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Aug
09
2012

Collider.com: David Duchovny Talks About a Possible Third THE X-FILES Movie and What Went Wrong with THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE

Aug-09-2012
David Duchovny Talks About a Possible Third THE X-FILES Movie and What Went Wrong with THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE
Collider.com
Christina Radish

[Original article]

Earlier today, I had the opportunity to sit down with David Duchovny at the members-only Soho House in West Hollywood to chat about his indie feature Goats.  In the comedy, he plays Goat Man, a goat-herding sage who has lived with Ellis (Graham Phillips) and his New Age hippie mother (Vera Farmiga) since Ellis was a child, teaching him the meaning of expanding one’s mind.

While we will run the full interview tomorrow, we did want to share what Duchovny had to say about the possibility of a third The X-Files movie, especially after what writer/producer Frank Spotnitz told me about it a week ago.  Clearly up for it, he said that he doesn’t understand why Fox isn’t more enthusiastic to get it going, when it’s a homegrown action franchise that they own, and he talked about where he thinks the second film went wrong.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Collider: When I spoke to Frank Spotnitz about a week ago, he said that he feels it’s a cultural crime that you guys haven’t gotten to finish The X-Files story, and that he doesn’t think it’s too late to do, but that it will be, if it’s not done soon.  How do you feel about it, at this point?  Have you closed the book on The X-Files, or would you like to continue it with a third film?

DAVID DUCHOVNY:  Do you know something I don’t know?  Am I dying?  No.  That book doesn’t close until somebody dies, really.  One of the greatnesses of the show was its open-endedness.  It was about possibility.  It wasn’t about closure.  It just couldn’t be.  There is no such thing as that story ever ending.  Those characters are forever searching.  That’s what they do.  Even if we’re not watching them, they’re out there, in some dimension.  Mulder and Scully are still doing their thing ‘cause that’s their nature.

I would love to do another film, or more.  I think we’re all game for it.  I know I’m kind of perplexed that Fox isn’t more [enthusiastic].  Here’s a homegrown property that you don’t have to go buy, like fuckin’ Green Lantern or something, to make it.  Here you’ve got an actual action franchise that’s your own.  It’s weird to me, but I’m not an executive.  I don’t know if they made the Green Lantern either, but I’m just using that as an example of, “Why make that film?  Why not make a homegrown franchise that is excellent, and that has proven to be excellent and interesting?”  I don’t get it, but that’s not my business.

I think Chris [Carter] is probably working on an idea, so we’ll see.  Unfortunately, with the last one, they didn’t spend the money to compete in a summer fashion, and they brought it out in the summer.  It should be a summer film.  It should be an action film.  But, the last one we made was not.  The last one we made was a dark, contemplative, small $25 million film.  It was basically an independent film.  When you come out against Batman, it’s not going to happen.  You’re not going to be sold as an independent film, and you’re not going to compete against Batman with $25 million. 

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Aug
07
2012

CultBox: Frank Spotnitz ('The X-Files') interview

Aug-07-2012
Frank Spotnitz (‘The X-Files’) interview
CultBox
William Martin

[Original article]

CultBox caught up with The X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz today to chat about his new spy drama series, Hunted.

From the makers of Spooks, the eight-part series begins on BBC One this autumn and stars Melissa George (Grey’s Anatomy) as a highly skilled operative for an elite private intelligence firm.

Best known for writing nearly 50 episodes of The X-Files, Spotnitz was also co-executive producer of Millennium and co-wrote both The X-Files movies.

Our full interview will go up next month, but in the meantime here’s what Frank had to say on the subject of The X-Files…

Were you disappointed that it’s not been possible to make a third X-Files film focusing on the 2012 alien invasion to be released this year?

“Yes, I’m hugely frustrated to be honest! The studio wanted the second movie to be more of a low-budget ‘story of the week’ and I’m proud of that film, but I think what we learnt is that that’s not what the audience wants. To the movie-going audience The X-Files means aliens.

“I think it’s one of the great franchises in television history and it hasn’t been given an ending. I think that’s shameful. I know there is a great movie story to be told with these characters that would bring an end to the saga and I think it’s wrong that they haven’t done that.

“They’re running out of time. I don’t think it’s too late, but it’s going to be pretty soon. I’ve been saying for four years now that they should end this story the way it deserves.”

