‘It took me months to get over playing Hitler,’ says Robert Carlyle

Robert Carlyle is a one-man antidote to the thespian stereotype of the luvvie. The Bafta-winning star of two of the biggest Brit flicks of the past 25 years – Trainspotting and The Full Monty – is so down to earth he’s practically subterranean. ‘It’s just play acting,’ he says of his job. ‘I’m just a guy and I do a particular thing. Big deal. It doesn’t make you better than anyone else.’

Carlyle was born and bred in Glasgow, and you can tell. Not a man prone to mincing his words, in the course of a candid interview he offers forthright views on Harvey Weinstein, says he thought The Full Monty was a ‘disaster’ and reveals how close he came to following the path of Begbie, the terrifying psychopath he portrayed in Trainspotting.

Extremely open and friendly in person, Robert Carlyle is the antithesis of some of the more damaged characters he has played, a list that includes Hitler, Bond villain Renard and Begbie

Carlyle, 58, lives with his wife Anastasia and their three children in one of Glasgow’s more exclusive streets, a mile and a world away from where he grew up. For much of the year the family is based in Vancouver, where he spent eight years playing Rumpelstiltskin in the fairytale TV drama Once Upon A Time. Though the show finished last year, he was reluctant to uproot his children from school. As the product of a broken home – his mother left when he was four – domestic stability is hugely important to him; one reason why he’s notoriously selective about choosing when and where he works.

‘All this stuff takes me away from the family, so there’s no point doing it just for the money,’ he says. ‘I turn down more work than I accept, that’s for sure. If the role moves or affects me in some way, I’m interested. I look for some emotional line, some truth and honesty.’

It’s a policy that has led to some dark places. Extremely open and friendly in person, Carlyle is the antithesis of some of the more damaged characters he has played, a list that includes Hitler, Bond villain Renard and Begbie. He drew heavily on personal experience to play the latter, a violent whirlwind of toxic masculinity who petrified even his closest friends.

‘I don’t think I was ever as crazy as that, I don’t think I would ever have ended up in jail, but in my teenage years, growing up in Glasgow, it’s all around you,’ he says. ‘I come from Maryhill, and that’s what it’s all about there. A lot of my pals went that way. Terrible, terrible things they got up to when they were younger. They were in jail at 18.’ He smiles thinly. ‘You tiptoe through that world, but I was always a wee bit too wise for that.’

Begbie, he says, is based on ‘four or five people I know. I always remember a pal of mine who was really loud. If he had a pint on the table, he’d slam it down. When I got the part, I remember thinking, I’m going to use that. It’s a look-at-me thing. He wants a reaction. The same with the loud clothes, that’s based on another old pal of mine. He used to wear pink because he wanted people to look.’ He pauses. ‘And then f****** do them in!’

Returning to the role for the 2017 Trainspotting sequel T2, he found tuning back into Begbie’s twisted wavelength ‘very much affected me. He was sad and lonely and so was I. I was really down the whole time. I stayed away from my wife and kids during flming because I didn’t want my head space to affect them’.

Eleanor Tomlinson and Rupert Graves in the new adaptation of The War Of The Worlds, which also stars Carlyle

Eleanor Tomlinson and Rupert Graves in the new adaptation of The War Of The Worlds, which also stars Carlyle 

Carlyle says of working with Eleanor Tomlinson: ‘What a lovely girl she is. God, she was a breath of fresh air for me, coming out of Once Upon A Time'

Carlyle says of working with Eleanor Tomlinson: ‘What a lovely girl she is. God, she was a breath of fresh air for me, coming out of Once Upon A Time’

Does he bring that level of focus to every role? ‘I pick my movies. Certain ones deserve it. The worst one was when I did Hitler in The Rise Of Evil. Five months in the Czech Republic, in the freezing cold. Being in that mindset for so long was really tough. A lot of things were upsetting. All this disgusting stuff was coming out of this b******’s mouth, and I didn’t realise that my make-up artist was Jewish. I suddenly felt guilty, which was ridiculous. I’m not that guy! But it hurt me. It took a good few months to get over it.’

Carlyle won a Bafta in 1998 for his role as steelworker turned stripper Gaz in The Full Monty. But appearing on The Graham Norton Show a few years ago he claimed that, during filming, he thought it was ‘c***’. Really?

