Latest / Half the Picture / #39 - ARTHUR DARVILL

Transcript

#39 - ARTHUR DARVILL · Half the Picture

• 0:00
  Doctor, he's always been about the writing and about the stories.
• 0:02
  As long as that is kept safe and there's a really surprising stories
• 0:07
  and really interesting takes on humanity,
• 0:12
  then it works no matter how big or small it is.
• 0:15
  And I'm not saying the writing's been bad at all.
• 0:17
  I don't think it.
• 0:18
  I actually haven't really watched much of it.
• 0:20
  So I'm just going off what other people have said.
• 0:22
  But my opinion on if you're going to make something good,
• 0:26
  then that's how to make it good.
• 0:27
  And it maybe just doesn't need all that big budget stuff.
• 0:31
  And that stuff's good.
• 0:32
  But as long as it keeps the heart, then sure it'd be fine.
• 0:34
  LAUGHTER
• 0:35
  MUSIC
• 0:43
  Are you, er, are you spending a bit of a long day?
• 0:45
  You've been around that much?
• 0:46
  Yeah.
• 0:47
  I used to...
• 0:48
  Stomper empty every minute.
• 0:50
  Yeah, he's back in the day.
• 0:53
  Yeah.
• 0:54
  That's the great food around here.
• 0:56
  Mmm.
• 0:57
  Tell me.
• 0:58
  Who isn't?
• 0:59
  Yeah, exactly.
• 1:00
  Exactly.
• 1:01
  No, it says they're not.
• 1:02
  No, tell me about it, man.
• 1:03
  No, we, er, we, er, we ever go to the Brick Lane Bagel place.
• 1:06
  Yes.
• 1:07
  Yeah, it's dangerous.
• 1:08
  Leafel.
• 1:09
  Leafel.
• 1:10
  Really, really, really full.
• 1:11
  Do you have a favourite bagel?
• 1:13
  I just like quite a simple bagel.
• 1:15
  Mmm.
• 1:17
  Just to kind of plain, cream cheese salmon.
• 1:20
  Maybe a salt beef, I'm feeling naughty.
• 1:22
  Or salt beef and maybe a bit of pickle.
• 1:24
  Always pickle.
• 1:25
  I've got everything.
• 1:26
  Of course, of course.
• 1:27
  What's your go to?
• 1:29
  I like a salt beef and pickle, but I know what you mean,
• 1:31
  they are a bit naughty.
• 1:32
  I feel like they're quite, quite heavy.
• 1:34
  Yeah, really, quite rich.
• 1:35
  That's me for the rest of the day.
• 1:37
  I do much prefer salmon and cream cheese.
• 1:40
  And a bit of locks.
• 1:41
  Locks is so...
• 1:42
  A bit of locks.
• 1:43
  Yeah, lovely.
• 1:44
  What's your favourite bagel, George?
• 1:45
  I just just salt beef and then pickle.
• 1:47
  Yeah, I'll say.
• 1:48
  Very liable.
• 1:49
  I think sometimes I've got a little bit too much mustard.
• 1:52
  Yeah, but that's the good thing, I think.
• 1:54
  That's the risk.
• 1:55
  There's a little bit of danger.
• 1:57
  You can eat it.
• 1:58
  Oh, God, this is so hard to eat.
• 2:00
  Brilliant.
• 2:01
  I love it, I love it.
• 2:02
  You just tell yourself.
• 2:04
  Yeah, I think food should involve as much pain as possible.
• 2:07
  It's just a little bit of, you know, little...
• 2:10
  A big thing.
• 2:11
  Come and make you feel alive.
• 2:12
  I think Brook Lane's got that in common, you know,
• 2:14
  just because, you know, the curry house is on here.
• 2:16
  You know, like, you know, I've been to Lou.
• 2:17
  That's a fine life.
• 2:18
  Well, I'm from Birmingham, so, like, I find...
• 2:21
  I find finding a good, but this is no...
• 2:24
  Just to any of the curry houses in London,
• 2:27
  or Indian restaurants.
• 2:29
  But the Indian food in Birmingham is like...
• 2:32
  It's what I grew up on, and I'm very...
• 2:35
  I'm a snob about it.
• 2:38
  Yes.
• 2:39
  And I struggled to find a kind of really good...
• 2:43
  Really good Indian food in London.
• 2:47
  Tabs is really good.
• 2:48
  Tabs in White Chappel.
• 2:50
  Ooh, I don't know that.
• 2:52
  Just terrible.
• 2:53
  White Chappel is like...
• 2:54
  They do like dry rubbed meat,
• 2:58
  and just give you loads of it.
• 3:00
  It's extraordinary.
• 3:01
  What's that?
• 3:02
  They sent one of their...
• 3:03
  One of their lamb cutlets up to space.
• 3:05
  Yes, and I heard about that.
• 3:07
  Oh, that was them.
• 3:08
  That was them, yeah.
• 3:09
  Yeah.
• 3:10
  I can't...
• 3:11
  I can't remember quite why they did it.
• 3:14
  Just because it was that bloody good.
• 3:16
  It was so good.
• 3:17
  It deserved to be in space, yeah.
• 3:19
  It's not all the good things, yeah.
• 3:20
  What sets like a Birmingham Curry then?
• 3:22
  Above, like...
• 3:23
  I could just sit at a standard Curry.
• 3:24
  Or maybe it's Birmingham Curry Curry.
• 3:26
  I don't know.
• 3:27
  My parents go to the same Indian restaurant.
• 3:29
  Run by this guy could abbot in King's Heath in Birmingham.
• 3:32
  And they go...
• 3:33
  I think about three times a week.
• 3:35
  And so every time I go up there, we go there.
• 3:38
  And nothing aviating anywhere else comes close.
• 3:41
  They're tundry prawns.
• 3:43
  I think about them before I get to sleep.
• 3:46
  It's amazing.
• 3:47
  Is that you go to Curry?
• 3:48
  Tundry prawns.
• 3:49
  And then just the chef's special, you know.
• 3:52
  What's the chef's special?
• 3:53
  It depends on what day it is.
• 3:54
  Ballty, yeah.
• 3:55
  See, I like a ballty.
• 3:56
  I like a ballty, too.
• 3:57
  Oh, I like it.
• 3:58
  Yeah, we're talking.
• 3:59
  And we're talking.
• 4:00
  Let's all go for a ballty.
• 4:02
  So Arthur, welcome to Half the Picture.
• 4:04
  Thank you very much.
• 4:05
  I'm very good think.
• 4:06
  You have cycled here.
• 4:07
  Yes.
• 4:08
  Yeah.
• 4:09
  It makes me feel like a child.
• 4:13
  Just cycling round London in the sun.
• 4:15
  It's like a kind of, it's a real connection
• 4:17
  to like being a seven-year-old cycling-round Birmingham.
• 4:19
  And so, yeah, I feel full of glee.
• 4:22
  I guess they've landed a bit, a bit more hectic
• 4:25
  cycling around than Birmingham, though.
• 4:26
  Yes.
• 4:27
  London's definitely a bit more hectic than cycling around Birmingham.
• 4:30
  But I thought, yeah, I think it's that thing of like,
• 4:35
  I think if you're safe, other people,
• 4:39
  the only accidents I've ever had are absolutely my own fault.
• 4:44
  So, no, I'm a very responsible helmet-wearing cyclist.
• 4:48
  Good, good.
• 4:49
  I was recently watching, sounds a bit, it sounds random,
• 4:51
  but I was recently watching Mission Impossible fallout.
• 4:53
  And if you've seen any of them, I've not seen that.
• 4:55
  And there's a whole scene where Tom Cruise just drives around Paris
• 4:57
  on a motorbike with no helmet on.
• 4:59
  And I'm just like, man, it's insane.
• 5:01
  Safety first, Tom.
• 5:02
  Come on, man.
• 5:03
  This is what you do, right?
• 5:04
  You're a role model.
• 5:05
  You've got to set a good example.
• 5:08
  Well, as we were saying before, we started rolling.
• 5:10
  I mean, I'm just such a fan of yours and I've been for years.
• 5:13
  You know, the first thing I would have seen you in
• 5:15
  would have been Dr. Who, of course.
• 5:17
  You know, incredible stuff as Roy Williams,
• 5:19
  Last and Churian.
• 5:20
  But then all the other great work you've done,
• 5:22
  like broad church and DC legends of tomorrow.
• 5:24
  And also, of course, the upcoming Beatles biopics.
• 5:27
  Yes.
• 5:28
  I mean, you've got such an impressive, fantastic resume.
• 5:30
  So, it's just a pleasure to have you on.
• 5:31
  Oh, well, thank you.
• 5:32
  It's a pleasure to be on.
• 5:33
  I just listened to the Murray Gold episodes
• 5:36
  on my way in.
• 5:38
  And that is me listening to stuff as I'm cycling,
• 5:41
  which I know is not safety first.
• 5:43
  And my wife would have a word with me about that.
• 5:46
  I really will have to.
• 5:47
  She listens to this.
• 5:48
  But yeah, no, I just listened to the Murray Gold episode.
• 5:49
  He's amazing, isn't he?
• 5:50
  Oh.
• 5:51
  I love the fact that I won't be doing this.
• 5:54
  But he kind of brings everything back to kind of some kind of world
• 5:58
  philosophy about life and death.
• 6:00
  And I just think he's,
• 6:02
  and that kind of filters into his work and he's amazing.
• 6:05
  Yeah.
• 6:06
  He is, isn't he?
• 6:07
  I remember saying to him something to the effect of,
• 6:09
  like, when I talked to composers,
• 6:11
  I kind of feel their music in the words that they say
• 6:15
  when they communicate with.
• 6:16
  You can almost kind of feel the music they compose
• 6:18
  just in their general sort of personality.
• 6:20
  Yeah.
• 6:21
  And I think in Murray, you can definitely feel that kind of like energy.
• 6:23
  Yeah.
• 6:24
  And it's that kind of,
• 6:25
  and it's done that philosophical kind of quality as well.
• 6:27
  It's got so much work.
• 6:28
  It's amazing.
• 6:29
  And the stuff he did on.
• 6:30
  It was just incredible.
• 6:31
  Yeah.
• 6:32
  Yeah.
• 6:33
  Yeah.
• 6:34
  And you know, you know,
• 6:35
  when you were like,
• 6:36
  you were like,
• 6:37
  like being supported,
• 6:38
  your performance being kind of supported by that music.
• 6:40
  Oh, absolutely.
• 6:41
  And like,
• 6:42
  kind of early on we were shown, like,
• 6:45
  edits of episodes without music,
• 6:48
  which makes a very, very different march.
• 6:50
  And you go,
• 6:51
  Oh, it's awful.
• 6:52
  What have I done?
• 6:53
  And the music just elevates all of it.
• 6:56
  And he kind of taps into characters,
• 7:00
  journeys and emotions in such a way that as an actor,
• 7:03
  your performances completely lifted and supported by his work.
• 7:07
  And I think that's what the best composers do.
• 7:11
  And you had several themes as well.
• 7:13
  You know, like, you know,
• 7:14
  the last interior,
• 7:15
  they had a whole sort of suite of themes.
• 7:16
  Yeah.
• 7:17
  You know, I must be pretty cool as well.
