Adam Deacon returns to directing with Sumotherhood: 'The industry was scared of me'

Watch: Adam Deacon reflects on returning to directing

After more than ten years, Adam Deacon is back where he wants to be – in the director’s chair. But the decade between his 2011 first feature, Anuvahood, and Sumotherhood, which is released this Friday, has taken him through well-publicised highs and lows.

“I’ve come a long way,” Deacon admits to Yahoo. “I’ve learned a lot, I’ve grown up a lot and I know how to deal with my own mental health a lot better.”

The decision to direct again was very much his own. “I love directing. I didn’t want it to be such a long wait until I got to do it again, and to be here now, at the end of the process, it feels amazing.”

And, after spending so long on writing the script with collaborators Michael Vu and co-star Jazzie Zonzolo he says: "I wouldn’t have wanted to give this over to somebody else. I felt like I knew this film, this was my baby. I had to direct it.”

Thrust into the spotlight by Anuvahood — he was the surprise winner of the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2012, beating both Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston — Deacon had already become a familiar face with roles in Adulthood and Kidulthood, as well as regular appearances on the smaller screen, but was finding success increasingly difficult.

Time in hospital and a bipolar diagnosis attracted even more media attention, something that took him aback.

“I’d read it and think ‘Wow! This is quite scary for people to read,’” he recalls.

“I felt that one day I would have to take ownership of that and talk about it, but in a creative way. I think that at some point the industry was scared of me when they read certain things about me and I understand that.”

Deacon sees Sumotherhood as an action comedy, but he’s also used the moneymaking efforts of his character, Riko, and best mate Kane (Zonzolo) to what he describes as “normalise the conversation."

"Mental health means a lot to me, especially breaking the stigma and getting young men to talk about mental health.

“Although Riko and myself are completely different people, we both have bipolar and we both have supportive friends.

"I love the fact that Kane often asks Riko in the film if he’s taken his meds and that’s what I wanted to get out there. We needed to raise mental health issues in a way that doesn’t come across as preachy or in your face and in quite an authentic way.”

Deacon has also become an advocate for mental health, especially among young people, and balances that with an increasingly busy acting career – he was seen earlier this year in British indie Love Without Walls.

Even the thought of his new film opening on Friday the 13th doesn’t faze him. “I’m not superstitious about it.

"It’s my Mum’s birthday, so maybe it’s a good sign!”

Sumotherhood is in cinemas this Friday, 13 October.

Read more: Adam Deacon

• Adam Deacon opens up about his struggle with bipolar disorder

• Adam Deacon: I suffered lockdown breakdown and thought I would die

Watch the trailer for Sumotherhood: