Anglicon '97
Friday, April 18, 1997
Q&A
Transcribed from audio tape with most of Peter's "ums," "I means,"
"kindas" and "y'knows" taken out. :-) Audience questions paraphrased
for brevity.
Q: When did you become interested in acting? (photo by Toni Holm)
Peter: That is a very very long time ago! Um, Clint Eastwood
is the man with no name, isn't he? The man with one name?
Acting... the first acting that I ever did was back in school,
and I got into it kinda late. I didn't do a lot of stuff when I
was, uh... you have grades — I have no idea how to translate
this. I would have been about 15, 16, when I did my first play at
school. And that was, um, my school was funded by the church, and
every Easter they'd do a version of the passion plays, the old miracle
and mystery plays.... I'd forgotten about all this.
The first one that I ever did was that the whole class was doing
this kind of group ensemble piece. And there was one person [who]
ad a speaking part, and they had like one line. And the drama teacher
didn't particularly like how they were doing it, so he sort of auditioned
everybody else to do this one line, and I — I guess I got it.
I wonder if I can remember... what was the line? [smiles] Do you
know, I can remember it?
Did you remember it then?
Yes, I did. The line was: "It's time, high time, that they
were buried in the past." Wow... I didn't know that was in
there.
So I did this one-line part and I enjoyed doing it. And I then
did the Christmas play after that, which was called Ondine
by Jean Giraudoux. But we did it in English. I played an illusionist
and my first entrance was walking on my hands. I had this huge long
cloak and a top hat that collapsed, and I walked in on my hands.
I suppose I got the bug for it. I loved doing it.
And then from there, the following summer, in Wales, they do a
four-week course called the National Youth Theatre in Wales, where
you spend four weeks working in a professional theater with professional
directors, choreographers, and you produce a play at the end of
it and we did... what did we do? Tempest the first year,
in which I played someone called Francisco, who could easily have
been called "a man" because no one ever refers to him
by name. And I've no idea what his lines were, [giggle] but there
weren't many of them.
And again from there — National Youth Theatre in Wales is
really where I feel that I learned to act, because we were... it
was 16- to 21-year-olds, if I remember rightly. But we were all
in school. Some people intended to become actors and follow it as
a career, but lots of people didn't — it was just a kind of
extracurricular activity. But we were treated as if we were professional
actors. And I think that's where my attitude towards being an actor
changed, although it was years later that I understood how much
it had changed. Does that answer your question?
Why did you train to be a doctor?
That's a very good question! In ways it follows on from what I've
just been talking about.
I didn't really think of being an actor as a career until quite
late on. I knew that I wanted to do it. I knew that I got satisfaction
and fulfillment from acting. But there was nobody in my family that
was an actor. There was nobody that earned their living from anything
vaguely artsy. So psychologically I don't think I thought that it
was possible to do it as a job. That was for the Oliviers, people
that came from specific families, that you were born into it. It
was a long time before I realized that that was what I wanted to
do, and that it was possible.
In the meantime, I was doing exams when I was 16, 17, that were
all geared towards doing sciences. I never really thought about
going to drama school to do any acting training until I was well
into my medical training, because the decision about what subjects
you do and how much you focus and where you go next is actually
made very early. I'm sure it's the same in this country.
So, yeah, I was well into my medical training before I got the
strength to actually say, "No, this is what I want to do. I
want to be an actor, so that's what I should pursue." Yeah,
it was quite a long way into my medical training. It was actually
five and a half years into my medical training.
Can you still walk on your hands?
I should never have said this, should I?! I don't know.... [stands
and starts emptying pants pockets] I'm gonna disappear for a while
now but I'll... [... drowned out by audience laughter. Peter walks
on his hands to the edge of the stage, turns then hops back onto
his feet. Wild applause.] That'll be in the show next season.
Does your medical training help you in acting? One of the comments
made after "Comes a Horseman" was "he dies so well!"
I think, yes, it does help in the sense that it actually defines
who I am, having been through all that training. I carry that with
me in everything. It's the way I see the world; it's how I react
to stuff.
The only time I ever specifically could have used it is when playing
doctors — not that kind of playing doctors! Come on!
One of the first jobs I did straight after drama school, after
acting training, was funnily enough playing a medical student. And
it could have been very useful there but the series wasn't particularly
about medical training. It was more a soap, so it was more about
relationships. And so even then it wasn't massively useful in that
specific sense.
But I think it defines who I am, so yes, it does help. See, I think
that it's part of, in trying to play someone who's 5000 years old,
you can't play that. That's a quality that is to do with somebody's...
what they give off, the vibe that they give off. Someone says to
you they're 5000 years old, you either believe it or you don't.
It's not something you can act, that you can pretend. And I think
having spent five and a half years in medical school helps that
for me... [smiles] but I don't know why...
Was that a personal best in the recent London marathon?
Yeah, it was a personal best by a long way. It was very very tough.
The year before I ran 3:09:30, and I was trying to get close to
three hours. And from about half an hour out, so about 22 miles,
I knew that it was going be really close, but that I couldn't break
three hours unless I actually speeded up. And you know, 26 miles
is a long way! Oh, and just maintaining the same speed is really
tough, but the last four miles, I was digging in and trying to just
get those extra few seconds. And in the end I finished three hours
and 38 seconds. And I keep looking back at it and thinking, "Where
could I...?" [sigh] If I'd done one second per mile quicker,
I could have then done a sprint in, and I'd have made it. But—
Next year.
Yeah. That's the awful truth of it. I have to do it again now.
If I'd broken three hours, I could just say, "Fine. That's
it. It's done."
Have you ever shown up on set, looked at a script and said, "I'm
doing WHAT?"
Have I ever not! Usually you get the script a little earlier than
turning up on set, although on Highlander, I've turned up
on set before now and got rewrites for scenes that we've already
filmed. So, you know, "I was supposed to do what? Hey, tough.
We did something else there."
Yeah... the things that I find most difficult... We did a show
in season four. There was all this stuff that we filmed in Canada
in "Timeless" where I fell in love with a girl who had
a terminal disease. And then in the French episodes, in "Methuselah's
Gift," I spent the whole episode trying to get hold of this
crystal that might save her life. And the following episode began
with us standing over her grave. That span of story was really tough.
And I then got the script for the next episode afterwards where
I was sitting on the barge with MacLeod, kind of casually saying,
"Oh yeah, I had 69 wives" like it was all no big deal.
That's one of those where you look and think, "Have we been
in the same show here? Who wrote this?!"
I'm trying to think of other stuff. I mean, I find what I do for
a living pretty bizarre. I'm a professional liar. I pretend to be
someone who clearly I'm not. I most of the time look at scripts
and think, "Am I really doing this?" Within that, yeah,
usually most stuff that I'm asked to do on top of that, no, I have
no problem with at all. [grins]
What's been most challenging in playing Methos?
I think the most challenging and also therefore the most fulfilling
when you've done them are the real big emotional scenes. In the
season that's screening at the moment, the stuff in "Comes
a Horseman," there's pretty bleak territory in there.
And that stuff is hard because — some actors are very good,
very adept at kicking into emotion. They can be playing around and
joking and the camera starts rolling and they're straight into it.
I'm not able to do that; I wish I could. So when I have to do big
emotional scenes, it's a lot of going inside myself to places I
don't normally hang out in, that I don't normally visit, and finding
stuff that's not very pleasant for one reason or another, because
it's that territory that generates big emotions.
So that's what I find most difficult. But the upside of it is that
it's very therapeutic. Once it's over, it's like a catharsis; it's
very cleansing.
What's your favorite episode?
I don't know. I like doing the show. I've got lots. All that Horseman
stuff was great. "Horseman," "Revelation 6:8"
was real good to do. We did another episode after that that was...
I don't know whether it's screened here... "Modern Prometheus"?
Okay, all right. That was lots of fun in a very different way.
I loved doing "Timeless." That was the first time that
I'd filmed in Canada, and Ocean Hellman who played the girl in it,
we just had such a good time doing those scenes. We were a very
self-contained story, quite separate from the backstory with Rae
Dawn Chong and all that opera singing stuff. [smiles] That was in
the episode as well apparently. So I have a great deal of affection
for that, and again for the follow-up bit, the episode with Elizabeth
doing "Methuselah's Gift." That was just tremendous fun,
and very challenging.
It feels good when you do stuff that you're not sure whether you
can make it work. And then when it's done, you see it cut together
and it's worked. I like those.
Now that nasty Simon has beaten up his new girlfriend, is her
family going to come after you? And are you getting any more death
threats from that?
You see, every time something terrible happens in The Archers,
I leave the country. Bear in mind, I am not in England at the moment.
Um, today's Friday, isn't it? Something terrible happens today in
The Archers back in England. And yes, several people are
coming after me. Again, I don't know... I mean, I could tell you
stuff now that could be on the net and spoiling people's fun all
round the world.
