Iconic Roles and Cornetto Trilogy

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Qince d. com slash Raiders Mornings have a rhythm You can hear it Feel it Weaker We fuel it with one hundred percent whole grain oes and a good source of fiber in every bowl, helping you turn that rhythm into your soundtrack for a great day Fuel to start whatever's next. Quaker, official sponsor of FIVA World Cup twenty six Obviously you've played some very famous characters that were adapted before you Bbough John Watson. what's the trick to, especially with Watson so many iterations of those characters? What's the trick to making it your own? how much of the film was improvised? All of it is improised. I mean dialogue wise, ninety eight percent of it is improvised. So it just happens. So Jamie gives you an idea of Obviously, well you know roughly what the scene is going to be He'll shout things from behind the camera, but there's yeah there is no there's no script as such. So Do you have a favorite film in the Cornetto trilogy? s probably the one I'm in the very least the first I mean probably sh of the dead What's up, Martin James? I host a show called Razors of Losts Podcast So thanks for joining for a little bit. Iare my pleasure, my pleasure. Appreciate it. So this whole film let's love. Love very charming. I love Indie films. It's built on this scheduling mistake. Do you have any worse scheduling mistakes either you've made or you've been a part of that? just comes to your memory I dont any I don't think any on as grand a scale as getting the wrong date for a. screening in a premiere, but no, schcheduling mistakes are pretty easy to make, aren't they? They're quite easy to make because everyone is too busy And and you don't any longer just have a book where you wrote things down in and on Tuesday I'm doing this. I you know now you've got different things in your diary, which are different colourors. Ot get digital? No Nott about you, but I have like four email accounts, you know. It's crazy Yeah, it's too much. But no fortunately, nothing as bad as that Ccauseuses also saming, there is people, you know, people u I have people reminding me of what I'm doing, which is Really fortunate, otherwise no one will ever see you any I hundred ofet. how many days of shooting was this film? And where did you shoot? It seemed like such a fun time, like a small cottage a proper village Yeah, we shot in Wales I can't remember how was it like fiveive or six days, I think. Jamie Adams is a Welsh filmmaker who makes films very prolifificically But he makes one or two a year. like you know, he's that he's probably on about two a year average. He gets amazing people present company accepted, but he gets amazing he gets amazing people to do these films For obviously for very little money, with no actual script, but with what he calls a scriptment a story outline and sort of goes out to people says, Do you fancy playing this sort of partark? here are the sort of other people we're hoping to get and then he attracts other people? And he's a very He has a real contagious spirit about him because everything is done on a kind of On the sort of level financially, which is, you know, obvious it's very, very low budget But people, you know, you're looked after, you're put in a warm, dry room and fed fed nice food. But it it's it's not showy. But what I describe it as is from an actress's point of view, it's a little bit like having a an MOT like you have on your car, like you put your car through a service and you kind of And you come out making sure like it sort of recharges certain batteries. and remind you of certain muscles that you have that you might not have flexed in a certain way and I really like that about that process and about Jamie's process, ye Now how much of the film was improvised? When I was watching you and Josh Riffing about movies, talking about raaiders and I think ghostbusters, I was like, I've had this conversation maybe sixty times Yes, I'm sure you have U all of it is improvised. I mean dialogue wise, ninety eight percent of it is improvised. So it just happens. So Jamie gives you an idea of Obviously, well you know roughly what the scene is going to be He'll shout things from behind the camera, but there's yeah, there is no there's no script as such. So he, you know, he said, you feel this way way about Josh's character. He feels this way about yours have at it. So it's kind of that really, which is why why for me I really enjoy It is a bit like a good workout. for an actor. and I'm sure it is for the camera operator for everybody else as well because It's what we like to call Pardoning my French, a cake barlic scramble You know, you've just got to be on it. It's like it's proper guerriilla movie making and you have to be ready to turn and pivot at the very last second Well we're not doing this here. We're going to do that over there. Oh God, the rain has completely ruined this. so we're going to do it inside And you still don't have a script and you you're not even quite sure who's going to be at the scene all the time s It's wonderful and I couldn't do it all the time But I've made two films with Jamie now