• 7:18
  We should do a concert of just Rory.
• 7:20
  Rory will be informed.
• 7:21
  Rory at the proms.
• 7:22
  Yeah.
• 7:23
  Rory at the proms.
• 7:24
  Yeah.
• 7:25
  And as I say, like,
• 7:26
  your resume is so impressive,
• 7:28
  you know, like,
• 7:29
  Doctor, of course,
• 7:30
  but you know,
• 7:31
  you've worked on stage and screen.
• 7:32
  You know, you've done so much,
• 7:33
  you know, you compose music,
• 7:34
  you know, you play,
• 7:35
  you know, you're so sort of multi-talented.
• 7:37
  I mean,
• 7:38
  when it comes to your acting,
• 7:39
  it's a bit of a question
• 7:40
  that I've been asking some of the actors
• 7:41
  who've had on the pod is,
• 7:42
  what makes a good actor?
• 7:43
  I mean, what do you think makes a good actor?
• 7:44
  What?
• 7:45
  I mean, who knows?
• 7:46
  Who knows?
• 7:47
  What makes a good actor?
• 7:49
  I don't know.
• 7:51
  Like, I struggle to talk about, like, process.
• 7:54
  And,
• 7:55
  because I think it's,
• 7:56
  like,
• 7:57
  we all have the things that we do
• 7:59
  to get into character or do our job
• 8:03
  or break down a scene
• 8:05
  or get into a role.
• 8:07
  And I find actors talking about it really difficult
• 8:11
  and annoying.
• 8:13
  So I resist it.
• 8:15
  But for me,
• 8:16
  I think,
• 8:18
  you either forget that someone's acting
• 8:20
  and you believe, obviously,
• 8:22
  I mean, it sounds simple,
• 8:23
  just believe that they're the person there.
• 8:25
  But I'm,
• 8:27
  it's those things that happen spontaneously
• 8:31
  that are, like,
• 8:32
  some actors are so surprising in their choices
• 8:35
  and they can both be surprising
• 8:37
  and it feels like absolutely the right thing.
• 8:39
  And that's just about kind of being in the moment.
• 8:42
  But yeah, I don't know.
• 8:44
  I can, I can,
• 8:45
  I know what being bad acting is.
• 8:47
  But,
• 8:49
  yeah, I suppose it's just about truth
• 8:53
  and,
• 8:57
  yeah, just, like,
• 8:59
  commitment to being in the moment.
• 9:02
  So it's, you think it's better to just be
• 9:05
  in the moment rather than just having to intellectualise
• 9:07
  about your process about,
• 9:08
  oh, I need to, I'm doing this,
• 9:09
  isn't that too good?
• 9:10
  Yeah, totally.
• 9:11
  It's like total vibes based job job.
• 9:13
  And it's not, you know, there's a lot of hard work
• 9:15
  that goes into it,
• 9:16
  like, I always think,
• 9:18
  I don't know,
• 9:19
  and it's taking me,
• 9:21
  you know, I've been doing this for quite a while now.
• 9:22
  And it changes over the years.
• 9:25
  I said, I hate actors talking about acting,
• 9:27
  and I'm now talking about acting.
• 9:29
  It changes over the years.
• 9:31
  And I think when I started,
• 9:33
  I was quite a control freak
• 9:36
  in terms of kind of how I worked.
• 9:39
  I was like, well, I've got to hit this beaten,
• 9:41
  hit this beaten, hit this beaten,
• 9:42
  do this, and do this,
• 9:43
  and kind of overly intellectualised a lot of stuff.
• 9:49
  And as I've got older,
• 9:51
  I've just tried to shed all of that,
• 9:54
  and still do the work,
• 9:56
  but then when you're in the moment,
• 9:58
  just be in the moment and see what happens.
• 10:00
  It's like any kind of form of creation,
• 10:02
  like, I suppose,
• 10:03
  to kind of talk about music is easier,
• 10:05
  but like the things that excite me about writing music
• 10:09
  or, you know, collaborating
• 10:12
  or playing are those happy accidents,
• 10:16
  and those things that happen that you didn't really expect.
• 10:21
  And, you know, a song can come from falling over
• 10:25
  or knocking something over and going,
• 10:27
  oh, well, that's an interesting thing.
• 10:29
  Let's go down that road,
• 10:31
  or your fingers go to a place that you didn't expect,
• 10:34
  or you're kind of so in the moment that you channeled something,
• 10:39
  and there's like a little bit of magic in that.
• 10:41
  And I think you can kind of apply the same thing to acting,
• 10:44
  and I think it's all about relaxing and just committing
• 10:47
  and being in the moment.
• 10:49
  I mean, open to trying new things
• 10:51
  and going with those impulses.
• 10:52
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:53
  And collaboration, you know,
• 10:54
  I think you're only as good as the people that you're working with,
• 10:56
  and you know, it's about acting's about talking to people
• 11:01
  and trying to convince them to do something
• 11:04
  or convince them to feel something
• 11:05
  or convince them of your point.
• 11:07
  And I think that collaboration's really exciting to me.
• 11:10
  And, you know, I've got to work with so many amazing people
• 11:13
  over the years in every different person who's taught me something
• 11:18
  about how to do it or about life, you know.
• 11:22
  It sounds fantastic.
• 11:23
  And of course, you grew up in quite sort of showbiz household in many years.
• 11:26
  Yeah, I'm a nippo baby.
• 11:28
  Yeah.
• 11:29
  I didn't say that.
• 11:30
  I feel like, I find that I don't think I am a nippo baby.
• 11:36
  Maybe I am a nippo baby.
• 11:38
  My parents are in the business.
• 11:40
  So yeah, I probably am a nippo baby.
• 11:44
  I feel sorry for big nippo babies,
• 11:47
  because that's become quite a big conversation recently, hasn't it?
• 11:51
  But I just think if you're good at what you do, then do it.
• 11:55
  But like own it.
• 11:56
  Like, yeah, you know, I am absolutely a nippo baby.
• 11:59
  Because I think those opportunities do come to people
• 12:01
  if their parents do those jobs.
• 12:03
  And like that, that definitely was my case.
• 12:06
  Not necessarily like my parents kind of pushing me into it or getting me jobs
• 12:12
  or introducing me to people.
• 12:14
  But I definitely grew up around a lot of actors and a lot of musicians
• 12:19
  and a lot of creative people.
• 12:21
  And it just, because of that, it became, it was a normal thing to want to do.
• 12:25
  In fact, it was the only thing I really wanted to do.
• 12:29
  And that wasn't because I, well, I didn't notice,
• 12:33
  because that was my environment, I think, and I found it really exciting.
• 12:41
  Yeah.
• 12:42
  Yeah, we had another actor on Jack Davenport,
• 12:44
  who he came on the pod a while back.
• 12:47
  And he had a very similar upbringing.
• 12:49
  He grew up, his parents were actors.
• 12:50
  Right.
• 12:51
  He grew up around a lot of actors and performers.
• 12:53
  Like John Hurt would just be sort of over in the corner when he was like a kid.
• 12:56
  Wow, this is great.
• 12:57
  Yeah.
• 12:58
  Really, really, wow.
• 12:59
  And he was saying there was almost a tribal atmosphere to sort of actors and performers
• 13:04
  and growing up around them.
• 13:05
  And it kind of got into his blood.
• 13:06
  Is that right?
• 13:07
  How it was like for you?
• 13:08
  I don't know.
• 13:09
  I just, like, my experience is slightly different because my dad's a musician.
• 13:13
  It has an amazing musician.
• 13:15
  He's a Hammond organ player, a keyboard player.
• 13:19
  So there were loads of musicians around all the time.
• 13:22
  And that felt very cool.
• 13:25
  And I suppose tribal in that way,
• 13:28
  I don't know, like, they were just the most exciting people that were in my life.
• 13:32
  We're kind of all these people on tour and making music and playing gigs.
• 13:37
  And we go and, you know, I'd go and see him play and still do because he's still playing.
• 13:43
  And I just found that really inspiring.
• 13:45
  And then my mom was in a puppet theatre company.
• 13:48
  My mom does loads of things and she's incredible.
• 13:51
  When I was a kid, she was in this puppet theatre company in Birmingham called
• 13:56
  the Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre.
• 13:58
  Run by this amazing guy called John Blundle.
• 14:01
  And they do these huge scale puppet shows.
• 14:07
  And, like, my dad was on tour a lot.
• 14:09
  My mom was on tour a lot.
• 14:10
  But my dad was kind of away a lot in, like, in the States or kind of going around Europe and stuff.
• 14:16
  So I would just travel around with my mom and help set up props and, like,
• 14:20
  grow up in dressing rooms, really.
• 14:23
  And that just felt very exciting.
• 14:25
  And also, because it was part of my kind of early formative memories,
• 14:30
  that just felt like home.
• 14:34
  Just being in a theatre feels very natural.
• 14:37
  And whenever I, this set, yeah, good.
• 14:42
  So I'm going to stop editing myself.
• 14:44
  Whenever I, like, go into a theatre and smell the smell of a theatre,
• 14:48
  it reminds me of being a tiny child.
• 14:52
  And that must be some reason why I'm still doing this and still kind of crave it.
• 14:59
  So, and then when you did start acting, I think I was a young man, right?
• 15:03
  Yeah.
• 15:04
  You play music and acting together, I want to say.
• 15:06
  It just felt quite natural and just a step into that.
• 15:09
  Yeah, just kind of why I did.
• 15:11
  There was never a question of doing or not.
• 15:16
  It was just kind of a natural thing, yeah.
• 15:19
  What you said earlier about, like, how, over the last sort of a number of years,
• 15:23
  you've been sort of trying to almost unlearn some of those sort of strategies you developed
• 15:27
  with your younger when you started acting.
• 15:29
  There's almost kind of technical things that you developed.
• 15:32
  Because, of course, you went to Rada when you first sort of sort of were getting your start.
• 15:36
  Do you think that sort of approach to acting that you were sort of deconstructing a bit?
• 15:41
  Do you think that was sort of honed and learned first in Rada, would you say?
• 15:44
  I don't know.
• 15:45
  I mean, yeah, I'm very grateful for my kind of drama school training.
• 15:51
  I always wanted to be on stage.
• 15:54
  That was all I wanted to do as an actor.
• 15:58
  I've never really thought about television and film.
• 16:00
  It wasn't something that was in my orbit or kind of in my brain.
• 16:06
  So, like, going to drama school really helped me vocally
• 16:12
  and learning all the technicalities of how to play in theatre and play a big theatre
• 16:20
  and how to break down Shakespeare and all of that stuff.
• 16:26
  And also, I was kind of like a slightly crumpled awkward teenager.
• 16:31
  And they kind of straightened me up and taught me to sit up straight a bit more.
• 16:39
  Maybe I've descended recently.
• 16:42
  I don't know if it's the stuff from drama school that I've tried to unlearn.
• 16:46
  I think it's just my own stuff in my head of control.
• 16:50
  Because that stuff, I think you're always learning as a creative person.
• 16:56
  And just, like, I think that control helped me at the time.
• 17:02
  And I don't know, just kind of trying to get it right.
• 17:05
  And then I kind of realise that no one can get anything right.
• 17:08
  That's not the point.