Go ahead!
So you wanna world exclusive? Okay, you know when I biffed that
Shula girl? Well, it turns out that she's not going to be the only
one that I biffed. That was a tough one. We recorded that about
four, five weeks ago, and they then got us to come back and rerecord
it last week because they felt it was [giggle], it wasn't quite
violent enough. So, I don't know what that sounds like now.
Do you find it hard to switch between Adam Pierson and Methos?
Yep, um, I didn't. Methos doesn't use the Adam Pierson disguise
these days so it's no longer a problem. But even then, I never found
it particularly difficult because I saw them as quite different
people. I think there are actually remnants of Adam in when I'm
playing Methos now. There's still bits of him there.
But I saw Adam Pierson as being someone that you had to not notice,
that that was how it worked. So he should be completely unobtrusive
and smaller and just kind of not — that he wouldn't wear any
kind of clothing that would draw attention to him. But physically,
I would kind of shrink up and be softer, quieter, generally take
up less space and be less easy to see. And that Methos, when he
was in company of people that knew what was going on, that he could
just be tougher and more demanding in ways, and stand straighter.
But actually, I still think of Methos as being smaller than me.
[giggle] Isn't that a funny thing?
Is it difficult to be playing two such different parts as Simon,
whom everyone hates, and Methos, who is loved by so many fans?
I've never bonded to Simon in the way that I have to Methos, so
it doesn't bother me that everyone hates him. It really doesn't
bother me. I find it kinda funny.
Earlier this year, we were filming in Paris when [there was] all
this story with the Grundys, and kicking them off the land and stuff.
I mean, clearly, they're not going to get kicked off the
land. I mean, come on! Unless they go off to have their own spinoff
series on the radio called "The Grundys"... how bad a
deal is that gonna be?
But people got so worked up about it, I couldn't believe it. And
I was basically living in Paris at the time because we were filming
so much. So I'm getting phone calls from people in England wanting
to do like press interviews and stuff, saying, "What's it like
to be the most hated man in England?" So [I said], "I've
got no idea. I live in Paris."
My mum was sending me cuttings from newspapers and saying, "Yeah,
you better get a bullet-proof vest. As soon as you cross the border
they're going to be after you." The great thing about doing
a radio show is no one knows what you look like. Suddenly there's
my photograph plastered all over the — [sigh]
I like recording The Archers. It's fun. But I'm not bonded
to Simon, so I don't care whether people hate him. [giggle] I think
he's an appalling human!
Can you tell us anything about your new job?
Yeah, I can, why not? It's a new series for Independent TV in England
called Noah's Ark. And it's about a kind of bumbly old friendly
vet called Noah, and I play his son. Funnily enough, for the first
series the main thrust of the story is father-son relationships
very very similar to Simon and his dad in The Archers. I'm
reading these episodes thinking, "I've been down this road
before somewhere."
My character is called Tom. He's also a vet, but is a kind of city
vet — drives a BMW and has a mobile phone and a portable computer
and stuff. And first episode, I'm up in the — it's filming
in Worcestershire, in the countryside in sort of the middle of England.
I'm up visiting my family when my father has, not a heart attack,
but through diabetes he has a blackout and crashes his car. So I
stay around and take over the running of the veterinary practice.
And then the rest of the shows are... essentially it's a three-
or four-hander. It's about the relationships between myself and
my mother and father, and also a female vet in the partnership who's
very uh, in touch with the trees, and the conflict between the big
city vet, who actually knows very little about animals, I think
[giggle], and people that are much more kind of sensitive to what's
going on with the farmers and their animals and the people and their
pets. My father, Noah, and the girl, who's called Jenny, they're
much more sensitive to what's going on and less bound by what's
in the books as to how they should treat cases.
I've only read the first three episodes. It's a six part series
and I've read the first three. And it looks very nice.
Is the series a regular TV show?
Okay, it's six episodes, all of them different, independent. There's
a through-line story over the whole show, which is to do with whether
my character is going to stay or whether he's just going to look
after the place while his father's ill and then leave town. But,
no, it's six individual stories and the intention will be to screen
it late this year and then, depending on reaction, to film some
more about this time next year. Probably do ten or so.
What's it like running a marathon when you're a public figure?
What runs through my mind when I'm running? I can tell you that;
that's an easy one. What mainly runs through my mind is "Why
don't I just lie down for a bit?"
