Arena Magazine – 1996

The act-and-tell diarist shares his favourite anecdotes with Nick Duerden

1. Withnail & I (1986)

This film was so well written, so funny, and has basically given me the career I’ve got today. Almost every part I’ve had since is because of Withnail. There’s that great saying: life is what happens in between your plans; it couldn’t be more apt. At the moment of this incredible career breakthrough – the chance to play a lead in a movie – my wife and I suffered the death of our baby daughter (born prematurely; she lived for just half an hour). You know, just when everything’s going wonderfully, you’re walloped by an almighty sixer on the left. But life goes on, because it has to. Of everything I’ve done since, Withnail remains my sweetest memory. I’m so glad Daniel Day-Lewis turned it down!

2. A TV advert for Schweppes, co-starring Elizabeth Hurley (some time in the mid-Eighties)

Oh, that was just excruciating. Elizabeth was blonde back then, and it was at least ten years before she became Miss Estee Lauder, or whatever she’s called. It was jut one of those things you do for the money. The premise was incredibly cheesy, something to do with a dog and this bottle of Schweppes. Christ, it was stupid. I don’t think many actors would look upon doing adverts as a career move, because they do have tendency to hang around your neck. In America, Jonathan Pryce is chiefly known as a car salesman from some TV advert he’s done. So when he pops up as Mr Peron in Evita, no doubt some reviewers will say, “Oh yeah, that’s the geezer who sells cars on TV!” But (sheepishly), I do voice-overs. All the time, actually. Hey, you’ve got to earn a living!

3. Warlock (1990)

This was my first Hollywood movie. It certainly wasn’t an Academy Award-winning role, but I actually really enjoyed doing it. Never before, or since, for that matter, have I been cast in a big macho role when I get to kill people. It was fun, although Lori Singer (co-star from TV’s Fame), who insisted she was a method actress, was miserable for the entire time. She didn’t like the way her character was written, she hated the director, so consequently there were many torture sessions which I stood to one side to observe, thinking perhaps that this is just the way it is in Hollywood. I have to say it was quite an education.

4. Hudson Hawk (1991)

This is the perfect example of going into a film with all the best intentions and hopes, only to discover that you can never predict the outcome. Joel Silver was producing; Bruce Willis was starring; the two Die Hards had taken a zillion dollars between them; and I was cast as the archetypal British villain for more money than I’d ever been offered before. I don’t know anyone who could have predicted that it was to become a disaster. As an experience, I absolutely hated it, especially the time spent on location in Hungary, which was very distressing indeed. It seemed so profligate on the one hand, this American circus cavaliering about the place, while the country itself was so fucking down-at-heel. The per diem money we were getting a day there was the equivalent of a month’s wages. It made you feel like a corrupt Westerner coming in. Horrible.

5. The Player & Pret A Porter (1992 & 1995)

Here you have the classic example of the same director, the same modus operandi, but Pret A Porter simply didn’t have a strong enough story line, and The Player did. And yet both were equally enjoyable. When I told my agent that I’d rather take a small part in The Player over the lead in a huge Australian mini series, he seriously thought I needed brain surgery. But this was Robert Altman, one of the greatest movie directors of all time, and it was one job I simply wouldn’t have missed. To be given such a free reign and the opportunity for improvisation, which he encourages, is like being let loose in a toy store. And when it works, as in The Player, then it’s even better.

6. The Age Of Innocence (1993)

With Scorsese, no-one gets into confrontation. He is jut so intense and has such a clear vision of how a movie should be, that you just slot into that. He really does command such respect, everyone on the set, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder and Michelle Pfeiffer, went through a daily mantra, saying, “WE’RE WORKING FOR SCORSESE TODAY!”. In other words, somebody pinch me! He really was the star of the picture, and everyone knew it. So it was very much a case of, “Don’t upset Marty!”

7. Dracula (1993)

This was an interesting one, mainly because Gary Oldman was at such odds with Coppola. The arguments they had were ferocious. But maybe it’s justified by the end result? Gary is, after all, a wonderful actor. I have never gotten myself into a situation where I feel the need to get into confrontation with a director, just because I feel it creates a bad atmosphere that won’t go away. I remember my grandmother saying that she accepted everything my grandfather told her to do, then went ahead and did exactly what she wanted all along. I’ve adopted much the same route.

8. Jack & Sarah (1995)

This film was written with me in mind, which I’d never had before, and it was an opportunity to play a part which dealt with death, love, and dealing with children in a way that I’d never come across in a script before. Also, it was contemporary, which meant I didn’t have to wear a starched collar, and I didn’t have to play a psychotic, as usual. I enjoyed making the film enormously, and it did very well commercially over here. It’s just opened in the States, however, and they absolutely hated it. They said I was too ugly, too manic, chicken-chested, whippet-thin…..Fucking hell!

9. Portrait Of A Lady (1996)

This is one of the best acting experiences I’ve ever had, even though it’s only small part and even though my character is this sad fucker suffering from unrequited love. I’ve been lucky enough to work with Altman, Coppola and Scorsese, but Jane Campion is the most genius-like director I’ve ever come across. You really feel like she’s pushing the boundaries with each film she makes, and she’s always trying to find something hitherto undiscovered in actors, which means you’d do absolutely anything for her. I certainly would.

10. The Importance Of Being Earnest (on the West End stage last year)

This was my worst acting experience of all time, because I was tortured by (co-star) Maggie Smith the entire time. We’d worked together previously on film Suddenly Last Summer, a Tennessee Williams play, with Rob Lowe and Natasha Richardson, and we all got on well. But Maggie was unhappy with the production, and I became the scapegoat, her victim. I’m still amazed that anyone can be so inventive in the ways they can demolish you, but she did. She’s a brilliant actress, but she has a history of doing this. I was told by someone that every single job she’s ever done, she’s done it to someone. And I suffered six months of it. I couldn’t resign because then I’d regard it as a terrible failure, and that she had won, but I often wished that they’d fire me. After the first three months, I no longer gave a fuck, and finally started to enjoy myself. But before that, well, it was just horrible. Urgh!