• 17:12
  I'm not really answering your question, but yeah.
• 17:15
  I still go back to some of the stuff that I learned at drama school and go,
• 17:19
  oh yeah, no, they were right about that.
• 17:21
  I'll take that little nugget from what I learned there.
• 17:26
  So it was less, those sort of technical aspects about things.
• 17:29
  It was less about, that came less from Rada and more just over the years.
• 17:32
  Maybe they developed in there.
• 17:33
  Yeah, I think it was self-conscious.
• 17:35
  Or like not wanting to do a bad job or, you know,
• 17:39
  wanting to do the best thing that I could possibly do.
• 17:42
  And actually, I think after a while,
• 17:46
  Rada didn't really help me and just kind of release and submission
• 17:53
  is far more useful for me now as both a person and a performer.
• 17:59
  Yeah.
• 18:00
  And it just sort of would say that kind of helped you just relax into your skin
• 18:03
  a bit more as well.
• 18:04
  Just being again comfortable.
• 18:05
  Yeah, definitely.
• 18:06
  And how important to think that is for acting?
• 18:08
  I mean, you were touched on earlier, like, to be uncomfortable.
• 18:11
  I think it's all there is.
• 18:15
  It's obviously more than this, but I think like a lot of our job is,
• 18:20
  I used to say it's like falling yourself into being as comfortable as possible
• 18:25
  in whatever you're doing.
• 18:26
  So whatever work you do before you go on set or go on to stage,
• 18:30
  rehearsals or, you know, the work you've done at home,
• 18:35
  is just to get you to the point where you know as much about your character as possible,
• 18:39
  you know how they react in certain situations,
• 18:42
  all of that going just to be present in the moment.
• 18:45
  And that's all you can do.
• 18:49
  When we had Peter Capaldi on, he was saying,
• 18:52
  I think something quite similar, he was saying that like,
• 18:54
  maybe he, I'm not sure if he had the same sort of questions from himself about acting,
• 18:58
  but I remember him saying something to the effect of like,
• 19:00
  you get to a point where you're in the moment as an actor
• 19:03
  and you're sort of your eyes are doing something that you're not telling them to
• 19:06
  and like, it just happens, actually.
• 19:08
  And it's not, and it is just you being.
• 19:10
  I think that's easier on, like, it's easier on stage,
• 19:13
  drive, found it easier on stage because like after a few months of a run of something,
• 19:18
  you're not thinking about what you're doing,
• 19:20
  you're just, you're just reacting to what's going on
• 19:23
  and that's the kind of sweet spot of it.
• 19:25
  And like on camera, it's a slightly different process,
• 19:29
  but you're still trying to get to that point.
• 19:32
  So I feel like when you're doing film and TV where there's a lot more prep
• 19:36
  that goes in beforehand to get to the day of filming
• 19:39
  so you can just let it all go and be in the moment
• 19:41
  and not think about, oh my God, what am I?
• 19:44
  What am I hands doing?
• 19:45
  What am I eyes doing?
• 19:46
  Like it was really like the death of kind of any authenticity.
• 19:51
  Yeah.
• 19:53
  It's just about being really chilled and relaxed and open.
• 20:00
  And then, and touching just back on radar for a moment,
• 20:03
  I mean, because how did it feel being chilled as a shoulder
• 20:06
  suddenly, I guess, going in strom school with all these other actors,
• 20:08
  like young people like yourself?
• 20:09
  Because I want to say, Phoebe Wollabridge,
• 20:11
  I think that's right.
• 20:12
  Yeah, I think that's right.
• 20:13
  Yeah.
• 20:14
  My it was great.
• 20:15
  We had our ups and downs as a year.
• 20:17
  It was quite a tumultuous time in a throw,
• 20:19
  like, I can tell you how many of this was the world,
• 20:21
  like 30 kind of people in the early 20s who have all moved to London
• 20:27
  and are trying to make it and you've been broken down to be built back up.
• 20:33
  And, you know, you've been critiqued on everything from your tongue
• 20:37
  shape to your, to the way you sit in a chair.
• 20:41
  I mean, it's like, it's quite exposing.
• 20:44
  But yeah, I don't know if it was obviously amazing going there.
• 20:51
  And we had like, so Richard Attenborough was the,
• 20:55
  I mean, it's kind of, it's a mad place.
• 20:57
  It's a mad place because it has all that history.
• 20:58
  And actually, you're just going there to learn and feel confident
• 21:03
  and, you know, get as much from the teaching as possible.
• 21:07
  But then you'd have these mad experiences like Richard Attenborough came in.
• 21:11
  He was the, I don't know if he was like the chairman or the head of the board
• 21:18
  or to have some kind of big position.
• 21:20
  And he would, he would park his Rolls Royce out the back.
• 21:25
  And then we, you know, we were all sitting in the bar like chatting.
• 21:29
  And I just felt this hand on my shoulder.
• 21:34
  And he put his hand on my shoulder and put his hand on someone else.
• 21:37
  I'm like, hello, my children.
• 21:39
  And it was like, oh wow, this is, this is really, this is really cool.
• 21:44
  So elements of, like, that were, were amazing.
• 21:49
  But really, it's like anything.
• 21:50
  You just kind of get on with it.
• 21:51
  And you're self-conscious and you're trying to learn.
• 21:53
  And you're trying to get the things right.
• 21:55
  And you're trying to, you've got too much on, you're trying to do too much
• 22:00
  within those three years to kind of for a second go.
• 22:03
  Oh, wow.
• 22:04
  No one, I mean, these, these hallowed halls of, of, of greatness.
• 22:08
  I mean, they do go, you've got the future of British theatre.
• 22:11
  Quite a lot, which is, I don't think it's very constructive,
• 22:14
  because you go, what have I, what am I doing?
• 22:18
  But yeah, you know, it's all, yeah, it's a funny, it's a funny old place.
• 22:23
  It's changed a lot since I was there as well.
• 22:25
  But we had a, like, I had a really good time and I learned a lot
• 22:29
  and I met some amazing friends and we're all still, you know,
• 22:33
  we're all still really close, a lot of us are still really close.
• 22:35
  In fact, this year it's, I mean, it's 20 years since I went to Drumschool.
• 22:40
  And when we were in our second year, we went over to,
• 22:45
  a few of us went over to Austria to do a play up a mountain to some farmers.
• 22:53
  My friend Joe Klosko, his brilliant actor and a force of nature,
• 22:59
  he met this amazing guy, Philippe, who took us,
• 23:02
  a group of us over to Austria to live in a hut up a mountain for a week or so
• 23:09
  and do a play as part of a theatre festival.
• 23:12
  So we did a version of Ted Hughes' Tells From Robert.
• 23:16
  And we lived there and put this play on in the outside
• 23:24
  and all these people hiked up the mountain to come and see us do a show.
• 23:28
  And it was a very formative, beautiful thing that we did.
• 23:34
  It was like one of those amazing life moments.
• 23:37
  And then last year it was the 20 year anniversary of it.
• 23:40
  So the whole, the whole, the same group of us went back, went to Austria.
• 23:45
  Did you perform the play again?
• 23:47
  We did, we didn't do the same play.
• 23:51
  We did a different play.
• 23:54
  And it was quite, it was very funny because we're obviously all older.
• 24:02
  And you know, our lives have gone off in different directions
• 24:06
  and then we all came back to this thing.
• 24:08
  And it was just, it was so beautiful to be in a room with those people again.
• 24:12
  Some of whom had not seen for years.
• 24:14
  Some of whom weren't, who I'm still in touch with.
• 24:16
  But you know, when we did it before, there were like 20 people that hiked up a mountain
• 24:20
  and came to see us do this thing.
• 24:22
  And then we did it this time in all like 200 people in a, in a, in a, in the grounds of this amazing castle.
• 24:30
  And it was, it was amazing.
• 24:32
  It was like, it was both really nostalgic, which is kind of dangerous, I think.
• 24:38
  But also, it was a remarker as to where we all are now in our lives.
• 24:43
  And just, you know, you can't believe drama is going on.
• 24:46
  You're like, right, I'm going to go and do my thing and, and whatever.
• 24:49
  But just to all come back and we were so familiar with each other's voices.
• 24:53
  And it was so easy working with each other again.
• 24:56
  We just had such a laugh and put on a really fun piece of theatre.
• 24:59
  Yeah, it was great.
• 25:00
  There's a kind of like slipping on an old comfy parachute.
• 25:02
  It was like, yeah, but also like a mark of like where we are now in our lives.
• 25:07
  So it wasn't just like, it wasn't just to kind of exercise in nostalgia.
• 25:13
  It was, it was like a beautiful mark of time passing.
• 25:16
  And it was really hopeful.
• 25:19
  Yeah, it was great.
• 25:20
  It's beautiful.
• 25:21
  Look how far we've come.
• 25:22
  Here we are.
• 25:23
  I have to ask before I forget, like when Attenborough like puts his hand on your shoulder.
• 25:27
  It's like a 20 year old.
• 25:29
  Like, do you remember what you say?
• 25:30
  I mean, do you remember what you said after you just said?
• 25:33
  Oh, I know.
• 25:34
  I can't remember it.
• 25:35
  Oh, yeah.
• 25:36
  Hello.
• 25:37
  I don't know.
• 25:38
  It was, yeah.
• 25:39
  It was a, I'm not very good at meeting heroes or meeting.
• 25:42
  Like, I'm quite good at meeting other actors because obviously we work, I work with other actors.
• 25:47
  And that doesn't phase me.
• 25:48
  But it's like, I think I'd rather not meet, I've talked to someone about this the other day.
• 25:54
  There's a few people who I'm just like, yeah, I think they're amazing.
• 25:58
  And I, uh, and what should all their stuff or listen to all their stuff.
• 26:04
  Like, no interest in having a conversation with them at all.
• 26:08
  I just want them to exist.
• 26:10
  Because I think I'm like, well, I would just embarrass myself or, or it would never get,
• 26:16
  not even I would embarrass myself, but it would never go how I would want it to go.
• 26:21
  So I just rather leave.
• 26:24
  Like, I saw that a massive, um, uh, I think Graham Coxon's an amazing guitarist and a huge bluff.
• 26:31
  And, and like his, I just think the way he plays is amazing.
• 26:36
  And I think he's a really interesting guy.
• 26:39
  And I was in a coffee shop and he was having coffee next to me.
• 26:42
  I went really weird.
• 26:44
  And my wife was like, what's going on?
• 26:46
  What are you doing?
• 26:47
  I was like, I don't do this at all.
• 26:50
  I just kind of lost my composure and ended up like a kind of squiggly mess.
• 26:56
  And then we left.
• 26:58
  And she was like, you weren't so strange there.
• 27:00
  Are you all right?
• 27:01
  Are you having something going on?
• 27:03
  I was like, oh no, Graham Coxon was in the, on the table next door.
• 27:06
  She was like, you should have said something.
• 27:07
  I was like, absolutely not.
• 27:09
  But rather him didn't, he, him not meeting me in, in a kind of, uh, fun boy mess,
• 27:17
  as a, as a fun boy mess of a person.
• 27:20
  I just don't think that would go very well.
• 27:22
  Well, I've all been there.
• 27:23
  I mean, I had experiences with that too.