The last time I did the London two years ago, actually, I hadn't
done enough training. I set off too fast too early, got to 21 miles
and round about Tower Bridge I was literally, I was looking at the
floor, and I didn't have enough strength to raise my head and look
forwards. And I could hear this voice so clearly saying, "Pete,
just lie down. Just lie down, it'll be all right. Sleep for a little
bit, and then maybe we'll finish later."
So, yes, I do talk to myself when I'm running, and I hear voices
as well!
When you act you have a style of working off of your partners
that I don't associate with the traditional British style. Have
you studied Method acting?
I've never formally studied the Method, although we did have one
teacher in my drama school who would do one class a week, but that
was sort of a 50-minute class once a week for six weeks or something
— just a taste of it. But I read lots of stuff — Sandy
Meisner's book and Ute [Hagen?] — and stuff that is to do with
a more American way of approaching acting. And I'm just much more
interested in it.
The English tradition is theater, and it's verbal. It's specifically
verbal, whereas the American tradition is much more to do with film,
and is about being that person. And that's just for me more fulfilling.
It's about that whole thing of whatever you're doing, whatever
you're saying, of all the time thinking, "Can you tell that
I'm acting?" Because that to me is really what it's about.
If you can tell that I'm acting then I'm not very good at it. The
people that I most admire are right in there — they are that
person.
I think playing people that have really existed, or are indeed
still are — I did a documentary drama about Alun Lewis, a Welsh
poet, that was interesting for me because he was real. He was an
actual person. And that seems to me how you should feel about everyone
that you play. You should believe that they are real people.
How do you handle the logistics of recording The Archers
and filming Highlander at the same time?
The Archers is locked into a rhythm that been going since
— when did they start? 1951. So they don't change for anyone.
What happens with the recording of that is that one week in every
four, they record solidly, Monday through to till Saturday evening.
And then for three weeks they edit it, they chop it together, they
write the scripts for the next block. But it means that it's only
one week in four that they actually require the actors to be there.
And even then not every day because I'm not in every episode.
So what has been happening is that I know which episodes I'm going
to be in four to six weeks ahead, so Highlander have kind
of worked with them and tried to mesh the two together. And amazingly
it's not caused huge problems. It has meant a couple of times filming
in France, getting on a plane at the crack of dawn, flying to Birmingham,
doing some scenes, then getting back on a plane and being in Paris
to film in the evening. Only a couple of times but, you don't want
it too many times. [smiles]
Has "Comes a Horseman" and "Revelation 6:8"
changed the way you approach Methos?
Yeah. [smiles] Yeah. The deal with Methos — he's been kicking
around thousands and thousands of years because he's been hiding.
Since the dark days of rape and pillage, he's been undercover. And,
you know, suddenly, gradually, he's taken a bit more interest, a
bit more... a bit more... now suddenly everything's out in the open.
So I kinda feel that it's ridiculous for him to pretend anymore.
I've had more fights recently in the show, whereas Methos never
used to fight. And it just seems right to me that now all this stuff
is "Yeah, well, what the hell, we're back in the game. Let's
get the sword out. Come on, come on, I can take ya!" So yes,
it does fuel my attitude to playing him. [giggle]
Of theater, TV, film, and radio, do you prefer one over the others?
Yeah, I like doing film work. I like working for the camera. There's
more subtlety to it.
It's very hard in the theater to be subtle, because you aren't
necessarily giving a performance that has to be physically big enough
and vocally big enough that people who are maybe 50 meters away
can — well, not 50, but people that are a long, long way back,
they have to still be able to get what you're trying to tell them.
Which means that people in the front row are looking at you thinking,
"What's he doing?!" I know very few people that can overcome
that technical problem.
I don't go to the theater very often because I find it difficult
now, because I'm so used to naturalism, to people behaving like
humans do, that I watch plays, I watch very fine actors and I just...
I kind of don't like it.
It's fun to do because there is that... see, what I actually think
about theater is that it's going down the wrong road. It is trying
to be more and more naturalistic; it's trying to do stuff that the
camera just does better. Theater should be much more physical. It
should be closer to circus. It should be bigger and about the fact
that you and the audience are there at the same time, and it is
a shared moment that is happening right now and never will
happen exactly the same way again. It's not about being very precise
and doing stuff that you'd be better off on a set, with the right
props and a camera being really close to you so they can see what
you're doing.
How do you flesh out characters?
Yeah, I wonder that too! All sorts of things early on. I'm just
now at that stage with Tom for Noah's Ark.
