Tag Archives: Actor

Actz Acting Workshops: Kickstart Your Career

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Acting Agency Actz are doing a series of workshops to help actors succeed in the most competitive industry in the world. Ranging from day workshops to a full weekend workshop with accommodation and breakfast, Actz really know what they are talking about and do great workshops. Take a look and see if any are for you. They are based in Yorkshire so are perfect for actors who are not in London. Details of their weekend workshop is below.

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FULL WEEKEND WORKSHOP
Starts Friday 20th September at 7 pm – Sunday 22nd at 2 pm

Other dates: 18th Oct, 2013,  24th Jan 2014, 14th March 2014 plus further dates tbc.

Combine a stay in a beautiful fishing village (Staithes, North Yorkshire)

with a weekend packed full of interesting wokshops.

Meet professionals and learn how to become more successful as an actor.

Most of all there will be lots of fun as you learn!

Food and accommodation provided.

[Disclaimer: Actz are one of my acting agents. I am on their books. I obviously have not been paid for this article but did it as I can personally vouch for them]

Shameless Q and A with Jody Latham

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LIP Shameless BG _A2Jody Latham talks about reprising his role as Lip Gallagher in the final series of Shameless. Episode 8 will be broadcast on Tuesday 16th April at 10pm on Channel 4.

How important has Shameless been to you in the context of your career?

Oh wow! It’s been a massive part of my career. I’ve been acting for 15 years, and I was first involved with Shameless ten years ago. I was the first person ever cast on the show. In fact, I was the first person ever to be seen for the show, weeks and weeks before we started shooting. I’d been working for a few years before I started Shameless, but it was the biggest thing that I’d done. It put me out there. It’s opened the door for many other opportunities as well. It’s so true to life, people can relate to it. And it set the example for so many other shows to follow. It’s been a huge privilege to be part of it.

When you were started on the show you were only 20 years old. Do you feel that you learned quite a lot in those early years?

Yeah. 20-years-old is considered quite young. I was just out of my teens, living in Manchester, on my own in an apartment, for the first time. I was a kid at the time. Now I’m about to be 30 years old. So in that time I’ve grown as an actor, as a person, as a father, as a man. I hope I’ve grown up quite a lot since I started on Shameless. It’s been a massive part of my life, not just in career terms. I’ve lived and breathed it. I’ve done high profile shows like EastEnders, The Fixer, I’ve made music videos with Tulisa, and yet 99 per cent of the people who recognise me do so because of Shameless. It’s always about Lip and Shameless, even now. A couple of years ago, when I’d been out of the show for a while, I found it a bit annoying, but then I thought “You know what? Shameless is a massive institution in people’s lives.” Some people have grown up with it – watching it aged 10 or 11, in their bedroom when they’re not supposed to – and they’re now 19 or 20. I do get people coming up to me saying they used to watch it in their rooms with headphones on because their parents wouldn’t let them see it.

When did you begin to realise you were in a show that was going to be a success?

To be honest, I knew from reading the script. I knew what Paul Abbott was capable of. I knew how massively respected he was even before Shameless transmitted – he’d been involved in The Lakes, Clocking Off, Band of Gold, all these massive shows. Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold, so I knew it was going to be huge. I read it and knew how controversial it was – storylines about gay 15-year-olds and that. Right from reading the scripts with all these huge storylines going on, I just knew it was going to be massive from day one. It was naughty and controversial and artistically brilliant.

When you were in the show originally, you filmed a lot with Gerard Kearns (who played Ian). Did you form a close relationship?

Yeah, we did. We were into similar music and similar films, and we came from quite similar backgrounds. We were also both strong, opinionated characters. We were definitely close, and I still speak to him every now and again. And I’ve got a massive amount of respect for him as an actor, and as a father, and with how he’s done in his career. He started off in amateur dramatics, like me, with no formal training, and he’s straight in there, doing it, and doing a really good job. That was the thing about Shameless, the younger members of the cast were all just raw talent, nobody had been trained. I think it may have been Gerard’s first ever part. It was all about finding new faces, no star names, making it seem more real. And it made stars out of the cast – Ann-Marie Duff, James McAvoy, Dean Lennox Kelly, Maxine Peake. Me! [Laughs uproariously]. Being in a show like that has allowed us to go on and make good, strong British dramas, and in some cases films – even blockbuster films, with McAvoy! So we’ve all done really well out of it.

