Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

This might be at the top of my list of childhood films. My relationship with it has changed so much over the years. I first watched it when I was ten and it absolutely scared me to death.

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I had terrible nightmares about UFOs for ages. Then I watched it again as a teenager. Suddenly it became all about the artist obsessed with creating an image of this mountain.

That really spoke to me – there I was wanting to become an actor, and the film was all about sacrificing everything and the struggle. Then as I got older still, I saw a spiritual journey in it – it’s about him going into this other world, beyond the reality of earth, taking this leap into the unknown, going off on behalf of mankind. I found it very moving. It’s so interesting how that film has stayed with me all my life and changed as I’ve changed.


The Jungle Book 1967

My earliest memory of watching any film in the cinema is The Jungle Book. I remember walking to it with my mum pushing my sister in a pram – I’m three years older than her, so I must have been about five. We were living in Wallasey at the time. It’s a fantastic film. I remember being very, very freaked out by the snake Kaa.

There was one particular scene – and I appreciate not many people might think of this as a frightening moment – but Baloo is pretending to be one of the apes, and he’s dancing with the coconuts and the grass skirt. Then at the end of the song his skirt starts slipping. All the apes can see that he’s not one of them – but Baloo can’t tell. I found that one of the most disturbing things I’d seen... to this day I still do!

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House (1977)

My being in the Twilight films – as vampire leader Aro – was very much influenced by my daughter Lily, knowing how much she was into the books. It was the first time I could be in something that she wanted to watch.

But one of my proudest moments was introducing her to this Japanese film called House. It is one of the strangest films I’ve ever seen. It’s sort of a horror film, but more weird, wacky and mind-blowing. And she loved it! That was
a big moment. We watched it when she was 14. For us to discover a film together was amazing. It was the first time I thought, “We really are father and daughter!”

As told to Craig McLean

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Cinemaniacs begins tomorrow on CBBC (Saturday 21st February) at 9.00am

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