photography MAXWELL TOMLINSON
photography stylin styling NICO CARMANDAYE
text FELICIA PENNANT
A match-day encounter with Sheyi Cole, Chelsea fan and scene-stealing star of The Beautiful Game
Sheyi Cole and I roar and double high-five when Chelsea FC’s starboy Cole Palmer scores an icecold penalty then the winner in extra time against Manchester United. Given we’re in the same epic #ProperChels group chat, meeting to watch a match and talk in person was overdue. The actor arrives at his local pub in Tulse Hill, south London with a wide smile and hug, we settle upstairs with pints and jerk chicken, and he contemplates every question I ask deeply with one eye fixed on the game. The 25-yearold has supported Chelsea since nursery and coincidentally, his mum once did security at Stamford Bridge. Clear on the qualities that Blues fans share – “pure wear-our-heart-on-our-sleeve passion, and we’re pompous o the back of our success” – his favourite moment was when Didier Drogba’s penalty clinched the club’s (and London’s) first Champions League title in 2012.
“I know we’re not supposed to do VNs in this [group chat] but this is ridiculous circumstances right now,” says Cole, whose own childhood dream of becoming a footballer stalled because the self-professed “man of comfort” had the skill but not the discipline, having played at Sunday League level from the age of seven. Annoyingly good at multiple sports including cross-country running, his biggest flex is mastering the 100m and 200m sprints with Dina Asher-Smith as his training partner. “I genuinely could have been at the Olympics,” he reveals, “I just knew I had more love for music and more raw talent acting.” In a parallel universe, the half-Nigerian, half-Sierra Leonean Londoner would line up with Cole as a speedy left-sided midfielder tearing up the league, instead of stealing scenes as kleptomaniac Jason in N e t fl i x ’ s The Beautiful Game, released in March.
The film is based on the real Homeless World Cup, an annual football tournament which has been inspiring homeless people to change their lives since 2003. The cast did a football boot camp to prepare for their athletic roles, though Cole’s part actually required him to dial down some of his natural talent. They shot in Rome during Euro 2020, staged in the summer of 2021 due to Covid. “Jas is a bit like [Chelsea striker] Nicolas Jackson; he has spells of excellence but fumbles,” says Cole. “[I had to] learn the choreography but make out that it wasn’t choreography, and live it like it was the first time I was doing it.” One of the actor’s closest friends in the industry, Micheal Ward, plays stando sh lead Vinny, and Cole concedes he was naturally the best player, like his character. Cole’s favourite place to visit in the city was the Trevi fountain, and the wish you see Jason make in the film is the same one Cole would have made for himself at the time: Please can England win the tournament. “I was there during the [England v Italy] final and we had to change our accents. I was walking around with an American accent because you can get serious backlash with Roma and Lazio [fans] there.”
Cole’s film, which topped Netflix’s most-watched charts over Easter, sees fictional coach Mal Bradley (Bill Nighy) and his homeless players blossom representing England at a five-a-side tournament in the Italian capital. As the characters’ issues intensify, viewers are forced to confront their biases, and Jason supplies comic relief. But Cole shares a humble charisma with his character that makes you root for him as his team upsets seemingly impossible odds. Born in Penge and raised in Bromley, the actor grew up singing in a boys’ choir and crooning along to The Jacksons, Marvin Gaye and Sister Sledge. He thinks his nightclub-owning Nigerian grandma put entertainment in his bloodline, and gave up sports when he transferred to the Brit school at 16 to study theatre and film. “I’ve always been able to make friends really easily and I don’t let my colour restrict me in any way,” he explains. “Barriers that might have been there don’t exist in my mind.”
All performers learn to take brutal rejections, which tend to have precious silver linings, in their stride. Cole’s first taste was gentle: he was just 12 when he sang Boyz II Men’s hit “End of the Road” on Britain’s Got Talent, and they told him to keep doing his thing. “I should have done ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber,” he quips. “[But the experience] helped me because the sooner I was able to deal with it, the better.” Another bump in the road came when Cole failed to land a spot at drama school, leading him to juggle a bar job with five or six youth companies, including Open Door, for a year. Proving himself a committed artist, he was accepted by a handful of schools upon reapplying. Attending Guildhall School of Music & Drama was “non-negotiable”, though, since his uncle studied music there, and he graduated in 2021.
Proud to be classically trained, Cole loves following skyrocketing actor and mentor Paapa Essiedu’s lead. “We’re just working on working together,” he smiles, pointing out the distinguished “ease and naturalism” the Black Mirror and I May Destroy You star shares with Guildhall alumni like Daniel Craig and Orlando Bloom. It was while studying here that filmmaker Steve McQueen plucked him out of class, and obscurity, for his breakthrough role as revolutionary writer Alex Wheatle in the multi-award-winning anthology series Small Axe (2020). “The way I carry myself on set is based on what [Steve] taught me,” he shares. “To lead, to be confident in oneself and ability. I have to back myself knowing that I’m employed because I’m good enough.”
In June 2022, the Guildhall school issued a public apology after Essiedu and I May Destroy You co-star Michaela Coel spoke of a racist incident they’d been subjected to while studying there. The appalling racism is, in his view, still there and Cole wasn’t afraid to shut down class when a teacher stepped out of line. “I don’t business. When you are paying an institution to learn and better yourself, I don’t expect to get racially abused,” he says. “As soon as a teacher said [the ‘n’-word], I raised my hand and said, ‘You cannot say that. It’s extremely insensitive.’ It’s like, why do you say that word when you know that 90% of the time, someone’s going to be upset? It comes down to privilege and that’s messed up.”
Building on impressive credits and joining incredible casts excites Cole and only gets him closer to international stardom (Cole has his eyes on a full Egot set – Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony – no less). For a long time, his phone background was an image of Sidney Poitier holding his historic Oscar, but it has since changed to beautiful Alex Wheatle fan art by Ashley Straker to mark that “momentous time” (Small Axe was his first major role). The actor and Aml Ameen stan was happy to play Josh in the Kidulthood
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