Meet Douglas Booth, ‘The Dirt”s Nikki Sixx
Even though Douglas Booth is only 26, the actor comes to The Dirt with an impressive list of credits. He stars as bassist Nikki Sixx in the Motley Crue biopic, which will premiere on Netflix March 22.
Born in London, Booth began acting when he was 12, landing the lead role in a production of Agamemnon at his school. "I thought, 'I rather like being the center of attention,'" he told British Vogue. "This is where I want to be."
He spent time with the National Youth Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where stars like Daniel Craig, Orlando Bloom and Ewan McGregor trained.
Booth first made a splash in his home country playing another '80s rock icon, Culture Club's Boy George, in the 2010 TV movie Worried About the Boy. That led to acclaimed starring roles in a pair of literary adaptations -- a BBC production of Great Expectations and the latest big-screen take on Romeo and Juliet, where he played opposite Hailee Steinfeld -- and a supporting part Darren Aronofsky's biblical film Noah, where he played Shem.
Watch Douglas Booth as Boy George in 'Worried About the Boy' Trailer
Sixx described him as "a killer actor. All the actors playing Motley Crue are edgy and real." Booth showed off that edge when he, co-star Machine Gun Kelly and director Jeff Tremaine went out drinking after the first night of shooting in New Orleans.
"Within the first 30 minutes, Doug was like, 'I’m Nikki Sixx, bitch!' and bit [Tremaine’s] shoulder so hard he still has bite marks and purple rings around the bite marks," Kelly said. "As soon as Doug bit the director, we knew that it was going to be a ride."