That was liquid football.
I try to not make safe choices, but I also like to do stuff which is interesting and is sort of exciting in some way and accessible.
Yeah, all drama teachers are very effusive, very demonstrative, very emotionally open, very big, and gesticulate a lot, and are very physical.
London audiences are tricky, too. They don’t laugh as much as the Northern audiences because, and I hate to say this, they are a bit cleverer normally, and they are picking up on all the little details and listening more carefully.
I’m just attracted to playing people who are ostensible unlikable. That’s not to say that there’s something in there that makes you care. It might be that you just find them so awful that you just can’t stop watching, like a car crash.
The great thing is that the funny side of getting old is fuel for my comedy.
I’m an entertainer. I don’t go round saying I’m a paragon of virtue, so that is clearly not in the public interest.
What terrifies me is that I might somehow endorse that view so people think they don’t have to read books anymore.
I wasn’t a naturally confident, extravert, outgoing person.
I want my work to be judged, not me.
I used to do stuff at college. I could do voices. I could make some people laugh. I wasn’t the class clown, but I knew I had this skill.
I think you need to have the guts to not use comedy. Often, the people that work in comedy use a joke to avoid contemplation.
Most of all I don’t want to be bored. That’s why I’d rather do something that has some sort of ambition, that risks failing, rather than make safer, more comfortable choices.
The best feeling in the world is performing in front of a live audience who like what you’re doing. I can understand why people become dictators just because of the thrill they get making the speeches.
If the person who can effectively sanction ill-conceived wars can play the electric guitar, which is a symbol of rebellion, then that whole worldview becomes confused.
Knowing about comedy has helped me with the drama. To see people laugh, it’s like there are moments of catharsis in the middle of sadness.
The tabloids operate in an amoral parallel universe where the bottom line is selling newspapers.
If you start to disrespect the character you’re playing, or play it too much for laughs, that can work for a sketch, it will sell some gags, but it’s all technique. It’s like watching a juggler – you can be impressed by it, but it’s not going to touch you in any way.
If you are a great dramatic actor then you often don’t know if people are enjoying your stuff at all because they are sitting there in silence. But with comedy it’s a simple premise. If it’s funny, people laugh. If it’s not, they don’t.
I happen to have a public profile. Ditto newspaper editors. It’s a result of what I do, not an end.