Post by Redwine on Jan 14, 2008 16:27:46 GMT -5
I just want to share this article. Enjoy!
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Sunday Times (London)
From the Sunday Times (London), July 7, 2002, Sunday
Making it big
BYLINE: Tilly Bagshawe
SECTION: Features; Style; 9
Twenty minutes into my interview with Tom Hollander, I still haven't asked him a single question. Perched on a fire escape outside Electric House, in Notting Hill, I am guiltily sharing a cigarette with one of Britain's hottest acting talents, a man whom Sir Nigel Hawthorne once said could teach him how to act.
At 33, Hollander's list of credits is as impressive as it is diverse. Best known as a comic actor - he played Saffie's odious Eurotrash boyfriend in Absolutely Fabulous, and on the big screen, he starred in Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence ("Tom Hollander is the undisputed hit of the pic," said Variety) and Ben Elton's schmaltzy hit Maybe Baby - he has also shone in serious roles. In Enigma, he played Logie, a pipe-smoking, code-breaking genius. Last year, he appeared as Anthony Meredith in Gosford Park, and, most recently, he stars in the award-winning film Lawless Heart as Nick, a man coming to terms with the death of his boyfriend.
All this, of course, is in addition to a glittering theatre career, most notably at the prestigious Almeida, where he has played in Tartuffe and The Government Inspector, and recently appeared as Edgar in Jonathan Kent's King Lear.
Increasingly, however, it is his private life that has become the subject of frenzied speculation. Bosom buddies with the likes of Sam Mendes ("We grew up together. My father taught Sam at school, and we were part of the same adolescent gang") and Liam Neeson, with whom he spent long weekends in New York when they co-starred in The Judas Kiss on Broadway, Hollander apparently "likes hanging out in the Met Bar with Kate Moss", and is said to be a regular on the trendy Brit-pack social circuit. He is also famous to diarists as the "pint sized on-off flame" of the socialite heiress Daphne Guinness, the former wife of the Greek billionaire Spyros Niarchos. Oh, the glamour ...
Back on our decidedly unglamorous fire escape, the conceited thesp you anticipate has spectacularly failed to materialise. Hollander is, in fact, engagingly insecure. "I am not a clear cut case of uncomplicated success," he insists, claiming to prefer Britain to America because "in England, people love people to be a bit shit. Here, just because one is not a success doesn't mean one is not interesting. All our heroes are a bit shit, and I like that".
Just to set the record straight, he is not pint-sized. Okay, so he may not be destined for a career in professional basketball, but in the flesh, Hollander is well built, sexy in a tousled sort of way, and absolutely loaded with charisma. Disappointingly, he is also very much "on" with Guinness, although he is shy of talking about her. "We are very good friends and have been for quite some time" is about as far as he will go, fending off questions with a knee-weakening smile. "Yes, I do go out with her. I just really don't want to talk about her life, because it's not fair. And it's certainly not fair on the kids." (She has three by Niarchos.) It turns out he has a healthy dread of being perceived as part of some sort of It couple. "So you're not the new Jude and Sadie, then?" I ask. "God, no," he grimaces. "Euugh. No."
The image of him as a Met Bar-frequenting luvvie proves to be equally inaccurate. "I went to the Met Bar once, and Kate Moss happened to be in there. That doesn't mean I hang out with her," Hollander says.
So you don't frequent trendy clubs, then? "Erm, I'm a member of Soho House. But lots of people are," he answers, sheepishly. "I used to go there a lot in 1995 and 1996, but then I stopped. Oh, God, I'm being defensive, aren't I?" He is, but it is evident that the whole It-boy tag rankles. "I just prefer to talk about acting," he says.
And there is a lot to talk about. He is coming to a cinema near you in two movies: Possession, the long-awaited film version of AS Byatt's Booker Prize-winning novel, also starring Gwyneth Paltrow; and the independent film Lawless Heart. While his role in Possession is small (he plays Paltrow's lover's landlord, and "met Gwyneth for about two minutes, when we were passing in a corridor"), he is clearly very proud of Lawless Heart. "I love doing comedy, but this was a chance to play someone who is emotional and reactive and understated," he says of Nick, the bereaved lover. "It's a very gentle, low-key film that's intelligent and un-Brit-packy" - are we picking up a bit of a theme here? - "and that's why I wanted to do it."
Despite expressing concern in the past that he was becoming typecast in gay roles, he was relaxed about taking on the part. "I've been a raging bender in other things. I was one in Bedrooms & Hallways.
But in Lawless Heart, I'm just playing a person who happens to be gay. He wasn't camp. Well," he corrects himself, "he was as camp as I am. Which is slightly camp."
Our interview over, we retire to the bar for a drink, where Tom helpfully tries to mend my dodgy tape recorder. He is, I have decided, an extremely nice man. Guinness may be worth millions. But if she ends up with Tom Hollander, she'll be the one who has struck gold.
--------------------------------------------
Sunday Times (London)
From the Sunday Times (London), July 7, 2002, Sunday
Making it big
BYLINE: Tilly Bagshawe
SECTION: Features; Style; 9
Twenty minutes into my interview with Tom Hollander, I still haven't asked him a single question. Perched on a fire escape outside Electric House, in Notting Hill, I am guiltily sharing a cigarette with one of Britain's hottest acting talents, a man whom Sir Nigel Hawthorne once said could teach him how to act.
At 33, Hollander's list of credits is as impressive as it is diverse. Best known as a comic actor - he played Saffie's odious Eurotrash boyfriend in Absolutely Fabulous, and on the big screen, he starred in Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence ("Tom Hollander is the undisputed hit of the pic," said Variety) and Ben Elton's schmaltzy hit Maybe Baby - he has also shone in serious roles. In Enigma, he played Logie, a pipe-smoking, code-breaking genius. Last year, he appeared as Anthony Meredith in Gosford Park, and, most recently, he stars in the award-winning film Lawless Heart as Nick, a man coming to terms with the death of his boyfriend.
All this, of course, is in addition to a glittering theatre career, most notably at the prestigious Almeida, where he has played in Tartuffe and The Government Inspector, and recently appeared as Edgar in Jonathan Kent's King Lear.
Increasingly, however, it is his private life that has become the subject of frenzied speculation. Bosom buddies with the likes of Sam Mendes ("We grew up together. My father taught Sam at school, and we were part of the same adolescent gang") and Liam Neeson, with whom he spent long weekends in New York when they co-starred in The Judas Kiss on Broadway, Hollander apparently "likes hanging out in the Met Bar with Kate Moss", and is said to be a regular on the trendy Brit-pack social circuit. He is also famous to diarists as the "pint sized on-off flame" of the socialite heiress Daphne Guinness, the former wife of the Greek billionaire Spyros Niarchos. Oh, the glamour ...
Back on our decidedly unglamorous fire escape, the conceited thesp you anticipate has spectacularly failed to materialise. Hollander is, in fact, engagingly insecure. "I am not a clear cut case of uncomplicated success," he insists, claiming to prefer Britain to America because "in England, people love people to be a bit shit. Here, just because one is not a success doesn't mean one is not interesting. All our heroes are a bit shit, and I like that".
Just to set the record straight, he is not pint-sized. Okay, so he may not be destined for a career in professional basketball, but in the flesh, Hollander is well built, sexy in a tousled sort of way, and absolutely loaded with charisma. Disappointingly, he is also very much "on" with Guinness, although he is shy of talking about her. "We are very good friends and have been for quite some time" is about as far as he will go, fending off questions with a knee-weakening smile. "Yes, I do go out with her. I just really don't want to talk about her life, because it's not fair. And it's certainly not fair on the kids." (She has three by Niarchos.) It turns out he has a healthy dread of being perceived as part of some sort of It couple. "So you're not the new Jude and Sadie, then?" I ask. "God, no," he grimaces. "Euugh. No."
The image of him as a Met Bar-frequenting luvvie proves to be equally inaccurate. "I went to the Met Bar once, and Kate Moss happened to be in there. That doesn't mean I hang out with her," Hollander says.
So you don't frequent trendy clubs, then? "Erm, I'm a member of Soho House. But lots of people are," he answers, sheepishly. "I used to go there a lot in 1995 and 1996, but then I stopped. Oh, God, I'm being defensive, aren't I?" He is, but it is evident that the whole It-boy tag rankles. "I just prefer to talk about acting," he says.
And there is a lot to talk about. He is coming to a cinema near you in two movies: Possession, the long-awaited film version of AS Byatt's Booker Prize-winning novel, also starring Gwyneth Paltrow; and the independent film Lawless Heart. While his role in Possession is small (he plays Paltrow's lover's landlord, and "met Gwyneth for about two minutes, when we were passing in a corridor"), he is clearly very proud of Lawless Heart. "I love doing comedy, but this was a chance to play someone who is emotional and reactive and understated," he says of Nick, the bereaved lover. "It's a very gentle, low-key film that's intelligent and un-Brit-packy" - are we picking up a bit of a theme here? - "and that's why I wanted to do it."
Despite expressing concern in the past that he was becoming typecast in gay roles, he was relaxed about taking on the part. "I've been a raging bender in other things. I was one in Bedrooms & Hallways.
But in Lawless Heart, I'm just playing a person who happens to be gay. He wasn't camp. Well," he corrects himself, "he was as camp as I am. Which is slightly camp."
Our interview over, we retire to the bar for a drink, where Tom helpfully tries to mend my dodgy tape recorder. He is, I have decided, an extremely nice man. Guinness may be worth millions. But if she ends up with Tom Hollander, she'll be the one who has struck gold.