and thoroughly enjoyed it. but it's You kind of you need to decompress a little bit after you do it. although this cast was wonderful, really, really lovely, excellent human beings. chemistry is just off the chs with everyone involved. And it seems like it feels like this is what it feels to be like most human for acting, just so much improvisation. You just get to know your character and go free wheeling. I'm sure it must be so fun when you know, you're on so many big budget films and so many blockbusters, but then let's tone it down Let's hang out in a little pub in a village. And I love that. I've been to the UK a bunch of times for work I just wanted to like go find a cottage and a pub watching this film and have a pint. Do you have any favorite like villages or cottages or places to grab a pint in England or the UK or Ireland? I do like a country pub. I mean, I don't have specific ones really, but sometimes if you're on a drive or if you're going somewhere, stopping off somewhere quiet, ving a pub lunch. You know, like whether it's a roast or, you know, just whatever it is just in a kind of quiet country pub is one of the nicest things. The problem is now try not to find a quiet part Because everywere everywhere now there's music blaring or there's a teleon or whatever and you don't always want that. sometometimes you just want Three old men over in the corner playing Chance or something in Sometimes you just need that But ye I like a quiet country pub and I like I like films that do evoke that kind of thing. Do you know what I mean? A sort of There's a kind of coziness to this film as well. I guess because it is rural, You know it's like for people who work in the film industry going somewhere and being completely out of their normal life, which is just in the middle of nowhere, they're not quite sure what they're doing in the middle of South Wales because they have sort of nothing to do. so it makes them talk about, you know, make writing a sequel to this film that they made ten years ago. I mean, yeah, we should stress they've come together 'causeuse it's the ten year anniversary of a love actually style big romantic comedy And and it's a sort of a fan get together and a screening marking ten years since it was made U. and Malan Ackerman is the director. I'm the writer Josh Hutchinon is the star, Jess Weipler is the star. So we're all going going to do a panel and a Q and A and it turns out that someone is very, very stupidly mishandled the timing of it. So all we've all arrived in this small place for no reason at all. So we decide to use the next few days to to to write a sequel and that leads to various fallings in and fallings out. And and much hilarity Yeah. Did you find the pitch to be relatable? obbviously when you I'm I'm assuming pitching your show that you did twenty twenty twenty twenty four didid the pitch scene remind you of that in terms of when you had to get that green during COVID Thank God, it wasn't too much. yeah, I didn't speak to anyone We're also Yeah before Zoom it things were a lot easier before Zoom anyway in terms of like being in the room. if you're going to pitch to people, it's nicer to be in the room with the human beings. but No, I think um Derman's character as the studio sort of executive was slightly more brilliantly cartoonishly clueless. than the people I've pitched to in the past, but But yeah, it is a funny mixture of you have to be confident. You have to be confident enough in what you're pitching becausecause you obviously you believe in it But also it does get a bit nervy as well. you know, You have to be careful, I think, not to just Want to please somebody enough to say, oh yeah, whatever, yeah, whatever you want to do. Oh you want to make it a musical, you know in in A jungle. Brilliant. Let's just do that as long As long as we get a green light, you know, because you are it's a funny dance of being Power dynamics kind of shift because they, you know, they want you there for some reason and you definitely want you want and need them Be someone's got to pay for this stuff But you don't want you can't want it so much that you're willing to jetis in everything that you believe in about the project in the first place. What are your most prized records in your vinyl collection? My surpriseed We're most pprised Oh Bed, sorry,ed I mean, I suppose certain additions, I mean it would be certain pressings of whether it's sort of I've got a really nice G A relatively rare let it be with a sort of booklet. it came out in nineteen seventy, which is sort of and a cover and a booklet and Lice photographic sort of thing. That's pretty expensive and I, you know, I love it Old jazz, you know, old sort of Blue note jazz records, with good a good pressing, you know, of Art Blakey records and Crusaders records and things which I really treasure. I buy fewer records now. att my age now, just because I bought them all the way through my life until probably ten years ago When I just off I'm They're just too heavy. like if you move if you move house, it's just a, you know It's a nightmare. I mean, I love it in the day with CDs, but yeah Y book back to in the two thousands was