In the gangster flick Legend, Tom Hardy won widespread acclaim for playing both Kray twins – sometimes in the same frame. Hats off to Deptford actor Josh Burton who plays THREE brothers in a film he also wrote, directed and produced.

Burton - who studied at Miskin Theatre, Rose Bruford and Kingston College as well as in the States – was responsible for every single element of his drama The Dead Truth, which premieres at Deptford Cinema on July 27.

He said: “I saw Legend with Tom Hardy and I saw one actor playing two characters. Even though other people have done it, the way he did it in particular it was like there wasn’t any body change or aesthetic change, it was more raw acting.

“I just thought to myself, if I had the opportunity I’d like to do that. It wasn’t coming any time soon so I decided to go ahead and start writing something.”

Upping the ante on Hardy in Legend, Burton plays three brothers who have vastly different lots in life. One is a doctor, another a supermarket manager and the third an ex-convict.

Having not seen each other for six years, they are brought together after the death of their mother and soon their secrets start to come out.

Burton said: “Getting in the zone of the characters was probably the easiest because acting is my first thing.

“It was the easiest thing to tackle. Luckily I wrote a script where the story fitted together very well and the writing enabled me to develop a character.”

Understandably, it wasn’t all plain sailing, with the actor having to focus the camera before filming himself and having to act and react to his own performances.

He said: “I did have to work out where my space was to move and the timing, reacting to the person – obviously yourself.

“I was doing everything from feeling. It was difficult in a way.

“I managed to do a few takes of each part, which did turn out to be a lot of film afterwards but it allowed me to know I had reacted maybe seven times to the way I would have given it.”

And that was before he got to the editing, something he has no training in. Burton knew he would need all of his characters on screen at the same time at some points in the movie and spent a lot of time researching how to create the effect, opting in the end for a split screen set up which required even more discipline from his acting performance.

The project was done at a sprint, too, taking just over a month from beginning to write the script to finishing – including reshoots when a computer problem wiped one character entirely.

Now Burton is keen to get his film wider distribution, including at festivals such as Sundance.

He said: “Initially this was just a project to showcase my acting ability and it has turned into something much bigger than that because it is something that no-one else has done, which is a one man made movie.”

He added: “It could be inspiring in a way to know that you don’t have to wait for anyone to create something for you to be able to profile yourself.”

Find out more at josh-burton.com

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