Would a third movie be a final conclusion then?

“Yeah, I think it would end the story. The aliens were prophesised to be coming back in December 2012 and ideally this movie would have been made to be released by that date, but I’ve never stopped talking to [the show’s creator] Chris Carter and we have a way to do it still. I would still jump at the chance to do it!”

How long have you been living in the UK now?

“I’ve been here two years and I’ve consumed as much British drama as I could! There’s so much that it’s almost embarrassing how much good stuff you guys do here. I loved The Shadow Line, Any Human Heart, so many other shows… I feel very proud to be associated in any way with the BBC.”

Are you fan of any British cult TV shows like Doctor Who, Being Human, Misfits, etc.?

“I love all of those; my children love Doctor Who in particular.”

Would you like to write a Doctor Who episode at some point?

“I’m so intimidated by it because it has such a rich heritage. I would need to just lock myself in a room and watch 100 episodes to determine whether I could add anything to it, but I think it’s superb, yes!”

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Aug
02
2012

Collider.com: Writer/Producer Frank Spotnitz Talks His Desire to Make a Third X-FILES Movie and the Possibility of a MILLENNIUM Movie

Aug-02-2012

Writer/Producer Frank Spotnitz Talks His Desire to Make a Third X-FILES Movie and the Possibility of a MILLENNIUM Movie

Collider.com

Christina Radish

[Original article]

The X-Files writer/producer Frank Spotnitz has created the compelling eight-episode international espionage series Hunted for Cinemax, to premiere on October 26th.  The story follows Sam Hunter (Melissa George), a skilled operative for Byzantium, a secretive private firm involved in global intelligence and espionage, that may have personally been responsible for orchestrating an attempt on her life, leaving her with no idea who to trust.

While at the TCA Press Tour, Collider spoke to Frank Spotnitz for this exclusive interview.  We will run what he had to say about that series closer to its premiere, but we did want to share what his comments about whether he still wants to do a third The X-Filesmovie, why it would be a cultural crime not to finish the series, how it would need to happen pretty soon, and what he’s most happy about when he looks back at his work on the series and movies.  He also talked about what it might take for a Millennium movie to happen.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Collider: Do you feel like you’ve closed the book now on The X-Files, or is there still another chapter to tell there?  Do you still want to do a third movie?

FRANK SPOTNITZ:  I absolutely do!  I think everybody should write to 20th Century Fox.  I’ve been saying for years now that I feel it’s a cultural crime that they have not finished the series.  The second movie did not perform the way anybody wanted it to at the box office.  I’m proud of that movie, but it makes sense to me that it didn’t.  It was released at the height of summer, and it was a story-of-the-week.  That’s not what the movie-going audience wanted.  The movie-going audience wanted the aliens.  That’s what they know The X-Files for.  And that story is not done, and it should be finished.  I don’t think it’s too late, but I think it’s gonna be, pretty soon.  I’m still agitating with everyone I can grab to say, “Let’s make this movie while we still can!”

When you look back at the time you spent making the show and the movies, what are you happiest about, and are there things you still wish you could go back and change?

SPOTNITZ:  Oh, yeah, always!  Unfortunately, my personality is that way.  It’s true with Hunted, too.  I’m like, “Oh, that’s good, but this wasn’t good enough.”  I just look to what I consider failures.  Other people might be like, “Oh, that was great,” but I’ll be like, “No, to me, that was not.”  I’m sure with The X-Files, there are plenty of things that I wish had been better.  But, The X-Files was the central experience of my professional life.  It was my first job in television.  It taught me everything that I’ve taken with me since, and it was a huge success.  I just feel so blessed to have something like that in my life.  How many people get to be a part of something like that?  I really made a lot of close friendships, with Chris Carter and Vince Gilligan, and I’m still friends with a lot of the actors.  I still see Gillian [Anderson] and talk to David [Duchovny].  It’s a treasure and a blessing to have something like that. 

Lance Henriksen recently talked about his desire to make a Millennium movie.  Is that something you’d like to go back and revisit?

SPOTNITZ:  I would!  It’s a harder case to make for Millennium because Millennium was one of those shows that was a critical darling, but never found the mass audience that it deserved.  But, I get asked about that.  There are amazing fans for both series.  The Millennium guys are publishing a book this summer.  They’re really clever about trying to make this happen.  If they knocked on my door and we could do it, I would absolutely do it, but it’s a tough sell.

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Apr
05
2012

ScreenDaily: The X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz talks new UK spy series Hunted, working in the UK and a feature sequel to The X-Files

Apr-05-2012
The X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz talks new UK spy series Hunted, working in the UK and a feature sequel to The X-Files
ScreenDaily
Andreas Wiseman

[Original article here]

Frank Spotnitz talks to Screen about new UK spy-thriller series Hunted – produced by Kudos and BBC – and the UK as an exciting hub for big-budget TV.

The X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz was at MIPTV this week to discuss his new UK spy series Hunted, produced by Kudos Film & Television and the BBC for BBC One in the UK and HBO sister channel Cinemax in the US.

Hunted, directed by SJ Clarkson, sees Melissa George star as a British spy working for a private intelligence agency. After an attempt on her life by a colleague, George’s character Sam goes undercover not knowing who tried to kill her or who to trust.

Adam Rayner, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Stephen Dillane co-star in the thriller which according to US writer Spotnitz has a budget “competitive with US network shows and one very generous for the UK.” Shooting was on location in London, Wales, Scotland and Morocco.

Researching the show was an eye-opening experience for the London-based creator, writer and executive producer of the show: “It was a challenge at times because of how secretive private spy agencies are. It’s not an area I was very aware of until I went looking for it. Most private contractors don’t want to be noticed. Their websites are dry and boring and they don’t want the wrong kind of attention. I talked to people who run these companies in the US, UK and Switerland and then I researched the type of personality working at them.”

Spotnitz initially developed the series with The X-Files star Gillian Anderson but when she was unavailable they selected Melissa George from around 200 actresses who read for the part.

Is there something of the Dana Scully about Sam? “If you look at Dana and Sam on paper you might say they are different, but yes, they are both strong, very capable women. Sam’s world is dangerous and threatening, to a greater extent even than Dana’s. She has to construct a wall of invulnerability.”

After working with Kudos on Hunted and Left Bank Pictures on 2011 series Strike Back, Spotnitz sees scope for further collaboration in the UK, which he believes represents an increasingly attractive option for US and international writers and producers: “I now live in London with my family. It is really exciting being here at the moment. A lot more production is going to take place on this side of the world and sold back to US and elsewhere. The talent and location here are thrilling. So many writers I speak to in the US are jealous of my opportunity here so I’m not in a hurry to leave. The tax credit will be a huge help to the local industry.”

“Europe is in a unique position because TV co-productions make a lot of business sense and can be very creatively exciting if they maintain integrity,” continued Spotnitz. “The idea must be international but not cynical. The production shouldn’t be cobbled together for financing purposes. The last three years the US market is opening up to internationally produced content. The broadcasters there are looking to do them now because they can be bargains.”

Spotnitz is currently working across a slate of TV and features, one of which is long-in-the-works crime-thriller The Star Chamber. He also continues to push for a sequel to 1998 feature The X Files: “There is a very active and relentless fan campaign for a last movie. I do feel like it would be a terrible shame if that didn’t happen. It feels wrong not to give it an ending around the alien colonisation of earth. David [Duchovny] and Gillian [Anderson] feel the same. I have a clear idea of how it would go and I’ve been talking to Chris Carter about it for a long time. I’ll keep banging the drum whenever I meet the Fox guys [the studio holds the sequel rights but was disappointed by the original’s lackluster box office].”

Hunted will air in the UK and US in autumn 2012.

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Mar
28
2012

The Daily Beast: Gillian Anderson on ‘X-Files,’ ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Great Expectations’

Mar-28-2012
Gillian Anderson on ‘X-Files,’ ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Great Expectations’
The Daily Beast

[Original article]

Gillian Anderson, famous for ‘The X-Files,’ stuns as Miss Havisham in Sunday’s ‘Great Expecations.’ She tells Jace Lacob about turning down ‘Downton Abbey,’ her British accent—and possibly playing Scully again.

Gillian Anderson is no stranger to strange worlds.