There’s now a US version of the series. Have you seen it?

I watched the first couple of them, yeah. It was really weird! It was interesting, seeing it set in a different environment, but it was literally word for word the same as the English version, and I just found that really bizarre. I believe it’s a huge success over there, particularly the second series.

Why did you decide to go back for the last series of Shameless?

Because they asked me! I’d shared my desires to go back and do a little bit more, and they came back to me with an idea, and we just thought “Yeah, let’s do it.”

What’s it been like, being back?

Brilliant. It was quite emotional. It’s been five or six years since I’ve been there, so it was a real trip down memory lane. One irony was that the first scene I shot when I was back in the studio was exactly where I’d shot my last ever scenes when I left. So that was quite random.

Are a lot of the same faces still there, among the cast and crew?

The crew’s almost completely different – there’s a few from the original, but not many. But in terms of the cast, there’s quite a lot of the old gang there. It didn’t feel unfamiliar, put it that way.

Are any of the other old cast members coming back?

Yes!

What’s happened to Lip since we last saw him?

I don’t know how much I can tell you. But Lip and Frank basically bump into each other on the street. Frank quickly discovers that this might be where Lip actually lives. So it turns out that Lip could be a lot closer to Chatsworth than everyone was led to believe. I think I can say that without giving the game away.

Lastly, how much of you is there in Lip? Are you like him?

I don’t think so, not really. When I was younger, I liked to think I was clever, and I liked to think I was popular with the girls, but I’ve grown up a lot now. I’m not as cocky as I used to be!

Interview courtesy of Channel 4

Rising Hollywood star joins North Pole ‘mission’ to save the Arctic

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Up-and-coming Hollywood talent Ezra Miller will travel to the North Pole in early April to plant a ‘flag for the future’ on the seabed, as part of a major international campaign to protect the Arctic, amid a growing rush for the region’s natural resources.

The 20-year-old actor, who played the title role in We Need to Talk About Kevin and recently starred in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, will ski for up to eight hours per day and camp out in temperatures that could drop to -31°F. He will be joined by three other youth ambassadors from communities directly threatened by climate change, and will be cheered on by 2.7 million others who have backed a Greenpeace campaign to create a global sanctuary in the uninhabited area around the North Pole.

Once they arrive at the top of the world, the team will attempt to lower a special flag to the seabed, several miles below the surface. The flag’s design, chosen by Vivienne Westwood as part of an international competition, is intended to symbolise global unity and peace and will stand in defiance of previous attempts, most notably by Russia, to claim this region and its resources for any one country.

Announcing his participation in the trip, Ezra Miller said:

“I’ve never camped in the snow before and I’m definitely not an Arctic explorer, but I’m determined to plant this flag at the North Pole to declare it protected. I’m skiing with three young people want to create a sanctuary up there and fight climate change across the world.”

“The Arctic is melting in front of us, but right now people just see that as a chance to go up there and drill for more oil. It’s time to create a new story. Millions of people have signed their name at savethearctic.org to draw a line in the ice and say ‘this stops here’.”

Attached to the flag will be a special pod which contains over 2.7 million names of people who support the campaign including Paul McCartney, One Direction, and Cameron Diaz. This pod will be made of glass and titanium and is intended to rest on the seabed for decades to come.

Ezra recently completed a training course in Montreal, Canada, which required him to drag a sled containing over 170lbs of equipment, as well as learning to melt snow to cook freeze dried food. Once on the trip he will be expected to pitch camp, pack his own sled and pee in a bottle during the night.

In April the North Pole is bathed in nearly 24 hours of sunlight. The team will use GPS locators to find the actual pole itself, a task made harder by constantly shifting ice floes which can pull expeditions south as they walk north.

Ezra Miller continued:

“Even after months of training I’m still pretty terrified about skiing across the frozen Arctic Ocean. But I feel really honoured to have been asked to take part along with these amazing young people, and it’s a story that I will tell to my grandchildren once we’ve won this huge fight against climate change.”

