Danny Dyer has admitted to being surprised by his own new-found success after going from a string of box office flops in the 2000s to becoming a BAFTA winner and winning global acclaim for hit show, Rivals.

The actor, 48, opened up on reclaiming his national treasure status after being dismissed as a punchline in a new interview with Rolling Stone UK, appearing on the bold cover of the magazine, surrounded by three lions.

Sporting a typically eye-catching look for the photoshoot, Danny lifted his sunglasses to stare down the lens, sporting a Sergio Tacchini x Stuarts zip-up track top and jeans, eclectically paired with a collared shirt and lobster-patterned tie.

After leaving EastEnders in 2023, he has seen his career explode, bagging Male Performance in a Comedy BAFTA for his role in Mr. Bigstuff last year.

While playing wealthy businessman Freddie Jones in the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper's Rivals brought him to global attention and a reassessment of him as an actor, after he previously went broke when his movie career went 'straight-to-DVD'.

But Danny admitted that he has struggled to wrap his head around his new critical acclaim, having been viewed for so long as 'a bit of a laughing stock'.

He said he had learned not to take criticism personally after his years in the industry and insisted he wasn't motivated by awards success or fame, but instead by his need to provide for and look after his family.

He said: 'It’s been a surprise to me, all of a sudden, that I’m being acknowledged by the critics that have just seen me as a bit of a laughing stock over the years.

'I’m so long in the game now, I don’t take anything to heart. What I’m doing is not trying to change the world. 

'I’m not claiming to be Marlon Brando; I’m just providing for my family, and as an actor that’s a really difficult thing to do. Can I keep working? Can I keep paying bills? Can I give my family a good life?'

'That’s essentially what my drive is and that’s what I’m in it for,' he declared. 'If, along the way, people want to dig me out for some of the films I’ve done in the past, then that’s fine.'

Just 13 years ago, Danny admitted he was 'broke and desperate' and paying the bills with nightclub appearances after a string of flops.

The West Ham fanatic had already thrown away the chance of a stellar stage career as the protégé of playwright Harold Pinter after going blank onstage on Broadway following a 24 hour bender smoking crack cocaine.

His film company, Old Mother Media, went bust with £30,000 of debts, most of it owed to the taxman, while the Marching Powder star put his past financial woes down to starring in a run of 's*** films'.

Most notably was 2013's Run For Your Wife, which was savaged by critics and dubbed one of the worst British films of all time, and made a mere £747 during its opening weekend.

'I was on my a**e. I was f***ed,' he told The Sun. 'I had made too many bad films. I’d had my shot and made some good stuff. 

'I had resorted to going to nightclubs and waving off balconies. That chips away at your soul that I’ll tell ya. Where do you go from there?'

But he said he was saved when he landed the role of Mick Carter on EastEnders, marking the turning point in his life. 

Recalling the moment he was offered the role in the soap in 2013, Danny previously told the Jonathan Ross Show that he couldn't even afford to buy the BBC execs a lager to celebrate.

'They said, "Listen we want you to come in the show, take over the Queen Vic" and at the time I was skint and I just had about enough petrol money to get there, that's the truth,' he recalled.

'They thought I was a multimillionaire and I met them in the hotel and I walked in absolutely skint, not a bean about me. I thought, I hope they don't ask me to get them a lager because I’ve got no dough.

'They sat me on a throne and said how great I was and how they wanted me to come in and take over the Vic and [I was] going to have a really big storyline about having a gay son.'

Danny explained he made out it was no big deal, but secretly he was overjoyed by the career-saving offer.

He said: 'I was like, "Wow, I want to do a cartwheel in front of them" but I thought, "Play it down, don't show your bolt too early."

'I went, "I'll think about it" and then I walked out and I did a couple of backflips on the way out! I played it right down, I didn’t want to look desperate and I was desperate.'

Speaking about what he might have had to do if the role didn't come up, Danny said: 'I might have had to go and load skips Jon, I just couldn't catch a cold, I was doing nightclub appearances.'

 Nowadays, it's a very different story, with accounts filed at Companies House this summer revealing that his firm, Arty Bucco, made £1.4million in the last financial year.

Following his huge TV success and bagging a slew of lucrative ad campaigns with the likes of Sky and Paddy Power, and Danny's net worth is estimated to be comfortably over £5million before assets such as his home. 

He struggled to hold back tears as he took to the stage to pick up his BAFTA trophy in May last year, saying: 'What a touch! Comedy performance. I thought my acting was so bad it was funny. F***ing hell, I'm choked up.'

Speaking to Esquire last year, Danny said: 'People saw me in a different light [in Rivals], and it came out just after Mr. Bigstuff, which, for once, shows a bit of versatility, because Lee is so different to Freddie.

'I've made a lot mistakes over the years. I've said yes to a lot of jobs I probably shouldn't have, probably because I was driven by the dollar – I had bills to pay and kids in private schools. 

'Now, I'm at a stage where I have loads of offers that I've got the power to say no to. I think I'll be defined by what I say no to, and it's really exciting for me.'

The April/May issue of Rolling Stone UK is out now

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