The former star of The X-Files, which became a worldwide hit and spawned two feature films, Anderson has, for now anyway, traded in Dana Scully’s FBI-issued handgun and severe suits for the tight-laced corsets and flowing frocks of such period dramas as Bleak House, The House of Mirth, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, The Crimson Petal and the White, Moby Dick, and Any Human Heart, in which she played a deliciously conniving Wallace Simpson, complete with a false nose. But it’s Anderson’s jaw-dropping turn as Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, which airs Sunday evening on PBS’s Masterpiece Classic after a three-night run in December on BBC One, that erases any trace of Scully’s bravado.

An Anderson role in a period piece seems de rigueur these days: she was also very nearly in ITV’s critically acclaimed costume drama Downton Abbey, but turned down an offer to play Lady Cora Crawley, a role that went to fellow American Elizabeth McGovern. “They’re still mad at me,” Anderson told The Daily Beast. “Every time I see [creator] Julian Fellowes, he says, ‘Why?’ I’m very finicky.”

It’s no surprise that after her legendary turn as the emotionally haunted Lady Dedlock in Andrew Davies’s 2005 adaptation of Bleak House, which earned her Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominations, Anderson has a fascination with severe or extreme characters. In Great Expectations, adapted from the Charles Dickens novel by Sarah Phelps and directed by Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones), she stars as the malevolent and tragic Miss Havisham, whose blackened heart leads her to destroy the innocence of young Pip (Douglas Booth) and Estella (Vanessa Kirby), and doom whatever chance of love either has.

gillian-anderson-interview-lacob-main
Todd Antony / Courtesy of BBC Pictures

There was much grumbling in the British press about Anderson being the youngest actress to play Miss Havisham, who is traditionally portrayed as a skeletal old woman still dressed in the tattered vestiges of her wedding gown, clutching at the last shreds of her youth, while already standing in her grave. (Helena Bonham Carter will play the role in a feature film version of Great Expectations, out later this year.)

“I appreciate the purists out there who have studied Dickens,” said Anderson, elegantly dressed in a flowing white blouse and gray skirt, and seated in an empty banquet room at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena. “But the facts are, from my understanding, Miss Havisham is around 50. That is not far from 43, which is what I am. They keep talking about me being the absolute youngest, when actually the actress who played her in David Lean’s version was 46.”

“I expected when I kept reading this stuff that I was going to read that she was 75,” she said of Martita Hunt, who played the wild-haired Miss Havisham in the 1946 classic. “They just have to harp on something.”

“If a good script comes along for another film, then I’m up for it and so is David. So is [creator] Chris [Carter]. I don’t see any reason not to do it.”

Indeed, by making Miss Havisham closer to Pip’s age, the production has heightened the sense of tension, both sexual and psychological, between the two characters. “She’s not an old crow and fawning after these children, which would end up being really creepy,” said Anderson. Likewise, an additional patina of tragedy is added to the deeply disturbed character, whom Anderson imbues with a blend of ghostly transparency and obsessive madness. Pip telling her that she could have filled her decrepit home, Satis House, with children of her own cuts even deeper—she still could choose to open herself up to love. Instead, her downfall is that she can’t let go of the poison in her heart or the heartbreak in her past.

Anderson herself is more or less a Dickens novice. Her experience of the author, who would be celebrating his 200th birthday this year, is limited to her own work in adaptations of Great Expectations and Bleak House.

“I can’t remember if it was high school or college, but I attempted to read A Tale of Two Cities and I don’t recall getting through it,” she said. “I don’t think I gave him more thought until he came into my life in this respect. One of the only things that I have regrets about in my life is my experience of school and education. I wish I had known how important it was to pay attention … My first foray into a lot of the classics has been through my work. It’s only after falling in love with the screenplay or adaptation that I’ve then gone on to read the novels themselves.”

Anderson was a bit of a teenage hellion. A far cry from the sleek and sophisticated star these days, the teenage Anderson dyed her hair multiple colors and had her nose pierced. (In an infamous anecdote, she was arrested on the eve of her graduation for trying to glue the gates of her school shut, but according to an interview in US Weekly, she got off with community service and spent a week cleaning a YMCA.) Born in Chicago, she was shuttled with her family around the world for much of her childhood: a stint in Puerto Rico as a baby, a childhood spent in London, and then, at age 11, her formative years spent in Grand Rapids, Mich., where her English accent marked her as an instant outsider.

