The actor answers your questions, from his memorable impersonation of a sloth at Rada to what it was like having to execute one of his son’s best friends
I’ve heard there’s a module at Rada about becoming the embodiment of an animal. Legend has it you were incredible and people would strive to witness it. What animal were you and what process did you go through? spikeboy
I remember I wasn’t that particularly keen on it, so I think I was a sloth so I could just curl up in the corner and pretend I was on a tree and just shift up a bit every 20 minutes. We had a wonderful teacher but I’d had enough of some of the more modern dance stuff, so I used the animal thing as an exercise in having a bit of a kip.
We really enjoyed the Turner and Lowry films. Did you learn to paint in both of their styles? Which famous British painter might you like to play next? Rextanka1 and DarkAnaemicI
I started painting a couple of years before we even started rehearsing Mr Turner. I had this excellent teacher, Tim Wright, and painted a complete reproduction of one of Turner’s masterpieces that I have on my wall and still can’t quite work out how I did it. It wasn’t until I played Lowry [in 2019’s Mrs Lowry & Son] that I started painting a lot. I couldn’t stop painting between takes. I was doing slightly bad Turners, slightly bad Lowry knockoffs, then all of a sudden I started painting but couldn’t work out who it looked like, and realised it was me. I had my own exhibition last year [at London’s Pontone gallery], which was a massive surprise. So, life imitating art.
William Blake would be a hell of a role because he wasn’t only an artist but a philosopher, a Christian mystic, and an amazing character. There are so many artists, but I’ve had enough trouble with rats. I’ve played a few of those [Scabbers in Harry Potter, Nick in Chicken Run, and in the Mike Leigh play Smelling a Rat]. I’ve played Churchill twice [in Jackboots on Whitehall and The King’s Speech]. So I’m your man for artists, Churchill or rats.