• 27:25
  I mean, I know you're a big Beatles fan and you obviously, you know,
• 27:27
  what now we're Tom Sanmanis is.
• 27:28
  Yes.
• 27:29
  Yes.
• 27:30
  As Derek Taylor.
• 27:31
  Yes.
• 27:32
  Beatles press officer.
• 27:33
  I mean, are you having any kind of moments like that on set?
• 27:37
  So I've got to be so careful with what I say because they will, uh,
• 27:43
  they've given me very strict instructions to not mention anything at all about it.
• 27:48
  Um, uh, yeah, it's, but it is like one of those dream jobs.
• 27:53
  I've been a Beatles obsessive since I was a kid when I was, you know, 10, 11,
• 27:59
  I was all I listened, I didn't listen to anything else.
• 28:03
  And so getting to be in these films is just like a dream come true.
• 28:08
  And I'll have to stop there otherwise I would get fired.
• 28:11
  But yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's mad.
• 28:15
  I can't even imagine the size of the productions and the fact they're doing four films.
• 28:20
  It just, it seems like a monumental, like undertaking.
• 28:23
  It's really great.
• 28:24
  And also, you know, the character I'm playing, he wrote loads of books about them
• 28:28
  and, and he's the most amazing writer.
• 28:30
  And so I've just been immersing myself in his brain.
• 28:34
  So yeah, it's pretty, it's really good.
• 28:36
  Doing all the research.
• 28:37
  Yeah.
• 28:38
  Exciting.
• 28:39
  Do you have a favorite Beatles?
• 28:40
  How can you have a favorite Beatles?
• 28:42
  It's the ultimate question.
• 28:43
  Um, I think it's really hard when I was growing up, uh,
• 28:49
  when I was growing up, it was John.
• 28:52
  Um, I just think this is like an anger and sadness in his stuff that,
• 28:57
  is cut through with this humor.
• 28:59
  And, uh, uh,
• 29:02
  uh,
• 29:03
  uh,
• 29:05
  it's funny.
• 29:06
  Like, I'm such a kind of music first person.
• 29:08
  Like, if I listen to music, it's, it's the, it's the,
• 29:11
  it's the feeling of the music that, that, that moves me.
• 29:15
  Uh,
• 29:17
  and lyric, like lyrics are such a kind of secondary thing to me, I think.
• 29:21
  Um, but like, I've, like, John's lyrics, I think, are amazing.
• 29:25
  And like strawberry fields, I think is a masterpiece.
• 29:28
  Um,
• 29:29
  and also I had long hair and wore little glasses when I was a kid.
• 29:33
  And like, I kind of associated myself with him.
• 29:36
  I, I think as I get older, I love, obviously, love Paul Loveringo.
• 29:42
  I went through a real Paul phase.
• 29:45
  Uh, I think his melodies are just unreal.
• 29:50
  And like,
• 29:52
  I've kind of looked, tried to break down a load of his bass plays,
• 29:55
  such a creative bass player.
• 29:57
  Um, and people kind of don't necessarily talk about stuff so much.
• 30:00
  He's obviously an amazing songwriter.
• 30:03
  Um,
• 30:04
  I just think his bass playing is extraordinary.
• 30:06
  And what he kind of, the texturing brings to those,
• 30:09
  where there are all little melodies in themselves.
• 30:11
  He's got such a melodic brain.
• 30:12
  But in terms of like worldview, George is like, is the one for me.
• 30:16
  I love that quote from him, which is like, uh, I'm absolutely going to miss quota.
• 30:20
  But, uh, is that whenever he leaves his garden,
• 30:24
  whenever I leave my garden, I think, why am I here?
• 30:27
  Like, he's just rather kind of sitting in nature and in his garden.
• 30:30
  And I was like, yeah, that's, that's good.
• 30:33
  I can, I can get on board with that.
• 30:35
  That's it. Yeah.
• 30:36
  George is my favorite piece all as well, I think.
• 30:38
  I mean, not only brilliant songwriter, but like you say,
• 30:40
  supporter of multipyfans filmmaking career, life, Brian, handmade films.
• 30:43
  He's got such a handy in British comedy.
• 30:45
  Yeah.
• 30:46
  And like, and just giving people a shot,
• 30:48
  we're just going, oh, yeah, well, you know, I think this is great.
• 30:51
  So, you know, and then giving a load of money to making it work.
• 30:56
  I just think like more genius house to find a lighter Brian.
• 30:59
  Yeah.
• 31:00
  It's just insane.
• 31:01
  Yeah.
• 31:02
  But brilliant.
• 31:03
  Because thinking had such a kind of open,
• 31:08
  uh, just funny outlook on life.
• 31:13
  Uh, it's funny, isn't it?
• 31:15
  It's funny, isn't it?
• 31:16
  That, that really spiritual side of him.
• 31:21
  I, accompanying this like really sadonic, um, commercially side of him,
• 31:27
  I think is a really interesting mix in a person and, uh, and work work.
• 31:32
  It worked really well for him as a personality.
• 31:34
  It's great.
• 31:35
  Absolutely.
• 31:36
  What are my favorite George stories?
• 31:37
  And it's a slightly morbid one, but it's so George as well.
• 31:40
  It's so funny as well, but so George is after, after the infamous, you know,
• 31:43
  incident where, you know, him and his wife were attacked, you know, intruder.
• 31:46
  Yeah.
• 31:47
  And, uh, and he was stabbed.
• 31:48
  And then he's being, the police arrived, the ambulance arrived,
• 31:50
  he's being carried out to the hospital on a stretcher.
• 31:52
  And he's just hired a new housekeeper for the house.
• 31:54
  Right.
• 31:55
  Who's there?
• 31:56
  Like, I think as he's being carried out on the stretcher.
• 31:58
  And he's obviously just being, you know, salted.
• 32:00
  But he turns and looks at his housekeeper and goes like,
• 32:03
  what do you think of the job so far?
• 32:04
  As he's literally carried out on it.
• 32:06
  It's so funny.
• 32:07
  Yeah.
• 32:08
  He's just one of mine that's after one life's brilliant.
• 32:10
  It was just such a fun.
• 32:11
  I mean, they all were.
• 32:12
  This was kind of joy.
• 32:13
  I think that's why I really got into them as a kid.
• 32:16
  Obviously, it was the music.
• 32:18
  But there's something.
• 32:19
  I got those live at the BBC CD when I was quite young, when it came out in the 90s.
• 32:24
  And there's all of these clips of them, like, just having a joke and talking.
• 32:28
  And then watching hard days night.
• 32:30
  You just go, oh, they're so funny.
• 32:32
  And there's a real parallel between, like, you know, or, you know,
• 32:36
  they're in a kind of similar vein with, like, Peter Sellers and the Goons and Monty Python
• 32:40
  and they had that kind of post-war comedic sensibility that just doesn't suffer any falls
• 32:51
  and can make the most serious situation instantly kind of dissolve in laughter.
• 33:01
  And I think that's an amazing quality.
• 33:03
  I think that's one of the things that I kind of grabbed onto as a kid.
• 33:06
  That kind of a reverence.
• 33:08
  Yeah.
• 33:09
  And I know you're not supposed to talk about the new The Beatles movies, but I just wanted to ask,
• 33:13
  like, what's the atmosphere like, concert?
• 33:16
  Like, what's it like working with some?
• 33:17
  It's terrible.
• 33:18
  It's awful.
• 33:19
  It's awful.
• 33:20
  It's really good.
• 33:21
  It's really good.
• 33:22
  Yeah.
• 33:23
  It's nice.
• 33:24
  Yeah.
• 33:25
  I'm terrified of saying it.
• 33:26
  It's cool.
• 33:27
  It's all good.
• 33:28
  It's all good.
• 33:29
  Well, going back to sort of the stuff you've done on screen on Telly, for example.
• 33:34
  So the first thing I would have seen you in, as I say, would have been Doctor Who.
• 33:37
  Playing Rory Williams, you know, Psychonic character, the CUM, this iconic character.
• 33:41
  You know, you and Matt Smith's, the 11th Doctor and Karen Gielin's, Amy Pond, you know,
• 33:45
  the little family.
• 33:46
  The little family, yeah, was across those three, two and a half, three seasons.
• 33:50
  And Doctor Who, obviously, being this huge phenomenon, talking about phenomenons, you know,
• 33:53
  The Beatles, Doctor Who, another British one.
• 33:55
  Like, what was it like getting cast as Rory?
• 33:59
  Like, do you remember being cast as Rory in the audition process?
• 34:01
  Yeah.
• 34:02
  Coming on board.
• 34:03
  Well, I'd taken a bit of time out of acting.
• 34:05
  I said, well, a bit of time out.
• 34:07
  Because I'd written a, I'd written a musical, like a soul, a funk soul musical,
• 34:14
  that was on the young Vic, and then we took up to Edinburgh.
• 34:17
  And I was doing a lot of music.
• 34:20
  And I kind of took a few, like six months off, actually doing any acting work.
• 34:30
  And it gave me time to just go, okay, what do I really want to do?
• 34:35
  I don't know.
• 34:36
  It's so hard to have any agency or control over your career or life.
• 34:43
  You just wait for people to tell you that you are allowed to do your job quite a lot of the time.
• 34:48
  But I thought, well, what do I have control over?
• 34:51
  And I kind of got healthy.
• 34:55
  I started running and started reading a load of plays.
• 35:00
  And I started going to a lot of theatre and just going right.
• 35:03
  I didn't know what it was.
• 35:05
  The next thing I wanted to do, I wanted it to be something good.
• 35:09
  And just to approach my work in a different way,
• 35:12
  I think I'd kind of bumbled around and I'd been really lucky.
• 35:16
  And I'd done a load of theatre, and I was really loving it.
• 35:19
  I'd done a couple of TV things, but I found it very nerve-racking and very,
• 35:23
  I felt the outplace doing those.
• 35:25
  But I wanted to get better at it.
• 35:27
  And so I was like, well, the next thing I do,
• 35:29
  I just want to really go for it and immerse myself in it and challenge myself.
• 35:36
  And it was the first audition that came through after I kind of started thinking more like that.
• 35:44
  And I just remember getting the, I mean, the sides were the auditions script that you get.
• 35:50
  I didn't know why we called them sides.
• 35:53
  Anyway, the sides we got, this sounds very kind of industry-linger.
• 35:56
  The piece of paper I got with the words on.
• 36:00
  It was just written so brilliantly, and it was funny.
• 36:04
  And it was like bits from vampires and Venice.
• 36:12
  All kind of with bits redacted and names changed and whatever.
• 36:17
  And then a bit from the first episode that we did.
• 36:21
  And I just saw Rory as this kind of outsider voice of the audience who panics about everything.
• 36:27
  And I just went, right, I'm going to go for this and I'm going to do this thing.
• 36:31
  And I'd work with Matt before.
• 36:33
  Me and Matt had done a play before together.
• 36:35
  And so I was really excited about that.
• 36:37
  So my second audition was with Matt.
• 36:41
  I just found it really exciting.
• 36:43
  So I was so excited when he got the job, because he got the job before I even auditioned for it.
• 36:48
  I was like, oh, that's very cool, because I'd such a, you know, we worked together.