Ezra will be joined by three other youth ambassadors with different connections to the Arctic:

  • Renny Bijoux from the Seychelles, whose island nation could disappear due to rising sea levels.
  • Josefina Skerk is from the Indigenous Sami community in Sweden and a member of the Sami parliament.
  • Kiera Kolson is a young Tso’Tine-Gwich’in woman from Denendeh, Canada. She works to protect the Arctic with Greenpeace and defends the rights of Indigenous Peoples who have lived there for thousands of years.

Frost Interviews: Italian Actor Claudia Gerini

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_Claudia Gerini by Cristina GhergoFrost interviewed the beautiful and talented Claudia Gerini. Prolific and mufti-lingual, Claudia can be seen in Labyrinth, broadcast on Friday 29 and Sunday 31st March on Channel 4.

You got your first role when you were only 14. Do you think starting so young was a good thing?

Well, I think that there are advantages and disadvantages in all of

one’s decisions. Perhaps the positive side of this was that I started to work

immediately and was able to throw myself into the career that I had always

known I wanted to follow. The negative side could be that I started to work

straight away and so I wasn’t able to develop other interests or perhaps lost

out on other things but, at the end of the day I think that say it was a more

positive than negative outcome.

What is your favourite role you have played?

Well, I suppose it was the part that I had I’m Crazy about Iris Blond. I

played the part of a waitress ― Iris Blond ― who then becomes a singer and

given that singing is my passion and the role required me to sing a lot, I really

enjoyed that part.

You have over 53 credits on IMDB, how do you think you managed to have such a long and prolific career?

I suppose taking decisions and making the right choices. I don’t really

know. I follow a trajectory in which I try to follow a set of principles and be

faithful to my ideas and plans. Part of this is probably my love of challenge

and so I try not to repeat myself too much and I am always on the look out for

new genres and different roles.

Favourite film?

I have no doubts about that one. Moulin Rouge by Baz Luhrmann. I

don’t know how many times I’ve seen it over the years.

Favourite genre to work in?

I think I’d have to say comedy, a more romantic or ironic comedy but

then again, given that I like changing genres and roles and I am always on

the look out for a challenging role, I like dramatic roles as well.


You have worked in many different languages. Do you find learning

other languages hard? What is your favourite language to work in?

I find it quite easy to learn new languages, probably because I have a

good ear and so I tend to pick up the sounds quickly. I learned Spanish,

French and English this way and if I have to work in another language then

probably I prefer working in Spanish or English.

What would you be if you were not an actress?

If I could stay in the entertainment sector then I’d love to be a singer. If

I had to change sector then I think I’d love to work with children, young

children; perhaps as a pedagogue or even a primary school teacher.

How do you stay in shape?

I keep in shape by going to Taekwondo classes 3 times a week. Its so

energetic that you don’t really need to do anything else; there is a lot of cardio

and stretching and so its an all-round sporting activity. Recently I’ve

discovered pole dancing which is a lot of fun so I suppose just keeping myself

in movement. You know, being a full-time working mother, I have very little

time to sit and relax and another thing is that I’m slowly moving towards a

more vegetarian diet as well even though I still eat meat occasionally.

What’s next for you?

At the moment I am working on some projects that will be staring this

summer and so I’ll be back on set shooting in July. Tulpa is also being

released in Italy on the 30th of May and so I’ll be a bit busy with that as well

and so, in general, I’m getting ready to start filming again this summer.

Tuppence Middleton interview for Black Mirror

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You’re in the new series of Black Mirror and you’re in an episode called ‘White Bear’ which is shrouded in secrecy. What can you reveal about it?

It mainly focuses on a young woman who wakes and she doesn’t remember who she is, in a world that she doesn’t recognise anymore. Everyone she meets is either incredibly hostile towards her, or they just film her. My character bumps into her helps her. I’ve been living in this world and I’m very used to it, and I become her guide.

 

Your character is called Jem. What’s her story, what do you know about her?

In the story you know that she’s become hardened by this world and she knows the ins and outs of. She is very independent and initially would rather travel on her own, but she just happens to come by Victoria and is forced to take her under her wing. Her main goal is to stay alive. When we were talking about the character we almost wanted her to come across as a bit like a computer game character, like a bit of a Tank Girl – she’s very tough.

