Toby Kebbell sat down with HeyUGuys in London to reminisce about Dead Man’s Shoes, the Shane Meadows classic that gave him his start in film, as Second Sight Films prepares to release a Limited Edition Blu-ray on 10th August 2026. Kebbell, who played Anthony opposite Paddy Considine’s revenge-driven Richard, spoke candidly about how much the film still means to him and to its devoted fanbase, joking that he knows people who have watched it a hundred times over. Coming up on 22 years since it was made, the actor admitted the experience shaped his entire approach to his craft.
Our conversation centred on how unconventional the shoot was. With no traditional script, Kebbell described watching dailies with Meadows and the rest of the cast and crew, piecing the story together almost in real time as the director figured out where things were heading. He recalled the uncertainty of not knowing when he’d next be needed on set, and the surprise of learning midway through production that Meadows planned to reshoot the ending entirely. Kebbell credited that loose, instinctive way of working — learned alongside Considine and co-star Gary Stretch — as an education that shaped how he’s approached every role since, saying it left him a little spoiled for any other way of making a film.
Kebbell also opened up about the pressure of playing a character with a learning disability, a responsibility he took seriously given how such characters had often been portrayed on screen before. He drew on childhood memories of visiting care facilities with his mother, and on a specific mannerism he observed in a stranger on a train, to build a performance rooted in sincerity rather than caricature. He touched on the film’s now-legendary blend of dark comedy and violence, remembering the crew’s own disbelief and laughter while watching some of the more shocking scenes come together in the edit, and reflected on how the film’s tight runtime — something he feels modern cinema has largely abandoned — helped it avoid ever feeling indulgent.
The interview closes on a warmer note, with Kebbell discussing his enduring, if infrequent, friendship with Meadows, whom he describes as intensely private but still a formative, almost brotherly influence in his life and career. He ran through some of his more recent work, including the first season of Servant, Kong: Skull Island, and an upcoming biopic in which he plays Sylvester Stallone, before circling back to how grateful he remains for the film that started it all. The full interview, alongside the Dead Man’s Shoes short film Northern Soul, will be available when the Limited Edition Blu-ray lands on shelves next week.
