SIXTY SECONDS
THE ACTOR, 53, ON BEING A PEST TO JULIA ROBERTS, HIS EXCUSE FOR NOT ‘DOING DOBBY’ AND CALLING TIME ON DETECTORISTS
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
We hear you almost got your big break opposite Julia Roberts in Notting Hill…
I auditioned to play Hugh Grant’s assistant, which I didn’t get. They rang me later and asked if I wanted to play a guy who pesters Julia Roberts in the street. I looked so like the kind of pestering fan who would bother Julia Roberts that people kept throwing me off the set or not allowing me back on. Whenever I came to act with Julia Roberts she would look at me suspiciously as if I maybe shouldn’t be there, so convincing was I as a pest! When they finally released the film they didn’t need that character and I was consigned to the scrap heap.
Are you thrilled that Marvellous is back on TV, six years after it was made?
It’s an honour. The show is . Suspicious looks:. hugely cherished. It’s a very positive story about Neil Baldwin, the Stoke City kit man. He’s someone not only coping but actually thriving in life. He has a certain degree of learning difficulty but you often forget it. A lot of the posts I received after it was shown were from people who’ve got family with Asperger’s or autism and there was huge gratitude at the way Neil was portrayed.
Why did you want to be in it?
I was on a long job in Canada and a little bit homesick, and then this script arrived. My agent said, ‘It’s this thing called Marvellous and I think it’s marvellous.’ I read it and thought someone was playing a trick because I’m a lifelong Stoke City fan, so the idea that the guy in the story was the Stoke City kit man made me readily predisposed towards it. I found it so moving. It’s an emotional story and yet nothing bad happens – I remember tears coming to my eyes.
Were you nervous playing a real person?
Too right! I’ve played real people before but not very often people who are alive. Neil appears regularly in the film in conversation with me, discussing events as they unfold. You can see that I’m an actor pretending to be Neil but it’s Neil’s story and it’s very clear that he’s in charge of it. That’s one of the most original things about the film.
Was it difficult playing a character with special educational needs?
Even in the six years since the film was shot we’ve come some distance. I think it’s much more accepted now that it’s a better thing to get a person with the
Sometimes it’s great to go out when people love your show most of all
special need to play the character. I’ve written a show, which I’m in, called Don’t Forget The Driver, where we have an actor who has cerebral palsy playing a character who has cerebral palsy.
How have you been spending lockdown?
Completing the scripts for the second series of Don’t Forget The Driver. I’ve also been doing a couple of radio plays, reading, cooking, gardening, walking and cycling. And my daughter has been keeping me fit. It’s one of these appalling online things.
What was it like being the voice of Dobby in the Harry Potter films?
I thought it would be hugely exciting to my children but actually it turns out it’s exciting to everyone but my children! I was doing a play at the time so my voice was very tired and I could reach a really high falsetto pitch. It means that every time anyone’s asked me to pretend to be Dobby into their phone I have to say I can’t because it would ruin my voice. It’s been a great alibi.
Lowe, who played him in the TV series, was a brilliant comic so it felt like such a crazy idea and like everyone was going to lambast it but they assembled this cast of fantastic actors and the whole thing became irresistible.
Will there be any more series of Detectorists?
I suspect not. It feels right and proper, in this world of bingeing and overload, not to succumb and to just go, that’s that. Sometimes it’s great to go out when people love your show most of all.
You won a Bafta for Detectorists and an Olivier for your role in West End comedy The Play What I Wrote Where do you keep your awards?
No impressions:.
Was it nerve-racking playing Captain Mainwaring in the Dad’s Army film?
I was hugely apprehensive. Arthur
They’re bookends. The weird thing about awards is that they’re always about the past. You’re proud to win them and you feel great on the night but very quickly afterwards there’s anxiety that it was all history – you’re so preoccupied with what’s happening next.
What’s still left on your bucket list?
Various train journeys across the world with my wife. Anywhere in India would be fantastic. My kids are 18 and 20 now so they’ll be leaving home and that will be much more possible.
Marvellous is on BBC2 at 9pm tonight. For more TV see pages 19-21