 

Presumably there’s not an awful lot of back story or detail about her. Does that make it difficult to play a role like that? Or does it give you a blank canvas which is quite fun to fill out?

Yeah I liked the fact she was quite mysterious, she doesn’t give away too much. She gives away enough about the world for Victoria to understand but she doesn’t give away too much about herself and I think she’s quite a guarded and lone figure. I think the more mysterious she is to Victoria the better.

 

Lenora Crichlow [who plays Victoria] said the shoot was pretty intense in terms of it being very long days and not quite knowing what was going to be around the next corner. Did you find that as well?

Yes I mean it was kind of tough in a great way. I don’t think I’ve ever run so much in my life. I was doing ADR [voiceover work] for it today and it was, I’d say, 90% doing breaths for running. We were very active and it’s kind of fun doing things like that because I’m not like that at all – I hate even going to the gym, so being an active action girl is quite fun for me. I mean it was tough, it was long days and we were filming mostly outside for two weeks and almost every day it would pour down with rain. We were usually quite cold and wet and running for hours but it was quite fun.

 

Presumably with the plot being what it is, it quite added to the atmosphere it being rainy and dark?

Yes it really helped. I’ve just watched a little bit of it back and there’s that really weird sky when it’s like winter and it’s raining and it’s so cold, it’s almost like a completely white-grey sky. It really looks like the end of the world has come.

 

What was it that attracted you to the part?

A million things. I am a huge fan of Charlie Brooker and I thought the last series of Black Mirror was one of the best things I’d seen on TV for ages. As soon as the audition came up I was like ‘oh god I have to get that.’ I just love Black Mirror, and Carl the director. I was just really confident he could do a good job and he seemed to have a really good vision. And like I said it’s a part totally unlike myself, apart from being tall, which I think is why I mostly get cast as these sort of parts, I’m not at all like that. I’m not this kind of action girl. It was something really different for me.

 

When you’re going up for an audition like that, something that you really want to get, does that make you a lot more nervous, and how do you deal with that?

Yeah it makes you more nervous, but then you turn that into determination. You can’t let it get the better of you. Ultimately when you’ve got something you really want, it’s more about showing how passionate you really are about it and when you get to actually meet the director and meet the producers and stuff and talk about the role and talk about the script then it’s great because you can input your ideas in the initial audition. So you get carried away with how enthusiastic you are about it as opposed to how nervous, and you come back and think ‘I have no idea how that just went’. I’m terrible at judging it, and then you get the call and it’s amazing, so I was really pleased, it’s a brilliant job.

 

In your relatively short career so far you’ve worked with some amazing names – just picking a few David Tenant, James McAvoy, Emma Thompson, Timothy Spall, Danny Boyle, Sean Bean. How have you managed to squeeze that all in into such a short time?

I have no idea, to be honest, because when I first started, there would often be periods where I wasn’t working for a few months. I think the gaps just gradually get smaller and the roles you do become bigger, either in the sense that you’re taking more of the lead role or it’s a small role in a more prominent thing, a kind of step up in terms of who you’re working with. The more people I work with like that the more I learn from them. Emma Thompson, I was working with her for a day or two, but you learn so much even in that short amount of time. It’s great, I mean it’s kind of strange because you think about all those names after you’ve done it but when you’re doing it, they’re just people who are also doing a job. You just have to think like that and, yes, it’s such an amazing learning opportunity and I think I’ve been lucky to work at all since I left drama school because so many people don’t. I am thankful that it’s been with some amazing talent.

 

There’s been a huge variety in your work – you’ve done everything from comedy to horror to more arthouse stuff. Is that an intentional thing to keep moving genres, to stretch yourself like that?

Yes completely. I mean I’ve been sort of lucky with the genres actually but I guess it’s more for me about finding parts that interest me and scripts that interest me. I think I always want to do something different to the thing I’ve just done and I always want to play a part different to one I’ve played before. It’s just about finding variety and I get an instinct very quickly about a script whether I like it or not. Over the four-and-a-half years I’ve been working, although it’s not long, I think you start to build up your own taste. I think it’s just constantly about keeping me on my toes and having a challenge rather than playing something which is second nature to me.

