From Skins to Casualty, Mitch Hewer reveals why he’s happy to have a forgettable face…
Before Mitch Hewer played Mickey Ellisson on Casualty he was a memorable character on another top-rated British drama. What’s on TV got chatting to the good natured actor about his time as Maxxie Oliver in Channel 4’s cult classic Skins, and how BBC1’s Casualty compares…
What do you get recognised for more, Casualty or Skins? "To be honest I have one of those faces where if I have slightly different hair or a beard nobody knows who I am! So it’s quite nice right now. I don’t really get recognised and I think it’s just because I always change my appearance. If I bleached my hair again I’d probably get noticed!"
Mitch (right) with Skins co-stars Mike Bailey, Nicholas Hoult and Dev Patel in 2008
Are you still in touch with anyone from Skins? "Just before Christmas we did a Skins convention in Brazil, which was incredible. I caught up with Joe Dempsie, who played Chris, and Larissa Wilson, who played Jal. It was great. I hadn’t seen them in a long time."
Are you still in touch with Dev Patel or Nicholas Hoult? " The last time I saw Dev was about five years ago when I was living in LA. He literally didn’t recognise me, it was hilarious. He thought I was a fan! I was at this place called Urth Caffe when I saw him. Because I hadn’t seen him in ages, I was like ‘Dev!’ His face was hilarious – he was almost like ‘I’m trying to have coffee here!’"
At what point did the penny drop? "I took my hat off and said ‘It’s Mitch’ and he was like ‘Oh my God!’ It was really funny, he really thought I was a fan! But we’re all in different places, working on different things now. We’re never all in the same place so haven’t seen each other in quite a while and it’s been 10 years since we did Skins."
Are you surprised by Skin’s cult status? "That’s what was so amazing about the show - none of us expected anything from it. It was never meant to be this big cult thing. We were just amazed by it. It was the most unbelievable experience of my life, it was just crazy. And it was 10 years ago… now I’m feeling really old!"
Your Casualty storyline is really strong, too. Have you had a good reaction from Casualty fans? "It’s been really, really great. Everybody’s been really sweet on Twitter. Casualty has really strong fan base, which I was really taken aback by. They’ve been really nice and having people appreciate your work makes it worth it. I was messaging Will Austin, who plays Mickey’s brother Scott Ellisson, the other day and I was like ‘Dude, they really hate you with a passion!’"
