SEAN Bourke (pictured above), Liam Hess and Tommy Bastow – aka Tom, Peter Dyer and Dave The Laugh – talk about appearing in Gurinder Chadha’s Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging and how they handled the film’s numerous kissing scenes.

Sean also lets us into one of his most embarrassing real-life stories, while Liam explains why he thinks Louise Rennison’s novels have been adapted so successfully…

Q. How did you cope with all the snogging?
Sean Bourke: Well, what happens is, you’re really nervous, you go in for the scene, you snog and the nerves are gone and it’s just technical. You have Gurinder [Chadha] and then Dick Pope, the cinematographer, telling you: “Why don’t you move left? Why don’t you move right? Why don’t you put this hand there? Why don’t you just try and angle her, so we can get that shot?” And my jaw just getting sorer and sorer.

Liam Hess: It was quite difficult as well because it was my first day when I had to do that big snogging scene, so I sort of met… well I’d met Georgia [Groome] before but I hadn’t really got to know her or anything, so I was sort of like: “Hi!” And then they pushed our heads together and made us snog for four hours! [Laughs] So, that was a bit of an awkward situation at the time but we’re good friends now and just laugh about it. There were no relationships on set, though, everyone was just friends, but I think if there had been it might have been more awkward. But the fact we were just friends meant that we were more comfortable around each other and uninhibited. I think you can see on-screen how close everyone is.

Q. How did you generate the saliva between you and Georgia?
Liam Hess: There was a bit of gel inside Georgia’s lip. It was cherry flavour.

Q. So, it took four hours to film?
Liam Hess: Well, it took a couple of hours. It took quite a while because obviously it’s quite a long scene and they wanted the chance to get it from every single angle. As you can see in the movie, it does go on for quite a while.

Q. Have you ever given snogging lessons to someone in real life?
Liam Hess: No and I hope nobody gives snogging lessons. It’s a bit worrying to think there might be someone out there doing that; I’d be quite disturbed.

Q. Do you remember your own first snogs?
Sean Bourke: Oh, we answered this earlier on and it brought back terrible memories [laughs].

Liam Hess: I can’t really remember mine. I can remember by first kiss but not my first snog, and that was when I was about six, at primary school, and I had a girlfriend. It was round the back of the bike shed, which is a cliche, but I can’t remember any more.

Sean Bourke: It was awful. I was about 11 and I’d set up this party before and it all got changed around. I was at a family party, with a friend of the family – so no relation at all – and literally your mates, boom, her mates, boom, and you were there face to face and you had to do it. But then I felt absolutely sick afterwards.

Tommy Bastow: My first proper kiss was in the back of the cinema during Lord of the Rings, the first one. It was a long film. It was alright, it was pretty good, and I thought I was in love. I was in year five, I think.

Q. Had you guys read the books?
Tommy Bastow: Well, after I realised I’d got the part I read the books to get some background on the character.

Sean Bourke: It was the same with me but to be fair, an 18-year-old boy would have no interest in reading Angus, Thongs & Full Frontal Snogging unless he was in the film!

Liam Hess: I’d heard of the book before because it’s obviously a very popular book. All my friends, who were girls, had read it. They couldn’t wait to see the film.

Tommy Bastow: And that adds some pressure as well because you don’t want to mess it up. You want to do it justice.

Sean Bourke: It’s funny because as an 18-year-old I didn’t even think I’d enjoy watching the film, but once I sat down, because of the way they put it together, and the jokes they used, the cinematography they used, I actually enjoyed it.

Liam Hess: It’s a guilty pleasure. But I think Gurinder had a really tough job because the book is all in diary form. There’s not much of a storyline and it’s almost like a diary with little jokes. So, I think it was quite difficult for her because she had to make a story arc, and she had to make it interesting the whole time – more of a rollercoaster ride of emotions with sad moments and happy moments. Obviously, it wouldn’t work as a diary, it would just be boring, but I think she’s really pulled it off. She’s translated the whole feel of the book even though she’s changed aspects of it.

Q. How did you overcome the challenge of playing Tom?
Sean Bourke: Acting-wise, this is my first thing and I’ve never done a movie before. But it wasn’t a hard role. It was a nice role for my first thing and a great cast to work with.

Q. You’re also a model, though, aren’t you?
Sean Bourke: Yeah, that was my bread and butter and introduction to being in front of the camera. I started that when I was 15. I moved on and up through modelling and learned a lot really. But then I decided that I’d always idolised these film stars… I’d watch James Dean on the screen and Marlon Brando and think: “Oh my Lord, they’re amazing!” I love the way Marlon Brando acts; it was an original technique he used at the time and he was so revolutionary. So, I decided to see if I could get some acting experience and got an agent and went to a few auditions. Then I got this one and thought: “Yeah, let’s give this a go.”

