Actor & Producer Terry Stone: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker

Always check all of the paperwork before you do a deal, never take someone’s word that everything is in order.

As a part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Terry Stone.

Highly acclaimed Actor and Producer Terry Stone (Rise Of The Footsoldier, Rollin With The Nines, Anuvahood) is an Advocate and Senior Executive for FilmCoin — a blockchain-powered film creation & television production cryptocurrency that aims to challenge the existing status quo of the film industry.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?

I grew up on a council estate. My father worked in Tesco and my mother worked for a scaffolding company as an office manager so I originated 100% from the working classes. Growing up was tough as I got bullied so I had to take up boxing to even up the playing field. It was fun though and looking back on my early years, everything I learned from being brought up in this environment from resilience to persistence to patience to hard work and never giving up were life lessons that everyone should be taught and experience. In a crazy way, all of these experiences have all become invaluable to me in my career as an actor and a film producer.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

If I’d never had a random call out of the blue asking me if I’d like to be in a film then I would never have been in this industry. So, thanks for that call and my first acting role! Look what you’ve done, you’ve created an acting and a film-making monster!

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?

I think the funniest was wearing that special ginger wig in the first-ever Rise of The Footsoldier Film in 2007, fast forward to 2022 and the wig carries on five films later!! If you actually look at the character’s hair it was that bad in real life. But it was flattering to see World Leaders like Boris Johnson and Donald Trump copying my hairstyle from this film. The most interesting story was when my business partner came back from a work trip from the Middle East and started raving about us developing a film about The Shah of Iran, he gave me a couple of books to read and then I was hooked on this fascinating story and fast-forwarding to 2022 and we now have an outstanding screenplay, an Oscar-Winning Director and we are ready to bring this amazing piece of history and story to the big screen.

Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?

I don’t want to name any names here as I hate name-dropping. I’ve always found in life that I’m always drawn to people that are either hugely successful or a lot smarter than me. I think the main reason is that I want to learn from them so that I can make myself better — not just in my personal life but also in my business life so I can totally win at whatever I do in life. As a perfectionist and a hugely ambitious person, I’m never happy as nothing is ever perfect and whatever I achieve I always want to achieve more.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who help’d get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I personally think you make your own luck by working hard and never giving up. I’ve been up and down like a yo-yo over the past 33 years and I’ve always somehow got to where I need to be by being persistent and somehow managing to stay alive. There are lots of people who have helped me along the way like the mate who kept on and on about me going with him to a rave when I’d lost my job and I was on the dole. After months of asking, I finally gave in and got a taste for the rave scene and after years of hard work and many jobs within the rave scene, I eventually became the biggest club promoter in the World.

I helped myself by identifying an opportunity and then deciding to make it happen, I’ve taken huge risks, some of them insane and some have paid off and others haven’t. I’ve had great partners as well as bad ones and great staff as well as bad staff, but I’ve always had to find them in the first instance and pay them and get through the ups and downs. None of these people just turned up and worked for free.

As an actor, a friend offered me a small part in a film that got me in the door, but I still had to personally fund the first few years of being an actor, I had to go to acting school, find an agent and go for the auditions. I’ve been acting for 19 years now, and I still have to audition just like everyone else — it never gets easier.

As a film producer the biggest people who have helped me to get to where I am today are all the investors who over the years have supported the films that I wanted to make and in turn, supported the arts and created jobs within the UK Film industry. These are the people I’m most grateful for and are the real heroes in my life. We’ve had to go and find them though, unfortunately, they don’t just pop up and say ‘Hi Terry can I give you some money for your films please?’. You also need to get used to hearing the word ‘No’ a lot. Every time I hear No, I’m closer to a Yes! Well, that’s how I put a positive spin on it anyway!