• 36:52
  And I just think it's such a brilliant actor.
• 36:54
  I was like, oh, that's really smart of them to cast someone like that.
• 37:00
  And I remember thinking, oh, I'd love to do a bit.
• 37:02
  And I'd love to kind of go in and do a bit with Matt, just because we enjoyed working together so much.
• 37:07
  So when it came to her, I was like, wow, this is a real dream job.
• 37:10
  And yeah, so I auditioned.
• 37:13
  It went fine.
• 37:15
  You just never know.
• 37:17
  Like you come out of those rooms and you're like, I absolutely nailed it.
• 37:20
  And then you make a phone call and go, I think this is going to, I think this is going to go my way.
• 37:25
  And then they go, oh, no, no, they've gone, they've gone another way.
• 37:28
  Yeah, great, cool.
• 37:29
  So you just never, you never really know.
• 37:32
  And they kept me dangling for quite a while.
• 37:35
  And then yeah, it felt, it felt big.
• 37:37
  It felt like a big, it felt like a big deal getting it.
• 37:40
  Yeah.
• 37:41
  Were you, and were you a fan of the show before then?
• 37:43
  Not really.
• 37:44
  Like, I'm quite glad I wasn't.
• 37:46
  Like, I'd seen it.
• 37:48
  I was really excited for it to come back.
• 37:50
  It wasn't really on when I was a kid.
• 37:53
  And then I saw, I saw Chris Eccles, a bit of Chris Eccles and stuff.
• 37:57
  And I just think, I think he's amazing.
• 37:59
  I've always been a fan of his.
• 38:01
  Oh, this is cool.
• 38:02
  I'll watch that.
• 38:04
  And I really loved it.
• 38:06
  But then, you know, life happens and I just kind of did my own thing.
• 38:11
  And so didn't, didn't really watch that much of it.
• 38:15
  And I'm quite glad.
• 38:17
  I mean, similarly to that thing of like meeting your heroes,
• 38:20
  I think if I was a huge fan of it, I would have found it difficult to,
• 38:23
  you know, it's difficult enough being on a film set and pretending to be comfortable.
• 38:27
  So if I was kind of on a film set with something, I was at that point in my life.
• 38:33
  I think it'd be easier now.
• 38:35
  But at that point in my life to be on a set, doing something that I was a huge fan of,
• 38:40
  I think it wouldn't have done me personally any favours.
• 38:44
  But I was just excited to get to work with all those brilliant people,
• 38:48
  to get to hang out with Matt a lot.
• 38:50
  Yeah.
• 38:51
  Yeah.
• 38:52
  And as I say, like you, Rory, as Rory, you were there with Matt,
• 38:55
  and Karen's as Amy Pond, of course.
• 38:57
  And the three of you almost feel like this little family.
• 38:59
  I mean, you are a family on page and on the screen, like you're the characters,
• 39:02
  because you're a family.
• 39:03
  And that chemistry that you just talked about that you had with Matt,
• 39:06
  I mean, that totally, I see that totally as well with you and Karen,
• 39:08
  and just the whole cast.
• 39:10
  And it's just like almost from the first episode,
• 39:12
  even though obviously you, your characters are when you just met,
• 39:14
  but like immediately that chemistry is just apparent.
• 39:16
  And you do feel almost like a little family.
• 39:18
  Was that what it was like when you were working with them?
• 39:20
  Yeah, it really was.
• 39:22
  I think it's something about us being kind of thrust into this kind of strange existence,
• 39:29
  filming so much together, the three of us all together.
• 39:32
  I mean, it could have gone very differently if we'd have all hated each other.
• 39:37
  But we never really had, we never really had arguments,
• 39:39
  or you know, we never really fell out.
• 39:41
  It was always just really fun.
• 39:43
  We just, I think we are, you know, three cool, fun-loving people.
• 39:47
  At that time in our lives, we're like, right, let's have it.
• 39:50
  Let's enjoy this to the max.
• 39:55
  And also it's just a lot of time hanging out and waiting together.
• 39:59
  I mean, so we didn't argue, we annoyed the hell out of each other,
• 40:02
  and I think that was kind of part of why it was so good,
• 40:04
  we kind of purposefully.
• 40:06
  But yeah, I think we just really, we really lucked out with the three of our personalities worked really well.
• 40:13
  I was talking to Kazoo about this the other day.
• 40:15
  I think we slightly felt, she said I was wrong about this,
• 40:18
  but I said we slightly fell into the roles that we played in the show in terms of status.
• 40:23
  That's how I kind of felt quite low status in that group.
• 40:28
  And then she was like, I didn't see you as low status at all.
• 40:30
  I was like, oh no, I think that's just my own paranoia that was going on at the time.
• 40:34
  But yeah, we just had a real laugh.
• 40:38
  And it's so rare, I think.
• 40:40
  Not rare, like every job you do, you know, someone starts a WhatsApp group
• 40:45
  and you will end up hanging out and, you know, you make friends and it's great.
• 40:49
  And then more often than not, you all go your separate ways
• 40:52
  and you bump into each other doing other jobs or, you know,
• 40:55
  get the occasional message or meet up occasionally.
• 40:57
  But the three of us have stayed really firm friends and Alex as well.
• 41:01
  And I think that's, I think we just really, we've really lucked out to have met each other.
• 41:08
  And we went through something that no one else was experiencing at that time.
• 41:12
  You know, we're having a very strange experience that no one else could quite relate to.
• 41:18
  So we've got that kind of shared history in doing the show.
• 41:24
  And it was just really joyful, yeah.
• 41:28
  I remember you saying once that there was that kind of a reverence to it.
• 41:31
  Like, I remember hearing you tell the Silent Dover about how when you were in the TARDIS
• 41:35
  before they were about to call action, you're in the box.
• 41:37
  Yeah.
• 41:38
  And you're about to go out and do an exterior scene.
• 41:40
  Yeah.
• 41:41
  Before you went out.
• 41:42
  That was what it was like.
• 41:43
  Yeah, definitely.
• 41:44
  And at the time I felt like we were kind of messing around too much at times.
• 41:48
  And, you know, we get told, being too loud or, you know,
• 41:53
  for talking too much or not concentrating.
• 41:58
  But I think that's the reason why it works so much.
• 42:01
  I think that's part of why.
• 42:06
  And that taught me a lot that atmosphere we created with the three of us
• 42:13
  is absolutely why I think it works on screen.
• 42:17
  It wasn't just us learning the lines, saying the lines to each other,
• 42:21
  doing the thing.
• 42:22
  It was a whole thing which meant we could be relaxed and surprise each other.
• 42:27
  I was very, very nervous when I started.
• 42:29
  And that went quite quickly because we all just, we were a reverence.
• 42:35
  I mean, kind of going back to the beatless thing.
• 42:37
  And I think that's been in me since I was a kid to kind of cut through the kind of
• 42:40
  pomposity of stuff.
• 42:42
  Maybe because of that.
• 42:43
  And just be like, yeah, we're just making a TV show.
• 42:45
  Let's have a laugh.
• 42:47
  And I think that really helped on that.
• 42:50
  Yeah, I agree.
• 42:51
  I mean, and to me it definitely translates into the screen in the best way.
• 42:55
  And you were saying this, you said there's something interesting about,
• 42:58
  like the sort of low status feeling of Rory.
• 43:00
  Yeah.
• 43:01
  And thinking, looking back at Rory in that character's arc that you performed,
• 43:04
  from this kind of, you know, this sort of male nurse who is kind of, you know,
• 43:07
  he's almost in some way second fiddle or he worries that he's second fiddle.
• 43:10
  Yes.
• 43:11
  To the doctor.
• 43:12
  But then he grows into becoming this, basically, this, this badass, you know,
• 43:16
  figure, you know, the last centurion, completely shifts in a lot of ways,
• 43:19
  but still very organically.
• 43:21
  And I remember you saying once that like, at the start, yeah, you felt nervous,
• 43:24
  but then your confidence grew as you were going along with that character.
• 43:28
  Yeah.
• 43:29
  Yeah, it was.
• 43:30
  It was, it was quite an interesting, it was quite a useful character arc to have
• 43:34
  for a nervous person, because as I got more confident, the character got more confident
• 43:39
  or as the character got more confident, I mean, who knows where Rory ends and I begin.
• 43:43
  But, you know, as, yeah.
• 43:47
  And so by the end, I mean, I may be gained by confidence a little quicker than he did.
• 43:54
  But yeah, so by the end, it was just, it was just easy.
• 43:57
  And I felt very powerful.
• 44:00
  You said cheering gets up in the sword and everything.
• 44:03
  I loved wearing all that stuff as well.
• 44:05
  Yeah.
• 44:06
  It's just such a silly thing, like, you know, these crap,
• 44:11
  well, as I said before, when I was growing up, I really wanted, all I wanted to do,
• 44:15
  acting was like, be on stage and, and, and be in the theatre.
• 44:22
  And, I mean, Matt had several moments, kind of turning around to each other last year,
• 44:30
  Doctor Who, and going, this is our job.
• 44:33
  This is wild, because it was just so much fun, you know, getting to work with,
• 44:38
  well, work with so many brilliant people and dress up in silly costumes and run away from aliens.
• 44:44
  And have those kind of do those like proper adventure stories that are heartwarming
• 44:50
  and about, you know, childhood and being a good person and just having a really good time.
• 44:59
  It was, it was, it was just a dream.
• 45:02
  It was a real dream job.
• 45:03
  Yeah.
• 45:04
  And of course, another aspect to Roy, a famous aspect to Roy is the,
• 45:07
  he's probably up there, I think with Kenny and South Park from the number of,
• 45:10
  of deaths on a, on screen, you know, deaths and rebirths comes back.
• 45:14
  I mean, I'm sure you've been asked this before, but do you have a favourite sort of,
• 45:17
  I don't have a favourite anything in, in, in, in like apart from maybe George at the moment,
• 45:23
  but, you know, it changes, it changes.
• 45:28
  It was just so much fun to get to do all that stuff and to get to do death scenes.
• 45:34
  I think as, as I get older, like, I think about death a lot.
• 45:39
  I wasn't really thinking about death at the time.
• 45:42
  So, at the time, it was just really fun to pretend to die.
• 45:48
  Now I think I'd find it a bit more emotionally challenging.
• 45:52
  But, you know, as a, as an actor, it's like real gift to be able to kind of play those kind of
• 45:58
  hydrama high stakes things.
• 46:01
  I liked getting turned into sand by an old lady.
• 46:06
  Well, mad job.
• 46:08
  I honestly don't think anyone else can say that as well, right?
• 46:11
  Being disintegrated by a, by a pensioner.
• 46:14
  Yeah.
• 46:15
  And then, yeah, for it to be high stakes and then, but also after a certain point,
• 46:19
  bring the comedy into it.
• 46:20
  Yeah.
• 46:21
  I remember in live that episode, Night Terror's Gator, Smart Gator's wrote,
• 46:23
  he was, you know, we're dead.
• 46:24
  Again.
• 46:25
  Yeah.
• 46:26
  They're the fun when we're dead, you know, all that stuff.
• 46:27
  Yeah.
• 46:28
  And it's hilarious, but also you do get that pay fuss as well through the show too.
• 46:31
  Yeah, totally.
• 46:32
  I think the show manages to really balance that real humor and joy with, you know, proper drama
• 46:41
  and proper real emotions and real people going through stuff, which for a sci-fi television show.
• 46:47
  It's such a mad thing, isn't it?
• 46:49
  Because it's got this like, it is like a nerdy sci-fi show with a law and with rules and with creatures
• 46:58
  and with, you know, words that no one understands and all this stuff.
• 47:03
  And it's also Saturday night television.
• 47:05
  And it's such an amazing thing that that's, that's become such a cultural tent pole.
• 47:15
  I really feel like there's something for everyone in there, but it's so kind of idiotic
• 47:19
  and I think there's so many things trying to copy it or do a similar thing and nothing quite has the heart.
• 47:24
  Because it's got so much heart, I think.
• 47:26
  And because it doesn't take itself too seriously, but takes itself seriously when it needs to,
• 47:31
  that it really works.
• 47:33
  Yeah, that's good.
• 47:34
  That's good, isn't it?
• 47:35
  It's good stuff.
• 47:36
  Good Saturday night entertainment.
• 47:38
  Yeah, I agree.
• 47:39
  And it's funny because when we had Peter on, and also Marie Gold, you know, other sort of Doctor Who workers as this were.
• 47:46
  They were talking a bit about like where the show is now, because as you say, it is a phenomenon
• 47:50
  and it has the seducency to it.
• 47:52
  But Peter was saying that maybe on reflection perhaps, because it is such a big thing now,
• 47:56
  maybe in some ways it's become maybe a bit of a victim of its own success.
• 47:59
  Yeah.
• 48:00
  And Marie was talking about that about how at the moment with, you know, there was all that stuff at Disney Plus
• 48:04
  and the show is now kind of where the show goes next is kind of maybe in question a bit.
• 48:08
  Yeah.
• 48:09
  And I was wondering if you had any thoughts on that.
• 48:11
  Someone asked me this the other day and I think like, I don't know.
• 48:15
  I don't know.
• 48:16
  I mean, you make these decisions, I would, it must be so hard producing a TV program.
• 48:26
  I think that's all really easy to say in hindsight.
• 48:29
  Like, yeah.
• 48:32
  If I was producing it, which I'm not and we'll never get the job doing it, I would make it,
• 48:38
  I mean, I would just make it really homemade again and like bring it back to like.
• 48:47
  It's about the story, it's always been about the writing about the stories.
• 48:51
  And so if the bells and whistles get too much, then that takes away from the writing maybe a little bit.
• 49:00
  And the people who write it really well are the ones who write brilliant characters
• 49:05
  that go on journeys and learn something about themselves like in anything.
• 49:08
  As long as that is kept safe and there's a really surprising stories and really interesting takes on humanity,
• 49:19
  then it works no matter how big or small it is, I think.
• 49:24
  And I'm not saying the writing's been bad at all.
• 49:27
  I don't think I actually haven't really watched much of it.
• 49:29
  So I'm just going off what other people have said.
• 49:31
  But my opinion on if you're going to make something good, then that's how to make it good.
• 49:36
  And it maybe just doesn't need all that big budget stuff and that stuff's good.
• 49:41
  But I don't know.
• 49:43
  I liked doing the episodes for me where there was like someone in a costume or an alien on a string
• 49:49
  that we were running away from and it obviously felt like a puppet.
• 49:52
  Like I'd have wonky sets and the doctor's companion would be a puppet.
• 49:58
  And it would be like, yeah, just going to take it back to something a bit,
• 50:04
  a bit mad and a bit, a bit more, yeah, a bit more basic.
• 50:10
  But of course they took the Disney money because it's really exciting to make a big scale show.
• 50:16
  I think as long as it keeps the heart of it, then that's fine.
• 50:19
  Yeah, yeah.
• 50:21
  I remember Crosack Austin saying something to the effect of like if you're an actor or if you're a director
• 50:26
  or if you're a filmmaker, film worker, you're only as good as your writer.
• 50:30
  You're only as good as the writer.
• 50:32
  Yeah, completely.
• 50:33
  It's all about the writing and that's what people don't...
• 50:36
  When I talk to people about Doctor Who or if people come and talk to me in the street,
• 50:41
  they're not going, oh, I loved that bit where that big explosion happened or I loved that bit
• 50:45
  where it felt so huge and there was obviously all that money spent on it.
• 50:49
  It's like, no, they're going, that bit where you and Amy had to choose between...
• 50:55
  It's all about the emotional connection between people and the stories and that stuff supports it
• 51:00
  and that stuff can be amazing, the big bells and whistles.
• 51:04
  But as long as it keeps the heart, then I'm sure it'd be fine.
• 51:08
  Yeah, yeah.
• 51:10
  Speaking of those moments where there's emotional cause,
• 51:13
  I mean, I think my favourite episode of yours in terms of like Rory and Amy
• 51:17
  is the girl who waited from Series 6.
• 51:19
  Yeah.
• 51:20
  And if you remember the making of that one, but I was watching it back
• 51:22
  and it's just, you know, the fact that you guys get put, you and Karen get put
• 51:25
  front and center really.
• 51:26
  Yeah.
• 51:27
  As like, you know, the conceit being, you know, there's two Amy's, one sort of is older
• 51:31
  and it's kind of, there's been trapped in time a bit and then there's the younger present day.
• 51:34
  Yeah.
• 51:35
  And then Rory has to choose, essentially.
• 51:37
  Yeah.
• 51:38
  You know, it's such a powerful story.
• 51:40
  I mean, what was, and that's all in the writing.
• 51:41
  Yeah.
• 51:42
  I like to make it.
• 51:43
  Well, Tom McCree who wrote that and he's brilliant writer and he wrote the, everyone's
• 51:50
  to talk about Jamie musical, which is brilliant and he's a really great, he's a really great
• 51:57
  writer.
• 51:58
  So yeah, it was really great to, it was so funny and like I always go, yes, Steve, I love
• 52:03
  Stephen's writing and opening his Stephen Ruffet script was like Christmas and all the
• 52:10
  writers on it were so brilliant as well and that's a really good example, like Tom's writing
• 52:14
  on that was brilliant.
• 52:15
  It was really lovely to be able to explore that relationship and I mean, it's an octopus
• 52:21
  where you go, oh yeah, I'm on this page, I'm on this page and this page, that's great.
• 52:24
  I can, I've got loads to do.
• 52:25
  So it's kind of really nice to, to do all that stuff.
• 52:28
  It's thought was really creative and having that little Rory robot, I've not seen it since
• 52:32
  it was on.
• 52:33
  So it's kind of a, my biggest memory of filming that is that one of the scenes we filmed
• 52:39
  in a coal refinery and they were still crunching coal while we were filming.
• 52:46
  So the sound team went home because they couldn't record any sound or half the sound team went
• 52:52
  home and then we just had to aid the other whole thing, which is when you replaced the
• 52:56
  dialogue on a thing.
• 52:58
  So that was, it was quite an emotional scene, it's one of those going, yeah, and then
• 53:02
  we're like, yeah, can you look like you're not shouting at each other?
• 53:05
  We are, we are shouting at each other.
• 53:08
  Yeah, that was my main memory from that episode and running around with a massive magnifying
• 53:14
  glass, which I was, I just kept breaking and kept getting in the way.
• 53:18
  But yeah, it was great, I love those kind of, the emotional episodes as long as it was
• 53:25
  always kind of cut through with humour, which people always want.
• 53:28
  Always, yeah.
• 53:29
  I mean, that scene where you're having to shout over like the coal, the coal, but I mean,
• 53:33
  that, that, that, please tell me that wasn't the end scene, you know, where like, you
• 53:35
  know, the hand on the target.
• 53:36
  It wasn't that, it was one of the scenes where it was the scene where I don't know, like
• 53:40
  she had like a tent inside, we weren't seeing her, her house, I haven't seen it for so
• 53:46
  long.
• 53:47
  The robots in the corner, yeah.
• 53:48
  Yeah, so that scene, we're talking very quietly to each other, but we couldn't hear
• 53:51
  a word that we were saying, so we were just kind of guessing what was going on.
• 53:56
  Yeah.
• 53:57
  Yeah.
• 53:58
  I mean, that scene in the title, that ending scene where Karen puts her hand up and you
• 54:02
  put your hand up and it's the older Amy and it's Rory, do you remember the shooting
• 54:05
  of that scene?
• 54:06
  Because it's so, I was watching it last night and I was, even just out of context, it was,
• 54:10
  it's devastating.
• 54:11
  Oh, great.
• 54:12
  Yeah, it's great.
• 54:13
  I mean, do you remember that one?
• 54:14
  I remember putting my hand on the thing or I remember having to cry for a long time,
• 54:19
  which is always nerve-wracking.
• 54:21
  I'll have to, we're rewatching a lot of them at the moment, me and Karen.
• 54:25
  So we haven't got to that one yet, I'm sure when we do, I'll have lots of memories sparked.
• 54:32
  But you know, those things were a real gift to get to do, I remember kind of putting
• 54:40
  our hands up.
• 54:41
  But a lot of us quite technical as well, so you're like trying to get your hand in the
• 54:43
  right place and they try to get the shot and yeah, I think they do such, they did such
• 54:48
  an amazing job at taking our story and blowing it up and leading it somewhere and both
• 54:59
  characters learning so much about themselves in the world and so when they end up, with
• 55:07
  the ending that they have, it's devastating but it's also so right that they end up kind
• 55:13
  of taking together and there's a real satisfying nature that after everything they've been
• 55:19
  through together.
• 55:20
  I just think it was a really beautifully crafted character arc for both of us.
• 55:26
  Absolutely.
• 55:27
  I did want to ask when the decision came to leave the show, you and Karen, what was
• 55:31
  the thinking behind that?
• 55:32
  Was it just like, we've done our time, we want to try something new and move on?
• 55:36
  I'm quite impatient as a person, I think, well, I'm very much always thinking, I'm trying
• 55:46
  to be more present, if I am being more present, the older again.
• 55:50
  The last thing you want to do is outstay welcome on something and I don't know, the nature
• 56:00
  of being a companion on Doctor Who is that you get some episodes where you're kind of
• 56:05
  in the background, kind of running around and they're great and they're lovely and we
• 56:12
  could both see a bit or I could see definitely, oh, if we stay too long, that will happen
• 56:18
  a lot more.
• 56:22
  The producers had a very similar idea to us in terms of how long we were going to do so
• 56:27
  it was just a conversation between us and I think that meant that as we, when we knew
• 56:32
  the end point, they could craft that amazing, you know, Stephen could craft that amazing
• 56:37
  journey towards that end point, so it felt very good to live, it was obviously really sad
• 56:40
  but people asked me now, do you miss doing Doctor Who?
• 56:45
  No, okay, it was 15 years ago, it'd be magnifying, if I missed doing it and I'm really
• 56:51
  glad for the time we had on it and I was also really glad to leave because I think that
• 56:55
  story was just written so well and it all has to be about the story.
• 56:58
  No, yeah, the writing, yeah, yeah, absolutely, no, it was beautifully done and I just remember
• 57:03
  like, as a viewer, like when I was a kid watching it, just the sense of heartbreak, yeah, it
• 57:07
  was like, there was morning across the nation, you know, her name and were we departed?
