Bits and Bobs (Vol 8 ½): Who’s seeing 'Hamlet 2'? A Steve Coogan Q&A

Anglophiles, you have spoken. In answer to Monday’s query — Why isn’t Steve Coogan a bigger U.S. star? — some of you said he was excellent but too esoteric for American tastes.  Others still hold his personal life — they’re rumors, people! — against him. But we all seem to agree that he’s made some brilliant stuff, from TV’s I'm Alan Partridge and Saxondale, to his two films with Michael Winterbottom, 24 Hour Party People and Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. Which now has me asking something completely different: Who will be heading out to see the Coog play flailing drama teacher Dana Marschz in Hamlet 2 this weekend? I can’t get the theme song, “Rock Me Sexy Jesus,” out of my head, and think it’s worth going just because seeing it again might do that. 

But I digress. To give you some incentive, Coogan chatted briefly with Bits & Bobs about the film, his career, and what other British comedies you should hit up right away (Gavin & Stacey, Human Remains, Porridge, etc).  So check it out and then tell me, will you be heading to the theater?

BITS AND BOBS: How’d you become involved with Hamlet 2?

STEVE COOGAN: Someone sent me the script. I’d read a lot of comedy scripts that I really didn’t like.  There’s a lot of really boring hacky, repetitive, formulaic comedy that just makes my shoulders slump. And I read this and it just made me laugh out loud. It’s one of those rare things, which is something that is smart but not cynical. I’ve done smart and cynical and I’ve done smart and uncynical. Like Saxondale, I tried to make it uncynical because I wanted him to be a nice guy, not a nasty guy. It’s almost easier to get laughs from doing someone who’s twisted than it is to get laughs from someone who is basically good underneath. For me anyway. I find it easier to play twisted, dysfunctional people. So for me to play somebody who has got a good heart is quite difficult. Hamlet 2 had an edge and was interesting, and sort of oddball weird s---- in it that could have only of come from Pam Brady. And yet it had a little of a life affirming quality as well. That’s what made me want to do it really. Also, it was slightly different from what I’ve done before. 

How much of your own experience as an actor fed into it?

A lot. Not that I’m like the Dana character. I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve. If I met him in real life he would probably irritate the hell out of me. I did go to drama school and there is a certain type of person who is like that, very passionate and that. I’m not very effusive or demonstrative in my emotions the way he is. I wondered if I could do this kind of thing and not make it a caricature. I’ve known a lot of people like that. I think Californians are like that, very open with their emotions all the time.

Do you think you’ll ever do theater?

I'm doing a live nationwide tour in the fall where I do my own show on stage. I think just doing a theatre piece onstage…I’m not sure about that. I’m a little bit of a philistine in some ways. I’m one of those people who goes to theatre and thinks, this is really boring. Part of me is very visceral, although I like to be creative. I sometimes get intimidated in theater and think I’m supposed to like something that I don’t. I think the fact is I’d rather watch a Bruce Willis action film than see most theater. I’m really looking forward to the tour it because it will give me a chance to get back to the audience. I like the immediacy of doing that. I’m going to do lots of different characters. I’m doing Tom Saxondale on stage. Paul and Pauline.  And Duncan. But not Tony Ferrino. Alan Partridge, obviously, at the end. And I’ll be doing some stuff as myself onstage. I’ll have a lot of the dancers and the live band. It’s going to be a big big thing. I might bring it to North America.

Have you really pitched an Alan Partridge movie?

I’m toying with it. People talk about it a lot. I think I might do it to stop people about asking me about doing it. I’ve got mixed feelings about because it was so successful it dwarfed anything else that I did in the eyes of the British public. Whereas abroad people who know about me are familiar with all my work so they have a more rounded view of me. My onus in Britain is very mainstream. The thing that logs in most people’s minds is just Alan Partridge and everything else is seen as a sort of footnote. I don’t want end up in the same situation in America by pushing that character to the fore. I’m proud of him. I think he’s very funny. But I don’t want to overemphasize Alan above other bits of work that I’m equally proud like Saxondale, the Michael Winterbottom films, and Hamlet 2.

Do you feel there’s a big difference between working in the U.S. film industry versus in the British Industry?

There is more in common than there is not in common. In terms of modern pop culture we’re becoming more and more similar to America, but we’ll always be slightly different and that’s good. I think we can cross-fertilize. I’ve been lucky enough to work with people I think are at the top of their tree creatively — Ben Stiller, Larry David, and Owen Wilson. I think generally Americans like attractive people who are successful. And I think the British like ugly people who aren’t. 

And where do you fit in?

I like playing ugly people who are failures but ironically I’m very attractive and very successful. 

