Fast five with Ed Skrein

Get to know the Brit who takes over Jason Statham in The Transporter Refueled

Sep 09, 2015 06:00 am

FACT FILE

Name Edward George Skrein

Born March 29, 1983, London, UK

Filmography Piggy (2012), Ill Manors (2012), Game Of Thrones (TV series, 2013), The Transporter Refueled (2015), Kill Your Friends (2015), Deadpool (2016)

1 'RAP' SHEET

Before this 32-year-old of Austrian Jewish and English descent began acting, he was a rapper who released two EPs and a studio album.

Deadpool ['Manchester United Dream' TV Spot in HD (1080p)]

Movies

Movie Date : Deadpool (M18)

Feb 10, 2016

He got into acting in 2008 when a friend asked him to star in a short film and hasn't looked back since, though he told Digital Spy he still "has a lot of improvement to do".

2 HE'S GOT DRIVE

Hollywood's latest Brit import is quickly becoming the action hero, thanks to a starring role in The Transporter Refueled.

Opening here Sept 10, the fourth instalment of the action franchise sees Skrein taking over the driver's seat from Jason Statham as the former special ops mercenary Frank Martin.

3 DIY DUDE

The father of a four-year-old boy loves to do his own stunts.

For The Transporter Refueled, he trained hard in martial arts in order to prepare for the fight choreography.

Skrein told People: "Whenever you read scripts, you think to yourself, 'How am I going to do that (stunt)?'

"But it always ends up safe and fun in the end, and I always end up wanting to do it, and saying to the director, 'Don't have a stunt man do this, I want to do this!'"

4 QUICK EXIT

Game Of Thrones fans will recognise Skrein as Daario Naharis, the long-haired love interest of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) in the popular HBO TV series, until he was unceremoniously replaced after only three episodes in 2013.

He recently told Entertainment Weekly the reason for his exit.

He said: "My plan was to stay with Game Of Thrones for the long haul. It was a wonderful experience, but politics led to us parting ways."

5 BAD BOY

Skrein's next big action flick is the highly anticipated superhero flick Deadpool, alongside Ryan Reynolds who plays the titular comic-book superhero.

Skrein portrays assassin Ajax, and told People that playing an "evil" villain was "great fun".

He said: "It makes me sick to see a fight in real life but when you're in a controlled environment and you know people aren't getting hurt, it's fantastic to torture people, beat them up and kill people, and do all of these horrible things that we wouldn't dream of doing in normal life!"