Post by Draco Fidus on Nov 8, 2013 18:44:31 GMT
Why I'm happy Eve Myles is my Girlfriend
Anthony Head, 59, starred in Buffy The Vampire Slayer before joining Little Britain then Merlin. Now he’s in age-gap sitcom You, Me And Them.
What’s the show all about? It’s UK Gold’s first original commission. It’s about a man of my age, 59, who has a girlfriend 25 years younger than him. They’re in love and happy but everyone around them has a problem with it for various reasons. Eve Myles plays my girlfriend.
You worked with her on Merlin. What’s she like? She’s wonderful. When I was first asked to do Merlin, I was worried if it would be adult enough because it could have just been a kids’ show. She played a witch who could have been a bit naff but she did it dead straight and very scarily. There was one moment she was delivering a speech to me in full prosthetic make-up as I was about to put her son on a bonfire. The French background artists didn’t speak English but burst into applause at the end because they were moved by the emotion of it. It set a great tone for the rest of the series.
Have you experienced any age-gap romances? There’s ten years between me and my other half. When we first got together I was wondering if we had children if I would still be of an age to do the fathers’ race at sports day – which I was. We’ve been together for 26 years and I’m not worn out yet.
What’s the show you’re doing in South Africa about? A pilot called Dominion. It’s a follow-on from the 2010 movie Legion, which starred Paul Bettany. God has lost faith in mankind and his archangels decide to take over Earth. We’re in a walled city where Las Vegas used to be – it’s political intrigue with a bit of metaphysics. If they like it, we’ll get a series, if not, we’ve still got a movie. I did a pilot at the beginning of the year for a US TV network that will never see the light of day. With this we’ll still have a movie, which will hopefully be a hit and can stand in its own right.
What impact did Buffy have on your career? Huge. It opened the door to work internationally and at the same time, by a stroke of good fortune, when I came to England I was asked to do Little Britain. They couldn’t be more different but it kept people guessing – you can very easily get pigeonholed in this business. It afforded me massive amounts of choice in terms of what I’m asked to do, which keeps things fun.
Buffy creator Joss Whedon is now doing The Avengers films. Would you be interested in joining the Marvel superhero universe? Alexis Denisof was in the first Avengers movie as a cloaked, masked figure but I don’t know if Joss would bring other people from the Buffyverse into the Marvel world because it confuses things. He asked me to be in his film version of Much Ado About Nothing but I was doing the US version of the Channel 4 comedy Free Agents and couldn’t get the time off. In the end he had to recast and the series was cancelled anyway, which was a bit crap. I’d love to work with Joss again. He not only writes wonderfully but his direction is some of the best I’ve ever had. He has great spark.
Your mother was an actress. Did she inspire you to get into acting? When it’s in your family, it’s a choice, it’s there. It’s not a jump to say: ‘I want to act.’ When I was six I was in a little show my mother’s friends organised, playing the Emperor in The Emperor’s New Clothes. I remember thinking: ‘This is the business, this is what I want to do.’ Most actors start doing it out of insecurity because it’s nice to dress up and not be yourself. There’s stuff you can do as a character that you can’t do as yourself. When I did The Rocky Horror Show, I could silence someone at the back of the circle with a look. I couldn’t do that as me but I could as Frank-N-Furter. It’s an interesting thing to play with.
Who have you learned the most from? I was in awe of Meryl Streep when we worked on The Iron Lady. I had no idea what to expect. I thought she might be very Method and come out of the trailer in character. There are actors who do that and you can’t impinge on it. But she’d laugh and joke with everyone and then cameras would turn over and the hairs on the back of my neck went up because she was absolutely in it. When you do a close-up you need your eyes to be quite close to the camera as it has more impact. Some actors keep wide of the camera when you’re delivering your dialogue to them so your close-up isn’t as good as theirs. She was generosity itself – she used to practically ram her head into the camera.
What lessons has your career in showbiz taught you? It’s too easy to fall back on your shtick and just do the stuff you know gets you through but doesn’t necessarily make you good. You have to take risks constantly and take yourself by surprise in order to take the audience by surprise.