• 57:12
  It was the only episode that lasted, so it was the only episode I watched with friends
• 57:15
  and family, so I can't really watch, it's struggling to watch myself and things anyway,
• 57:24
  so inviting loads of people over to my flat watching episode television, I was in felt mad,
• 57:32
  but everyone got really emotional, it was really, it was really lovely, people who hadn't
• 57:35
  even watched any other episodes and I think it's a really brilliantly written episode,
• 57:41
  yeah, yeah, no it is and then shortly after then, I mean not too long after, another
• 57:46
  great British sort of television phenomenon, broad church, yeah, coincidentally, quite a
• 57:51
  few of the same players as people you'd worked on, Doctor Who, yes, Chibnall the writer,
• 57:55
  you'd worked with quite closely on Series 7, and David Tennant of course, Olivia Coleman
• 58:00
  and Judy Wicker, I mean, what are your memories of working on broad church, how did that
• 58:03
  come about?
• 58:04
  Chris just asked me, we were filming an episode of Doctor Who and he came to my trailer
• 58:09
  and went, I've written you a part of my new TV series, do you want to do it, I just
• 58:12
  went, yeah, because I think he's brilliant, so that was nice and I mean it was just such
• 58:22
  a phenomenon wasn't it, we knew we were making something really special, but it felt very
• 58:26
  small and you know, we just took it really serious, it was obviously a big subject matter
• 58:32
  and very upsetting, but I think because of that we had a real laugh doing it to kind of
• 58:40
  combat the sadness in the show, we made everyone made sure that we were all having a lovely
• 58:47
  time doing it, and Chris said really early on, he was like, I just want really nice people
• 58:54
  to be in this, he's like, we're making a real active, we're being really active about
• 59:00
  only having actors who we really like as people, which I think is really interesting, most
• 59:09
  actors are really lovely, but they definitely hit the nail on the head with that, it was
• 59:13
  such, and it was really nice to be part of a big ensemble with just great actors, what
• 59:20
  was interesting about the first season especially, James the director, we were encouraged to
• 59:28
  not rehearse, and the first time we said lines to each other was on camera, which was
• 59:39
  terrifying at the time, because I especially coming from such theatre of like, well you
• 59:45
  know you have to rehearse everything, you have to know what you're doing, and this is
• 59:47
  part of my controlling everything in my work, at that point, and it was kind of a big shift
• 59:57
  for me doing broad church, because it was like, oh no, we can do all the work beforehand,
• 1:00:02
  and then you just go come in and be present and listen, and it was really liberating, and
• 1:00:08
  taught me a lot about acting and working with people, and it was really exciting, because
• 1:00:14
  you didn't know what the other person was going to do, and they couldn't do on all scenes,
• 1:00:18
  but in a lot of two handers, and I really like working like that now, especially on film
• 1:00:24
  on resistor rehearsals, and just be like, no let's just see what comes out and see what
• 1:00:29
  happens, and I think like a real magic can happen in the unexpected, and when you're hearing
• 1:00:33
  someone say something for the first time, like I think it's quite quite good not to really
• 1:00:40
  know what the other person's going to say, so like learning your own, you used to do this
• 1:00:44
  in Shakespeare and just have their lines rip down, and I think there's something really
• 1:00:48
  interesting about that in some ways, of not knowing what the other person's going to say
• 1:00:54
  to you, or for getting what the other person's going to say to you, so you can just respond
• 1:00:58
  in the moment, and that was very much happening in those, in that early stuff on broad church,
• 1:01:06
  and it was really, it made it really spicy and really, really cool, and obviously everyone
• 1:01:11
  who's on that show is so top of their game, it was just a joy, it was really great.
• 1:01:18
  So that thing you said earlier about how like a learning those sort of technical things
• 1:01:22
  about singing kind of being more in the moment, to think that broad church really sort
• 1:01:26
  of demanded that, asked that.
• 1:01:28
  Yeah.
• 1:01:29
  Well I think I learned something on everything, and that was just what I learned on that
• 1:01:33
  or part of that, part of that journey, we just had a real laugh, like Olivia Coleman
• 1:01:41
  so silly, which is so kind of in opposition to what she does on the screen in broad church.
• 1:01:48
  We just be having a laugh, and then we go action, and she's suddenly like, in it, and
• 1:01:53
  I'm like, okay, this is cool.
• 1:01:55
  And that taught me a lot, like she really does this, I don't know if she would describe
• 1:01:59
  like this, what I noticed from her, and I've said this before, is that she can kind
• 1:02:04
  of talk and be joking around, and as soon as they say action, she's just in the thing,
• 1:02:09
  and I think that's a real, at first I was like, wow, how does she do that?
• 1:02:12
  And I was like, sure, she should be concentrating, and I see now that that, at that point was
• 1:02:19
  maybe part of her process of just being free.
• 1:02:23
  She can just switch it on, just like that, yeah, which sounds quite hard to me, I mean,
• 1:02:27
  I don't act, but it sounds like that's part of the challenge of being a film or television
• 1:02:31
  actor, is that you kind of have to switch it on a bit, the cameras are rolling, it sounds
• 1:02:35
  challenging to me, that people can just do that.
• 1:02:38
  Yeah, it's amazing to see the mastery, the masters do it, people like her are just incredible.
• 1:02:46
  And as you say, the cast is so loaded, you say it's yourself, and the Coleman, and
• 1:02:51
  Tenon, and Whitaker, and Joseph Bailey as well, just like, you know, troopers, just
• 1:02:56
  like this great trooper of actors, I mean, what are your memories of working those guys
• 1:03:00
  across, you know, free seasons, you did free season before?
• 1:03:03
  Yeah, I mean, like, obviously doing the work was great, and the scripts were amazing,
• 1:03:06
  and getting to be a thicker was lovely.
• 1:03:12
  There were lots of, like, just messed around a lot.
• 1:03:17
  Someone bought a cardboard cut out of me, because I, it was like a long, a longer story
• 1:03:24
  to it, but anyway, we were talking about Doctor Who, and I was like, oh, you can get these
• 1:03:29
  cardboard cutouts, I mean, my mom had bought one from my nan, there's a present, a like
• 1:03:37
  life-size Rory Williams, because my nan was like, well, you never visit, so my mom bought
• 1:03:42
  her this cardboard cut out of me to stick in her living room, but she'd forget it was
• 1:03:47
  there, and it would terrify if she had to put it in the lock.
• 1:03:50
  And I told this story to Jody, and as I was telling her the story, I didn't know she
• 1:03:56
  was ordering one, and it arrived on set, and would end up in different people's trailers,
• 1:04:03
  and so you'd walk into a trailer and just be faced with a life-size Rory Williams in
• 1:04:09
  Chile.
• 1:04:10
  You were everywhere on set.
• 1:04:11
  I was everywhere.
• 1:04:12
  I was everywhere.
• 1:04:13
  I was everywhere.
• 1:04:14
  But no, it was great.
• 1:04:15
  And again, on that job, there's people who, it's all about the people and working with
• 1:04:22
  nice people, there's people who are now friends for life, I met doing that job, Jossins and
• 1:04:28
  Andy Buckingham, and just brilliant, brilliant people, and getting to work with Jody, who's
• 1:04:35
  just phenomenal, and we were born on the same day.
• 1:04:40
  So we talk every birthday, and commiserate the years of going.
• 1:04:45
  Have you guys ever shared a birthday like party?
• 1:04:48
  No, we've never shared a birthday party.
• 1:04:50
  Maybe we shared.
• 1:04:51
  Yeah, you got the sneak back onto the hardest set, well, okay, it's...
• 1:04:55
  I think that will be weird if we did adopt a hit in birthday.
• 1:04:58
  Yeah, look at it.
• 1:05:00
  Yeah.
• 1:05:01
  Every too far, too much.
• 1:05:02
  Too much, too much.
• 1:05:03
  Yeah.
• 1:05:04
  Do you remember when, because I think one of the many things people talked about abroad
• 1:05:08
  church at the time, and going back to it, is the twist, who did it?
• 1:05:12
  I mean, do you remember your reaction when you read the script, because obviously there's
• 1:05:15
  free seasons, free twists, potentially.
• 1:05:17
  Yeah, especially the first one, sorry, we didn't, I told you I bang everything.
• 1:05:22
  In the first one, we know one of you who it was, even Matt, who played, I mean, spoiler,
• 1:05:26
  if you haven't seen it, stop listening, skip it.
• 1:05:31
  But, you know, Matt McRevall, who's so brilliant in it, but he didn't know that he was him,
• 1:05:38
  he did it.
• 1:05:39
  So, I think that was an amazing, it was both really great for the press.
• 1:05:46
  But it really helped us as actors, because we were all guessing and didn't know, and I think
• 1:05:53
  we were just all really sad, because it's such a sad story, it's just such a, you know,
• 1:05:58
  that character, it's so disappointing and awful, what happens.
• 1:06:03
  I think we were all like, oh, yeah, of course, that's what happens.
• 1:06:08
  I think Chris is writing, like, he writes so brilliantly about community and how that
• 1:06:14
  kind of, one event can tear through a community like that, and we became a little community
• 1:06:21
  making it as well.
• 1:06:23
  Yeah, it was just really sad, it was really sad, and moving, we all felt that the responsibility
• 1:06:30
  to do it justice, but there was such a difference between filming the first, when we filmed
• 1:06:34
  the first season, even though it was, you know, big people, it was kind of left alone,
• 1:06:37
  because no one knew what was going on, it was like, oh, that's another TV show being
• 1:06:42
  filmed there.
• 1:06:43
  And by the second and third season, I'd be in the church and the big people, like, trying
• 1:06:47
  to jump over the hedged with a camera and, you know, get pictures of me in a frog.
• 1:06:53
  I was like, well, this is mad, people trying to get spoilers for TV show make me so, I
• 1:07:01
  don't really understand the point, it's like, you're ruining it forever, I understand you've
• 1:07:06
  got to try and sell your grubby little newspaper, but like, what's the story?
• 1:07:14
  Like, just don't ruin it for everyone, and especially at that time, I think, yeah,
• 1:07:19
  it happens maybe less now, maybe not, or maybe people have got wise to it, but like, was
• 1:07:23
  at the time where like scripts were being stolen from shows, and people were locked down
• 1:07:26
  with like, don't let plots come out, because don't let the scripts go in the hands of the
• 1:07:33
  press, because they'll publish what's going to happen in a thing.
• 1:07:36
  It's trying to be a man, it's like, why would you do that?
• 1:07:39
  Why would you do that?
• 1:07:40
  It's just a telly show, the whole point is that people are watching it for the first
• 1:07:45
  time and not knowing what's going on, like, find some better, find some proper news.
• 1:07:50
  That's a real news, yeah, back for me.
• 1:07:52
  Yeah, I think people have gotten wise to it now, I think people are a lot more kind of,
• 1:07:56
  like, you hear about like the Marvel universe films and like, there's huge rushes, there's
• 1:07:59
  no, they've got real sort of, I want to say, quite strict ways of water type policies
• 1:08:03
  with like, I can't say this, you can't, but you can say this, it's like a guy flying
• 1:08:07
  a drone over the Harry Potter set the other week and filming stuff going on there and
• 1:08:12
  that.
