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Compiled by: Jack Foley
Q. Do you like pigeons?
A. I like all animals. I saw a mad posh bloke hit one
once with a stick and I wanted to take the stick and hit him.
Q. With something like this, you get the impression it’s
very much you as the character…
A. Do you mean I’m a very, very limited actor?
[Laughter]
Well I am! I like to make things natural and it’s difficult
in films when you don’t get the chance. I think a lot of
people are brought up on soaps where they do their line and then
it’s cut together. I like to get a bit of naturalism because
I just think people connect more with something they recognise
as opposed to being force fed TV speak. I always try to give a
bit of me or a human aspect… to a pigeon!
Q. Did you have any input as to how you looked on screen?
Could you ask for a bigger beak?
A. No I didn’t, because initially you have no idea
what it’s going to look like because you do the script first
but they filmed me doing it and they came up with that fat, mouthy
pigeon with scruffy hair, no idea why. They’ve done me proud
there!
I think his legs are longer than mine. What can you do? It’s
a comedy part and I think it’s funny. If I was handsome,
David Brent wouldn’t be around would he?
The fun for me is coming up with the bits and pieces, adding character
and the ad libs and the gags, they let me get away with murder
and then kept what they could.
Q. It must be quite strange to see that coming back at
you?
A. Absolutely, very strange but you can laugh at it because
it’s not you, which is good. The
Office has been sold to about 100 countries and a lot of those
it’s the original just dubbed or something and I can’t
wait to see myself shouting in Japanese or Spanish, that’ll
be good.
Q. Was there much continuity to the speech when you recorded
them?
A. I did four four hour sessions. The first time I just
went and read the script, did it and I was rubbish.
I’d never done it before and I’m still mildly embarrassed
being an actor which is a terrible restriction and so I had to
really warm up.
They were like: “Do it louder”, “Do it like
this”, “Do it more cockney” and I said, 'look,
I think you should have got Bob Hoskins', and I saw them all look
at each other and think – he’s right!
But then they let me ad lib a bit more and do my own thing and
I made him more of that cowardly, wise-cracking wide boy like
Bob Hope or Woody Allen, because he is sort of a reluctant hero
and there’s lots of 'well I’d love to but I can’t'!
All that sort of fear and by the end I wanted to start again!
The director must have been very patient.
Q. Why are you embarrassed about being an actor?
A. Loads of reasons really, the association, most celebrities
I don’t want to be associated with because they’re
fools, you get paid too much.
You get paid more than nurses and you don’t really do anything
so all I try and do is do my best and do a few things as well
as I can because it’s not a thing to be proud of, it’s
not like coming home from a war or saving a life, it’s mucking
around. Which is what I would be doing anyway, so I just try and
muck around as well as I can.
Q. You’ve always wanted to be famous, the pop star
phase then into comedy and everything else, you’ve always
wanted to be a performer…
A. Fame is the upshot of something I wanted to be really.
I don’t want to be famous for being famous, I want to be
famous for something I’ve achieved that’s why I want
to act and direct as opposed to turn up to premieres I’m
not in or go in “I’m a celebrity get me back on telly”.
I think you’ve got to keep your powder dry so as an upshot
it’s OK thanks but I think you ask kids what they want to
be nowadays and they say 'famous', not 'I want to be a writer'
or 'I want to be a pop star' which is fine, it’s that wanting
to be recognised.
I just think if you asked a group of the general public, pull
out someone who was in Hollyoaks once and the bloke who’s
just found a cure for cancer and they’d be going 'look it’s
her out of Hollyoaks' I just think fame is nothing.
If I hadn’t been in the show [The Office] I wouldn’t
be recognised, the writer/director doesn’t get recognised
but I wanted to play the role because I knew I could play it well.
I’ve never just wanted to be famous. And being recognised
is the worst bit about it. I love the work, I love the creative
process, the freedom, I quite like the awards and the money’s
good but it’s in that order. Being recognised buying pants
is bottom of the list.
Q. Have you got to the stage where you check where you’re
going?
A. I’ve done that for a while really. Because of
that feeling I don’t want to be trapped, in a Tube station
or room full of drunks so I find I’m back before dark.
Q. When did you stop using the Tube?
A. When I was about 20! [laughs] I hate it!
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Q. You said you admired those
in the war? Do you have any relatives who were involved in the
Second World War who are proud of you doing this film?
A. Well, my parents were old enough to be in the war.
Q. Was your dad in the RAF?
A. No, he was transport, he used to take tanks from the
depot to the place they were needed.
Q. You talked about the downsides of fame, what about
the upsides? The freedom it gives you to do what you want?
