Sickly reminder for Bootleg star Steven
11:07am Thursday 12th December 2002 in What's On
Seventeen year-old actor Steven, from Stanmore, plays an enterprising schoolboy who takes on the Government when chocolate is banned in the new Sunday night BBC1 series, Bootleg.
During filming on location in Australia he had to eat scores of bars of chocolate a day and now can't face eating any more.
He said: "Never again. It has cured me of my chocolate addiction.
"Before I went I loved chocolate but after eating so much every day I don't need to eat any more ever.
"On one particular day me and Anthony had to eat 150 bars each. They weren't full bars but it was still a lot of chocolate."
Steven appears alongside ex-Neighbours actor Anthony Hammer in the drama in which the boys conspire with adult characters played by British actors Martin Jarvis and Gemma Jones to make their own chocolate and dodge a special police force patrolling the streets.
Steven, a former pupil at John Lyon School in Harrow, is in the second year of a two-year performing arts and media studies course at West Herts College's Watford campus.
He has been acting and singing ever since he can remember and has had an agent since the age of eight.
He said: "It is what I have always wanted to do. When I was four I got involved with a family drama group and went on from there.
"This is my passion and I can't imagine doing anything else. If the acting doesn't work out | will go into something within the industry like directing."
With an already impressive list of credits to his name, including the title role in Oliver! at the London Palladium and the part of Mike in popular Children's ITV series Mike and Angelo, Steven was thrilled to get Bootleg.
He said: "My agent rang me up and said they were auditioning for it at the BBC. I went up there did an audition and was successful. I had to go back and do a screen test a week later. They told me the next day I had got the part. I was so excited because it was a big role in a big film and I was going to Australia as well."
Bootleg, a collaboration between CBBC and Australian company Burberry Productions, was filmed in Melbourne over three months.
Steven, who had never been to Australia before, said: "It was brilliant. The scenery was incredible and the people were so friendly. They really looked after me out there."
Steven got to see a lot of Melbourne and popped over to Sydney and caught an opera at the city's famous opera house. On the minus side was his gruelling schedule.
He said: "It was pretty tough as I was in pretty much every scene. It was really long hours. On an average day we got up at 5.30am or 6am. The car picked me up from my hotel to wherever we were filming. We filmed at about 100 different locations so I didn't know where I was going from one day to the next.
"It was really, really tiring but I loved every minute of it."
Although still a teenager Steven has a remarkable body of work under his belt. He starred in two series of CBBC's Microsoap and his theatrical appearances include Richard, Duke of York in Richard III with the New Shakespeare Company and Tiny Tim in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of A Christmas Carol.
Mike and Angelo was a particularly good experience: "It was brilliant. It was such a cult show and when I joined it had been running for 12 years.
"I grew up with it so it was really weird going in and seeing all the sets and the studio."
Another recent project was an advertisement for the Disney Channel celebrating 100 years of Disney. Steven said: "They spiked up my hair and dyed it different colours. It was really crazy. I had to live with it for about six months."
Part two of Bootleg will be shown on BBC1 on Sunday at 5.45pm.