 

Who are the people working in your industry who you most admire?

That’s such a hard question. I was really lucky working with Danny Boyle because he was definitely on the list. There are definitely lots of directors I’d love to work with, I mean in a crazy world I’d love to work with Tarantino. Obviously there’s too many actors to mention that I’d want to work with but I think you really get drawn towards certain directors as well and I say there’s definitely certain directors I’d want to work with. David Fincher I think is great, David Lynch.

 

Most people when they leave drama school maybe do an apprenticeship in theatre but you’ve slightly bypassed that. Do you want to do theatre as well?

Funnily enough I’m starting to rehearse for a play on Monday. It’s just a short run – it’s on throughout March at the Jermyn Street Theatre, a Graham Greene. You spend most of the time at drama school training for theatre and then I just happened to come out and do film and TV because my first job was a film and it paved the way for the rest of my work. I absolutely can’t wait for rehearsals to start for the play. I think it is going to be a really different discipline and a different experience for me. Yes I’d definitely like to do more of it but I think you tend to get more work in one area and maybe that will change in a few years’ time when I’m a bit older. At the moment I’m happy with the way it’s going and I’m looking forward to trying my hand at a play.

 

What ambitions do you have left? What do you really want to do with your career?

I guess primarily it’s always about making work that I like, being in films from scripts that I love and not compromising on that, and just to make it into a career and not working for three years and then I stop working. I want to be working into my eighties. If I live that long!

 

Black Mirror: Whiter Bear is on Channel 4 at 10pm on Monday 18th February. Interview thanks to Channel 4.

Interview with Zawe Ashton of Fresh Meat

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Zawe Ashton can totally identify with her character Vod’s sense of style in Fresh Meat because she has been there and done it herself.

“It’s not even like I have outfits in mind for Vod – I have influences in mind. So after last year instead of listening to so much riot girl punk, Vod is maybe going into a more androgynous place where she is playing with gender and masculinity and at the same time her musical influences are extending to discovering more Bowie or New Romantic post punk music.

“She’s not that self-conscious, she draws so much from her surroundings and is so perceptive that anything that seems vaguely anti-establishment she can really chime with and I can identify with that because that is exactly what happened to me when I was studying in Manchester. Being in a smaller environment with people from so many different backgrounds I changed on a daily basis. One day you’d be having an existentialist conversation with a random in a bar then someone would say ‘do you want to get pissed and dance all night to 80s music’. And I’d be like ‘Yeah’. And because Vod is a yes woman she will say yes to all of that and have all these different influences and experiences. She’ll never miss out. Never regret something she didn’t do…I totally did that at uni after I broke up with my first boyfriend, who of course was a musician. I thought, “Right I am going to have a summer of saying yes to everything.” Which I did.

“This job is such a touch! It is so collaborative but you can also trust every single department to just be on it. If I send June, our costume designer, a picture of Prince and say this is our touchstone for this series – the next thing you know I’m wearing a ruffle shirt, a bolero jacket and my hair’s sticking up and it’s Prince. She runs with it, she is so inventive.”

So how has Vod changed since last term?

Explains Zawe: “This series Vod is exploring the friendships she’s made with these people. What is interesting is having new characters come in and seeing Vod’s reaction – she doesn’t like it at all. She is fiercely protective over the whole group. Vod takes on a hell of a lot more than she lets on and the fact that she has lived with these people and let them in over the course of a term has been a big deal. Seeing her relationship with other characters deepen, especially with JP and Josie, has been really satisfying. Also the episode where she falls in what she thinks is love was really funny because it’s Vod opening up even more to different experiences.

“This season we do see her slightly more vulnerable side but she is also almost like a narrator in a way, she clocks absolutely everything – nothing happens in the house without her knowing about it.

“She’s really caring but at the same time she’s sort of weirdly indestructible. She has such a big heart but is also one of those amazing people who can drink far too much and take too many drugs – like you might say to Iggy Pop ‘you’ve put yourself in some bad situations but you seem to have come through them alright. Still rolling on…’

Also because she is so blunt about things I think she has got a really good grip on what life is. If people die that is just something that happens and you move on. Who knows, maybe aged 40 she’ll have a huge emotional breakdown but for now she’s just a character who has very little subtext, enjoys a good time, has time for people but also insight and will share that. She is her own little thing.”

