I think Russell T Davies should... no, wait, that was another thread! It's always good to see Tony Head working away, doing his thing. He is a very personable actor and he strikes me as an interesting and sincere person.

alien lanes | April 29, 18:07 CET

Let's not get started on Russell T Davies again. /groan

On a lighter note, ASH comes across as such a nice, down to earth person, and just really sincere.

Also, since Little Britain, which he was absolutely hilarious in, I will never quite look at him the same way again. (If anyone reading this hasn't seen what I'm talking about, just search youtube for "Little Britain Prime Minister").

MattK | April 29, 18:42 CET

IMDB has Repo pushed back until August (wasn't it supposed to be out in February originally?)... Mr. Head's comment about it "confusing the distributors" certainly explains that. It's a shame too, because it probably would have done better riding in the wake of Sweeney Todd (unless they pushed it to avoid oversaturating the market with horror musicals). Really looking forward to that!

narse | April 29, 18:55 CET

On a lighter note, ASH comes across as such a nice, down to earth person, and just really sincere.

You pretty much nailed it, MattK. He's totally laid-back (Gets a bit flustered when folks call him sexy), very approachable and compassionate, and has a wicked wit. Friday night (back in '05) we were in the tent for the cocktail party, and a plane went by. Everyone in the tent looked up (Ummm...why? We're in a tent) and suddenly I heard Tony say, "Da plane! Da plane!"

Like he said - he's just a guy who happens to work on TV and in movies.

And...if you're referring to what I think you're referring to...those pictures are...disturbing. Not sure I'm up to seeing the episode in question - I've only seen the first season of Manchild, so I haven't seen the famous (or infamous) apron scene.

One thing about Tony, though - he tends to knock himself quite a bit.

ShadowQuest | April 29, 18:55 CET

Maybe he's just being self-deprecating ? I've noticed yanks sometimes take Brits more seriously than they maybe should when we're being negative. It's pretty standard over here to talk about how "useless" you are at something without considering it to be a major problem but maybe you guys are more used to emphasising the positive aspects of your characters ?

Saje | April 29, 19:11 CET

Yes, its like queueing ;) Something us bloody colonials never got a proper handle on.

zeitgeist | April 29, 19:25 CET

Oh I like it, that sort of optimism and sense of "bigness" (in moderation anyway ;).

(and it barely needs saying that these are broad generalisations about national character which are often so far off the beam it's untrue - i'm sure there're plenty of cynical, negative Americans just as I bet there's probably an absurdly optimistic upbeat Brit somewhere. I mean, just cos no-one's ever seen him or her in the wild doesn't mean he or she doesn't exist ;)

Saje | April 29, 19:42 CET

Yeah, we're a buncha blowhards [and very worried about self-esteem]. :)

jcs | April 29, 19:44 CET

Plenty of cynical, negative people online of all nationalities :P

Caroline | April 29, 19:45 CET

and it barely needs saying that these are broad generalisations about national character which are often so far off the beam it's untrue

Gosh, you sound like a guy who's been jumped all over for making a comment online without a smiley.
:)

jcs | April 29, 19:49 CET

I was making with the joke... I am also, I am starting to suspect, becoming hyersensitive about being misunderstood. I have never managed to get a grip on the use of emoticons, which probably does not help my cause.

alien lanes | April 29, 20:05 CET

Nowadays I treat 'em like commas alien lanes. I.e. I overuse them horribly cos the consequences of doing so seem preferable (I figured you were kidding BTW ;).

Plenty of cynical, negative people online of all nationalities :P

True, true. Raises the question, in fact, is there even such a thing as a national character ? Or did all the national stereotypes basically arise because the people that formulated them just hadn't met enough different folk of nationality X ?

[ edited by Saje on 2008-04-29 17:14 ]

Saje | April 29, 20:14 CET

This looks awesome! I'm so glad this man is so busy. I really want to see Little Britain. I guess I'll just have to fire up the multi-region DVD player again. I swear I watch more Brit TV than American.

And can I just say, even as an American I HATE HATE HATE that US is stealing Brit TV ideas. The Office didn't work out so bad but OMG the US version of Blackpool???? And now they are making a US version of Life on Mars??? I'm sad.

I'm all for bringing Brit actors over but leave the Brit stories with the Brits. We can't pull it off.

Vinity | April 29, 20:16 CET

Saje:

*pokes head in door*

You rang...?

Rowan Hawthorn | April 29, 20:27 CET

alienlanes:

I know you were making a joke, I was too :) Tone of voice doesn't travel via the Internet too well I'm afraid, sorry about that.

MattK | April 29, 21:03 CET

Those "Little Britain" scenes were awesome! I must demand ask about the "Apron" scene though. I didn't see that and must if it's that disturbing to ShadowQuest.

It's one of those days. :)

korkster | April 29, 23:45 CET

korkster Umm...you've got a couple of Tony's bi....ooh...uh...scenes mixed up.

The "apron scene" I'm referring to was in Season Two (Series, for the Brits) of Manchild - Tony's character believes in cooking au natural. But apparently he was frying something for breakfast, and was prudent enough to don an apron...which, IMS, was yellow w/black strings, and was very...uh...Adam-in-the-Garden, if you get my drift.

Saje Well, he doesn't consider himself a "sex symbol," nor understand why so many generations of women find him thus. He said he has scrawny legs, and isn't proud of his body, so that aforementioned Little Britain skit kind of makes him stammer when it's brought up in conventions/interviews. (As does the apron.)

In fact...someone brought up the "apron scene" during Q&A @MotorCityBuffy back in '05, and the vast majority of the audience went "Wooo!" and he said, "Oh, come on! You can't 'woo' that!" And the audience replied, "Yes, we can! Woooo!"

Eh. I love 'im. He's amazing - talented, compassionate, concerned about animals, definitely a family man, and doesn't take himself too seriously: "I'm amazed anyone takes me seriously. They must know I'm an inept idiot." Oh, and Sarah knocks him down a peg when needed - "She tells me to 'get over myself' quite a lot. There's nothing better than coming home to her. I might come off set with my head up my a$$, but as soon as I'm back with Sarah, I'm grounded again."

ShadowQuest | April 30, 01:54 CET

Well, ShadowQuest, you did quite a good job of not crossing the inappropriate line. Kudos.

I said the "Little Britain" episodes were awesome, but I hadn't watched all that was available on YouTube. I just did. Personally, I'm conflicted with the "live" episode. I'm not quite sure I get the series. Is it a sketch comedy inside of the actual series, like MadTV? Hmmm, I like ASH as Prime Minister; he has that look, like Harrison Ford has that look of President. I'd elect ASH- just no Sebastian.

I'm looking forward to his rock opera. He has such a beautiful voice. Does anyone know if "The Invisibles" (his new show) can/will be seen in the US?

korkster | April 30, 03:10 CET

I thought this part was particularly sweet:



He always comes across as a nice bloke in interviews.

As for the US nicking Brit TV, well, they do the same with Asian and European movies, too. Why they can't just promote the original versions, and then develop their own original content, is beyond me. It's not as though there is a dearth of people with original TV or movie ideas that side of the pond (I hear a certain Tim Minear has had a few original TV ideas... ;) )

Kiddo | April 30, 06:08 CET