That accent still turns up on occasion, particularly when she appears on British talk shows like The Graham Norton Show or Parkinson, where Anderson deploys the cut-glass tones of one of her well-heeled characters. On this day, however, there is not a trace of Britannia in Anderson’s speech.

“When I’m in London, my partner’s British, my kids are British, and I’m surrounded by Brits,” she said, laughing. “It’s near to impossible for me to maintain my American accent in the midst of that. My first language was with a British accent … I could understand why it would be confusing for people in the States who aren’t used to me with a British accent, but I didn’t lose my British accent until well into college. Even when I started doing The X-Files, I was only a few years away from having decidedly losing it. It’s completely natural to me. When I try, in London, to not speak with a British accent or to keep it American, I just sound like a f–king idiot. It turns into some weird eurotrash thing.”

It was Anderson who raised the specter of The X-Files during the interview. After playing skeptical FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in Fox’s science-fiction thriller for nine seasons and costarring with David Duchovny in two spinoff feature films, 1998’s The X-Files and 2008’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Anderson was widely believed to have finished with the character and the alien-themed franchise. Not so.

“Not at all,” she said. “If a good script comes along for another film, then I’m up for it and so is David. So is [creator] Chris [Carter]. I don’t see any reason not to do it if the script is good and Fox wants to go ahead and put the money behind it. Now I don’t know if there’s a script, I don’t know whether Fox is even remotely interested, so it’s completely out of my hands. But I’d be up for it.”

Still, the entrenchment of Scully in pop culture has had its potential pitfalls, given how long Anderson portrayed the religious medical doctor-turned-FBI-field agent—she appeared in all but four of the show’s 202 episodes—and there was the risk that the actress could be pigeonholed afterward.

“There was definitely that concern coming off the series and wanting to do as many different things as possible,” Anderson said. “There is an argument that every time I decide to do another [X-Files] feature, it complicates that even more in that it solidifies me in the audience’s mind more as that character … [But] I’m not going to choose not to do it because people might be closed-minded.”

While another possible X-Files film percolates in the background, Anderson will star in the five-episode BBC Two psychological thriller The Fall, which will be shot in Belfast beginning this month and air later this year. In the project, from writer Allan Cubitt (Prime Suspect), she’ll play Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Gibson, who travels to Belfast to hunt a serial killer who is striking at random. The action swivels around the lives of those enmeshed in the killing spree: the victims’ families, the murderer, and Gibson herself.

“It’s so good,” said Anderson. “It’s like a miniseries; it’s only five episodes. It’s as close to Prime Suspect as I’ve ever read, which is very exciting because that was so well done and I really like this character.”

For Anderson, who said she’d also love to do a play in New York, The Fall represents yet another opportunity to do something different, in this case, short-form programming with a limited run.

“Why there have to be so many rules about what one should or can or cannot do is just so bizarre,” she said. “This is a time for experimentation and certainly there are a couple of networks that have been dabbling in short stacks of [programming], and that’s always refreshing to hear. All the stuff that’s now being shot over in Europe instead of in the States feels like it’s becoming more international than ever.”

“Surely in the world,” she said, “there’s room for everything.”

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Sep
10
2011

Herald Sun: The jest files

Sep-10-2011
The jest files
Herald Sun
James Wigney

[Original here]

600889-gillian-anderson

Gillian Anderson in Melbourne to promote her latest film Johnny English Reborn. Picture: Chris Scott Source: Sunday Herald Sun

DRAMA and thrills have left Gillian Anderson with a taste for comedy.

GILLIAN Anderson shot to fame as Special Agent Dana Scully over nine seasons of The X-Files. Since leaving the cult sci-fi hit nearly a decade ago, the Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor has shifted effortlessly between the stage (she was nominated for an Olivier award for her West End role in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House), TV (nominated for a BAFTA for Lady Dedlock in Dickens’ Bleak House) and film (two X-Files films, and The Last King of Scotland). The US-born, England-raised actor lives in London with her three children and partner Mark Griffiths. She visited Australia with co-star Rowan Atkinson this week to promote their film, James Bond spoof Johnny English Reborn.

What was the appeal of Johnny English Reborn for you – was it working with Rowan Atkinson?

It was a mixture of Rowan and the thought of playing the head of MI7. It sounded like a really cool thing to do. I could also see the potential in the script of what they were aiming for and the idea of it essentially being a James Bond with humour.