But Vod also has a few money worries this term and needs to find a job…

“Starting work as a chamber maid is Vod’s idea of hell – that is working for the man. But she is also really good at it. She is massively creative and hard-working but she doesn’t fit into a system and I really identify with that – your work ethic not being that of an institution or a machine. She could probably be great at anything she put her hand to, she’s not limited. But you wouldn’t get out of it what you think… She is definitely born out of her time, she is really modern but at same time there is something sort of old school and punk about her.”

And what are Zawe’s stand-out moments of this series? “I love doing the scenes where we are all together. Those big group scenes are beasts – seriously we are there all day – but they are so satisfying. What is so nice is that you can have reactions off of people, even if you are not saying anything I get an awful lot out of those scenes. The reaction shots are my favourite bits. And exploring the physical proximity of each other – giving this real sense of being in a student house.

Talking of her eclectic mix of fans, Zawe says: “Some people are really drawn in by the hard-living side of Vod and are watching the show thinking ‘that’s someone really good on a night out’. Unfortunately I’m not that person anymore. It is the realisation that I can’t go clubbing all night; I have a job and I’m tired. On the flip side I get lots of lovely mature men and women in their 50s and 60s coming over and saying how nostalgic the whole show feels and how much they like the character because they knew someone like that, so I get both ends of the spectrum. Some lovely fans on twitter made t shirts saying Keep Calm and Trust in the Vod… in that font with a little picture of me. That is definitely the nicest thing that has happened.”

Zawe is currently filming Case Histories for the BBC. She also has another project in the pipeline. “I’ve written a short film for Greg (McHugh). Greg is a superstar, one of the best actors out there working – the characters he creates on screen are superb. I want to direct that. To have a production company and be working out of that writing, directing and acting and hiring teams of people I know will do a good job would be amazing; a dream come true.”

 

Fresh Meat returns to Channel 4 on Tuesday 9th October at 10pm.

Interview with Homeland Actor David Harewood

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David Harewood is the British actor who plays David Estes, the director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Centre, the the brilliant Channel 4 drama Homeland. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Harewood has been a fixture on the London stage for many years, earning praise for his work in such plays as Sam Mendes’ Othello at the National Theatre, which later went to Broadway.

Harewood appeared in Separate Lies, written and directed by Julian Fellowes; the 2004 screen version of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons; and Blood Diamond, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly.

On British television, Harewood was a regular on such series as The Vice, Robin Hood and Babyfather. He was also seen as Mandela in the television movie Mrs. Mandela. Harewood also guest stars in a number of series including Doctor Who, Strikeback and Criminal Justice.

 

A surprising number of fans of Homeland don’t realise that you’re a Brit. Explain where you’re from…

I’m from Small Heath in Birmingham. It’s hilarious to me. I’ve been acting for 26 years, in everything from Casualty to The Bill to The Vice, I’ve played Othello at The National Theatre – it’s taken me 26 years to be an overnight success, as the old gag goes, and it’s hilarious that all these Brits think that I’m American. And here in America, whenever I turn up on the red carpet, they’re all stunned to find out that I’m British.

 

That’s particularly impressive that the Americans themselves are stunned. That clearly shows that you’re doing something right.

Well, yeah. It’s always something I try to do. I’ve always tried to put character ahead of personality. I’m really glad that, even today, people kind of recognise me, they kind of know where I’m from, but no-one’s able to place me. I think that’s because I’ve done so much stuff, and hopefully it’s a testament to my ability to act.

 

Growing up in Birmingham, you were a very useful goalkeeper, weren’t you?

Very useful – The Cat, I was once known as. [Laughs] I used to play a lot as a kid, and I had trials as an All England Schoolboy. But I was never going to do it too seriously. Whenever it rained, on a wet, windy Saturday morning, I’d stand there thinking “What on earth am I doing here?” My heart was never really in it. But I played with some fantastic footballers, and it was a huge part of my life.

 

You went to RADA at the age of 18. Did that open up a whole new world for you?