ridiculous Yes, exactly. And the car, the glove boox. Now it's in the deer. you know, now it's just in the air. So like it doesn't so even And I love records. I love physical touch of things. I like things being, you know, things that you can touch. but But there's no question. the convenience of Digital you know, culture is it's pretty cool, you know? I mean, I thought, you know, when I used to look, you know, when we went from VHS to DVD And I was, you know, I had this amazing wall of DVD's and I was so proud, you know, like it And it was just a different version of you know my record collection. it's just like, this is who I am. And then after a while you kind of go, well, yeah, yeah, of course. but you can also just Press a button literally on your television and anything that's ever happened can can come into being. And I feel less feel less attached to DVDs and CDs actually than I do to records. I mean records as a sort of as an object. I think of the things that probably most people like records like books. I just think they have they have a different tactile meaneing, I think, and they have a different sentimental meaning And also the truth is, I think people can overstate their the importance of vinyl. because when people say nothing sounds better than vinyl That's not always true Guinely a good pressing of something that was made in nineteen sixty seven on the right on the right u equipment Yeah, it'll sound really good. It'll sound better than a repressing from twenty years after, yeah What's interesting is, I don't know if you've seen it with the younger generation, but they seem to be going back in time to older technology like high aid cam corders. I see kids with point and shoot cameras instead of their smartphones. It's kind of interesting they're going back to a lot of old tech Yeah, I like that. it I think it makes me slightly less depressed about the state of the world than I can sometimes, which is that everything is so transient and everything is I describe it as, know a generation of kids on a travelator who are just sort of staring at the screen, swiping and barely looking up and not knowing where anything came from, not knowing why anything happened. You know that shit really does depress and scare me a lot, brother, a lot. But you're quite right There is also a number of people doing the opposite But in order to do that I think you some people will be doing it because it's aesthetically pleasing and there's nothing wrong with that either Or it's cool. Nothing wrong with that But some people you have to be interested in the first place. You know what I mean? like? you have to sort of be to have something slightly more than a passive relationship with the culture to find out why Francis Coppola did what he did. You know what I mean? You have to say a little bit more than that And my fear is that the further away from that will we get in terms of literally, in terms of years and decades U yeah, I do worry about that stuff being Lost or being considered irrelevant to more and more people. I hope I'm wrong and I hope there will be more eighteen, nineteen, twenty year olds coming up who are going to be completely conversant in just history of stuff Be I don't think anything is interesting unless you are able to have a touchstone of a context of when it was made, why it was made, where it was made. Do doesnn't mean you have to be an expert or a snob But I mean, I just a general interest in why Why you think that film is better than that one that it's not all just You know, Burgers. Jump me in It could be any, it's just fast food and that really does worry me a lot Yeah, me too. Well, speaking of film, do you have a favorite British director? all time favorite versus maybe a favorite American director That's a tough one. I mean Nolan's quite good, isn't he? Christopher Nolan' quite good, quuite good. Hitchcock's quite good Yes. David Lean was quite good. I mean, you know, there are lots, thank God, you know, there are lots. I mean, I think She Meadows is a wonderful, wonderful film director, fantastic film director You know, I think Jonathan Glazer is a fantastic read, know he's not the most prolific, but I think what an amazing film director he is Yeah, there's there's lots, thankfully. Yeah Hel the younger generor more towards, you know lower older tech, but like David Lean's films And the masterpieces he made, but hopefully, you know, the Odyssey kind of gets them excited to check out classic films like that And Len was just a baster I'm so Yeah, I mean, I think it's it's funny is that becausecause I think there will always be, you know, in the culture, there will always be good, you know, like when you look back to what you think is a heyday of something. You know, pick a decade and pick a out of everything there was just amazing. And of course it wasn't all amazing. There was some crap and there was some good stuff And at probably pound for pound. there was more good stuff than at other times But I I think there will always be good films made and there will always be terrible films made. And I think maybe you could say it was ever thus, you know, because I think if you probably said to someone if they're being honest about nineteen sixty three There was an awful lot of drosss being brought as in just in a cinema near you, there was an awful lot of crap But there were also a lots of thingsms that we would consider absolutely staggeringly good, you know And maybe people will say that about, you know twenty twenty six in fifty years, maybe people when no one can read anymore And you know, no one knows the difference between metallica and Mozart Then they'll probably think twenty twenty six was absolutely the greatest thing that ever happened. I don't know I think we always look at things through a slight rose ented you know, lens the further away they get or if it was made before you were born, I know I have a tendency to do that Bea I sort of I know I slightly venerate things that were around just before I was around But I also don't, you know, I don't think I'm that um you know, I'm not that sentimental about things. I know when I think I genuinely like that thing, whether it's old new or I love seeing a spark of For me, it's something that's human You know, something that and I'm not saying this to be on topic, but like something that could not be made by anything but a human being. Um or something that wasn't made by a committee or somethingone that wasn't made by a, you know a focus group. but an authored voice, whether that's in a painting or a book a record or a movie U There will always be people like that. I just think For the time being There will, I think be fewer of them But when it happens, it's really exciting Well you know, the younger people coming through now who are really good, love it, love it, love it It does worry me It does worry me that people don't read, man That does worry me. N that I think you need to be you know every night at master in English literature about that. But that does worry me because I think it I think if you don't read and if you're not really interested in stuff that happened before you, really what chces do you have? And I think there are There's more and more of that. No context about where this came from, where this came from because guess what? It all comes from your phone anyway. It doesn't matter. it's all in the ether So it's just it's just Burgers for Youton It doesn't matter whether's Did Lean or who the hell is? It doesn't matter it is. whether it's two thousand five or whether it's nineteen twelve, you've got no idea because it's just all coming at you like a five guys, you know? Exactly. I' completely agree with you. Speaking of the future, let's say someone fifty years from now discovers your work What do you hope they take away from the films you've been in, the characters you've played Jeez, lovies U I hope well I hope. I mean, I really want to be good you know, that is my lifelong A Priestly missions to sort of dedicate myself to trying to be a good actor. And I'd say that with no u side or with no humour Like I really want to be good and that's what all I've wanted to be since I was in youth theatre, right U so I hope people think some of it was good I hope people think some of it was honest and I hope that some people thing I mean This is a hope This is a hope. hope some people can kind of maybe chart You know, some sort of that it makes some kind of sense. I, I know why you did that You know, choices, I guess. Choices are interesting And I know it ain't all gonna be pretty. But I would love to in the same way you know, my favorite actors from however many years ago No one has made only and all exclusively good work But some people have made a frightening amount of very good work. U and that won't won't be made I hope if people care Th they go, that's pretty good I like what he did and I think he generally told the truth. Yeah. that would be my Highest wish ye Well you've had an excellent career so far. And going Have you ever been or thought you weren't exactly right for a role But a director convinced you that it has to be you and then it worked out so well for you Yeah, I have had that actually. I've had that where I signed on for something. U I don't even think I'm going to say what it was, but it was a big thing. and and And you know I signed on for it and it was all only affirmation, all so positive, so flattering, I thought And then it came to doing it. and I was like From a couple of things that I was being told, I was like, I'm not sure I am the right man for this. I think you keep saying I am, but I'm sure I am U and so I so another actor persuaded me that I had to translate what was being told to me and make a different sense of it for me to calm down and go, okay, yeah, right okay, maybe I can do what you want me to do. But that's kind of weird because if someone just says, it's you, it's you, it's you, it's you And then you turn up and then you think What it' what if it's not me? And I have to say I'm not I'm pretty realistic I'm not always self flagellating. I don't think, oh my Godd, this is going to be a fake. I'm reasonably confident, I suppose But occasionally you do go I don't I don't think this is me. I And sometimes it'll work out And sometimes it won't. And really I think it's interesting the difference between whether something works out and whether something doesn't is dependent on so many different factors of life Be if you can do something that you don't really like, right and the audience A banana's about it So you go, I guess it was good then. I you know, so you retroactively go, Yeahah, that was good. And I was amazing you know whatever, because the audience have told you that. even if in your heart you think, I don't know it was that good And of course, vice versa, you can do I've done plenty of things I think I really like that. I think that was a good piece of work and no one cares and no one will see it. you know. That's way more common because it's much more common for things not to be seen But I. Yeah, I think sometimes we retroactively we retrofit. what we think The kind of job that we did Based on what happens six months later when the audience sees it, Do you know what I mean Um Obviously you' played some very famous characters that were adapted before you Bilbough John Watson, what's the trick to, especially with Watson so many iterations of those characters? What's the trick to making it your own? Obviously, I'm sure maybe taking some influence from Ian H with Bilbo possibly How do you just make it wholly your character I think with well with Bilbo, it was inststructed for me to look at what Ian was doing becausecause I'm the, you know, I'm the young him, right? So so it would be crazy not to take notice of that physical things, any verbal tickics, but without getting too hung up on it because that will And inhibit your enjoyment of what you're doing or will inhibit really the reason why you've been cast because you've you know, you have been cast because you're this actor, right? So you want to you definitely want to give it your own go In the case of that and in with John Watson My feeling was always People have done this before me, peoplee will do it after me. This is my go in a continuum of you know people interpreting this character. So it doesn't belong to anybody it's very Well, occasionally of course, occasionally you do see something you think that's just definitive, you know It would be a tough gig for someone else to play Spico, right? That' be a t That would be a tough gig. You know what I mean Um But it doesn't mean someone shouldn't if they want to. So I think not being too reverential and not being too understanding that this you have every right to play that part because all these very smart people think that you're the person who should play it, so yeah, hell, I'll play it U in the case of Bil Bo, you're very, very helped by the fact that you're with Peter Jackson and you're on a huge and train that is going with or without you and that train operates just fine with or without you, so you may as well get on and really, really enjoy it In the case of Sherlock I was with an amazing co star playing Sherlock in the case of Ben Cumberbatch. Perfect for it Stephen Moffittt and Maretis are two of the best writers I've ever worked with. you know, so who know that material inside out. So you felt very safe You felt very, very safe and well looked after. But yeah, for me, I don't want to look at other people's work too much unless unless I enjoy it unless I want to, but I don't want to pick up too much Unless like Bilbo I'm literally playing the younger version of it in a home now Do you have a favorite film in the Cornetto tririlogy? H. I think probably I mean yeah, the one I'm in the very least the first I mean, probably Sean of the Dead. Yeah. I think I like them all. I really like them all. I probably go with Sean just because it was such a breath of fresh air, I think. I mean, you know, those guys were known in the UK on and loved in the UK, but as a sort of first outing of that team. as cinematically A I was really proud of I was not proud of anything I did because it was nothing to do with me. But I was proud of them. I was really proud of them because they're all lovely people and they all sort of became mates Um and there was, you know, smart, funny people who didn't take themselves too seriously. who sort of had this explosion of a particular kind of success with a particular kind of humour that I think for Brits anyway felt, you know, it was like, yeah, it's like We've got one It translated really well to to the West. I can tell you that. like Shawn of the Dead, I think it was there was a couple of films in the early two thousands that really kind of revolutionized zombie films. obviously like twenty eight weeks later changed it up a up. But I think Shawn of the Dead changed up as well. It's very funny but great horror and great filmmaking was just such a unique take on the zombie genre That's my favorite as well No, it did it did do well in the States, right? I mean, it was there Totally yeah. there are certain British films that I think I'd be on a sticky wicket if thought if I was talking to Americans, I think they might not really know what I'm talking about. But yeah, no With with Edgar and Simon stuff, I think people definitely know what you're on about because it's loved Can you guess, one more question, Can you guess your top rated project on IMDB?