• 1:08:13
  It's like, great, great, lovely, I just think, do something else.
• 1:08:21
  And what's interesting to me though is that as you say, broad short, you know, this drama's
• 1:08:25
  heavy, you know, heavy show, you know, like emotional, and I want to say around the same
• 1:08:30
  time as shooting the, maybe the second series, you were also shooting DC Legends of Tomorrow
• 1:08:35
  for sure.
• 1:08:36
  Yeah, it was kind of, I want to say it was around the same time.
• 1:08:38
  Yeah, it was maybe after the second series, I don't know, what is time, I don't know
• 1:08:42
  what order of things happened, but yeah, yeah, yeah, that was around that time, around
• 1:08:47
  the same time.
• 1:08:48
  Yeah, I came back from Canada from June Legends to go and shoot more of broad shows, yeah.
• 1:08:53
  Yeah, and I just want to ask, like, what was it like going from that sort of quite sort
• 1:08:56
  of fair intimate, I guess, on at least on paper to me, like, you know, a British series
• 1:09:01
  of that, and then going and shooting this huge DC property playing Rip Hunter, this time
• 1:09:05
  master.
• 1:09:06
  Was that one?
• 1:09:07
  It was very different.
• 1:09:08
  It was very different vibes.
• 1:09:10
  Yeah.
• 1:09:11
  Let us kind of almost felt more theatrical in a lot of ways.
• 1:09:15
  It was still like a big ensemble, but it was like that.
• 1:09:19
  We did an episode every eight days.
• 1:09:20
  It was like really intense, 40-hour days, I was in every scene, and broad shows was really
• 1:09:27
  relaxing.
• 1:09:28
  It was embarrassing.
• 1:09:29
  I'd turn up and be a vicar and, you know, doing an intimate scene with David Tennant, or
• 1:09:36
  not an intimate scene with David Tennant, so I mean that in a, you know, like, me and David
• 1:09:41
  Tennant, there's no cutscenes of broad shows, you mean David doing intimate scene together.
• 1:09:44
  That would be a weird twist.
• 1:09:46
  No, but you know, that's the twist, actually.
• 1:09:51
  That's actually a really good twist.
• 1:09:54
  Yeah.
• 1:09:55
  No, but you know, you can go and do like an intimate scene, and I was another word for
• 1:10:00
  an intimate scene.
• 1:10:01
  Like a character scene.
• 1:10:02
  Yeah, like two people talking to each other about something very serious.
• 1:10:07
  Then fighting guns and flying a spaceship and fighting with guns and flying a spaceship
• 1:10:12
  and trying to save time with a bunch of raggedy superheroes.
• 1:10:18
  I mean, it was mad.
• 1:10:19
  I mean, from, and I said this before, obviously, from someone who didn't kind of ever think
• 1:10:23
  of being on television or in films to get to do, like, a big American TV show was wild.
• 1:10:30
  Yeah, it had its ups and downs as well, like, I was meant to sign on for seven years and
• 1:10:38
  that terrified me.
• 1:10:42
  But they were really kind and said, because I was, I had broad church, I had other things.
• 1:10:46
  If I don't do theatre, I could go a bit loopy.
• 1:10:50
  So filming that for nine months of the year just wasn't conducive to everything that was
• 1:10:55
  going on the rest of my life.
• 1:10:56
  So I went in and did a really good shift, and I'm really proud of it.
• 1:11:02
  It was really fun.
• 1:11:03
  It was mad.
• 1:11:04
  And I was living in Canada, and it was cold, and I didn't have any of my friends, it was
• 1:11:11
  an odd experience.
• 1:11:12
  It was really intense and I was working for 14 hours a day.
• 1:11:14
  So it feels like a little bubble in my life of like a slightly different existence.
• 1:11:20
  But yeah, the best thing that came out of Legends was getting to work with Victor Garber,
• 1:11:27
  and he's become a really good friend, and sometimes we go for Martinis, and that is one
• 1:11:31
  of the best things that's happened in my life, because he's amazing.
• 1:11:35
  Yeah.
• 1:11:36
  Yeah.
• 1:11:37
  Wow.
• 1:11:38
  I mean, that kind of, I think you're maybe one of the few people who can say that they've
• 1:11:42
  been thinking not to think that it's about to do too much, but like playing Rory, you
• 1:11:46
  know, paying to us to the doctor, to a time lord, and then going from there to paying
• 1:11:49
  a time master on Legends of Tomorrow, that's such a retreat.
• 1:11:53
  Well, it is a retreat.
• 1:11:54
  I mean, when they asked me to do it, I was really hesitant to take that job on, because
• 1:11:58
  I was like, I've done this, I've done time travel, and been in a really beautiful version
• 1:12:05
  of that, of what that is.
• 1:12:08
  They didn't have any scripts before we'd started shooting Legends of Tomorrow, so it was
• 1:12:11
  really on a whim.
• 1:12:14
  And I was nervous about repeating myself or doing something similar, but the character
• 1:12:19
  was so different.
• 1:12:20
  There's stuff that I read from the character, and, you know, I'd read the comics, and
• 1:12:27
  it was such a different character to what I've done in Doctor Who that I thought, while
• 1:12:31
  actually this is worth doing, because I'm not repeating myself, it's a very different
• 1:12:38
  person, and I can bring a different skill set to this job.
• 1:12:45
  So yeah, but I didn't, I didn't really see, I don't know, there were times where I was
• 1:12:49
  like, this is a bit like Doctor Who, isn't it?
• 1:12:53
  But those, and that was what I was worried about, but those things didn't, those moments
• 1:13:01
  didn't happen as much as I thought, as I much thought they would.
• 1:13:06
  You know, Rip Hunt is a very different character, even from the Doctor, so I didn't feel like
• 1:13:10
  it was kind of doing like a, my big fear was that I was going to do like a mad American
• 1:13:16
  knockoff of something that I'd already done, and I don't think that's what happened,
• 1:13:21
  and that I'm really pleased about that.
• 1:13:24
  And about that.
• 1:13:25
  No, I'd agree.
• 1:13:26
  It's completely different.
• 1:13:27
  I mean, he has this command to him.
• 1:13:28
  He's got, you know, even just superficial things, but just like the coat, you know, and
• 1:13:33
  it's just like, he has such a different style and presence than those other characters.
• 1:13:37
  And but I hear what you're saying about like the intensity of the shoot, because recently
• 1:13:40
  we had on Michael Soko, who's a great, brilliant actor.
• 1:13:44
  So good.
• 1:13:45
  And he was talking about what, when he was in Once Upon a Time, which I also want to say
• 1:13:48
  was a Vancouver shoots.
• 1:13:50
  And it was the intensity of that, like, you know, it's a big sort of fantasy series, and
• 1:13:54
  it was just like very intense, and it was always almost bit isolating.
• 1:13:57
  Yeah.
• 1:13:58
  Was that what?
• 1:13:59
  I found it quite isolating.
• 1:14:00
  Because we were working such long hours, obviously a big, we didn't really hang out with each
• 1:14:04
  other outside of work, because we just didn't have time.
• 1:14:10
  And, you know, like I just got married, and like, so I was kind of just desperate to get
• 1:14:16
  back to London a lot of the time, I spent, whenever I had like more than a few days off,
• 1:14:20
  I'd just come, come home.
• 1:14:24
  It's so far away, but Vancouver's beautiful as well.
• 1:14:27
  I don't really think I really explored it as much as I should have done.
• 1:14:29
  It was just kind of there to work, and then get out, and actually quite like to go back
• 1:14:36
  and just go on holiday there, because there's loads of things I just never, never saw.
• 1:14:40
  But yeah, it's intense, like you do these jobs, and you want to say yes to everything,
• 1:14:46
  or say yes to the things that feel right, and this is not like a woe is me.
• 1:14:52
  But you've also got to take into consideration where those jobs happen and how much of your
• 1:14:56
  life they're going to take you away from, and can you relocate to do that.
• 1:15:00
  And luckily I was in my 30s, and it would be very different now to go and make that commitment.
• 1:15:11
  But for the right thing you kind of do, and you move your life, and you do it, but at
• 1:15:14
  that point I kind of went over on my own, and that was, yeah, it was difficult.
• 1:15:20
  You know, I was also in a TV show, playing a time-traveling man with a spaceship.
• 1:15:27
  So there was so many great things about it, but I did find it a bit lonely over there.
• 1:15:34
  I'm glad I did it, I'm glad I did the job, and I'm really glad to come home.
• 1:15:38
  Yeah, I did want to ask, do you like those big genre, obviously stuff like Doctor and Legends tomorrow,
• 1:15:43
  but those big genre, comic book, superhero properties, films, TV, do you think you'd ever
• 1:15:48
  go back to those, what you just said about the right project?
• 1:15:52
  Yeah, it's about the right project, since if the character's interesting, if the writing's
• 1:15:59
  good and the character's interesting, that's all I'm really care about, I don't know.
• 1:16:05
  I'm so lucky to get to be able to do what I do, and that people have asked me to keep
• 1:16:11
  doing it, and obviously I've got ambition and there's things that I want to do, but what
• 1:16:18
  I've learned throughout the years is none of the things that have come my way, the things
• 1:16:23
  that I've thought of or planned or wished for.
• 1:16:28
  So I'm just excited for whatever the next things are, and I'm constantly surprised by the
• 1:16:33
  work I get to do.
• 1:16:36
  I haven't done only theatre for a while, so I'm really keen to kind of get back to that,
• 1:16:42
  maybe next year.
• 1:16:43
  I've taken a bit of time off theatre for a bit.
• 1:16:46
  Yeah, most of all, really lucky.
• 1:16:49
  Well, I think that's a wonderful note to wrap up on, I mean, this has been such a pleasure.
• 1:16:53
  Thank you.
• 1:16:54
  And it's been really lucky, it's been a privilege for us as well, jobs teachers to watch
• 1:16:57
  your work, but also just to sit here and chat with us.
• 1:16:59
  Oh, it's been lovely to chat.
• 1:17:00
  Thank you so much.
• 1:17:01
  Ah, pleasure, man.
• 1:17:02
  This is absolutely flown by.
• 1:17:03
  Yeah, I know, right?
• 1:17:05
  And I was just like, oh God, wrap it up, you know.
• 1:17:07
  We need to compare our curry houses.
• 1:17:09
  Also, I realised I'm going to throw out this chat, I said right at the beginning, I don't
• 1:17:12
  like actors talking about acting and I've talked loads about acting, so good, well done for
• 1:17:17
  making me go against my own advice.
• 1:17:18
  I was so sorry.
• 1:17:19
  It's been good chat.
• 1:17:20
  It's been good chat, it's been good chat, it's been good chat.
• 1:17:22
  It's been good chat, it's been good chat, it's been good chat, it's been good chat.
• 1:17:23
  Real, thank you.
• 1:17:24
  No worries.
• 1:17:25
  Hey everyone, thanks so much for listening to my chat with Arthur D'Ardle.
• 1:17:37
  Remember to like and subscribe to the podcast, see you never miss an episode and stay tuned
• 1:17:42
  for more exciting interviews and guests coming soon on half the picture.