Jack O'Connell's Lost Chance to Play Music Legend Shaun Ryder
The acclaimed British actor was set to portray the Happy Mondays frontman in a biopic that got shelved due to creative differences, missing out on playing someone he calls a 'one in a million' working-class hero.
Jack O'Connell stands among today's most sought-after actors at 35, sharing that spotlight with Austin Butler and Timothée Chalamet. Fresh off his chilling performance in the vampire thriller Sinners, O'Connell has built his career on intense, often dark characters that showcase his remarkable range.
His path to stardom wasn't easy. Court appearances for minor offenses marked his teenage years. Substance abuse problems followed. His father's death hit hard. A promising soccer career ended with injury. Drama classes at school became his lifeline, and he sometimes slept on London streets just to make auditions.
From Horror Breakout to Franchise Star
O'Connell's latest project, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, arrives in theaters this month. The Alex Garland-written sequel builds on Danny Boyle's well-received third franchise installment from last year. O'Connell played the terrifying leader of the murderous 'Jimmys' gang, adding another menacing role to his two-decade career.
His breakthrough came at 18 in Eden Lake, the brutal low-budget thriller starring Michael Fassbender. O'Connell stole every scene as a vicious youth, earning multiple industry awards. He repeated that success in the Michael Caine revenge film Harry Brown, cementing his reputation for playing complex, dangerous characters.
The Role That Got Away
By 2014, O'Connell had earned his first leading role in Angelina Jolie's prisoner of war drama Unbroken, which brought more award nominations. But one role that slipped through his fingers might have been perfect: Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder in the biopic Twisting My Melon.
The project had everything going for it. Control and Back to Black screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh wrote the script. Greenhalgh, a Manchester native like Ryder, understood the subject matter. Everything seemed set until creative disputes killed the project in 2024.
O'Connell's admiration for Ryder runs deep. "Fucking hell, man, I was listening to his music as a kid. At 13, I used to DJ his music," he told NME. "What he did as a working-class lad from Manchester-slash-Salford it's colossal. He's a working-class hero that people wrote off from the beginning. Even if you don't have anything in common with him, there's enough in his story to garner sympathy, to garner fascination. In a lot of ways, he's one in a million."
Ryder's Remarkable Journey
Ryder's story reads like fiction. From construction work as a teenager to forming Happy Mondays and releasing their first EP on Factory Records in 1985. The band became central to the early '90s rave revolution, though drug use plagued their success. Ryder's heroin addiction nearly destroyed him before he got sober in the early 2000s and stayed clean.
O'Connell did tackle Manchester's 1990 music scene in 2011's Weekender, though that film failed commercially and critically. Missing the chance to portray Ryder represents a lost opportunity to explore working-class triumph against impossible odds.