Completely! I’d never really paid much attention at school – I was always a bit of a clown, really – that’s why I started acting. I wasn’t particularly attractive, and I wasn’t particularly academic, so the only way I could really get any attention was to mess about and be a bit of an idiot. At the time it was fantastic, but I suppose it was to the detriment of my education. Then I turned up at RADA, and went in on my first day, and they’re all talking about Brecht and Moliere and Dostoyevsky, and I’m thinking “Who the hell are they?” It was a real eye-opener. I really started to appreciate literature, and it was a wonderful journey. I was very lucky, I had a wonderful few years there.

 

Did you struggle to find work after you left?

I was very lucky, I came straight out and got a job. I played Romeo for Temba Theatre Company, which was the biggest black theatre company at the time. I’ve always been really, really busy, I’ve been very lucky. I think I spent the first five or six years just not stopping. I didn’t have any difficulty – the difficulty came much later on, when I got older and started to play roles with more authority on stage, that there were fewer and fewer roles for me on screen to do. That’s when I started to struggle, because of the frustration of playing really authoritative, strong roles at The National, but really struggling to match that on screen. I’ve been really, really fortunate to fall into this role [in Homeland].

 

Landing the role must have been a great thrill – acting opposite actors of the calibre of Claire Danes, Damian Lewis and Mandy Patinkin.

I hadn’t worked for a year when I got the gig – partly for personal reasons, and partly because I just couldn’t get a gig, and then suddenly to find that I was sharing a screen with them was just extraordinary. I’ve just had a wonderful year. I suppose it’s like football – you play with better footballers, you get better. I’ve really found that just by watching them and working closely with them, seeing how they prepare and how they execute, has been a real joy, and I can only hope that there are more roles for me of this calibre, working with this calibre of actor. It’s been an absolute pleasure, it really has.

 

When you’re filming something like Homeland, do you get a real sense that you’re making something that’s going to be really, really good, or can you never tell?

A bit of both. I think everybody was very surprised by the immediacy of the success of the show – we were still filming the show when it became a massive hit in America. It’s kind of a goldfish bowl filming here in Charlotte, North Carolina – I think people do watch it here, but I was really surprised when I went to New York how many people were coming up to me and saying they enjoyed the show. I think in LA it’s such a huge show – it’s on posters and billboards everywhere, and this isn’t that kind of town, where there are billboards for TV shows.

 

David Estes is a fairly ambitious character, intent on climbing the greasy pole. What are your feelings towards him?

To be honest with you, I really struggled with him during the first season – I just didn’t know who he was. I told that to the writers at the end of the season, and they’ve done a fantastic job of really filling him out this year and giving him much more of a personality. Last year he was just the authority figure in the background who was always anti-Carrie. That was difficult, because I didn’t know why he had such antagonism towards her, and I didn’t know who he was. I only really discovered that when I played a scene right at the end of the season, when I played a scene with Mandy Patinkin, when you realise that actually he is implicated, and inextricably linked to this whole bomb attack on Abu Nazir, and how much he’d buried all of that information, and how much he was linked to the Vice President. I didn’t know any of that until the very last couple of episodes. It was a huge revelation to me that the reason why I’d been so antagonistic about Carrie finding out about Abu Nazir was because I’d been responsible for this drone strike. It was a huge piece of the jigsaw for me, when I read those scenes, and it’s been like taking a cork out of a bottle. This season has been fantastic for me, because now I know who he is, I understand him, I like him. Yes, okay, he may have sold his soul to a certain extent to get where he wants to, but who wouldn’t? A lot of us, to get where we want to be, would do what we can. It’s fascinating being out here in the world of American politics during an election. You see the real dirty side of politics, with the ads they’re running. If you want to get where you want to get to, you might have to do things that are seemingly unpalatable.

 

Why do you think they went for two Brits in key roles in the series?

That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? It’s what everybody’s been asking. And we’ve got a third Brit – we’ve got Rupert Friend joining in this series. The director just says that they were the most interesting tapes that he saw.

 

When you’re on set, between scenes, or when you break for lunch, do you keep talking in an American accent, or do you revert back?

