In October, 2013, Russell Brand sat down with hard-hitting British reporter Jeremy Paxman to discuss the actor’s energetic criticism of the nation’s political system.
The eloquent, intelligent person on screen was far from the bad boy party persona that had made him famous in in the early 2000s, but was nevertheless an integral part of Brand. For the interview marked major progress in Brand’s endeavour to find the balance between controversial entertainer and serious activist.
Many of his views regarding the government’s dismissal of the lower class stem from Brand’s own troubled childhood.
Born in Essex, Brand’s parents separated when he was only six months old, marking the commencement of a rough childhood. At age seven, he was sexually abused by his tutor, and the following year his mother – whom he was obsessed with – contracted uterine and breast cancer. While she undertook treatment with the support of a new boyfriend who Brand hated, he went to live with relatives.
His formative years were awkward and uncomfortable, made worse by his ADHD and bipolar disorder. Brand’s father had a habit of making him watch porn when he came by to visit on the weekends, while in the other room he had sex with unknown women. When Brand was 16, his father took him to Thailand, where he immediately hired three prostitutes: two for him, one for his son.
Brand suffered from bulimia, and began to experiment with illicit drugs after leaving home due to arguments with his step-dad.
There were some bright moments, however. Brand made his stage debut in a school production of Bugsy Malone, and began working as a film extra. He studied at Grays School Media Arts College before Essex County offered to pay for his first year of tuition at the prestigious Italia Conti Academy. Teachers recognised his talent, but it was not long before he was expelled “for smashing things up, crying and cutting myself, breaking down in tears all the time”.
A decade later, Brand transitioned from small TV roles into the comedy that would define his career. He performed stand-up in London and Edinburgh, and secured a role as a video journalist for MTV’s Dancefloor Chart, which saw him touring nightclubs around Europe. After inviting his drug dealer to the studios, and showing up to work dressed as Osama bin Laden the day after the September 11 attacks, he was fired.
Brand was soon making a habit of being hired, stirring controversy, and then being fired. He launched his own show in Re:Brand in 2002, the final episode of which featured him giving a man a handjob in a public toilet. And even after entering recovery for his drug abuse, he lost several jobs over such incidents as playing porn on the radio, and inviting prostitutes on the set of a film.
Where he first found success was as the host of Big Brother’s Big Mouth, a show featuring Brand and a cast of eclectic characters who discussed the popular reality-TV franchise. As gawdy and controversial as ever, it nonetheless turned Brand into a well-known industry figure.
It all began to change around 2007. Brand entered the Focus 12 drug treatment program, and took up Transcendental Meditation. The same year, he landed his first major film role in 2007’s St Trinian’s.
When a prank call to veteran actor Andrew Sachs got out of hand, Brand left the UK for the USA. Pairing with comedy producer Judd Apatow, his role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall made him an instant celebrity, and saw him selected as host for the 2008 and 2009 MTV Movie Awards (after which he received several death threats for certain comments). In 2010, his character from the film received a spin-off movie, Get Him to the Greek, which was a moderate success.
Brand looked set for star status, performing in films including Despicable Me and Arthur, hosting Saturday Night Live, and winning Variety’s Power of Comedy Award.
But political activism was more often the topic of articles written about Brand from this point on. He attended the 2009 G-20 summit, and addressed the press on topics including the Israeli assault on Gaza. In 2012, he was personally selected by the Dalai Lama to host the Buddhist leader’s 2012 youth event, considering him proof of “the power of spirituality to effect change in (one’s) own life”.
That same year, he addressed a parliamentary committee to express his view that drugs should be decriminalised, after the death of his close friend, Amy Winehouse.
The 2013 interview with Jeremy Paxman was the epitome of Brand’s endeavour to be respected as both an entertain and revolutionary. “I recognise that I have the ability to be selfish, but I also recognise that you can’t be happy if you only care about yourself at the expense of other people,” he stated.
That didn’t mean Brand had to change. It meant he had to find a way to unite the elements that made him who he was. His outlandish comedy was no longer directed at innocent targets, but at the people and issues he felt stood in the way of achieving “maximum common good for as many people as possible”.
Comically comparing himself to the likes of Jesus and Malcolm X, the media claimed Brand had developed a Messiah complex, which he readily accepted by using the phrase as the title for his 2013 stand-up special.
In 2014, he launched his Youtube series The Trews: True News with Russell Brand. It drew in over 1.2 million subscribers before he took a break from the show in late-2015.
Later in the year, a YouGov poll found that Brand was considered to have a more negative impact on political debate than any other celebrity. In December, he appeared on the BBC’s Question Time, and seemed out of place in the formal environment. As The Guardian journalist Brian Logan put it, “…in terms of his performance or identity, he looks caught between two stools”.
But Brand’s no stranger to criticism, and so he pushes on in the quest for change.
In March of 2015, he opened Trew Era Cafe, a cafe that employed recovering drug addicts which Brand founded through revenue from his book, Revolution. He was also named the fourth-most influential thinker in the world by Prospect magazine.
The following month, he released The Emperor’s New Clothes, a documentary he had co-created with acclaimed filmmaker Michael Winterbottom about the 2007-2008 global financial crisis.
For all that he’s told he is wrong, Russell Brand will continue to campaign for what he believes is right.
“There is no revolutionary figure in whom we can invest hope; except for ourselves as individuals, together.”
Love him or hate him, you have to admire the persistence.