A. Well there’s the cachet of being sellable, if
I wasn’t famous I wouldn’t be able to get some projects
off. I’ve worked out the only upside of fame is that people,
like my heroes, like what I do.
That’s the biggest perk when I find out that Ben Stiller’s
a fan, or David Bowie, or Matt Groening’s a fan - that’s
the upside.
As long as you keep it in context it’s fine. I just think
I am quite a private person and I’m not saying that some
people deserve it but if you’re the type of person and you
do go to the opening of an envelope and you need the press then
you should complain less when you don’t want to be treated
like that.
I do like people to watch what I do and so I do these things and
say it’s a good film or a good series and tell them about
it but I don’t then hang out to be photographed.
Q. From what you’ve said you don’t like this
age of celebrity, is that one of the targets of your new show
‘Extras’?
A. Yeah, yeah. I play the sort of guy who says things
like, 'Acting’s in my blood', yeah, acting’s in your
blood because it’s easier than getting a proper job. It’s
that sort of pretension that I like to flag up, the hypocrisy.
Q. You’ve said the backlash might start with this,
did you feel immense pressure to come up with the goods?
A. I’m surprised I didn’t get the backlash
for the second series of The Office - not that I think I deserved
it, but it’s the British way. In America, the more you achieve
the more they like you; in England, it’s like 'now he’s
getting too big for his boots'.
We love the underdog and when they win, they’re not an underdog
anymore.
Q. How difficult or easy is it for you to lay to rest
the ghost of David Brent because there’s so much of you
in the character?
A. Without giving too much away, I’m much more
like Andy Millman [of ‘Extras’] than I am David Brent.
David Brent is actually quite a nice bloke who tries to please
people, he’s desperate about his self image.
We shot a scene [of ‘Extras’] which is just like me,
complaining in a restaurant and the frustrating thing is I can’t
do that now because I’m famous. Before I would have kicked
up a fuss, now I’m famous I can’t do it. Fame has
turned me into a nicer, shyer person. [laughter]
Q. Is it refreshing that you have been successful in
America, with Alias and various other things?
A. I still haven’t watched that yet. I can’t
watch it because it’s me trying to be cool. I watched the
documentary about it and there was a bit and I had to fast forward
through it because I’m being cool. I can watch me being
a fat smelly pigeon or a buffoon dancing like a gibbon but I can’t
do me being an international terrorist.
Q. Bugsy is very much a closet hero. Is there anything
you’re secretly very, very good at that no-one knows about
and we’d be surprised to hear about?
A. No, I’ve given everything; I’ve got no
hidden talents. Some would say no outward talents but no…
I suppose I’m quite a good shark hunter… no, I’m
not. [laughter]
Q. Being a writer and director, did you find it difficult
in Valiant using someone else’s lines?
A. No, because I was hired as a comic actor, they did
let me come up with things so it was fun. It’s their thing,
their vision. I don’t do it very often because of that.
There’s so many reasons I turn down films. 50% you can reject
because they’re rubbish. Then another 50% because I don’t
think it’s right for me - if I can imagine three other people
doing it why would I do it. Which so many people don’t care
about, they just want to be in work.
But I’m not an actor, I don’t have that pressure,
I don’t have to work all year because I create my own labour
so it’s got to tick so many boxes.
Some I turn down because although it might be an amazing role,
I don’t want to spend six months in a Winnebago because
I’d rather be back here working.
It [Valiant] ticked all the boxes; it was filmed down the road
from my house, it was four days work, and they said I could ad
lib. And a lot of it was eating quickly to burp. So that’s
it.
Q. You got to work with Ewan, which is unusual for an
animation movie to work together...
A. He was there the first day and he was amazing. Loud,
clear – just what they wanted. I was trying to work out
how to do it all and I went to the loo and he came in and I said
“I’m not sure if I can do this – it’s
the shouting I can’t do” and he said “Aye, I
know what you mean – you don’t want to feel like you’re
a **** do you?!” That broke the ice!
I thought – yeah, he’s right, I shouldn’t worry,
then I went out again and it was great! That was my meeting with
Ewan, in a toilet! He was great, he was brilliant. To them it’s
probably second nature. Ewan was actually reading the script and
I was thinking I’ll make it up as I go along!
But, I was watching that scene with me and John Cleese and I was
thinking, we weren’t even in the same building! That’s
another thing you can be in a little booth and concentrate, it’s
very different to what I do but it ticked all the boxes and I
think it’s very very good, it’s a really nice old
fashioned family film, and it looks amazing which is obviously
nothing to do with me but it looks incredible.
I’m in awe, it’s incredible how they do it, there’s
nothing done by mistake, every leaf is painstakingly done. It’s
incredible.
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