Teen with CP to play young Ian Dury in new British film

From Wales Online in the UK:

A teenage actor has drawn on his own cerebral palsy to help play music star Ian Dury (pictured) in a new film.

Wesley Nelson portrays Dury as an eight to 10-year-old in critically acclaimed new movie Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll.

Andy Serkis – Gollum in Lord of the Rings – plays the singer as an adult, while Ray Winstone portrays Dury’s dad.

While researching the part, 13-year-old Wesley looked into the singer’s background at Chailey school and hospital for the disabled, where he went after he contracted polio aged seven.

He said: “I read a lot about Chailey, but a certain degree has to come from you and your emotion.

“You have to understand his surroundings, which obviously everyone does well.

“And I drew on my cerebral palsy and partly used that to understand him, which you could say was handy.”

Wesley, who lives in Gwaelod-y-Garth, wears leg splints and walks with a stick. Dury wore heavy calipers.

He added: “I became interested in the struggle he had with the home he went to when he got polio, his struggles in life and the fantastic man he became when he could have just given up.

“He becomes more interesting. And the more you hear about him the more you care about him.”

The teenager also plundered his dad Simon’s record collection to research the part.

“I was already interested in him because I had stumbled across his songs before the film and I listened to them,” he said.

“My dad was a bit of a fan. He bought the album.”

Dad Simon, a pharmacist, said: “It was something we had playing on the CD player in the car.

“Last year or the year before I bought a new copy of New Boots And Panties, so we had a copy a year or 18 months ago. I bought that before the role was offered.”

The 50-year-old added: “If you’d told me one day my son would be playing Ian Dury I don’t think I would have believed it.”

Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll producer Damian Jones, whose next project is about the Eurovision Song Contest, revealed Ray Winstone was extra careful while working with Wesley.

“Ray was minding his Ps and Qs,” he said, adding: “Wesley can do anything he likes now, he can get a proper education and keep the drama going on the side.

“It depends where his ambition lies but if he wants to pursue acting he can.”

Despite the movie Wesley, who attends Monmouth School, admitted he was “a pop kid”.

“I’ve been following the X Factor,” he said.

“I liked Lucie, but she has gone now. So that’s unfortunate.”