You might know Callum Scott Howells from his soul-wrenching performance as Colin in Channel 4’s critically acclaimed production, It’s a Sin. But since his breakthrough moment in 2019, the Welsh actor has been on a long, layered, and deeply introspective journey of discovery around his craft. And now, we see him step into the role of Nathan for Netflix’s The Beautiful Game, the top film in the UK since its release over Easter. “It’s been such a long time; it feels like we shot this film a decade ago now. But I’m really happy it’s finally coming out,” Scott Howells tells me as we connect over Zoom to discuss the project.

Shot still in pandemic times, in the summer of 2021, in Rome, director Thea Sharrock and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s film is inspired by a true story, following England’s team in The Homeless World Cup, an international football tournament for homeless people founded in 2001. “I’m happy for obviously all the people involved, but more than anything, I’m really happy that the Homeless World Cup is finally going to be put in the mainstream and people are going to be able to know what it is. It’s such a fantastic cause and an amazing charity that has changed so many millions of people’s lives,” he adds.

The Beautiful Game is a movie about the power sport has in changing the world, discussing the nuances of homelessness, addiction, brotherhood, and, of course, football — a topic Scott Howells connects with from his roots. Read our full chat below…

Sofia Ferreira: When did you first hear about this project? Do you remember what your first reaction to the script was? Tell me a bit about the experience.

Callum Scott Howells: I learned about it after It’s A Sin, when I was submitting tapes for a lot of different roles. I actually taped for this project on my birthday in 2021, so maybe it was kind of written in the stars (laughs). But I submitted the tape, and it was a really cool process. I’d heard about the journey the film had been on, it had been a long time to kind of get things going and to try to find the right cast and the right team to make the film, but I didn’t know who was involved at the time. But I read the script and I loved it; I thought it was something really special. I met Thea (Sharrock), the director, and I was initially up for a different role in the movie. But we kind of ended up looking at Nathan, and she asked me, “which one [of the roles do] you most connect with?” And I felt like Nathan’s storyline was a really important one to tell. For me, Nathan encapsulates what the Homeless World Cup is about. It really spoke to me.

It’s a very different movie now to the one I read. But I really think they found the right voice and the right way to, one, tell the story, and two, to portray the tournament. We really tried to recreate, in the film but on set as well, the Homeless World Cup. It wasn’t a soundstage, it was a real thing. So we felt like we were in the midst of the tournament, surrounded by the people who had taken part in the tournament before, as our supporting artists. And it was really cool because we were able to bounce off the people who actually experienced the tournament firsthand, not only had been to it but competed in it. And whilst making this movie, I really learned about the spectrum of homelessness, and how nuanced it is.

SF: Were you a big football fan before the film?
CSH: I’m a big football fan, and I used to play when I was younger. So for me, it didn’t feel far away from an environment that I’m very… I was gonna say comfortable in, but I haven’t played for such a long time, so comfortable isn’t the word. I’m definitely not a pro, but I love football so much. And you know, it was an environment that I was definitely aware of and had experienced. So I was loving it. And being able to spend a summer in Rome playing football day in, day out… you don’t get that opportunity often.

SF: That’s a really cool job.
CSH: Yeah, it’s such a cool job. With a lot of jobs, you go on set and you have to really focus on telling the story and it feels quite standard, you kind of know the blueprint. Whereas for this, it was action sequences that would go on for ages, and they were properly choreographed sequences, and I’d never done that before. Obviously, it’s not a stereotypical one with guns and swords and stuff; it’s football, and football is very unpredictable, because obviously once it leaves your foot [the ball] could go bloody anywhere. So it was definitely a mad ride and a mad experience, but one that was just so funny, and we had so many laughs on set.

SF: It’s hard to imagine how one could choreograph something like a football match, but I guess there are technicalities even for that…
CSH: Yeah, we worked with Mike [Delaney], who was our choreographer, and he had worked on the Goal! movies that were quite iconic back when I was growing up. And he’s a really highly-skilled, technical footballer who can do all sorts of tricks and stuff, so he’s really comfortable with the ball and really helped us. It’s so rare that you see a football movie. Ted Lasso has been in the mainstream recently, but I think our film has a lot of football sequences that are properly shot. Everyone did everything. We had doubles, but they never really got used because we were just so into doing it all ourselves.

