In 2021, Eddie Sternberg received the kind of phone call of which many aspiring filmmakers dream.

His agent said Netflix UK wanted to make two of Sternberg’s features: one, a thriller that is still unannounced; the other, music-themed drama I Used To Be Famous.

The latter film — which shot last October and November — expands the world of Sternberg’s 2015 short of the same name, and stars Ed Skrein as Vince, a washed-up former boy band member who finds fresh creative inspiration with a neurodiverse young drummer, Stevie (Leo Long). The story is inspired in part by Sternberg’s cousin Saul Zur-Szpiro (“an autistic young man with learning difficulties and high support needs”), whose life was transformed when he was encouraged to pick up the drum sticks, going on to co-form band The AutistiX.

“To go from not liking crowds to performing in front of a thousand people, it just shows the power of music,” says Sternberg. In the film, he adds, “Stevie represents music in its purest form, and Vince represents a distorted world of music where you get chewed up and spat out. But I never wanted it to be an issues film — it’s about second chances, unexpected friendships and brotherhood.”

The film, which is co-written with Zak Klein, produced by Collie McCarthy, and executive produced by Damian Jones and Paul Grindey, early on acquired casting director Isabella Odoffin — who engaged in an exhaustive search for the right actor to play Stevie. “We wanted neurodiverse people to see a true reflection of themselves on screen,” explains Sternberg. “Leo not only gives an outstanding debut performance, but he also included his own lived experience as an autistic adult.”

North Londoner Sternberg had an early love for the meticulously soundtracked work of Richard Linklater and Cameron Crowe (“I love the merging of those two mediums of music and film”), going on to discover Shane Meadows (“the feelgood was a bit more earned”). After studying film and media at Manchester Metropolitan University, he segued into advertising, and a working relationship with Transport For London led to the 2015 road safety short Out Of Body.

Sternberg is eying more music-themed films. “I would love to do a gritty but glorious music biopic, something that feels very real,” he says. “I have some ideas.”

Contact: Kelly Knatchbull, Sayle Screen

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