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Sleepy Holo As commander of the Holoship, Matthew Marsh confronted mind-patching, sex and...well, Rimmer. This sometime comedian is about to appear all over the silver screen. But is he ready for a drowsy Mr Flibble? |
9 November, 2001
You once played Elton John in a TV movie...
John and Yoko: A Love Story, for American television. I went for the interview wearing a flowery shirt, and I wear glasses, so I think I think the director thought, 'Hey, he wears flowery shirts and glasses, he looks like Elton John. I'm gonna cast him as Elton John!' (Laughs)
I watched a few videos of Elton's concerts, because there was a concert scene in the film. I think they had about three hundred screaming women at the Empire Pool, Wembley, so that was good. Up on stage, kicking your legs in the air, pretending to play the piano (which I don't) and trying to sing along with Mark McGann. He did all the harmonies, because he's a very good singer.
What's the strangest part you've had to play?
I got offered this part - an Englishman - in an Italian-Argentinean co-production called Alambrado, which means 'Wire Fencing'. It was great - six week's work in Patagonia. We stayed in this small, seaside town for six weeks; there was only one phone line out of the town, so you had to queue for hours to ring home.
I was supposed to be playing this Englishman and do one or two scenes in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish, but he wasn't supposed to speak Spanish very well, so that wasn't a problem. [On] the first day, I was supposed to be acting with this Frenchman who couldn't speak English, and he had a line and would say it like [goes into incomprehensible, French-sounding gibberish].
That evening the director and the producers had a big crisis meeting and decided that because he could speak and act in Spanish, that I would have to do 90% of my scenes in Spanish. So I then had to spend every evening trying to learn the dialogue in Spanish for the next days shooting! That was quite challenging...