SF: You’ve said before that you feel like you’ve grown so much already since Nathan. It’s A Sin was obviously such a big departure for you, and having just finalised Romeo and Julie in the West End, and now with the release of The Beautiful Game, where do you want to take your career next?
CSH: To be honest, I think I’m hungrier than ever to be playing all these different characters. And I feel really lucky that my agent and other people have been bringing pieces to us with characters so different from the ones I’ve played previously. And I’m very lucky that I can keep testing myself in that way because I love doing that. I don’t want to be an actor that plays the same role all the time. I want to keep proving people wrong, I guess, and proving myself wrong more than anything, because I love that, and it’s why I like a challenge.

I say I’ve grown so much since Nathan because, to me, there’s a world where Nathan and Colin [It’s A Sin] can kind of coexist in my head. Like, I see that they could be friends and they connect. However, the characters I’ve played since playing Nathan have been so different. My next role was the Emcee in Cabaret, which was such a massive learning curve, and that really was the moment for me that shifted my psyche as an actor and everything I kind of felt like I knew.

SF: Would you say that it was a conscious choice to follow this path towards Colin and Nathan?
CSH: Well, I guess Colin was my first kind of TV role that I got. It wasn’t just like I chose to play him. It was the first role I’d gone up for. And I played him and then I feel like after a breakthrough moment, like It’s A Sin, the industry kind of sees you as Colin. So maybe naturally, then, Nathan was the next move. And I think that after Nathan, I had a big conversation with my team, my agents, and my manager, and Cabaret was something that I really wanted to do. I’d seen Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley play the role originally, and I said, if this show is going to keep running, I’d love to take over eventually. So I auditioned for it and got it. And then I was like, “OK, I can do this. I can play these kinds of more spunky roles.” These roles have a lot more twists and turns and tumbles, so I think that was a big turning point. So I think the active choice was more to kind of go against the… I hate this word, but stereotype.

SF: I would love to hear a bit about your character preparation for The Beautiful Game. How would you say you connect most with the character?
CSH: Nathan is a recovering heroin addict. And for me, that’s something that I really can’t connect to because I haven’t experienced it personally. So I knew I needed to do research, and in order to tell this story properly, I needed to investigate everything. When I met Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, who plays Kevin in the film, he was reading a book called Four Feet Under by Tamsen Courtenay, and asked if I wanted to read it. It’s essentially a book of memoirs from a year in London, spending proper time with the homeless community in London, and it’s a really, at times, very harrowing book. It’s not a light read in any way; it’s very dense with stories and not very nice ones. But that for me was my way in, because there are characters in there… you know, it’s so common that people find heroin and it completely derails their life. And that was a really, really good read. It’s kind of crazy because that book is so far from the essence of the film. But in order to personally play Nathan, I don’t like to do things half-heartedly. I like to do as much research as I can because then it informs so much of what you end up doing in front of the camera and with the other cast members.

SF: I specifically love the phrase in the trailer that says, “a lot of what we are doing is to show the potential that sport has to build a better world.” How important was that for you and how do you reflect on the film’s overall message?
CSH: One of the things that always upsets me about the perception of football is the hooliganism and the rough and tumble aspect of it. And all the discrimination and the racism that surrounds the sport, and obviously the homophobia. And it upsets me because I love the sport so much. So when people let the sport down in that way, which is all too common, it’s just really sad.

What’s so refreshing about the Homeless World Cup is exactly that. That line encapsulates everything that the tournament is about. Sport can change the world. Because the beauty of a football match is that for the 90 minutes that a game goes on, or for that half an hour or 20 minutes that the game goes on in the Homeless World Cup, everyone’s invested in what goes on on the pitch. And you forget about the day-to-day. You forget about your job. You forget about all the struggles and troubles you have in your life. And it’s such an amazing form of escapism for people. It’s so sad when people come in and really ruin all that. In the Homeless World Cup, there’s no form of discrimination accepted or allowed. And if there is, then you’re out. And it’s beautiful, it’s so incredible. And what I’d love people who watch the movie to do is go and watch the documentary that the film is based on, because that’s when you really see the reality of it and how much it means to those players. And how it goes on to change their lives. One of the really great stories that I heard about the tournament was the statistics of how many players leave and want to go on to become professional referees in the professional world of football. It is so cool. It’s an amazing tournament, and that quote is a really powerful one.

The Beautiful Game is available on Netflix now.