's what was like wonder woman from the 1970s the tv series but here you've got a very gritty kind
16:02of representation i think it was for this one wasn't it that um dame judy dench received a bafta
16:07nomination yeah you know and again you know bond films don't tend to lend themselves often the themes
16:13the songs for the movies do but the actors don't normally get nominations in in those prestigious
16:18award ceremonies so this is something else this is absolutely brilliant of course while skyfall is
16:24seeded in reality you still have references to the old movies you've got the old car you've got the
16:28famous ejector seat in there it's it's got links back to the old movies but then again it sort of
16:35continues that through line and continues that message of okay we've got a bond here how can we get
16:40him to relate to anyone i think as well along with that the soundtracks have matched it as well
16:45i mean you've got adele's uh skyfall brilliant you've got sam smith and their song i think their
16:50their cover was amazing in the film went after skyfall i think all in all daniel craig as bond
16:57and the way that they've carried the bond series through is incredible and i'm excited to see if
17:01slash when they cast a new bond and what direction they want to take and well in a way i have to ask you
17:06that question do you have a particular thought about who might be uh well placed to take on the
17:13mantle well if we're going off of personal bias i'd love idris elba it would be great but if there's a
17:18job going you know i wouldn't be i wouldn't say no um maybe not for bond but you know the the doors
17:24open maybe for for other ventures other other roles and things like that let's just keep our fingers
17:30crossed and is skyfall a film that you can watch repeatedly is this a film that like some of the
17:35others that you've watched more than once you can dip into at different times uh do you watch this
17:38as a standalone or would you watch it with the other with the other canon of um films with daniel
17:45craig i think it differs from view of tv me personally i watch skyfall as a standalone i mean
17:50you've got other films with daniel craig in them like no time to die the most recent bond portrayal
17:53i thought that was a masterpiece but i for some reason and i can't really explain it i would never
17:58watch them back to back to back i think each film you need time to digest it you need time to
18:03appreciate it and appreciate the story and the struggles and i think skyfall out of all of the
18:08films that daniel craig has done as bond has encapsulated that perfectly well it is time now
18:13to move on to your final chosen film and you've gone for rush rush this is a personal favorite of
18:22mine i am absolutely in love with formula one i'm a formula one fanatic so this film is
18:28quite close to my heart it a lot of it was filmed at brown's hatch in in kent which is near where
18:34well a part of kent near where i'm from um so it's nice to see those sort of areas represented
18:40especially in a film that has so many of my interests at heart i think as much as it's a
18:46opinionated topic chris hemsworth's portrayal of james hunt was absolutely fantastic uh in terms of the
18:53public image we don't know what uh james hunt was like in his private life you have many different
18:58accounts but i think his portrayal and also the portrayal of nikki lauda and the experiences that
19:04he went through were absolutely sublime and it relates what he was saying about bond as well that
19:09sense of an enigma what happens when you've got somebody who has a particular drive what are the
19:13reasons they do you see it in the new formula one movie the one with brad pitt uh that that's recently
19:17come out um do you find with this here that you know obviously it sounds like you're a fan of
19:21motor racing but you know are you interested in the story behind this about the figures behind like
19:27what what are their well to pardon the pun what are their drivers well i think people casual viewers of
19:34motorsport and formula one and things like that they don't know too much about the drivers and they
19:40like to see the cars and the racing which is great absolutely fantastic but then you get
19:46people that are more interested in the driver's side and that's why there are documentaries and
19:50things like that which are equally if not more exciting than the racing itself um you've got drive
19:55to survive on netflix for example which although in my opinion is not a hundred percent seeded in
20:01reality of what really goes on in the paddock you get a sort of insight into a driver's life and what
20:06they go through on a race weekend on the off season when it comes to changing teams and negotiating and
20:11things like that and weirdly enough i've just realized this now rush does play on perfection
20:18again nikki lauda james hunt fighting for the championship in 1976 and the things that it leads
20:26to you've got nikki lauda's famous accident at the nurberg ring when he inhaled so much smoke it had to
20:35get uh vacuumed out of his lungs and that's all because he was trying to be perfect you've got james
20:41hunt who on the last race of the season was advised to stop but because he's so driven to achieving
20:48something that he hasn't achieved before he continues anyway and he ends up achieving that goal which is
20:52what happened in real life so i think it's a brilliant dramatization but it's also seeded in reality
20:58as well and that intersection between relatability and unrelatability because do we want these figures to be
21:03be like the bond question do we want them to be larger than life um or grounded because in a way
21:09but bond lies at that intersection we just had that chat um or films like whiplash where obviously it's
21:16there's something in there you say this is me you know i can interject interject in this so do you kind
21:20of feel that you know what are you identifying with in a film like this about these these real life
21:25figures but who are larger than life almost almost mythological i think you get some films where you
21:31really relate to the character you get some films where you don't relate to the character and the
21:36character characters are larger than life but i think rush does a brilliant job at mediating these
21:42two so you've got these these drivers that are driving at 180 190 miles an hour pulling insane g-forces
21:48something that 99.9 percent of people couldn't do certainly i couldn't do it
21:53um but then you go into their private life and you go into their sort of motivations outside of the car
22:00and off of the track and you see what makes them human you see their flaws you see their weaknesses
22:04which everyone has no one's perfect as we've said multiple times so i think rush does a brilliant
22:12job at encapsulating both sides of the story and that's the same thing and the same with the brad
22:15pitt movie out as well at the moment that it's it's about what makes somebody tick and often
22:19it is about maybe it's about money maybe it is about racing the fast cars or maybe it's trying to
22:26make sense of maybe to atone for something in the past it's almost like there's a driver
22:30it's it's proving something because maybe you've gone through life uh having perhaps not always been
22:35good or as good as you want to be at something and and this is where you make your mark i think
22:40so you have the two main characters of this film you've got nicky lauda you've got james hunt
22:44i like to look at them as an angel and a devil on each shoulder so you've got nicky lauda who's in
22:50it purely for the drive he's got the motivation of driving the car pushing it to its absolute limit
22:55and that's all he's focused on and to an extent james does the same however his out of racing life
23:01he's got key motivations there as well i mean you've got the the women you've got the money
23:06you've got the gambling everything that comes with being a formula one driver nicky's not interested in
23:11any of that he just wants to be the best he can be on the track and then off the track he's quite
23:15reserved whereas james hunt is sort of as you said this quite mythological character and then when you
23:20go to explore him behind closed doors and you see his vulnerabilities that's when you can relate to him
23:24the most well i'm afraid that's all the time we have for today but before we go if you live in kent
23:30and want the chance to share four films of your choice reach out to us at kmtv and you might be
23:36invited in to be my next guest but for now many thanks to alfie jepp for joining us and being such
23:42a brilliant guest and many thanks to you all for tuning in until then that's all from us goodbye
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