'Bros is back': Luke Goss on his Christmas film and making up with Matt

A new Christmas film sees actor and former Bros heartthrob Luke Goss play a man who has to hit rock bottom before he can bounce back. It's a situation Goss says a lot of people can relate to, himself included.

From marriage break-up to literally losing the shirt off his back, the character Goss plays in The Loss Adjuster is put through pretty much every misery that can be thrown his way.

"He's truthfully at the limit of his life in the sense of what he can take," says Goss of Martin, a hollow-eyed insurance assessor.

He points out The Loss Adjuster does become an uplifting story and is a comedy.

"A dark comedy in some ways," he adds. "But I know how that feels, as most men do, where they've gone to that point where there's that moment of crisis within their own prowess, financially or in their work or whatever, and it's a moment of reinvention."

Goss has reinvented himself as an actor in Los Angeles since the days when he and twin brother Matt ruled the pop world as boy band Bros in the late 1980s and early 90s.

Luke now has 60 film credits to his name, including Blade II, Hellboy II: The Golden Army and now The Loss Adjuster.

"It's a movie about, by standing a little taller, having some self-belief and being very candid in regards of wanting to be an authentic self, you can find a victory or two, and I think that might be needed right now," he says.

The film also stars Kym Marsh, Martin Kemp, Lorna Fitzgerald and Dame Joan Collins. Indeed, just about the only good thing to happen to poor Martin on his way to rock bottom is being hit on by Dame Joan's glamorous widow.

"Listen, any man who doesn't want to get hit on by Joan Collins is a fool," Goss laughs. "She's beautiful and she's so professional."

Perhaps the best that can be said about the film is that it has some poignant, heartwarming and humorous moments.

It's a bit of a departure for Goss, who has had more success as an actor in action films. Yet he bristles at the suggestion that he hasn't flexed his feelings on screen.

"Some of the roles I've done have involved such a lot of tears," he says. "I think it's very important to show tears in a man because we do cry, and one can also recover."

When was the last time he cried in real life? "About four days ago," he replies after a short pause.

"I miss my family. I miss my best friends. I don't have family in Los Angeles, and Matty's in Vegas.

"So when you've had two hours sleep for a week and a half, and you've got the noise of life, and you don't see people… I might go and sit on the balcony at three in the morning and just let a couple of quiet ones fall out."

He was attracted to The Loss Adjuster by a philosophical metaphor at the start of the film, about a man who falls out of a plane and is stripped of all his clothes and belongings on his way down but ends up with a smile on his face. "It's what got me when I read the script," Goss says.

Has he felt like that man? "I'm there now," he says. "I know what's important."

It is two years since Goss was seen telling viewers of the Bros documentary After the Screaming Stops about how he had gone "from superstar to both broke and deemed as useless".

He recounted the journey from being chased by hordes of screaming girls to having his two cars towed away three days after leaving the band, and having to ask his wife for her engagement ring to raise the money to keep the family going.

The documentary also captured the tense build-up to Luke and Matt's stage comeback in 2017. Their bickering, pearls of wisdom and underlying brotherly love made the film a cult hit - and a source of mirth for some.

But there was "no down side" to taking part, Goss says. The twins are now "closer than ever" with "a loving relationship".

"And now Bros is back in the sense that we're planning the new album," he continues. It will be the first Bros album for 30 years.

"We're coming up with our individual songs that we're going to mush together," he expands. "The definitive Bros album is coming up. We're working on it next year. And that might not have happened before [the documentary]."

In After the Screaming Stops, Luke was also seen discussing how he felt the UK had turned on him when the band fell apart, and how "Bros has never been something that the country has been proud of".

The documentary helped heal that scar too, he says. "I always hoped there was a magic pill out there where I could get on with my countrymen and that there would be great support.

"Who would have thought a documentary would fix family issues, but it did. It was a magic pill for the country for us, and a magic pill within our creative communication. It was a big, big, big benefit for our lives."

The new Bros album isn't likely to bear much resemblance to the group's original clean-cut pop. Goss, wearing his favourite Foo Fighters T-shirt, hopes it will sound like "a soulful [Led] Zeppelin".

He has been writing music on his own, using Instagram to post occasional songs that he strums on his balcony. Before Bros go back into the studio, Luke will release a rare solo single titled Free on 11 December.

After knowing what it's like to reach rock bottom, it's another moment of reinvention.

"I'm very proud of this music," he says. "It's the first music I've ever made that is entirely my taste without compromise, so it's a big statement. It's me being me."

The Loss Adjuster is out in UK cinemas, where open, from 27 November and on DVD and on demand from 30 November.

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