Life is just Plummer with dear old Chris
i interviewed film star Kevin Spacey long before the allegations of awful, inappropriate behaviour. At the time, i remember noticing that the way he worked a room was pure House of Cards’ President Frank Underwood.
He made you feel listened to, for as long as he needed you.
Of course you can’t set too much store by behaviour in interviews. if you cannot act decently for 30 minutes in front of a journalist, a pen, notepad and tape recorder, then you are a blithering idiot. And hello, by the way, to Steven Seagal.
However, a middle-aged Scottish actor had a similar experience with Spacey, recalling that he was mostly ignored until the day they had to film a crucial scene together. Suddenly the Scot found himself bombarded by Spacey charm although, as the scene was done, so was their new friendship.
now it is Spacey who is being dropped – by House of Cards, but also cut from a forthcoming tv Christmas special in the US, and even as a one-line reference in an American drama, this is Us.
Alien director ridley Scott has gone one step further by scrapping all his scenes from his new film All the Money in the world and reshooting them with the Sound of Music star Christopher Plummer.
TwO thoughts. First of all, isn’t it extraordinary how quickly a long Hollywood career can collapse and then be swept aside. And secondly: more things in all of our lives should be replaced by Christopher Plummer.
take the new John Lewis Christmas ad, where a small boy makes friends with a delightful big blue monster called Moz, only to have him replaced by a present of a starry nightlight.
Surprisingly, the little boy doesn’t seem to feel disappointed by this, which tells us all sorts of interesting things about how John Lewis views relationships rather than material things, doesn’t it?
Obviously, replacing the lamp with a kindly, grandfatherly Christopher Plummer would make a lot more emotional sense there.
Also, Kenneth Branagh’s remake of Murder on the Orient express? Pointless if you’ve seen the Albert Finney version every Christmas. But if you replace all the suspects with ten Christopher Plummers, suddenly the whodunnit is perplexing all over again.
A Miss n. Sturgeon asks: is it too late to have Christopher Plummer make a dignified concession speech to the voters of Gordon, then step away to a quiet retirement from westminster and public life, with no desire to make a plum of himself with a Kremlin-funded chat show? nicola, i think we can make this work!
does your politician send inappropriate sexy texts? Meet Christopher Plummer MSP. if your favourite tv show gets caught avoiding taxes in the Paradise Papers? Let’s watch Mr Plummer’s Boys instead.
Of course, not everything can be replaced by Christopher Plummer. nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe may have had her prison sentence extended and her life endangered by a blunderingly stupid Foreign Secretary. no Plummer required here: we simply organise a prisoner swap, with Boris Johnson taking her place.
But Christopher Plummer is really good at singing edelweiss and hating nazis. And one of these things is going to be a huge help when donald trump finally gets arrested, and President Plummer takes over.