The actor behind Johnny Rotten in a new Sex Pistols TV biopic was left in a pickle playing the punk legend.
Anson Boon scoffed beetroot and drank Red Stripe beer to transform himself into the character, also shedding eight stone and becoming left-handed.
The 22-year-old says: “I made sure that I ate food that I know he likes.
“Everything had to be pickled. He loved pickled beetroot. His mum used to give him salads and salad cream when little.
“Red Stripe is his favourite beer, so I made sure that I drank Red Stripe. I learned to become left-handed, which was insane.
“I’m now pretty much ambidextrous. I just felt so in love with him.”
Anson was upset the singer refused to meet him before his role in Pistol, which is directed by Danny Boyle.
He says: “I would’ve absolutely loved to speak to and meet John. But not being able to meet him just fuelled my ambition to chase authenticity.
“I just hope if he watches it, he can recognise every decision I made in my performance was out of sheer respect for him.”
Anson, from Northamptonshire, adds he had an intense preparation period to become the rocker and spent a lot of time “with John in my head”.
The actor, who starred alongside Kate Winslet and Susan Sarandon in the movie Blackbird, tells the UK edition of Rolling Stone magazine: “I got down to just under eight stone.
“I was so involved in reading his books and got involved in his design process. I had 14 wigs and fake teeth obviously, ’cos he famously had rotten teeth.
“I made sure all the sets that revolved around his life were accurate to what he describes in his writing.
Johnny, real name John Lydon, 66, lashed out at ex-bandmates and producers of the six-part series based on guitarist Steve Jones’ book Lonely Boy.
He labelled them “greedy and nasty” after he lost a High Court battle claiming the Sex Pistols’ music could not be
used without his consent.
Johnny also opposed the release of a compilation of the band’s tracks to coincide with the series that dramatises their rise to fame during the late 1970s.
Pistol, starring Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, airs on Disney+ on May 31.