The early days, I don't know where to start so I look around everywhere.
I look for music that might trigger something, I look for people,
for actors giving performances in other films or shows. I look everywhere
for any kind of hint. And I try and read the script again and again
and again so that it becomes part of me even if I don't have a visual
image of what's going on. A couple of things will stick each time
and they resonate with something that happens or a new story that
I see or anything. Early on anything can fuel it.
Once you've got a kind of hook, then it sort of takes on its own
momentum. Methos actually started for me — he was partly an
old priest that I used to know called Father [Bagley], who had this
phrase, when he was upset with people, that he'd give them a "cowlike"
look. And I just have this image of him saying that and a sort of
wry grin on his face. A wry smile. And that there was something
about the feel of that man that I kind of liked.
The other thing that I early on thought just seemed kind of right
for Methos was that, you know the Planet of the Apes? Remember
those? D'you remember Galen in that? Was it Roddy McDowell? There
was something about — I haven't seen those films for almost
20 years or something, so it's nothing specific, but I'm left with
a sensation, a feel, of how Galen was in those movies, and something
about the way he kind of never quite looked at you.... [demonstrates]
And that's where Methos started.
Have they contacted you about Highlander's sixth season?
Yes, they have. It's still very very early days and it's not clear
what will happen, particularly now because I'm going to be filming
in England until, I think, late August, early September. So the
ideas that they had have gone out the window a bit. And I'm not
sure what's going to happen.
I was going to be doing six or seven of the 13 that they're going
to do. I was going to be in at the beginning and then out for a
bit, then back in September, October time, and then out for a bit,
and then back in for the tail end. What will happen now is unclear.
I don't know if they can take out the early episodes and just drop
them in somewhere else, but I would suspect not. You had Donna and
Gillian talking this morning. I don't know if they had anything.
[Gillian waves from the audience.] Hey! How ya doing? Here's the
person to ask about this!
Gillian: They'll figure something out. They're having to redo
the first ones without you, but I'm sure you'll come back when September
rolls around. Right?!
Yeah, you see, the thing about September, Gillian... [giggles]
What's been your most bizarre encounter with a fan?
Uh... [giggles] Oh God... I actually had an encounter with a fan
this morning trying to get on the plane. I'm trying to go through
customs and this guy is looking at my passport and I'm thinking
[groan], "I get this every time I try and get into the States."
They think I'm never going to leave or something.
And he's looking at this photo, and he's saying, "I... I...
okay, I give up. What film is it?"
And I said, "Highlander."
"Oh yeah! Methos!"
"Yeah."
And he then spent 15 minutes telling me where the writers were
going wrong! [mimes looking at watch] "Uh, yeah, uh, I've got
to go, you know. The plane's not gonna come here."
But, incidentally, I've taken his name and his e-mail address.
[to Gillian] I said you'd call.
As someone who did the video programming, I want to know what's
the most embarrassing thing that you've done on film? For next time...
Yes, I know for next time! I'm trying to think of one that embarrasses
me but doesn't embarrass me that much because it will be at the
next one. Oh... God... [thinks then giggles] Okay, I got you on
this one. You're never gonna get a hold of this.
It's a challenge.
Nah, trust me. When Arsenal won the European cup, Winner's Cup,
this was 1993, May the fourth — May the fourth be with you.
[giggle]
I watched the game in a pub in North London, in Highbury, the nearest
pub to the ground because the game was being played in France. Were
we in France? No, it was in Denmark, it was Copenhagen. So I thought
the thing to do [is] go the pub nearest the ground 'cause that's
where they'll be some atmosphere. And boy, there was lots of atmosphere!
At the end of the game, because we'd won it, all the news stations
sent camera teams round, and they'd interviewed a couple of people,
but the presenter was kind of wrapping up the item. And I can remember
— drunk as I was — I still had a kind of instinct for
the camera. I knew that if I could just tuck in over one shoulder
that I'd be on the news. And a couple of people did see that —
stuff that I thought at the time was really kinda funny.... Yeah,
you had to be there....
Will the Four Horsemen reappear again?
Again, why are you asking me? I don't write the stories. Um, I
think two of them are definitely dead, yes. I'm not sure about the
other one. I just have a feeling that he might not be. [giggle]
How did you get the role of Methos?
I auditioned in London. I auditioned on videotape. My agent rang
up and said was I interested in doing this Highlander TV
show, and it was to do one episode, and there was a possibility
that I might be asked back to do the final episode of that season
and have my head chopped off. That was the deal when I auditioned.