I was watching Lies & Alibis and you look very good in that film…

I’ll tell you what it is: Because I almost always play people who are not attractive, it has the opposite effect than what happens to most actors. You tend to see them in real life going to the store and caught by the paparazzi and you think they don’t look so glamorous and now they’ve just been caught on camera. I tend to have the opposite effect because I always play super ugly, but when people see me they are sort of pleasantly surprised. It’s quite useful.

Are you currently working on a new BBC comedy show?

I wouldn’t call it a comedy. It’s more of a drama, called Sunshine.  It has funny moments in it, but I really wouldn’t describe it as a comedy. Not in the way I’ve done comedies before.

So it’s far away from Alan Partridge and Saxondale…

Yes. It has moments of comedy but there is much more pathos. It’s not laugh out loud series. It has a lot of angst and a lot of emotion and a lot of tears. It’s very sad and it’s moving, and I’m very proud of it for that reason.

Can you tell us anything about the main character?

Yes, I play a garbage man who is a gambling addict, who spends all his money on the horses and gets into incredible trouble. Not a very wealthy man — a working class blue collar guy. It’s not like Saxondale no. 

That show was laugh out laud funny…

Well, I love Saxondale. Saxondale was my proudest comedy because it was funny but smart. It had a cult following in England, but it didn’t really catch people’s imagination abroad. People who have found it really really appreciate it. And I’m finding it out after the event. There were some good reviews in England, but it kinda was something that when it reached other people, people would come out of the woodwork and say how much they liked it.

Do you think it will come out on DVD in the States?

I’m led to believe that they’re putting 13 episodes out on BBC America again soon. Bizarrely I’m the one that has to bring it up and say “Why aren’t you putting this out on DVD in America? People like it, there are anglophiles there.” At the moment the only people who recognize me in America are the cool people [laughs]. People who’ve found me on BBC America and seen some of the independent movies I’ve done.

Do you think you’ll work with 24 Hour Party People director Michael Winterbottom again?

Definitely. Oh yeah. I’ve met with him several times.  He wants to do something in January with me. For me, I don’t care what it is, I just want to work with him. I’m going to something else with him for sure, I just love working with him. 

A friend of mine had told me that he’d seen you tell a story about how when you were younger you saw Tony Wilson, whom you played in Party People, at a fete. Is that true?

Yes it is. It is absolutely true. My aunt was a makeup artist at Granada Television, which is why I kinda became curious and fascinated by TV. And he was the local newscaster. This would have been about 1976. My aunt was 21 and she had a party at my parents’ house.  I would have been 10, 10 ½ , maybe 11 years old.  And she borrowed my parents’ house saying “can I have a party for my media friends?” And my mom said yes and banished us upstairs. And then we saw people coming into the hallway and I remember pointing and saying “look that’s Tony Wilson in our house.” Bizarrely, before Tony died he did a documentary series in Manchester where he went to my mom and dad’s house.  Tony interviews my mom and dad about me. It was about Manchester people that had become successful and I was one of them. Tony went to my parents’ house and when he got there he said “I’m sure I’ve been in this house before, I came to a party on this road.”  And my mom said, “You came to this house. You came to our house thirty years ago.”

I know you produced The Mighty Boosh, and your company Baby Cow made Sensitive Skin. We were wondering if you would recommend stuff for anglophiles to check out?

For sure. Of course, The Boosh. Gavin & Stacy [premiering on BBC America this Tuesday at 8:40pm] will be very interesting to some people. If they’re really interested, there is some obscure stuff. There is a series called Human Remains with Rob Brydon and Nighty Night’s Julia Davis. It was Baby Cow’s first TV series.  There are a couple of episodes in it that are among my all time favorite comedies. Yes, Human Remains is a real hidden treasure and Julia Davis and Rob Brydon in it are superb. So that’s one. Do you mean stuff from the past? Do you know the TV series Porridge? The relationship between Fletch and his cellmate Godber is pretty much the same as Saxondale’s with his assistant Raymond: It’s the mentor giving flawed advice to the naïve youngster. Someone who had a good heart and was trying to father this person, and does it with a combination of contempt. I’ve always liked that series: It’s one of the few examples of a British television series that is happy to put heart and emotion into the comedy. British comedy tends to be smart but a bit cynical. Also, there’s Steptoe and Son. And Tony Hancock’s Hancock’s Half Hour, which is really very similar to Alan Partridge in some ways.  That show was a British institution for years.  It used to get like 25 million viewers, which is virtually half the country on a regular basis.  And that was really avante guarde because it was popular and it has these obscure references in it that would be lost on lots of the audience.