A former child actor and - as Asher D - a member of So Solid Crew, 22-year-old Ashley Walters suffered a career threatening setback when he was imprisoned in 2002 for handgun possession. He's now called upon the experience for his acclaimed performance in Saul Dibb's Bullet Boy. He plays Ricky, an ex-con determined to make a break from his troubled past. With an autobiography on the way, a role in the football movie Goal!, TV projects, and a second solo album in the works, Walters seems to be doing much the same.

Was it difficult to keep Bullet Boy authentic without playing to negative stereotypes?

We thought about it a lot at the beginning; it wasn't something we went into blind. We had to make sure that everything was authentic, but at the same time something that the audience could watch and understand the message that we were trying to get across. There was a lot of thought that went into that process. Me and Saul spent a lot of time talking about situations; would that believable, would this be real to people on the street? We were very careful about it. There was a fine line, but I think we managed it.

As a father yourself, are you very careful to educate your own kids about the dangers of falling for a seemingly glamorous 'gangster' life?

I'm still learning to be a father every day. I've got two boys and a girl. My daughter's not interested in that sort of thing, but one son is into water guns, but I won't allow him to play with them around me. At the same time it's hard to stop him getting those influences because they're everywhere. They make Action Men with guns stuck on their hands, you know? It's a constant battle. But if you instil the right morals in your child they should know what's right and what's wrong. Having gone through it myself, I'm able to tell him that I'm there for him and if he has any problems he should come to me and talk about them - I'll tell him the right thing to do.

Did you base the character of Ricky on anyone in particular?

My whole life I've grown up around people who have been involved in crime, drugs, and other criminal activities just because of the area that I was living in. So I've pulled in a lot of experiences that I've grown up with. I didn't really go out and research and meet people for this particular role. I knew that I had enough influences from my own experience to be able to do the job already. Throughout the whole thing Saul guided me, and there was a lot of energy around the set for me to feed off.

Do you think the audience for Bullet Boy will be made up of the kind of characters depicted in it?

To a lot of people coming from the same place that I come from, this is not going to be a surprise. It's something they know about - it's a problem that they know is already there. But I think there are a lot of other people in the country who will be much more interested in seeing and hearing about a life they haven't heard about before. I think it's going to do well in that sense, because the message is strong.

You form a convincing relationship with your screen brother, Luke Fraser. As he hasn't acted on film before how easy was that?

He was great. There were a lot of times though where I wanted to... [makes a playful punch motion] because he's a normal kid. One of my rivals in the music industry is Dizzee Rascal, and Luke played his new album every day just to get on my nerves. But he was cool. I've got younger brothers myself and he reminded me of them. I had a lot of respect for him too, because even though he is so young, he was brave. That was a big role to take on for your first thing. He didn't have that much experience as an actor, but he warmed to the camera and the crew and the rest of the cast. Everyone loved him.

Bullet Boy is released in UK cinemas on Friday 8th April 2005.