Plan B admits he was an 'unusual' choice as Bafta judge

Plan B is due to release his third album The Ballad of Belmarsh

Rapper Plan B has admitted that he was an unusual choice as jury member for this year's Bafta rising star award.

The singer, actor and film director helped choose who was on this year's shortlist along with the likes of actors Peter Sarsgaard and Natascha McElhone.

He says being asked to become a jury member was a shock to start with.

"When they first asked me I was really surprised. Half of me felt like I didn't deserve to be there," he said.

"But I do deserve to be there. I've just directed a future film for a very small amount of money and it was very hard."

Choosing nominees

The shortlist this year includes Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans, Quantum of Solace), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network, Spider-Man), Tom Hardy (RocknRolla, Inception), Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass, Nowhere Boy) and Emma Stone (Zombieland, The House Bunny).

The public gets to vote on who they want to win.

Plan B, whose real name is Ben Drew, explains how they chose their list of nominees.

He said: "This is not about best newcomer, it's not about who's going to go on and achieve great performances in films.

"It's about people that have already achieved those performances and are on the cusp of becoming the next Leonardo DiCaprio or Cameron Diaz or Brad Pitt."

The star, who's appeared as an actor in Adulthood and Harry Brown, says being a judge involved watching a lot of films.

He said: "We got in a room, they had a nice spread of food on the table, and we discussed each actor individually in the films they'd been in.

"It was weird. It was strange walking into that room because I arrived a little bit late as well.

"I was doing the Love Goes Down music video."

Last week the 27-year-old Londoner revealed that he was retiring his alter ego Strickland Banks, the character which featured on his second album.

Plan B is also preparing to release his third record The Ballad of Belmarsh as well as putting the finishing touches to his latest film, Ill Manors.