The Hooligan Factory premiere: a chat with the cast and director on the red carpet

The Hooligan Factory is the world’s first spoof of the popular football hooligan genre, or so say the creators of this gory, inane and sometimes over-the-top comedy.

Starring director and creator Nick Nevern and Jason Maza, along with a colourful cast, The Hooligan Factory pays homage to British cinema while having a lot of fun lampooning it at the same time.

The Upcoming spoke to director Nick Nevern and actor Jason Maza, as well as supporting actor Steven O’Donnell at the world premiere at Odeon West End.

Nick, this is your second feature as a director and as a writer. How are you going juggling the two roles this time around?

Nick Nevern: Absolutely love it: easy as hell. No I’m just kidding. It’s a hard job. But when you have a good cast and a great crew it becomes a lot easier. You’ve got a great producer…it becomes easier. Terrible producer, I meant. No, it’s very easy when you’ve got great people around you. So that would probably be my answer to that.

With the football hooliganism it’s a pretty serious topic. So how do you two feel going about it as a satire, and as a bit of a spoof?

Jason Maza: Well, to be honest, I feel like we’re at a time when luckily hooliganism is sort of on its way out. It doesn’t really happen anymore, it’s not like the 80s. There’s CCTV, things are done right, so it doesn’t really exist anymore. So I think the time is right now to lampoon it and satirise it, and have a laugh at it.

So we are having a bit of a laugh with it but there is a bit of a message to it?

Nick: Yeah, absolutely. The message is, you know, stand your ground.

Jason: Because that is the most important thing.

Nick: And that is the most important message ever that anyone could ever give. So stand your ground because that is the most important thing.

On Nick Nevern as a director and as a perfectionist.

Steven O’Donnell: Absolutely, but he kind of knows what he wants to, and he knows when things are wrong – that is exactly what he wants. “That is wrong, get rid of it now”, because we didn’t have time or anything. I’ve been up with so many directors; they go round the hand and they never really get what they want because they are trying to appease the actors. I would rather that if I was doing something wrong – not that I did anything wrong – but if I was doing something wrong, I’d rather someone say “you’re doing it wrong, do it this way.”

Piri Eddy

The Hooligan Factory is released nationwide on 13^th June 2014. Read our review here.