The cast of Quadrophenia are currently celebrating the cult film’s 40th anniversary.
But while the classic was progressive for its time, it turns out the movie could have been a whole lot more radical.
Opening up on what went down behind the scenes, Trevor Laird, who played Ferdy, recalled the moment he was told he couldn’t be seen with a white girl.
Yes, that actually happened.
During the party scene where the characters are ‘kissing and having sex,’ the 62-year-old told Metro.co.uk: ‘The associate producer John Peverall came in and gave me a bottle of champagne and said, “you’re not in the scene.”
‘I was like, “what the bloody hell is going on…” This time I’m freaking out that I’ve got the sack.
‘Franc Roddam (the director) came rushing over and he said, “look, this film is going to be released in the deep south of America probably South Africa if we’re lucky, and we can’t have any scenes where there’s sex in it with a black man and white women.
‘“It’s just not possible, you’re not in the scene, you’re cut.”’
Taking a moment, the star went onto say how he didn’t think he was bothered at the time, but looking back knew it had affected him.
‘I realise now, which you didn’t at the time because you cover it up, but I did feel like an outsider,’ he confessed.
‘But I wish then I knew what I know now because I would have used that.’
He smiled: ‘It’s interesting to be an outsider, all I wanted to be was an insider but if I’d have used that more…’
Sky Arts is set to air a documentary on the film, where Trevor will address the sex scene.
He told us: ‘When I’m asked a question about that scene, I started talking about it and suddenly I felt my voice cracking up.
‘Going over that again, for the first time in many years, I thought, “oh my god, it really did affect me as a 20-year-old kid.’
Toyah Willcox, who was sat next to Trev and played Monkey in the 1979 movie, chirped up: ‘I don’t know if you know, but we talked about going on strike because of that.
‘All these were walls that were being knocked down, and here we were having to keep to a really bad tradition.’
‘Let’s be honest,’ Trev explained: ‘In the 1980s, politicians in England were calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist and that was after the film, so what do you expect?’
He added: ‘I can look at it in hindsight and think, “well that’s just what the world was like then.”’
Quadrophenia’s 40th anniversary celebration will air on Sky Arts this Sunday (21 September) starting at 9pm.
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