Like a top striker with a sixth sense for goal opportunities, had to act on instinct when the script for Floodlights landed in his lap. ‘I got cast just six days before we started and it was just a 16-day shoot. So there was no time to overthink anything.’
The result is raw and powerful. Floodlights tells the true story of Andy Woodward, the ex-pro footballer whose revelations about the sex abuse he suffered at the hands of coach Barry Bennell – now serving a – have been key in opening the conversation about the mistreatment of young players.
Woodward’s story has been featured in his own memoir and in a documentary, but it’s the feature-length Floodlights that hauntingly illustrates how disturbingly easy it can be for sexual predators to manipulate the young players who place their trust, and their dreams, in their care. The question, ‘Why didn’t I say no?’ has haunted Woodward for years.
‘Meeting Andy was really important for me,’ says Kearns. ‘I needed to really know his story because it’s important that the person you play is relatable. You need that empathy. He was really open and approachable, and I think he’s got a very clear and strong perspective on what he’s been through.’
Kearns plays the adult Andy, haunted by the past, while young actor Max Fletcher plays the naive teenage hopeful, a lad ill-equipped to combat Bennell (his oily cunning played ) as he made his advances. It proved a canny bit of casting.
‘Me and Max, we both grew up in Oldham and we even played junior rugby at the same club. We’d lived two minutes away from each other and not even known it.’
The impact that the abuse he suffered on his rise through the football ranks – Woodward went on to play for Bury and Sheffield United, among others, before his unravelling mental state ultimately ended his career – is told in some understated sequences. In one dressing-room scene it’s clear that, fearful of undressing in front of his team-mates, Andy is a prisoner in his own body.
‘Everything is said through very little and that was very interesting to play,’ says Kearns. ‘It was all about thinking, “What do we want to come out of this moment?’’’
What comes out is a haunting study of a subject that has echoes, not just in football but across the sporting spectrum.
Champion cyclist , while gymnastics, swimming and athletics have all been shamed by coaching abuse Scan**ls.
‘What Floodlights is about is to make people can feel they can come forward with their experiences. That’s the way to make a difference,’ says Kearns, who also features, in a very different role, as grieving villager Henry in just-released Apple+ dram .
He admits that playing Andy Woodward was a draining experience.
‘There are certain roles that stick with you, you think about them for days. You don’t fully switch off.’
Not surprising when, in the film’s darkest hour, the suicidal Woodward despairs of Bennell: ‘He owns these thoughts, I can’t get rid of them.’
Kearns nods his head sadly at the memory. ‘There are lines that take your emotions to a certain place. That’s definitely one of them.’
Floodlights is available now on BBC iPlayer
