Coogan: I’m motivated by criticism
STEVE Coogan has said being underestimated and criticised in the media fuels his creativity.
The actor revealed that articles doubting his abilities have driven him to work.
He said the motivation to make Alan Partridge Alpha Papa came directly from taking exception to critical media comments.
Coogan added: “Someone wrote an article, ‘Why they should never make an Alan Partridge movie’, and I went, ‘Right we’re doing that’.”
But he felt pressure playing Stan Laurel in the new film Stan And Ollie.
Coogan said: “There’s a trepidation about doing something like this but to try and do work that you want to be proud of almost always involves the risk of failure.”
HE IS one of the most revered comedy legends of all time. Star of more than 100 films and one of the all time-comic geniuses, Stan Laurel, along with partner Oliver Hardy, defined cinema for generations of fans.
Laurel’s rise to the top of Hollywood in the 20s, 30s and 40s, started in Scotland.
Born in Lancashire, Laurel and his family moved to Glasgow when he was a boy. He made his stage debut on the iconic Panopticon Stage in the city centre.
It’s a link that Scots have always been proud of. And according to Jon S Baird, the director of new film Stan & Ollie, that love was reciprocated by the comedy duo.
He said: “Stan went to school in Rutherglen and Queen’s Park. He did his first performance at the Panopticon and his mother is buried in Glasgow.
“Hardy’s middle name is Norvell. They say that his mother, who he got that from, was from Scotland.
“They used to go golfing at Gleneagles and they would always come up to Edinburgh and Glasgow and do their shows at places like the Empire.”
With Steve Coogan and John C Reilly in the title roles, Aberdeen-born Jon’s film follows the adventures of Laurel and Hardy on a tour of the UK late in their careers.
He said: “They had very strong connections here and it’s only right that we show that. I wanted to get some Scottish voices in there. And I wanted to see them in their kilts – that’s a classic image.
“I imagine Stan picked up a lot of his humour in Scotland. The Scots have got a particular sense of humour, a dark sense of humour and we laugh at ourselves a lot. We are quite a funny race – we do like to laugh.
“With the Scottish audience, you have to be funny if you’re going make someone laugh. Up here, if you’re funny, you’re really funny.”
For Jon, it was a huge responsibility to bring his film heroes to life, having been a fan since he was a child.
He added: “The love of Laurel and Hardy went back to early school age.
“In the 70s and 80s, they used to show the films on TV, particularly after school. I used to sit down at teatime and watch them before my mum shouted me through for my tea.
“I dressed up as Stan
Laurel and Hardy had strong Scottish connections in Scotland and it’s only right we show that in the film
Laurel when I was an eight-year-old kid for the school fancy dress party. A mate of mine was Oliver Hardy. “
After turning the Irvine Welsh novel Filth into one of the biggest movies of 2013, Jon wanted to do something very different.
He said he cried the first time he read the script for Stan & Ollie and knew it was for him.
During the time the comedy drama took to get together, Jon worked on TV projects, including police drama Babylon but, most notably, Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger’s HBO 70s music business epic Vinyl.
When it came to making Stan & Ollie, the key element was the leading men.
Baird said: “The secret was getting the right cast, actors that could in a very short space of time build a bond that these guys had over a lifetime.
“We had three weeks’ rehearsal, which gave us the time to get Steve and John together to rehearse the dances and the routines and also for them to know each other as pals.
“Steve was a little bit more confident going into it. When he realised the magnitude of it, he became nervous. He is a brilliant actor.
“John had to convince himself he really wanted to do it. He said to me that it’s a frightening prospect playing Oliver Hardy but even more frightening if he let someone else play him.
“They are playing their heroes, so they had to be spot-on.”
The transformation of the actors into Laurel and Hardy was done with make-up and prosthetics.
Coogan had a fixture over his chin and his ears propped forward. It took four hours for Reilly to be transformed into Hardy.
Jon added: “We invested a lot of time and money on making it right as we knew it would live and die by that.
“We got all the crew in a room and John and Steve came in.
“I watched everyone else’s face and I knew we had it because literally the jaws started to drop. It was like two ghosts walked into the room.”
The movie won rave reviews after it premiered at the London Film Festival.
It also gained a fan in Jon’s friend Scorsese.
Jon added: “He really loves the film. To have that seal of approval is quite something.”
Stan and Ollie is in cinemas from Friday.