Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor and writer, star of Mission Impossible and Star Trek, creator of cult films Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End.
On the island
Eight records
A Day in the LifeFavourite
I think if you put Lennon and McCartney in like a centrifuge and span it, you'd get this song.
It really reminds me of those days just driving to and from my grandma's with my dad.
I would imagine myself in Star Wars. ... wish fulfillment doesn't even cover it.
It's got that weird sort of Motown beat, but then there's all that sort of jangly ma brilliance in it and Morrissey complaining.
I put this song on, Marianne, which is a brilliantly Baroque, hilarious dirge.
He used to sit in the kitchen with the guitar. ... And he'd play me this song. ... It's just this little acoustic song.
It's a spine tingler, this one. ... It's the song on that EP I tend to put on repeat.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:42So where do you find that wonder, the wonder in the work that you do today?
I just try and always approach it with my prior self in mind. So whether it's stepping onto the bridge of the Enterprise or being part of some crazy stunt on Mission Impossible, I always try and imagine myself as a kid and try and sort of plug into what my reaction would be, which would be utter amazement.
Presenter asks
2:30So who or what have you chased [to work with]?
Oh, I can't say 'cause none of them have got back to me. ... I had a moment in my career when I was casting In Glorious Bastards for Tarantino and then I couldn't do it because I'd already committed to Tintin. ... But I'm always trying to sort of remind Quentin that I'm around just in case.
Presenter asks
6:23So what was your relationship with your dad like?
It was good. It was you know, he and my mother divorced when I was six and then I started to sort of see him every week or every couple of weeks after that. ... He'd introduce me to stuff. I I so remember him saying, Listen to this song, it's like a story and he played me Hotel California. But yeah, we we got on really well and we still do.
The keepsakes
The book
Iain Banks
It's just a brilliant dark sick metaphor about Thatcher's Britain, and I've read it so many times.
The luxury
I do look forward to a coffee in the morning to the point where I feel a little excitement before I go to bed.
Presenter asks
8:49What do you remember about your mum breaking the news to you about the divorce?
We were at my nan's. We were living with my nan and I woke up one morning and I went in and I said, Hey, where's Dad? And she sort of explained it as best she could. And then normal service kind of resumed when he started to come to pick me up and then, you know, they both remarried and life went on.
Presenter asks
9:53You and your stepdad, it took a while for that relationship to cohere and there were tensions. What was going on?
I think he was a young guy. ... He wasn't particularly mature, you know, and suddenly you have a relationship where there is a physical representation of a previous relationship. ... I just remember feeling insecure, you know. And that probably led to me wanting attention and validation from external sources. ... he left when I was about 14. ... I went to visit Spielberg on the set of Tintin ... And I went out and I sat on the hood of my car and I rang Richard. The first person I rang was Richard to say, guess who I just met? ... And he's my sister's dad. ... All that tumultuous time, you know, is in the past, but however many years later I was still looking for his kind of approval.
Presenter asks
26:00But around this time the depression that you'd experienced as a young man came back. What happened?
On the set of mission, you know, I was there in the heart of where I'd always dreamed of being. ... and yet I was kind of in this terrible, panicky, distressed state. I couldn't figure out why. ... I was depressed, and I needed to address that and stop trying to take care of it myself inadvisable ways. That was drinking, which is drinking, yeah, which obviously when you're depressed, you just want to change how you feel.
“I always try and imagine myself as a kid and try and sort of plug into what my reaction would be, which would be utter amazement.”
“I just remember feeling insecure, you know. And that probably led to me wanting attention and validation from external sources.”
“All that tumultuous time, you know, is in the past, but however many years later I was still looking for his kind of approval.”
“I think it has to be the latter. We can't just do the same thing again. We have to be surprising at the risk of being disappointing.”
“I think when I'm at home, sat in the snug with the family, we're all on different devices. The dogs are asleep. That's what I'm happiest.”
“I will take The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks. It's just a brilliant dark sick metaphor about Thatcher's Britain, and I've read it so many times.”