Morrissey was greatly interested in film, television, and Gene Kelly musicals as a child. He decided to become an actor after seeing a broadcast of "Kes" on television. At St Margaret Mary's Primary School, he was encouraged by a teacher named Miss Keller, who cast him as the Scarecrow in a school production of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" when he was 11 years old. Keller left the school soon after, leaving Morrissey without encouragement. His secondary school, De La Salle School, had no drama classes and was the sort of place where he thought the fear of bullying dissuaded pupils from participating in lessons. On the advice of a cousin, he joined Liverpool's Everyman Youth Theatre. For the first couple of weeks, he was quite shy and did not join in with the workshops. When he eventually participated, he ended up appearing in their production of "Fighting Chance", a play about the 1981 riots in Liverpool.