He picks up on something - which is that whether you're a 50-year-old or an adolescent, you're on some kind of hormonal rollercoaster in those two age groups. So I'm not quite sure if it's serious comedy or funny drama. |
He's a failed Hollywood writer in his 50s and he's going back to Phoenix to address a problem he has with his father. This is where I think [writer/director] Bob Dolman has been really clever. |
I always had a fantasy of being a chef, because I like kitchen life. |
I did "Quills " and I thought I was doing a really daring thing by being in "The Banger Sisters". Then I thought, "No, I'm playing a writer again." At least I'm celibate in this one! |
I did not want to put myself on the line, as an Australian playing Britain's greatest comic actor. The fans of Sellers are obsessive, possessive - and aggressive. I did not want to risk their anger - or my own reputation. |
I had a total of 38 wigs, for a start. There were prosthetics, too - silicone pieces which go on the skin, which absorb the light. They looked like seven pieces of uncooked veal to start with. |
I mean, we are talking about one of the most celebrated and twisted characters of Western tradition. It gives you a sense of a do-or-die bravado. |
I often thought I was in the wrong business. I was pretty seriously thinking of tossing it in before I shot Shine. I do not know why. I was pretty restless, I had been through a bad period of stress induced anxiety - panic attacks - and I was not sure of what I wanted to do. |
I took a big slab of time off this year -- about five months -- just to take stock of the giddiness of the last few years. |
I would always slip away to the cinema. I always found something absolutely extraordinary about the fact that these actors were always kind of kicking hard at some new dimension they were doing on film. |
It's their story, and I got to be the guy in the back while they were in the foreground. |
My eye muscles hurt now when I read our MasterCard bill. |
People are intrigued and fascinated, almost obsessed with the private lives of great public personalities. |
Pirates of the Caribbean. |
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers |