Ans: After reading literature and drama in university, I went to a drama school in the UK which is now closed down, but it was quite well known at the time. So the first post-graduate thing I did was drama and I was an actor for ten years. And what I bet nobody knows about me was the first theatre group that I was a member of, toured musical theater. But cause it was a small group, there were only four, five actors, and there was a director, all our plays were musicals done without instruments. So we all sang four and five parts, harmonies. So we were kind of like the old barbershop quartet, where you sang four harmonies. So all our musicals were made up of unaccompanied four-part harmonies. But that was 25 years ago! And I don't sing now, haven't sung for years.
What was a defining moment of your life?
Ans: So I've been an actor for about ten years, and I decided that I was really interested in cinema and do something related to it. And I … Oh yeah! I tried to get into film but I didn't really know how to make film. I knew lots about cinema but not the practicalities of how you make film. And so, I tried to get into this film school for a year. But I couldn't get in, they didn't accept me. So a year later, I made a short film. It wasn't very good, you know, I made it purely with the intention of getting in to this school. And it really wasn't very good. So I didn't get into this film school again! There weren't very many decent film schools in the UK, this one happened to be very good. So I psychologically gave up, I thought well, I needed to be at a more advanced level and at the age of 30, it was going to be quite difficult to pull it off. About two years later, I've largely given up on the idea. I was looking at a newspaper and there was a school ad, and it called for entries for this film school again. And I looked at the date, and I think I had something like six weeks before the deadline. So that was my third attempt. And I looked at it and I thought, would it be possible to make another film, a proper film about 10 minutes, totally in six weeks and finish it and edit it and get it in the post? And that would be my last go at getting in and studying film. It was a complete freak that I saw this deadline, cause I've given up on this. I got two or three friends together, who were actors who I knew. I had an idea for a short film, so we made this short film and got it in. Then I went third time, four years it took me. And the third time of putting in an entry, they accepted me. I remember opening this letter and I didn't realize, as I opened it, where it was from. And I sort of looked at it and read through the first two lines, "we would like to offer you a place…". So, yeah, I was absolutely dumbfounded. Took me four years to get there! So when you guys are doing your applications for universities, it's a process everybody's got to get used to. But yeah, if you're absolutely sure that it is something you want to do, then you tend not to give up. But in the end, it was kind of almost a combination of bloody mindedness and luck.
Did you get into trouble in school?
Ans: Well, I mean, loads of times. But I'll tell you one, which was the best and I still remember it. When you're growing up, there's always one or two teachers whose values stay with you. It's the same for everybody. So when I was at boarding school, a housemaster called Mr. Helliwell. And he was a no-nonsense man where they look a man in the eye and they tell him what needs to be told. So I remember, we used to have to go to church five times a week, a long time on Sunday and four other visits. So I took up two habits. I took up a habit of smoking, and I took up a habit of not going to church. And I would usually do one and the other at the same time. So one morning, I remember, not going to chapel, and smoking a cigarette instead. And going back, you would wait in your study to go to school in the morning. So I remember, Mr Helliwell coming into the room, he knew where I was, I wasn't the only one doing it. He came into the room and he said, why aren't you in chapel? And I said, oh well, I had something to do, whatever my excuse was. And he stopped for a moment and he said, have you been smoking? And I said, yes I have. He said, why do you smoke? And I said, well, because erh… I think I was doing my O Levels at the time and I got all these revisions and exams coming up, and you see, it's the stress that is causing me to smoke, Mr Helliwell, sir. And he said, hadn't you better stop talking? And I thought about it for a moment, and I thought about what he was actually saying to me. And it was don't lie to people, don't treat people as if they're foolish. And have the self-respect not to insult yourself by saying something as ridiculous as you're smoking because you're under a huge amount of stress, which is complete rubbish. You're smoking because you're 16 and your friends smoke. And you want to do things that are wrong because you want to break rules. So I remember him saying that and understanding immediately what he was saying when he said, hadn't you better stop talking. He was talking about all kind of things.
Tell us a quote that you believe in or that shares your ideologies of life.
Ans: Yeah, the one by Mr Helliwell. "Hadn't you better stop talking."