MOVIE star Damian Lewis has revealed how he persuaded Kenny Dalglish to make his big-screen debut.
The Scotland legend was going to kick the offer of a movie role into touch until he was urged to get on board by the Band Of Brothers star.
Liverpool boss Kenny had been invited to play a crucial role in Will, a film about an 11-year-old boy trekking from Kent to Istanbul for the 2005 Champions League Final between the Reds and AC Milan.
The film-makers wanted him to team up with Liverpool stars Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, who make cameo appearances.
But the former Celtic hero was reluctant to get involved until Damian, who plays the father of the Liverpool-daft youngster, stepped in.
Damian, a Liverpool fan, knows King Kenny through Soccer Aid, the star-studded football match organised by pop superstar Robbie Williams to raise funds for Unicef.
He said: “The game, which has been played at Old Trafford before each of the last two World Cups, sees England take on a Rest of the World side.
“Kenny is the Rest of the World manager and I was talking to him about Will because I’d heard he would be appearing in our movie.
“I said everyone was excited that he was taking part. But, to my surprise, he said he didn’t think he was going to do it because he wasn’t sure it was a proper film.
“So I started telling him that it was a proper film, that Bob Hoskins was also in it and it would be seen in the cinemas.
“Anyway he did agree to be in the film and shot his scenes in Istanbul. I think he is brilliant in it.”
Damian was thrilled to be making a film with his Anfield heroes but was a bit disappointed that he was not in any scenes with Dalglish, Gerrard and Carragher.
He said: “I thought I was going to act with Stevie Gerrard, who is one of my all-time heroes, and Jamie Carragher, but I was in completely different parts of the movie and we did not come across each other.
“I am a big fan of Liverpool and I enjoyed the idea of being in a film that features the club so strongly. I also responded to the father/son story, which is a tearjerker.”
Read the full interview at The Daily Record