Interview with Jon Pointing (Danny)

Danny is a cheeky chappie with a heart of gold. Where would you say his head is at this series?

The pressure really comes on in the third year. It’s the leaving [university] and deciding what you’re going to do with your life afterwards. That’s playing on his mind. Uni is this little bubble you can exist in, and his life outside of that is, obviously, tumultuous. His relationship with Corinne is also a big part of where his head is at. That plays a big part in his behaviour. But just like the other series, he is still quite scrambled.

Things seem to be going fairly well for Danny and Corinne. We see Danny’s romantic gesture in episode one when he erects a tent outside the luxury hotel in Greece.

He did! Although it was hot stood outside the tent. It’s a nice gesture to do a bit of wild camping, but the reality would be hell. That’s Danny all over, isn’t it?

How did you find filming in Malta? 

We had four, five days out there. It shouldn’t really be called work. It was so much fun, a little holiday. We had quite a bit to film, but it was well spread out between the cast… we had lots of time off. We used the hotel for most of the locations, so you’d finish work, and people would go straight to the pool in between scenes.

Big Boys flips the trope of the ‘gay best friend’ on its head, celebrating the bromance between Danny and Jack. 

For too long, there weren’t enough people with those stories that were actually writing the stories… on the one hand it feels fresh and a new, kind of, thing we haven’t seen before, but actually, it also feels completely familiar. That’s what that relationship and the ‘straight best friend’ thing that Jack’s written is; it’s immediately recognisable, and for a lot of people that’s their reality. They’re like, ‘Of course I know that, but I’ve never seen it represented on telly before.’ It’s mad to think that hasn’t really been shown in any big way before. 

You’ve also been embraced by the LGBTQ+ community, popping up on the cover of Attitude magazine last year. How does it feel to be considered an ally?

It’s lovely… I’m not sure how to articulate it. There’s a part of my life that’s on the front [cover] of Attitude, and in Big Boys, and it’s like, you’re this ally that’s been accepted by this community. But the reality is that I actually have those people in my real life that I’m an ally to, they’re my friends, the places I go.

It’s really nice to feel people from the LGBTQ+ community can come up to me, feel comfortable coming up to me in the street, being like, ‘I really love the show.’ Anything that brings people together, or makes people feel like there’s less differences is a good thing.

We’ve seen Danny deal with mental health issues and know the story of the real-life inspiration behind the character. Do you hope the show has encouraged young men, in particular young straight men, to speak about their struggles?

Unfortunately, terms like ‘toxic masculinity’ can make people eyeroll… that is the problem. Maybe there are straight men who are lucky, for some reason or another have found a way to open up and talk. It is a generalisation, but they do find it hard to talk. There’s lots of charities, lots of blokes saying, ‘It’s important we talk,’ and it is. I don’t know if they’re actually doing it, or whether they’ve just got a pin badge saying, ‘We should do it.’ There’s a long way to go…

When I think about my group of friends who identify as gay or queer, it feels like much more of a supportive network. They’ve had to come through something that means they understand that it takes more than yourself to get though things. [Straight] men, quite often – and I include myself in this – it’s a work in progress. Somehow, it’s the sort of makeup of society that you go off and deal with your problems on your own… because it’s this, I guess, weakness.

It's been really interesting to have to think and talk about it a lot because of this show. So many people reach out to me, and it’s very touching. It’s also apparent that it’s still such a big issue because there are so many people, men, that are struggling.

Actors often say they take parts of a character away with them. What have you learnt from playing Danny?

It’s often something superficial, like how you might say or do something. Sometimes I’ll make a joke and be like, ‘Ah, that’s a Danny joke.’

Can you share a memorable behind-the-scenes moment?

Malta was amazing. It was the last day of filming. I finished early and was sat on the beach having a drink. Then Haz [Harriet] came and sat with me. One by one, the cast started joining us, and we were like, ‘This is probably the last time we will all do this together.’ Then, randomly, loads of fireworks started going off. I just ran into the sea [laughs].