ED SHEERAN - "I'M A CHUBBY GINGER BLOKE WITH SOME DODGY TATTOOS"

BY MITCHELL PARRISH

The reason people like Ed Sheeran is, primarily, because he’s Ed Sheeran. Not only does he go about his time in the pop world with all the humility of someone just starting out at their local bar, but with an inherent ability to laugh not only at himself but also the sordid, senseless insanity of the record industry, he is truly a man of the ages.

“I’m a chubby ginger bloke with some dodgy tattoos,” he begins. “I’m hardly going to start coming out professing to be the savior of the world,” which is an ironic statement because half of the Brit’s fanbase would have him precisely as that.

While the 28-year-old’s music may not be to the taste of every demographic, his personable nature surely is, and making what has become a well-trodden “next career path” from the music industry into the acting world, Sheeran has found himself rocking up in perhaps the most linear film role possible—as a musician, in a film about music.

So even though the “Photograph,” “Castle on the Hill” and “Shape of You” singer hasn’t moved too far outside his comfort zone, he is at least stunningly accomplished in an acting role that is as immaculate and precise as any song chorus he has strummed.

“I think when you’re on stage, there is a fair amount of acting going on anyway,” he says. “In this instance, I’m replacing words in song form with words on a script, and that’s probably the biggest challenge. Everything else is about delivery, timing and sincerity, and I’ve built a career out of that.”

In Yesterday, Sheeran supports unknown star Jack  (Himesh Patel), whose elevation to global superstar is all off the back of The Beatles’ back catalog, which in a bizarre parallel universe (which Patel seems to have entered after banging his head in a bike accident) no-one has ever heard.

So while “Yesterday,” “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “Please Please Me” arrive, seemingly, from the songwriting pen of the film’s main star, the lead star must ponder how long this deceit can go on for, and more to the point, where the hell is Ringo Starr?

STRIPLV: Why is the time right now to move into film projects?
SHEERAN: I think no matter what you do in life, and whatever line of work you are in, the desire to mix it up will always come about after a while. I know you will have a lot of musicians who stick rigidly to what they do, and that is to make records, but I’ve always been quite open to other opportunities, providing they are fun, and I feel I can do them justice, and I’ve always looked at acting in that way.
STRIPLV: Does it help with the film leaning very strongly on music as the main subject?
SHEERAN: Well, that sort of thing definitely keeps me in my comfort zone. I think the bigger thing about this movie is the fact you’ve got Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle behind it. I mean, could you ask for two bigger creative minds to lead something forward? It’s an absolute dream to work with them, and although we have really worked to make the film as polished and flowing and naturally funny as possible, those who could make anything sing from the very first bar, so it was easy really and absolutely an opportunity I could never have turned down.
STRIPLV: Do some echoes of the film remind you of when you were getting started?
SHEERAN: I guess so, yes. That was a long time ago now, but I’ve always approached the industry with a kind of eyes wide open approach and never taken anything for granted. I’m still grateful and slightly disbelieving every day that this is my life, and I have the honor of having people listen to my records. It is a fairy-tale, and it doesn’t lessen in its magnitude.
STRIPLV: Are the pressures easier to deal with these days?

SHEERAN: The pressures are more manageable when you know you have already achieved something, but for the most part, I know they will always be there. That’s natural.
STRIPLV: I’ve been told that you upset one of your fans because you didn’t kiss the child of a parent fan. How true is this?
SHEERAN: Well, I was asked by someone a while ago if I have intense fans and I don’t really. But some of the parents of fans are quite full-on, now and this lady came up to me when I was promoting one of my songs in San Francisco and said: “Carrie Underwood was this 11-year-old boy’s first kiss and I just think that’s so, rad. Can you be my daughter’s first kiss?” So, you think an 11-year-old boy going into school and saying that Carrie Underwood was his first kiss and if I was 11 and my first kiss was Britney Spears, and I walk in with a huge smile on my face and such. But if you’re a nine-year-old girl and your first kiss is me. The police are getting called! Yeah, I read the article, and it does look quite negative, especially as the headline says, “Ed Sheeran turns down a kiss from a fan”, but it’s not like that.
STRIPLV: What was this about Elton John sending you certain videos?
SHEERAN: (Laughs) Well, he runs the management company that I am signed to, and I got to U.S. Customs about two years ago, and I had about 17 new emails from him, and I thought: “Right, this might be quite important.” So, I clicked on one of them, and it was a video of a certain nature, as you say. I was absolutely mesmerized by what was going on in this video, where there was a girl, a catapult and a ball—you can fill in the blanks yourself—and I quickly shut the video down, because U.S. Customs don’t let English people in the country for anything and, you’re not supposed to even be on your phone in Customs.
STRIPLV: You have a lot of industry relationships for a regular guy. Do you value those relationships, and do you think that they are real?
SHEERAN: Yeah, some of them are very real, and it’s interesting because I dropped out of school at a young age and then found most of my friends in older people. It wasn’t until I got into the industry that I started really making friends there. I have got my school friends and stuff like that and friends who are a similar age to me, and they are all kind of doing the same sort of thing. It’s hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t really know what is happening in your life. But it is very cool, and you can have good chats.
STRIPLV: Do you think that these people would be your friends if you weren’t Ed Sheeran, the star singer/songwriter?
SHEERAN: Yeah, because most of them were really my friends when nothing was really happening. So, I guess so. I hope so. (Laughs)
STRIPLV: Who would you consider as being your industry friends? Jamie Foxx? Was it him that discovered you?
SHEERAN: Yeah. (Laughs) My first American gig was in a place called Inglewood, which is in the South Bay of Los Angeles, at a place called the Savoy Entertainment Theatre for a night called Fly Poet, which is a fantastic night. I turned up at that night and just said to them if they knew any other shows could they book me in, because I was due to be there for another month and I had nowhere to stay and no other plans. John, the guy who ran it, took me around and got me booked in to play The Foxhole and I met Jamie Foxx’s manager there, who then invited me on the radio show. I was then quite embarrassed to tell them that I didn’t have a place to stay, and Jamie was like: “Well, come and stay with me.” It was really mad because I arrived at the house and I didn’t really know what was happening, and he said: “Right, we’re going to my buddy’s birthday party,” as soon as I arrived. Raphael Saadiq was the house band, and everyone was wearing cowboy and cowgirl outfits, as it was a rodeo-themed night. In Jamie’s house, I saw the awards cabinet, and that was really impressive. He’s won a Grammy and an Oscar—so that’s pretty legit.
STRIPLV: Does Jamie still have any interest in your career as in a financial percentage in your earnings?
SHEERAN: Well, I flew back to England about three days after arriving at his house, and I basically came to build it back over here (in the UK). I think that if I had have stayed over in America, then there would have been something. But I had to come back over here and do it.
STRIPLV: You have done more work in California, most recently with rapper The Game.
SHEERAN: Yeah, The Game is one of my favorite rappers. With singers, you can hear the emotion, but sometimes with rap, it is just lyrics and flows. Whereas with The Game, it’s emotive and I very much feel everything that he says. That all happened after I got a random call from him saying: “What up? It’s The Game; my girl is a big fan of yours, can she say hi?” So, I did, and then he came back on the phone, and I told him that I was going to be in L.A. tomorrow, do you want to hook up and do a song? Pharrell does that as well, where he will test songs out on groups of women to see if they like them, because they are the ones who are the consumers, they are the ones who would love the music. Guys kind of go on what the girls would go on.