Are you a Bond fan?

I think I am a Bond fan like any other. I have all the Bond films but I haven’t seen one in a really long time. And if you really look at them, there are really only one or two really good ones. I think Goldfinger is one of them. The others are really just cheesy, bordering on parody.

All the Bond parallels in the film place you squarely in the shoes of Dame Judi Dench. Did you go back and watch what she had done as M?

I didn’t, because it’s clear that the two characters are quite different. But in thinking of her as M, I realised how much power she has as an actress to be able to basically whisper and allude to so much power over everybody. She doesn’t raise her voice at all. It’s really quite straight and laser-like. I found that fascinating.

Am I right in thinking you are both attached to a movie with the unlikely title of The Curse of the Buxom Strumpet?

Yes. I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. It’s a zombie film and that title is alluding to a ship. But we will see. If they get their financing together and we are both still available, then maybe. It’s quite funny.

Is there a big difference between Rowan Atkinson on and off set?

There is a big difference when the camera is actually rolling to the Rowan Atkinson off-set. Especially if there are physical gags involved. Very often it will be discussed, but he won’t necessarily go through the motions of it because it’s exhausting and he very much saves himself for when the camera is rolling. He is not one of those actors or comedians who spills out all over the place and you get it in spades before the take. It’s quite disconcerting when you are talking on an intellectual and technical level and all of a sudden the camera rolls and this master of comedy pops up out of nowhere.

Did you enjoy the comedy aspect?

Actually a good portion of the theatre I have done has been comedy and a fifth to a seventh of the X-Files were comedy episodes. I have done a couple of comedy films but I would actually like to get to be more funny. This is a straight character to Rowan’s comedy and I am very much interested in getting to be the comedian because I enjoy it very much.

You came very close with what you did on The Simpsons, but The X-Files is surely ripe for its own spoof?

We actually talked about it for a while. There has always been the idea that every few years we would come back and do another picture and within that there was always a desire that at some point we come back and do a spoof. It may be too late now but I love the idea of it. There is so much stuff we could pull from. There is one episode called Bad Blood which is actually one of my favourites and we kind of take the p— out of ourselves in that and it was so much fun to do.

I think a lot of people were hoping the second X-Files movie would answer a lot more questions. Were you happy?

I think that if we were to do a third one, it would answer a lot more of those questions and maybe also have something to do with aliens, which is ultimately what people want to see. David and I have been very vocal about the fact that if Chris or the studio were to come to us to do another one, we would do it. Recently Chris announced that it was likely to be in the works but I have no idea what that means or at what stage it is or who is writing it or whether Fox is even interested.

Do you miss Scully?

I miss her when I am together with David and Chris and we are reminiscing about it, or somebody is a particularly big fan and brings something up, but I don’t think about her on a daily basis. I think I am more appreciative of all that she was now than I was even at the time.

Why does the show continue to strike such a chord?

I have no idea. I really don’t know. There are new generations of fans out there, which always surprises me. I get letters from people who say ‘I’m 12 and I just started watching the series and I am so glad it’s out there. That’s cool.

You are becoming quite the Dickens specialist too, after Bleak House, and now you are playing Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. How do you go about breathing new life into these revered literary characters?

When I read a script I generally know on the first read whether that person is inside me somewhere, and that was a case where I got her. It’s my version of her, but there is something inside that went ‘Oh, I can do this. I get who this is’. Sometimes I read stuff and I just don’t get it – it doesn’t resonate. I get very specific images and vocal mannerisms, and then it’s just down to hoping they come together in the right way and other people agree you are on the right track. When I showed up to the set for Great Expectations I hadn’t really discussed that much with the director about the direction I was taking her, and it didn’t actually occur to me until the second day that he could have said ‘What the f— are you doing?’ I just really hope it’s good. It looks like it will be, but you never know.

You keep returning to the stage. What is it you get from theatre that you don’t get anywhere else?

It terrifies me. I hate it as much as I love it and I only decide to do something every few years because of that. Along the way there is at least 100 times where I go ‘Why did I subject myself to this again?’ But at the same time there is a part of me that is fed in a completely different way to anything else in that live process with an audience and discovering stuff in the moment and the danger of it.

Johnny English Reborn opens on Thursday.

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