Q. So would you rather do acting now than modelling?
Sean Bourke: It’s not that I’d rather do acting than modelling. Obviously, acting is a passion and it’s something that I really enjoy. Modelling is fun but you can’t put down something that’s got you so far, so easily. I do enjoy modelling.

Q. Where do you see yourself in the future?
Sean Bourke: In an ideal world, if everything goes right, I’d love to be a great film star – always in work, enjoying acting and being good at it.

Q. Do you have any other projects lined up?
Sean Bourke: No because I’ve been doing a lot of modelling recently, but I’m still going to try and do auditions. I have university in September, so this was a gap year, and now I need to decide whether I want to continue or try and do the university thing with acting. We’ll see…

Q. I guess a big part of the challenge will be trying to balance university with acting?
Sean Bourke: Exactly. But I chose my university with acting in mind. I’m going to Warwick, which is just an hour away from London, so I can always come down for auditions. It’s going to be a juxtaposition between what I’ve done this year and scrounging student life.

Q. Liam (pictured right), will you continue acting after this?
Liam Hess: I did some when I was younger. I was quite into the acting and I did a bit of everything. But then… it wasn’t that I got sick of it, I just wanted to focus on school a bit more a couple of years ago. So then we stopped for a little bit, and then I tried to get back into it and we switched agents and then I got a couple of auditions. This was one of the first ones and I was really excited because at that point I felt passionate about it again, and I put my all into it and got the part. I was so excited. I put a lot more energy into it than I would have done otherwise. And I think it was quite challenging because I hadn’t done anything for a while… and because of that it was also more rewarding than most other jobs I’d done before.

It’s been a really good experience and such a good opportunity. Gurinder is such an amazing director; she’s so creative and intelligent at the same time. She knows exactly what she wants from you, exactly how to get it from you and I just love what she’s done with the film. Visually, I love what Dick Pope has done with all these wide tracking shots. It makes Eastbourne look beautiful, which is quite a challenge! [Laughs] And the music is great as well, I love the music in it. It’s really new.

Q. Did you have any input into it?
Liam Hess: No, but I think Georgia did. Gurinder was saying she went to Glastonbury last year and she got a lot of inspiration from that – a lot of the bands that she saw there she decided to include in the film. But the music is used so well in the movie to heighten the emotion and set the atmosphere.

Q. One of the key moments in the film is Georgia’s embarrassing fancy dress faux par. Do you have any real-life embarrassments to match that?
Sean Bourke: There was a certain incident… We played a game of poker before we left – me and my close friends. There was five of us and I came last in the game – which I’d like to say is not usual. I’d won the game after that and won £30! So, anyway I lost, and had to wear a dress from leaving my house to getting to the hotel in Bangkok – and that was the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to me. That involved leaving my house, getting on the District Line, standing at Earl’s Court in the rush hour, walking down the stairs into the Piccadilly line, all the way to Heathrow, through security… I had to sit in Duty Free, where I got very drunk. Then on the plane… But we had to stop off in Dubai and they made me change in Dubai. The air hostesses said I had to get changed before I walked out in Dubai otherwise I’d get beaten up.

Q. I’m surprised they let you through security…
Sean Bourke: Security in England loved it. They were all laughing and joking and it was a really nice atmosphere. But I was flying with Emirates and when I reached them the whole atmosphere changed. It was stern men, going: “Who is this? Why are you doing this?” It was almost like they were offended a little bit.

Q. You get your heart broken in the film. Have you been heart-broken in real life?
Tommy Bastow: Not in the way that I am in the film. I’ve had my heart broken, though, like every guy has. But I’ve never been used – or not that I know of. There have been little things, such as really liking someone and finding that it doesn’t work out. Either you end it or they end it.

Liam Hess: I think that’s what’s so great about the film, you can relate to everything that all the characters go through. Everyone goes through that stage in their life when they’re first falling in love.

Q. You start stalking Georgia. Do you adopt that approach in real life?
Liam Hess: Oh no, I can honestly say that my pulling technique is not the same as Peter Dyer’s! I prefer them one at a time.

Q. What is your technique?
Liam Hess: Well, I don’t offer them snogging lessons, first of all! I don’t have any particular chat-up lines… nothing cheesy. I don’t really have a technique. I just go with the flow and see what happens.

Q. Do you think friendship between girls is different to friendship between boys?
Sean Bourke: If you have a one on one with a guy the jokes you make and the conversation you make are completely different to the sort of conversation you have with a girl. Guys are a lot less serious, whereas with a girl all conversations have to be more worthwhile. A conversation with a girl means something, whereas a conversation with a guy is just rubbish, isn’t it?

Liam Hess: I think guys do gossip and bitch just as much as girls, but they just do it for a laugh. Girls take it very seriously. If someone says something behind their back, they’ll be furious, whereas guys know it’s a joke. Everybody has problems with different people but guys tend to take it on the chin more, whereas girls struggle to do that.

Read our review of Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging

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