‘Yes, it’s true.’ He sighs. ‘Peter Cattaneo directed it. This guy shot everything multiple times, and something that was funny at 7.30 by 11.30 was pure torture. He was killing the thing. I actually tried to leave halfway through, I was so p***** off. Once it was finished, a year went by and total silence. [Carlyle’s co-star] Tom Wilkinson and I would phone each other and say, “This thing is a f****** disaster.” But then producer Uberto Pasolini was given a month to get it together. He hired a fantastic editor, Nick Moore, and they pulled together the film you saw. From going in the bin to making hundreds of millions. It’s incredible.’

His latest role is in the BBC’s big-budget adaptation of HG Wells’s sci-fi classic, The War Of The Worlds. In one of his most high-profile British TV roles since playing eccentric Highland policeman Hamish Macbeth over 20 years ago, Carlyle stars alongside Rafe Spall and Mrs Poldark herself, Eleanor Tomlinson, as Ogilvy: astronomer, scientist and closeted homosexual. His affinity with the source material goes back to the Seventies, when he would listen obsessively to Jeff Wayne’s concept album based on the book. ‘I loved the whole thing, and it stayed with me. Mind you, back then I thought it was just a record, I didn’t even know there was a book!’

He’s particularly effusive about working with Tomlinson. ‘What a lovely girl she is,’ he says. ‘God, she was a breath of fresh air for me, coming out of Once Upon A Time. I saw her first at lunch, and she was eating sticky toffee pudding and custard. I said, “I love you! I’ve been working with actresses who have a bowl of steam for breakfast.” She was a joy, and a terrific actress.’

His teenage daughter, Ava, is currently ‘toying’ with acting. Given recent #MeToo revelations and the allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein, the notion gives him pause for thought. ‘You think, Oh my God, any b****** that gets near her…’ he mutters, perhaps briefly channelling Begbie. He admits he was unaware of the extent of sexual misconduct in the industry before the recent stories began to emerge.

‘When all that stuff was coming out about that scumbag Weinstein, it was a real shock to me. Maybe I wasn’t looking. Maybe I didn’t have my eyes open, but they’re certainly open now. There are men of my generation who are stuck in the Sixties and Seventies: Carry On films, Benny Hill, Page Three. Nowadays, the younger generation of women are in no way going to find that acceptable.’

‘They’ve started to speak up, quite rightly. I worked with Rose McGowan on Once Upon A Time. A very eloquent, clever woman. I can understand why she was the one who stood up to Weinstein.’

Carlyle stars alongside Rafe Spall and Mrs Poldark herself, Eleanor Tomlinson in the new TV adaptation

Carlyle stars alongside Rafe Spall and Mrs Poldark herself, Eleanor Tomlinson in the new TV adaptation 

Robert Carlyle as Ogilvy in the new BBC adaptation of The War Of The Worlds. His affinity with the source material goes back to the Seventies, when he would listen obsessively to Jeff Wayne’s concept album based on the book

Robert Carlyle as Ogilvy in the new BBC adaptation of The War Of The Worlds. His affinity with the source material goes back to the Seventies, when he would listen obsessively to Jeff Wayne’s concept album based on the book

Since filming The War Of The Worlds Carlyle has appeared in Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle’s block-busting Beatles-themed rom-com, Yesterday, performing an unforgettable cameo as John Lennon, living out an imagined old age by the English seaside. Not only is Carlyle uncredited in the film, but he reveals that Boyle kept his participation a secret from the cast and crew. Even his co-star, Himesh Patel, had no idea who he was acting with

Why such skulduggery? ‘It was probably the biggest deal of any part I’ve played. Everybody knows who this person is, so you have to get the emotion correct.’

I tell him his portrayal of an older, wiser Lennon was quite beautiful, and he seems genuinely moved. ‘Reading the script made me cry. It was a version of what I think the man may have been had he lived.’

It’s not the first time Carlyle has drawn inspiration from music. His Raindog theatre company was named after a Tom Waits album, while the success of Trainspotting and The Full Monty hurled him into the cultural whirl of Britpop. He even starred in the video for the Oasis single Little By Little. It was an excessive era. Was he ever seduced by fame and over-indulgence?

‘Not with fame,’ he laughs. ‘Indulgence is a different thing! I’ve had pals who went f****** crazy with it, and I’ve never understood that.’

He shrugs. ‘I’m a family guy, I like spending time with my wife and my kids. I’ve never ever seen myself as any great shakes.’ 

‘The War Of The Worlds’ is coming to BBC1 later this month

 

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