I Used to Be Famous

Twenty years ago Vince was famous as "Vinnie D", one of five members of the chart-topping boy band Stereo Dream. However, he now lives unemployed in Peckham, South London. Desperate to recapture his former success he tries to write a first solo album, but can never finish any of his songs.

One day Vince sets his keyboard up in the middle of a local market to practice, and a young man, Stevie, starts drumming along. The crowd is captivated by the impromptu performance, but it ends abruptly when Stevie's worried mother, Amber, pulls him away.

Vince can't book any gigs to try out his new material, with the exception of one pub landlord who sees a video of Vince and Stevie's performance going viral online and demands they perform as a duo. Vince then stumbles across Stevie and Amber again by chance when he overhears and joins a drumming circle at a local church. He invites Stevie to perform with him at the gig, but Amber immediately refuses to allow it.

Undaunted, Vince breaks into the church office to find their address and turns up at their door. Amber explains that Stevie is autistic. He is unable to handle large crowds or unusual situations, and she doesn't trust Vince to look out for his safety or understand what to do if Stevie has a shutdown. However, she changes her mind when Vince is able to calm Stevie down with a drumming exercise they learned together at the church. Vince also invites his former Stereo Dream bandmate Austin, who has gone on to huge success as a solo artist, to the gig.

Dubbed "The Tin Men", the gig starts well, but after a couple of songs a heckler starts abusing Stevie. Vince punches the heckler and is kicked out before Austin can see any of his new material. Amber, furious at Vince's lack of control, breaks off contact between the two. Vince spirals into depression, remembering how he chose going on tour with Stereo Dream over visiting his terminally ill brother in hospital, missing his death and causing a fracture in his relationship with his mother. Meanwhile, Stevie lashes out at Amber, accusing her of secretly resenting him for forcing her to quit her career as a dancer to care for him, and insisting that Vince meant well. He sums up the courage to visit local pubs until he successfully secures another gig for The Tin Men, then sets up a meeting for Vince to apologise to Amber. Vince and Stevie begin practicing and writing new music again.

Austin sees a clip of The Tin Men's gig that he missed and is impressed. He offers Vince the chance to be the opening act on his final farewell tour, and their old manager offers him a recording contract. The only condition is that Vince performs solo, and uses record company-approved studio drummers instead of a "special needs" kid like Stevie. Vince is appalled by his old manager's callousness, but is also unable to resist the golden opportunity, and accepts. He tries to let Stevie down gently by spinning it as an opportunity for him to pursue his own dream of earning a place at a top music school. Stevie is privately distraught, but does as Vince suggests. Amber visits Vince secretly and thanks him for making her realise how capable and talented Stevie is, but at the same time she also demands that Vince cut off contact entirely, worried that Stevie now has an unrealistic expectation of achieving the level of success Vince promised.

Vince agrees, but later in the studio is alienated by the direction his record label-assigned producers take his songs, including stripping Stevie's drumming out entirely for a more "contemporary" electronic beat. On Stevie's birthday he decides to set up a stage for one final surprise Tin Men gig at the market where they first performed together. As Amber and Stevie arrive, he invites Stevie onto the stage, telling him that it's his time to shine. A huge crowd gathers and cheers for Stevie, and Amber is overcome and joins in, delighted to see her son play.

• Ed Skrein as Vince
• Leo Long as Stevie
• Eleanor Matsuura as Amber
• Kurt Egyiawan as Dia
• Eoin Macken as Austin
• Lorraine Ashbourne as Cheryl
• Neil Stuke as Dennis

Sternberg co-wrote the screenplay with Zak Klein, adapting from Sternberg's short film of the same name. Sternberg based the character of Stevie on his cousin, who is autistic and a drummer.[1] The film is produced by Collie McCarthy at Forty Foot Pictures for Netflix.[2]

Long, who plays Stevie who has autism, is neuro-divergent himself and diagnosed with a speech and language condition. Long said he is determined to make the industry more 'people-friendly' for disabled musicians & actors. He performed with the London Youth Folk Ensemble and National Open Youth Orchestra prior to his work on the film. The National Autistic Society provided advice and guidance throughout the production.[3]

The film debuted on Netflix on 16 September 2022 and went into the top two on the Netflix chart in the United Kingdom.[4]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, I Used to Be Famous holds an approval rating of 80% based on 10 reviews.[5]

Glen Kenny in The New York Times praises Skrein for "mostly winning ingenuousness" of his performance, and especially the "seamlessness with which [Long] and his compelling character fit into picture…is the most noteworthy thing about it". He says the film strays into cliché but that makes the "ending which actually takes an exit ramp off triumphalist clichés, genuinely surprising."[6] Lesley Felperin in The Guardian described it as "schematic but sweet-natured".[7]

• I Used to Be Famous at IMDb