It’s quite extraordinary – all three of the British actors have almost an unspoken rule that nobody’s ever mentioned – we nearly always stay in our American accents when we’re at work. Damian’ll come to work and I’ll be like [puts on American accent] “Hey, man, how’s it goin’?” And he doesn’t look at me and say “What the f*** are you talking like that for?” It’s just unspoken. Every now and again one might drop out of accent and talk about the Olympics, or about something political that happens in the country, like the riots last year, when you have to get out of the accent. But most of the time you just forget, it becomes second nature.

 

You’ve mentioned that it’s election year in America. I hear that Homeland is Barack Obama’s favourite show. Is that a great thrill?

Oh it is. He’s metnioned it several times in interviews – it’s a fantastic thrill. It’s unfortunate that we were on hiatus when he was here for the Democratic convention. I’m sure he knows that we film the show here in Charlotte. Apparently, because his big speech was moved from the stadium to indoors because of the weather, he might be coming back to the state just to do something for the volunteers. Wouldn’t it be amazing to get a visit from the President?

 

Dare I say that it probably wouldn’t be as much of a thrill to have Mitt Romney visit?

Not really! I am astonished it’s so close, to be honest with you. It’s just beyond me that people are even considering him. But there are a lot of people who aren’t convinced by Obama. A lot of people are saying they’re not even going to bother voting this time. That’s bad, that people feel that politics doesn’t mean anything to them. That’s the scary part, that he’s going to lose because the people who voted for him last time just can’t be bothered this time.

 

Season 2 is about to Premiere in the US. Are you excited?

I’m really genuinely excited. From a personal point of view, it’s great because Estes has been given a lot more to do in this series. But it’s just such a fantastic show, I think people are going to be really, really excited to see it. I’ve read so many tweets and blogs where people have said it’s just a one season show which they can’t take any further, but these writers are fantastic. They’ve managed not only to recreate the same amount if tension, but to ratchet it up again. I think fans of the show are going to be very, very pleased.

 

Are you allowed to give us any hints about what we can expect from the series?

I can tell you that the second season begins in Israel. And I can tell you that Carrie will be back in the CIA in some capacity, and that, from what I hear, though I still don’t know, the mole will be revealed. You’re all going to be very surprised.

 

You were awarded an MBE at the beginning of the year. How did that feel?

Absolutely tremendous. It remains, and always will be, one of the proudest days of my life. To have gone there and got that pinned on, and had my daughter and mum be at the palace watching me get that award, it’s one of the proudest things that ever happened to me. I’m really, really chuffed about it.

 

Series 2 of Homeland will be on Channel 4 in October.

Ted | Film Review

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It is not everyday you get to see a movie about a talking, swearing, dope-smoking, over-sexed stuffed teddy bear. Which is unfortunate, because this film is hilarious. Wrong and not for the easily offended, but hilarious.

As the result of a childhood wish, John Bennett’s teddy bear, Ted, came to life and has been by John’s side ever since – a friendship that’s tested when Lori, John’s girlfriend of four years, wants more from their relationship.

Seth MacFarlane directs, writes and voices ‘Ted’, the stuffed teddy bear who comes to life. It doesn’t sound plausible at all but it doesn’t matter. This film allows you to suspend your disbelief and just laugh at the witty script.

Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Seth MacFarlane are all great and Giovanni Ribisi plays a psycho in an amazing performance. Wahlberg is also great, he really is an actor of note with great comedic timing. Wahlberg and Kunis have great chemistry so even when Wahlberg’s character keeps screwing up, you root for him.

Rules of Engagement actor Patrick Warburton also makes an appearance with Ryan Reynolds. This film is just really funny. I know it is not to everyone’s taste and it is edgy humour, but I think it is great. One of the funniest films of the year. Top marks. I hope they make another one. Check out some of the movie quotes from Ted below.

Robert: Give me back my Teddy Bear!
[Charges John and Lori at full speed. John punches him in the nose, knocking him unconscious to the ground]
Lori: Jesus!
John: I’m sorry, but somebody had to go all Joan Crawford on his ass!

John: Can you call my cellphone?
Lori: Yeah
[Lori calls John’s phone which plays “The Imperial March”]
Lori: Is that my ringtone? What is that? Cause it sounds really negative.
John: No. I-it’s from The Notebook

Ted: [to Tami-Lynn] You have a baby? Is it alive?