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Stephen Mangan interview (January 2008) |
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The comic actor talked to Paul Jones about his BBC2 series Never Better, his former Green Wing co-star Julian Rhind-Tutt, and his love of poker.
I saw you on Celebrity Late-Night Poker the other night - you played your cards perfectly but were really unlucky!
Ah, what can I do? I didn't actually watch it back again but I remember trudging away from Cardiff thinking, "What happened there?" I bided my time, was aggressive when I could be and then Cleo [Rocos] cleaned me out. But there you go, that's poker. I'm just glad it wasn't my money.
Any plans for a rematch?
I'd love to. I love playing poker! That's the second time I've done Late-Night Poker. The last time, I was first out so I haven't got a very good track record. This time, I fancied it once it got down to the last few players - but what can you do?
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You and Green Wing co-star Julian Rhind-Tutt (left, with Mangan) are a great comedy duo. Is that based on a long association?
Julian who…?
We'd actually worked together a couple of times before Green Wing. We did a very avant-garde production of A Midsummer Night's Dream about ten years ago, in which he played Puck, up a stepladder, and I played Demetrius, one of the lovers. With a full orchestra. For one performance only. But [it was never filmed] - it's lost in the mists of theatrical time.
Then we did a two-parter [Sword of Honour], a Second World War drama for Channel 4, which starred Daniel Craig. Julian played a Scottish RAF pilot and I played a Jewish army officer. We filmed that in Majorca, so we met again then, but it wasn't until Green Wing that the true comedy magic started to flow…
So you didn't start out thinking of yourself as a comedy actor, you just wanted to act?
Yeah, theatre was all I was interested in to start with. When I left Rada I told my agent I didn't want to do any TV or film, and I didn't for five years. I did Shakespeare and Shaw and Molière and all these great dramatists. I thought the best way to be a good actor was to play the great parts. Then it started to dawn on me that who you work with is just as important, and there were a lot of good people working in film and TV, so I switched.
But then I ended up working with Julian Rhind-Tutt, so I don't know why I bothered really…
You're now known as a comedy actor. Do you have any ambitions to go back to more serious drama? Do you think that would pose any problems?
I don't know how that works, whether people could take me seriously. I have spent a lot of time playing more dramatic parts, but as an actor you get a script and if you like the look of it, you do it. I don't have a great plan - I gave up trying to plan a career years ago - so it depends what comes along, and at the moment, because I've done a bit of comedy and some of it's been successful, people keep sending me that sort of stuff. So I'm happy at the moment with what's coming in the door.
You've recently become a dad. Congratulations! You said in the magazine that Harry wasn't really contributing much at this stage. Any improvement there?
Still basically all he does is lie around and gurgle, and grin, so we're giving him another month. I think it's only fair but he'd better sharpen up soon.
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Are you working on anything at the moment or is fatherhood taking up all of your time?
I'm waiting for the US writers' strike to end. I'm supposed to be out there now doing something and it's thrown a spanner in the works. But unfortunately it's not something I can talk about. I'd be shot by snipers.
What I can tell you about is Free Agents, which is a pilot for Channel 4 (part of their Comedy Showcase) that I did last year with [Angelo's star and writer] Sharon Horgan (left). They've commissioned a series of that. So I'll be filming that in the summer. And maybe a bit of theatre in the offing. I may be going back to my roots…
As in Green Wing, in Never Better you play a pretty self-obsessed character (recovering alcoholic Keith). I'm sure that's not you in real life, why do you think you keep getting cast as these sorts of people?
I think you do it once and you do it well and suddenly there's a series with a self-obsessed character and you're the first person they think of. But Keith is different to Guy [Secretan, in Green Wing] because Guy revels in his bad-boy image, loves being cruel to women and thinks he's God's gift, whereas Keith is desperately trying to be a good guy, he's much softer.
Like Guy, Keith suffers from a slight lack of sensitivity to the human race but what I like about him is he's trying desperately hard, he's just…rubbish at it. He's having to relearn it all because he's been drunk for so long, and now he's sober he's just not used to interacting with people. He's trying to relearn the art of being a human being.
Which comic actors are you a fan of?
Gene Wilder, Woody Allen. I'm a big fan of Larry David. I got to work with [Seinfeld star] Jason Alexander last year on a pilot in the States. He was absolutely fantastic, it was a dream job. I was star-struck when I met him.
And what TV have you been enjoying recently?
Comedy-wise, I love Flight of the Conchords, and The Mighty Boosh was fun. But Can Fat Teens Hunt? is the best title for a show. There'a list of shows where the titles are better than the actual programmes. Can Fat Teens Hunt? is sheer genius…
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Now take a look at our Never Better programme guide.
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