The main entities above all that I’m truly grateful for is God and my spiritual guides. I don’t follow any specific religion, but I do believe in one God, one creator and your spiritual guides. They have looked out for me and guided me along my path through the good and the bad.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Winners Never Quit and Quitters Never Win” — the reason I love this quote and I have an invisible tattoo on my forehead with this on is because it’s very easy to say it’s too hard or listen to the negative nelly’s telling you why you can’t do things and why you should stay in your lane and get a proper job so you can be just like them. When I developed the first Footsoldier film I spent two years trying to get it funded and I was told constantly no it won’t work no one will fund it etc etc. It has since gone on to become the biggest British true-crime franchise in history with a total of five films made over the past 15 years. It would have been easy after 18 months to give up but I didn’t — and eventually, it got made. How many people reading this would have kept going after 18 months of rejection and being told no?

I am very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

I think diversity is very important as we live in such a diverse world, and this should be reflected on screen -so it mirrors society. But I also think in some cases it’s being taken too far and we need to have a sensibility check regarding this. There was an instance recently when Dame Maureen Lipman took offense to Dame Helen Mirren playing Golda Meir because she said she wasn’t Jewish. Dame Helen asked this question “Does this mean that if you’re Jewish then you can only play Jewish roles?” It’s a great question because if this was the case maybe Maureen Lipman wouldn’t have had the acting career she has had and maybe she wouldn’t be a Dame, who knows? It’s called acting and it allows artists to play and experience different characters that they are not, otherwise, it becomes actors just playing themselves on stage and reading lines — and in my opinion takes away a lot of the art.

If you look at Daniel Day-Lewis who is one of the greatest actors of all time when he played the character with cerebral palsy in My Left Foot would this be frowned upon if this was made today? Most probably! Would the world be saying someone with Cerebral Palsy should have played this part along with the outrage on Twitter?

I think in many cases if it’s done and thought through and executed well, it’s a really great thing for the entertainment industry if you look at Black Panther by way of example. This was the first-ever Black Superhero movie with the Director and Leading Cast and it was the biggest grossing superhero film of all time. Which just goes to show that not only does this work but the old ways of content where it was very white and not diverse is changing, you can see this through the Television Broadcasters and Streaming platforms too — and the audiences are lapping it up if it’s done well.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

“Requiem For a King” is the true story of the rise and fall of The Shah Of Iran. “Tales From The Trap” is a true story set in London about the County Lines Drug Dealing Gangs. We are also in the process of finishing “United Nation — 25 Years of UKG” which is a documentary about the UK Garage scene and “The Last Heist” which is British Reservoir Dogs with an Afterlife twist.

Which aspect of your work makes you most proud? Can you explain or give a story?

I think being able to get ideas and stories and be able to turn them into a screenplay which then evolves into a film or television show. I always feel the proudest when I’m either at a premiere where an audience watches the film for the first time or if I’m walking down the street and I get stopped and someone says they loved the film or they loved my work as an actor in the film. This makes it all worthwhile.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. 95% of all actors are unemployed.

2. Get a really good Media Lawyer and don’t sign anything until they’ve approved it.

3. Always check all of the paperwork before you do a deal, never take someone’s word that everything is in order.

4. Never be the last person on the recoupment schedule and if you can recoup your money pro-rata and pari-passu with everyone else at the same time then this is always the preferred option.

5. When you acquire content, always buy it, never option it.

When you create a film, which stakeholders have the greatest impact on the artistic and cinematic choices you make? Is it the viewers, the critics, the financiers, or your own personal artistic vision? Can you share a story with us or give an example about what you mean?

It’s usually the writer, director and producer’s artistic vision. When the film is in the edit then it's usually the Director and the Producers that have the arguments and then after they are happy the sales agent and distributors feedback their thoughts if attached.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

We’ve already started one, it’s called FilmCoin. It’s going to empower independent filmmakers and content creators worldwide to take back control of what they’re making and get paid in real-time, rather than the years of waiting for content to be released on all the various platforms, whilst hoping that the sales agent and distribution companies don’t go out of business.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. :-)

Steven Spielberg because I’ve grown up watching his films and he is without a doubt the best content creators/directors in the world. I’d love to spend time with him socially to hear his story, I’ve read his book, but I think you always get a better sense of someone in person over nice food and a good bottle of wine.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!