‘You have to be resilient. You have to be tough’
◆ Actor and comedian Bill Bailey talks about new show Bring The Drama, in which aspiring actors audition for their big break, writes Jessica Rawnsley
It’s easy to look at people we admire who’ve made it and stare into a deep gulf of the seeming impossibility of getting where they are. But everyone started somewhere. And for most people it wasn’t an easy or unwavering path to success.
British actor and comedian Bill Bailey, 59, has graced screens for decades in comedy classics such as Black Books, Hot Fuzz and Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and as an unexpected champion on Strictly Come Dancing.
Now he’s sharing some of his expertise with a group of eight aspiring actors in the BBC’S six-part series Bring The Drama. In each episode, the actors learn and perform scenes on the real-life sets of some of the UK’S most loved dramas – including Peaky Blinders, Eastenders and Silent Witness.
Mentored by renowned casting director Kelly Valentine Hendry, established actors and industry experts dole out advice and guidance and the would-be actors discover whether they have what it takes. At the series close, Hendry selects three actors she feels are industry-ready to present their showreel at an industry event in the hopes of bagging an agent.
Ahead of its launch on BBC2 on Wednesday February 14, we sat down with Bailey to find out more.
Why were you interested in being part of this project? BB: I thought the concept of it was really intriguing because I hadn’t seen anything quite like it. It is a fascinating insight into the whole business itself, not only just the idea of going behind the scenes of some of our favourite TV shows and finding out how they’re made, but also just the process of acting itself, the real nuts and bolts of it, what’s required of an actor in these TV shows and what it is like to have a career as an actor.
And it’s tough. It’s a tough racket. What this show does is it doesn’t sugar coat it. It very much replicates what the reality of the industry is, which is tough.
What are the essential qualities actors need to make it in the industry?
BB: You have to be resilient. You have to be tough. You have to be able to take the knocks on the chin because you’re going to get a lot of them. You’re gonna go to a lot of auditions where they just say ‘no’ or even worse, you’re down to the last two: ‘no.’ That’s what the business is about. It’s about people saying no to you and about opportunities coming and going and you having the mental resilience and toughness to pick yourself up and just keep going.
And this show replicates that – there’s an audition every week, people have to audition for the main roles and if they don’t impress Kelly, then they don’t get it. And that’s how it is. You have to be incredibly determined, doggedly determined, and not get too downhearted when things don’t go your way.
Tell us about the aspiring actors in the show.
BB: They’re a terrific bunch, they really are. They’re a great bunch of characters and they’ve all wanted to act but for whatever reason that hasn’t happened. And they’ve all had different jobs – worked as care workers, policemen, cab drivers, in IT. And so they’ve had to be grounded, they’ve had to be self-sufficient. And so it’s not like they’ve got this unrealistic idea that suddenly they’re going to just get the lead role in Bridgerton. This is something that they have to do, that they’ve wanted to do their whole lives. And so they came at it with a very healthy attitude.
Could you tell us about your journey into acting? Did you ever struggle with doubts or come up against barriers? BB: When I was growing up in the West Country, I was doing comedy – that’s the first thing I did, me and a mate from school, we did standup. There wasn’t much work around so we had to find our own work, we had to create our own gigs and do our own stuff. And it’s hard.
A lot of young performers at the time joined up with an
agency and the agency would say, ‘Well, we’ve got this extra work, and so on and so on’ – and when you do it, it’s great fun, it’s very exciting. And you learn very quickly on the job. I always loved performance, I loved spoken word and music, and so it seemed like a natural thing to do.
So I went to a load of auditions and got a lot of knockbacks. And so I just thought, ‘Well, I can’t just wait around and try and hope that I get an audition, I have to do something.’ I had to figure out something that I could do where I wasn’t reliant on the whim of a TV or a film company. So that’s why I started doing comedy and then the comedy took off.
What advice would you give aspiring actors?
BB: The most important thing is to get an agency – they will put you up for things. And suddenly, you just happen to be right for a role. I remember an audition I did for Saving Grace. And it just so happened that they were looking for someone and I fit the bill. And then the next minute you’re on a film set with wonderful actors like Brenda Blethyn and that’s how your life can change – in a phone call.