Croydon-born Lycurgo has battled zombies and supervillains but is just as happy with social realism. “I love gritty, heartfelt drama,” he tells Screen
After breaking through four years ago in the DC Entertainment superhero show Titans, Jay Lycurgo has proven something of a genre hopper. He turned sorcerous for the sadly short-lived Netflix series The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, tackled zombies in Ben Wheatley’s Channel 4 satire Generation Z, and encountered vampires in Sky Cinema’s The Radleys. But, as Netflix feature Steve reveals, the 27-year-old seems much happier getting his hands dirty in the grounded world of social realism.
“I love gritty, heartfelt drama,” says Lycurgo, speaking from his home in London, where a central heating fault on the coldest day of the year has left him shivering under several layers of winter wear. “When I was a student in drama school” – Croydon-born Lycurgo graduated from west London’s ArtsEd in 2019 – “that is what I wanted to do. I wanted to torture myself a bit in these sorts of headspaces.”
The role that has so satisfyingly “tortured” him in Steve is that of troubled teenager Shy, who attends a residential school for boys with behavioural problems in mid-1990s England, under the aegis of beleaguered headmaster Steve (Cillian Murphy, who also produced). Spanning a day in the life of the school, Tim Mielants’ Loach‑ian drama (based on the novel Shy by Max Porter) charts a pupil’s psychological meltdown following a traumatic phone call from his mother.
Lycurgo’s acclaimed portrayal of Shy earned him a best supporting performance win at the British Independent Film Awards, not to mention signing with Murphy’s team at CAA. Lycurgo was unaware of the book and Murphy’s involvement in the project when he first auditioned for the part. What hooked him was the fact his father, ex-professional footballer David Johnson, today has the same job as Steve.
“As soon as I saw that it was about alternative educational units, I ran to my dad’s home office and we talked about his work,” reveals Lycurgo. “Before I even had the role, I started going into his work and talking to the teachers and the young people he looks after.”
His research also involved “reading the book relentlessly”, he says, pointing out that as a first-person narrative from Shy’s perspective, it gave him rich access to the character’s inner life.
“It opened this whole new world of imagination and relatability,” says Lycurgo. “Shy spoke to me, and I felt in a lot of ways I have been Shy in moments of my life. So that book was everything. I would read it every day.”
For the first time since drama school, Lycurgo found himself reaching beyond the tools given to him by his education. He drew from the extensive rehearsal workshop that Mielants insisted on for all the young actors playing Shy’s schoolmates, and his own psychological deep dives. “When the day finished, I didn’t stop working. I would get back to the hotel and lock myself away, I isolated myself. And I just started journaling as Shy.”
Close collaboration
Playing the character also brought Lycurgo into collaboration with Murphy. The young actor cites a tense scene they shared – “when I’m screaming in his face and saying, ‘Why do you care?’” – as his favourite moment of the shoot.
“Afterwards, I went up to him and said, ‘Cillian, I’ve got to say, I’m just so happy with how that went,’ and he was like, ‘You don’t have to say too much because when a scene works, it’s just like music.’ [I] thought, ‘That’s so cool.’”
When asked if he considers Murphy a mentor, Lycurgo describes him as “a true friend”.
“I feel like you see your closest friends as all kinds of different people – teachers, mentors, role models,” he adds. “I really do trust Cillian. He saw something in me, and I would always ask him for advice. I know he’s always there.”
The pair have reunited for the upcoming Peaky Blinders film The Immortal Man, although Lycurgo is unable to share any details about his role.
“There are flat caps in there. I’m in it. Do I wear a flat cap? No,” he grins. “It was a bigger scale than Steve, but it was a great experience.”
Following that, he will be seen in Clio Barnard’s adaptation of the Keiran Goddard novel I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, which marks a return to realism for Lycurgo. And then? Unsurprisingly, since Steve, which premiered in Toronto’s Platform section and was released by Netflix in September, “a lot of people have reached out”, the actor confirms.
“There’s been some exciting scripts I’ve been able to see. This stuff takes time, but all the right conversations are happening. So let’s see what happens.” And despite his professed preference for real-world grit, Lycurgo would not rule out a return to fantastical fare. “I pride myself on being a versatile actor,” he says. “I do feel like I can do it all.”
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