The comic actor was obnoxious in Fleabag but says his karate-chopping conspiracy theorist in Stranger Things has given him a new sense of direction. So why is he playing the bad guy in a kids’ movie about a singing crocodile?
Brett Gelman has been in some of the greatest television of recent years. Fleabag? He played Sian Clifford’s repellent husband, Martin. The revival of Twin Peaks? A casino supervisor. Mad Men? One of the group therapy patients in the still-perfect series finale. And with his turn as Murray in Stranger Things, he has reached audiences beyond his wildest imagination. Now comes a further step into the mainstream: a movie about a singing crocodile, in which he plays a nosy neighbour called Mr Grumps.
“There is something really beautifully left of centre about this movie,” Gelman explains over Zoom from his hotel in Manchester. “Even though it’s a kids’ movie, there are major artistic choices being made. And the story itself is pretty bizarre, you know? It’s about a singing crocodile.”
