Sam Riley

In the mid-Nineties, Sam was lead singer in the band, 10,000 Things. They were the biggest band in Leeds in the UK. To say Sam lived the Rock 'n' Roll lifestyle is a understatement.

Sam said in an interview "I was living my dream life. I was young, I had money and I was in a band. What could be better? And then when we got our deal I was so wrapped up in thinking I must be amazing and acting up like a clichéd rock star, getting drunk and in fights, that it became less about writing songs and performing and more about playing the part."

Their first album was rated 0/10 by an NME review and they were later dropped by their record label Polydor. From that point Sam's life changed yet again and he had to take a job in a bar in Leeds, then a job in a clothing warehouse. At this point he decided to give his old acting agent from when he was a child actor a call. When he was a child he was in the National Youth Theatre and had lots of different small parts in tv shows.

His agent mentioned the role of Ian Curtis in Control. At the time names such as Jude Law were being bandied around as front-runners for the role. After having had his ego kicked out of him Sam thought the only way he would stand a chance was if he found out everything he could about Curtis.

He said in an interview with the Daily Mail

‘I wasn’t a massive fan. So I got my hands on everything – every video of every stage performance, every interview, any visual thing I could find.’

At the audition he was asked to dance – Curtis’s distinctive jerky stage dance, which occasionally ended in the singer suffering an epileptic seizure.

‘I’d studied it. I used to do it in front of the TV again and again. I kept doing it until I was completely sure. I know it swung the audition for me.’

Director Anton Corbijn put his entire faith – and the fate of his house, which he’d remortgaged to keep the project afloat – in Sam to carry the movie.

‘The responsibility hit me when we started filming. I remember Anton calling me down to see him and telling me to stop drinking. He said it was because he didn’t want me looking fat.

'I knew it was because he was so worried about taking a huge risk on an unknown. He told me I had to learn every single one of my lines, and that (co-star) Samantha Morton would be horrified if I didn’t know them all perfectly.’

Did he stop drinking? He grins.

‘No. I wasn’t fat. I didn’t need to. But I learned every single word. On the first day of filming I asked Sam if she knew all her lines. She just looked at me as if I was an idiot and said, “Are you mad? It’s not a play. It’s a film. Of course I don’t know all my lines.”’

Success second time around has been a redemptive process.

‘I mean, how often do you get a second chance?’ he asks. ‘Once as a rock star and then as an actor? It doesn’t happen.

Sam won a British Independent Film Award for most Promising Newcomer for his portrayal of Ian Curtis in the film Control.

In 2008 Sam featured in an advertisement campaign for the English high fashion house Burberry.

Sam now has several other films in the pipeline including On the Road, which may be one of the most important novels of American culture by Jack Kerouac, Sam will be playing the lead Sal Paradise who is Kerouacs own personal guise. Alongside the gorgeous Kristen Stewart who will be playing Mary - Lou the wife of crazed Dean Moriarty who will be played by Garrett Hedlund. I for one am really looking forward to seeing this film.