These people are filming in Paris at the time, and they're auditioning
for a character that's coming up in the next episode. So I'm auditioning
onto a videotape which is then sent to Paris, and they watch it,
and I guess they watch, you know, however many people auditioned
for it — they watch them all on tape.
I never met a director or producer. It's just me and the casting
director in this little room in Covent Garden. She's got no idea
really how to work the video camera. She's got on and off. Aside
from that, that's it. So, you know, you're acting like this. [hunches
shoulders] You don't wanna move over there or you're not in the
show [i.e. the camera frame] anymore if you do that.
The video went to Paris. I assume that [producer] Ken Gord watched
it and Dennis Berry directed that episode, I think. So they probably
watched it. They liked what I'd done but they didn't like it enough
to offer me the job, so they wanted me to reaudition for it, to
do a recall, and do something different. I can't remember what,
but they gave some notes — could I rerecord it?
By this time, I think that was the Wednesday. Must have been about
Wednesday, so it was five, six o'clock in the evening they record
this scene, stick it on a bike, fly it out to Paris, and they watch
it, at best, that evening, but probably the next day, and offered
me the job. Rang up, said, could I fly out on the Thursday night,
and Friday I was filming it.
What would they have done if they decided that I wasn't right for
the job? Where are they gonna go? But yeah, that was it. It was
just one episode.
In the "Horseman" flashback, was that you on the horse
all the time?
Not all the time. [laughs] The galloping bit where they were chasing
that guy, they thought that was too dangerous to have [giggle],
to have me and a couple of other actors charging down a sand dune
at some poor guy who we could easily run over. So no, that, it wasn't.
But the rest of it was, yeah. Yeah...
Is this your first time in Seattle?
Yeah, yeah. I've been through the airport once before, but this
is my first time actually out onto the earth. I could do my pope
bit and bend down and kiss the earth.
"Horseman" was your first time riding? Any interesting
stories to tell?
Yeah, that's the truth. I'd never ridden a horse before. [laughs]
Normally, going for a job where you have to be able to ride a horse,
you just say, "Yeah! Of course I could ride a horse!"
But this had the advantage that I'd been doing the show for a couple
of years so it was kind of their problem, not my problem. So I thought,
"Be up front, from the start, and just say, 'I can't ride.'"
So they organized for me to go to a riding school for... was about
three or four days I went and did an hour a day.
My basis for learning to ride a horse at great speed was, the horse
needs to like me. So I spent a lot of time not kind of moving around
at all, but just kinda sitting stationary patting this horse. They
always say the horse can tell if you can't ride. [giggle] Yeah,
fine, okay. But maybe the horse will think that I'm a nice guy...
And yeah, yeah, we got on fine until they, uh, when we actually
did the stuff in the beginning of "Revelation," they gave
me a different horse. I thought that was sneaky.
The stuff that I had most problems with [was] in "Horseman,"
the flashback, where I come riding into camp and Cassandra is kind
of draped over the front of the horse. Yeah, as we can all clearly
see, it's not Cassandra at all, it's just the rug. It's a carpet
rolled up and draped over the top.
So we get it all set up, and they drape this rug over there, and
I'm sitting on the horse with that metal mask on — I can't
see a thing. They shout "action" and I start bobbing down
and the rug falls off.
It's this huge tracking shot. It's starts on a vulture or something,
and there's a snake being wrapped around a stick. So we have to
reset it, go back and do it again. Exactly the same thing happens
the second time. Exactly the same happens the third time.
So someone has the bright idea of tying the rug onto the horse,
tying it onto the saddle. Which is great until I ride in, I get
to there — and I can't get it off because it's tied on! So
the horse riding is fine, it's the technical stuff that I never
mastered.
With your medical training, whenever somebody injures themselves
on the set, do they run to you and expect you to patch them up?
Yeah, and it's not just on set either. When did I leave medical
school? It must be 10 years since I left medical school, and you
know, I wasn't that committed when I was there. And yet [sigh] actors
are such hypochondriacs. As soon as anyone finds out that I did
any medical training, every job I've ever done, it's just been,
"Oh, I got this pain here."
And I don't know — I just don't. The only thing that I was
ever any good at, when I was training to be a doctor, was the bedside
manner bit. All the technical stuff that you read in the books —
nah, I didn't know any of that. But I could do the acting bit. I
was good on reassurance.
Yeah, I still get it. I still get it. I should just not tell anyone
that I ever did it.
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