Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actor known for roles including Tim from The Office, Watson in Sherlock, Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, and Everett Ross in Black Panther.
On the island
Eight records
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:39So, given that it is about the content, what is it that makes you excited when you read it? What are you looking for?
I suppose I'm looking for a true voice, I guess. The difference between reading a script that within six pages has you or one that doesn't have you is very often when you think well this writer means it. If it doesn't feel like it's been written by a committee, that's good. And for my own purposes, if it doesn't feel like something that I've done three of in the last two years, that's a big thing. But I'm a big fan of in all aspects of life of people not begging to be liked. There's a way sometimes that scripts come across with all singing, all dancing, whistles, and begging you to like it. And I like things that are a bit more their own pace. Like I like people who are a bit more their own pace, you know what I mean, who aren't desperate for you to approve of them all the time, you know. So I'm sort of looking for those things.
Presenter asks
2:28Your approach as an actor seems like it's very much show don't tell. Would audiences be surprised by how hard you're sometimes working to create that very naturalistic performance?
Well, yeah, I guess so. I mean, it's a conversation that we have as actors sometimes, and it can sound a bit self-pitying to kind of get, listen, because my working life is going fine, so I'm very lucky with that. But I think it's your job to not show any work. You know, if you wouldn't do it in real life, don't do it in front of a camera, you know, or on stage. And sometimes, if you are reasonably effective at that, people just think, oh, he's just doing that thing. Do you know me? No, he's just doing himself or whatever. And they think, well, if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it. And they're not, you know, they're not doing it. So there is a lot of work involved. But also, the people who made me want to be an actor when I was a kid were people who just sort of didn't seem to be doing anything. You know what I mean? Well, I mean, the best of Michael Keynes and he's doing nothing, you know. So when I was nine, I didn't know there were actors like Michael Keynes because I thought, who's this person? Because there was something very relatable about him.
The keepsakes
The book
George Orwell
I read it when I was 11 and it had a similar sort of thing to Two-Tone, I think. It struck me like a lightning bolt and it got me interested, even more interested in history, the history of the Left, I suppose. I'd read it every few years and I've never read anything that hit me like that, ever.
The luxury
Tea-making facilities, because and I'm aware how clichéd and English that sounds, but it's true, I like tea. And tea is way more than a drink. It has symbolic and emotional purposes. There was a reason that in the war people would just think everything's going to be all right with a cup of tea. I still sort of think that. It's it's a comforting thing, putting the kettle on.
Presenter asks
3:46And two of your best known characters that I've already mentioned, Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit and Doctor Watson in Sherlock, they were already part of the popular canon. So many viewers coming to your performances might have had their own ideas about those characters. When you're doing something like that, how do you go about creating your version and making it something new?
Well, I suppose in truth, I try not to do that. So I didn't actively think how can I make my Dr. Watson different from anybody else's. Because, you know, when I was growing up, it was reruns of Nigel Bruce being Dr. Watson. It was the 40s versions of Sherlock Holmes that I grew up with. So I could never be that because I wasn't, you know, 65 and a walrus. So whatever I was going to do was going to be slightly different. As everyone knows, casting is 75% of it. So if someone has entrusted me with that job, then I've just got to run with it and do as I think is right with the help of the director. And I mean, as soon as I was reading with Benedict, it was just different because he was unlike any Sherlock Holmes I'd ever seen. And you make each other, you bring different stuff out of each other.
Presenter asks
26:37So from Craig Parnell to Tim from the office, tell me about auditioning for that part. Because you weren't supposed to be playing Tim.
No, I wasn't. I auditioned for Gareth, which was the part Mackenzie Crook eventually played. In my audition was Asher Taller, the producer, and Steve Merchant, the co-creator. And I'd already worked with Ricky Gervais before, he had written on a sketch show I'd done called Bruiser, which had people like Olivia Coleman and Mitchell and Webb and Matt Holness in it. And so I'd met Ricky, thought he was hilarious, and also hilarious in a way that I'd never met anyone else in Showbiz be hilarious. You met people in the playground who were hilarious like that, but not anyone at the BBC who was funny in that particular way. But I remember us talking during Bruiser, and I think he thought I was quite good, and you know, and that was in a good cast of people. And I'd read for Gareth, and it does sound like such a sort of showbiz story, but I as as I was leaving the room I'd opened the door and then I th either I can't remember whether it was either Steve Steve Merchant or Ash said, Should we get Martin to read for Tim? Maybe that's going to be a better fit. And so I thought, Okay, yeah. And so I so I read for Tim and thank God that went all right. Yeah. And the rest is history. But yeah, obviously that made a massive difference to my life during that show.
Presenter asks
32:44Then how did you cope with the challenge?
as I always do, which is going home and playing records. That's what I always do. And you know, keeping your head down and doing the things that you can trust in. Yeah. You know, which is being a dad and, you know, being normal, doing stuff that is not to do with Your job.
Presenter asks
42:50Tell me a little bit about your attitude to fame, because you seem to have quite a healthy disregard for it, and I find that really interesting. Where do you think that comes from?
I don't know. I mean, I guess it would come from upbringing, I suppose. It might come from partly being the youngest of five and thinking. I'm always aware, don't get too past your station. I'm always thinking that. I don't know whether I've always succeeded in it, but that is honestly a low-level hum all my life. Do you know what I mean? Like. Yeah, all my life, really. I think it's that, and also just seeing it is so unattractive when you see other people fall for it. Of course, there are things to be enjoyed about fame, of course, there are, you know, and you'd be, I think, silly. And I have been silly at some points just not to enjoy it. I do have that is a problem for me sometimes. I forget I'm allowed to enjoy stuff like that. Or I'm quite spartan like that. I'm a bit monkish sometimes with that. It's probably not because I'm a saintly person, it's just because I don't want to look rubbish, you know. … I'm never happier than when I'm either at my house or someone else's house who I know and love and trust. That's when I feel really, really safe. And I think I've always felt way before I was famous, I think I've I felt that slightly about Being out, and that just sort of got compounded by being well known, because then you know people, especially in this day and age, where people can just take pictures of you and do take pictures of you and record you and all that. It's intrusive, and I don't like it. I can just about bear it for me. I can't bear it for my kids, you know. I woke up this morning to someone had papped me and the kids in my road, pretty much. It's just it's just annoying. I don't know. What is there possibly to enjoy about that? And why would you open your life up to it by sort of bringing your kids into the public eye before they're ready? I d I personally don't get it at all.'Cause we all know once you've brought it out of the box, you can't put it back in.
“I think it's your job to not show any work.”
“I was, but I wasn't competitive enough. So, as we know, so much of it is having the killer instinct. I didn't have it.”
“I think it's the best musical ever, and I certainly think it's the best filmed musical ever, by a sort of embarrassingly long way, in my opinion.”
“I liken it to a pop group because, you know, that's the thing that I got most passionate about… And that's what a lot of people did with Sherlock, which, on the one hand, is really, really gratifying. And on the other hand, there's a lot to live up to.”
“Tea is way more than a drink. It has symbolic and emotional purposes.”