Danny Dyer says death of beloved mentor sent him into ‘spiral of madness'
Actor Danny Dyer has said the death of his mentor, playwright Harold Pinter, sent him into a 'spiral of madness'.
Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Pinter, casted former EastEnders actor Dyer, 47, in his play Celebration, which was first staged at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2000.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Dyer said he would stay at the playwright's house and learn about famous writers and poets like WH Auden and CS Lewis.
In 2001, the play was transferred to New York's Lincoln Centre and during one performance, Dyer forgot his lines on stage and had an 'anxiety attack', having taken drugs and stayed out the night before.
Dyer felt 'so bad about letting him (Pinter) down' but said the playwright put his arm around him and made him 'feel better about it'.
Reflecting on his death in 2008, he said: 'I hadn't spoke to him in a while. I did go off the rails for many years, and I found out by looking on the front of a newspaper.
'Again, I'd been on a bender and I was coming home and I was going, I think I was going to buy cigarettes at the petrol garage, and I see it in the paper. 'Pinter dead'.
'This really sent me on a spiral of madness, really.
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'The guilt of not being around him anymore and just being lost, I was a bit of a lost soul, and again, angry at the world.'
In April, US publication Deadline reported that Dyer was developing an idea for a play about his relationship with Pinter, whom he referred to as his 'mentor'.
Danny Dyer's episode of Desert Island Discs will air at 10am on BBC Radio 4 and will also be available on BBC Sounds.
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