The Mirror Screen (October 9, 1997)

The Sunny Side of the Street

by Brigit Grant

Det. Supt. Jane Tennison would never have recognised him. Here was the man that put fear into Prime Suspect fans as a crack-dealing psychopath...bouncing a baby girl on his knee. "I guess doting dad is not the picture people have of me," says Steven Mackintosh, alias The Street.

"But actually my family is the most important thing in my life."

Steven and his actress wife have two children ---baby Blythe and Martha, aged five. "I have to do a lot of juggling so that we can both work," he says. "If I think a job is going to take me away for to long I turn it down."

But he jumped at the starring role in the low-budget British film House of America, released this week.

Steven plays a Welsh boy who, with his sister Lisa Palfrey, dreams of going to the U.S.

FANTASY:

"For me, he's a great character. He leads this fantasy James Dean existance, riding a great motorbike, stealing from shops and pretending he's an American hero. I loved it."

Yet, the actor who attracted 14 million fans as the evil Street, has no desire to be big in the States.

"America isn't where I want to be," he says, trying to coax Blythe into eating more of her liquidish lunch.

We took a recent family holiday there and stayed in this big, cheesy hotel in Miami and loved it. It was everything I hoped, but living there, I'm not so sure."

For now, Steven has no reason to go. Not when he can win roles in films such as Land Girls, which found him alongside the Brit babes Rachel Weisz, Catherine McCormack and former Brookside star Anna Friel.

So how did he take to being surrounded by so much beauty?

"Yes, Somerset is really lovely," he grins. "But there was also a lot of rain, mud, and animal feces to wade through."

Sure. But what about the girls? "They were all very nice and mucked in and drove tractors," he replies guardedly. "But I had to learn how to plough a field with four Shire horses. People take a lifetime to learn the skill and I had to do it in two weeks."

Yes, yes. But does the film have any kissing?

LOVE:

"Mmmm, of sorts," admits the actor, who plays the farmer's son. "Catherine's character is the real love story, though there are encounters for all the girls."

Steven was joined on the setby his own Martha. "She plays my daughter, which was great," he says. "But I was scared at just how much she loved being in the film."

Steven went to stage school at the age of 11. "But even if Martha begged me I would not let her share that fate."

"Fortunately, I didn't turn out to be precocious and self-obsessed, but I could have. So she's getting a normal education. For now, I'm making the rules."