Anthony Head, 59, starred in Buffy The Vampire Slayer before joining Little Britain then Merlin. Now he’s in age-gap sitcom You, Me And Them.
What’s the show all about? It’s UK Gold’s first original commission. It’s about a man of my age, 59, who has a girlfriend 25 years younger than him. They’re in love and happy but everyone around them has a problem with it for various reasons. Eve Myles plays my girlfriend.
You worked with her on Merlin. What’s she like? She’s wonderful. When I was first asked to do Merlin, I was worried if it would be adult enough because it could have just been a kids’ show. She played a witch who could have been a bit naff but she did it dead straight and very scarily. There was one moment she was delivering a speech to me in full prosthetic make-up as I was about to put her son on a bonfire. The French background artists didn’t speak English but burst into applause at the end because they were moved by the emotion of it. It set a great tone for the rest of the series.
Have you experienced any age-gap romances? There’s ten years between me and my other half. When we first got together I was wondering if we had children if I would still be of an age to do the fathers’ race at sports day – which I was. We’ve been together for 26 years and I’m not worn out yet.
What’s the show you’re doing in South Africa about? A pilot called Dominion. It’s a follow-on from the 2010 movie Legion, which starred Paul Bettany. God has lost faith in mankind and his archangels decide to take over Earth. We’re in a walled city where Las Vegas used to be – it’s political intrigue with a bit of metaphysics. If they like it, we’ll get a series, if not, we’ve still got a movie. I did a pilot at the beginning of the year for a US TV network that will never see the light of day. With this we’ll still have a movie, which will hopefully be a hit and can stand in its own right.
What impact did Buffy have on your career? Huge. It opened the door to work internationally and at the same time, by a stroke of good fortune, when I came to England I was asked to do Little Britain. They couldn’t be more different but it kept people guessing – you can very easily get pigeonholed in this business. It afforded me massive amounts of choice in terms of what I’m asked to do, which keeps things fun.
Buffy creator Joss Whedon is now doing The Avengers films. Would you be interested in joining the Marvel superhero universe? Alexis Denisof was in the first Avengers movie as a cloaked, masked figure but I don’t know if Joss would bring other people from the Buffyverse into the Marvel world because it confuses things. He asked me to be in his film version of Much Ado About Nothing but I was doing the US version of the Channel 4 comedy Free Agents and couldn’t get the time off. In the end he had to recast and the series was cancelled anyway, which was a bit crap. I’d love to work with Joss again. He not only writes wonderfully but his direction is some of the best I’ve ever had. He has great spark.
Your mother was an actress. Did she inspire you to get into acting? When it’s in your family, it’s a choice, it’s there. It’s not a jump to say: ‘I want to act.’ When I was six I was in a little show my mother’s friends organised, playing the Emperor in The Emperor’s New Clothes. I remember thinking: ‘This is the business, this is what I want to do.’ Most actors start doing it out of insecurity because it’s nice to dress up and not be yourself. There’s stuff you can do as a character that you can’t do as yourself. When I did The Rocky Horror Show, I could silence someone at the back of the circle with a look. I couldn’t do that as me but I could as Frank-N-Furter. It’s an interesting thing to play with.
Who have you learned the most from? I was in awe of Meryl Streep when we worked on The Iron Lady. I had no idea what to expect. I thought she might be very Method and come out of the trailer in character. There are actors who do that and you can’t impinge on it. But she’d laugh and joke with everyone and then cameras would turn over and the hairs on the back of my neck went up because she was absolutely in it. When you do a close-up you need your eyes to be quite close to the camera as it has more impact. Some actors keep wide of the camera when you’re delivering your dialogue to them so your close-up isn’t as good as theirs. She was generosity itself – she used to practically ram her head into the camera.
What lessons has your career in showbiz taught you? It’s too easy to fall back on your shtick and just do the stuff you know gets you through but doesn’t necessarily make you good. You have to take risks constantly and take yourself by surprise in order to take the audience by surprise.