Matthew Xia: 'My first audition was with Jude Law'

My first paid job was as an actor in a Sky TV film called Tube Tales in 1999. It was a compilation of eight short films. I was in the film called Mouth directed by Armando Iannucci (he recently told me this was his directorial debut). I was a member of the Theatre Royal Stratford East Youth Theatre. An alumni member and friend, Clint Dyer, had some involvement with the production and was finding young actors to audition. I auditioned for two of the short films. My first audition was with an attractive man who I described to my mum at the time as “having a girl’s name” – that was Jude Law. The second was with Iannucci.

I was beyond nervous, I was travelling to parts of London I’d never heard of (such as Hammersmith and Carnaby Street) and auditioning alongside some incredible talents. In Iannucci’s audition for Mouth I had no words. I had to imagine I was eating a bag of chips on the tube when a woman vomits opposite me. I remember doing something understated – like finishing the chip in my mouth and rolling the top of the chip bag closed. If I were doing it again, I would have done a bit of research and gone in knowing who these accomplished directors were, but I quickly learned my desire to be an actor no longer existed. Having achieved that ambition, I started focusing on music, which gave me a whole other career, before delivering me back to the theatre first as a composer and then as a director.

My first job advice to others would be to absorb as much as you can, know who is in the room and pay attention. I was 16 or 17 years old and because of that I approached it with a slightly self-centred teenage attitude. I wish I had observed, in more detail, the incredible talents making the work: Daniela Nardini, Dominic Holland and of course, one of our greatest film-makers, Iannucci himself.

CV Matthew Xia

Age: 37
Training: Untrained
Theatre includes: As a director: Blue/Orange and Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Young Vic, London; Wish List, Royal Court, London; Into the Woods and Frankenstein, Royal Exchange, Manchester; Shebeen and One Night in Miami, Nottingham Playhouse
Other credits: Associate director at Theatre Royal Stratford East; resident director at Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Artistic director ATC
Credits as DJ Excalibah include: BBC 1Xtra, BBC Radio 1, Glastonbury, Ministry of Sound, Fabric, Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony
Agent: Nick Quinn at the Agency