About his latest role and the support he gets from older brother Simon Pegg
Rising star Mike Beckingham talks to GEMMA DUNN
IT’S one thing to have a job postponed, but it’s quite another when said job will take you to the palm-lined beaches of Fiji. That said, Mike Beckingham – who was due to jet off to paradise this month – is taking it all in his stride, having had the production of his latest film, Waltzing With Brando, halted due to coronavirus.
The rising star is set to play idealistic LA architect, Bernard Judge, in the comedic feature opposite Billy Zane in the titular lead of rebellious prodigy Brando.
“Billy is going to do such an incredible job,” enthuses the Redwood actor, 37. “He’s a wonderful guy; he really backed me from the off and I owe him so much for having faith in me.”
As for re-scheduling: “We’re hoping to start shooting in the summer, but that might not happen, and I feel there are bigger issues to tackle before we go back to film sets.
“In the meantime I have a script to work on and to give me additional prep time is a blessing – I’m trying to take advantage of that for sure.”
So today, much like the rest of us, Mike is at home – dividing his time between work, virtual chats with his dad and brothers (one of whom is A-list actor, writer and producer Simon Pegg) and swinging his golf clubs in the garden.
“It’s my therapy,” he says of the latter. “And you have to have that release; to continue doing those things, as safely as possible, to keep sane!
“I also try to take every positive spin I possibly can, and at the end of this the cinemas are going to be full, pubs are going to be full, we’ll appreciate each other more.
“And think of the scripts that are going to be written off the back of it because writers are going to be holed away,” he says excitedly. “This will be a fantastic, creative time!”
First the Gloucestershire-born talent can be seen in The Host, a fast-paced crime thriller – directed by Andy Newbery – starring Dutch favourite Maryam Hassouni and McFly’s Dougie Poynter, among others.
Mike plays Robert Atkinson, a London banker who risks his bank’s money to start a new life. But things take a turn when he unwittingly signs up with a Chinese cartel to take a briefcase to Amsterdam.
A city veiled by dark secrets and fuelled by power players, drugs, seduction and violence, Robert (who soon winds up as a pawn for femme fatale Vera Tribbe (Maryam), awaits his turn in a deadly game of choice and consequence.
“Robert’s a complex character in so much as he’s lived a very selfish life,” Mike ponders. “His decisions haven’t been ones that have been made with anybody else taken into consideration. He uses that to try and become a better person as the film progresses.
“But I liked where the twists and turns were in the script, and that it’s very story and character driven,” he adds. “I’m old-school like that.”
What does he make of the filmmakers’ desire for a modern-day Hitchcock?
“I knew it was a homage, a twist on such an iconic film, and so I approached it differently,” he says tentatively.
“I didn’t watch Psycho, I didn’t watch any Hitchcock stuff, because I didn’t want to replicate