An abundance of Richards

The Uncle Vanya film is being promoted and suddenly there are little interviews with Richard Armitage popping up everywhere. I just saw this one (thank you Astrovian on Tumblr for the shot and transcript!). I love that the questions are famous movie quotes, even if I don’t recognize them all…

https://astrovian.tumblr.com/post/654949446960988160/richard-armitage-interview-in-total-film-magazine

Earlier this week there was a Metro “Sixty Seconds” interview and Guylty very helpully provided a picture of the Radio Times interview that also appeared. Linking to the picture of that interview on her blog here (which embeds nicely as an image, click to enlarge).

There’s a lot in these interviews that I already know about Richard but there are a few things I did learn…

• A while back he also said something about being influenced by the moon? Yeah, that apparently wasn’t a fluke.
• I think I read somewhere before about him having his chart made as well? Not my thing but hope it’s helpful to him.
• He’s still self-deprecating about his talent and his body.
• He gave up drinking during lockdown. Even Pinot Noir? Now that’s a shame. 🍷
• I like that he mentions getting a new haircut after he finishes playing a character so that he can leave that character behind.
• An actual mention of something he wants to produce: The Taking of Annie Thorne by CJ Tudor. Another thriller, I take it from reading the synopsis, by a ‘female Stephen King’? Could be alright, but not normally my genre.
• He says in the Radio Times interview, “In another universe there is a version of me that is a light-hearted, comedic actor in romcoms”. Maybe he can transfer a bit of that universe to this universe with his production company? I could totally see him as Professor Don Tillman (who looks a bit like Gregory Peck, Richard could totally pull that off!) from The Rosie Project. Don even bikes everywhere and Richard sure has experience with that…

• He might want to go back to musical theatre? That’s a bold claim, considering he’s been on record saying that wasn’t for him anymore.
• He looks raggle-taggle while going out. Like this? I wouldn’t mind running into that.

• He likes cheese sandwiches? He should come to my country, then, so many great varieties of cheese to choose from! I’d be happy to guide him, we have gorgeous little cheese shops in my home town. And they go well with Pinot Noir too. Just sayin’…

Ah, it’s no nice to see some new interviews with the man, it totally makes my week.

Gugu’s interviews for Loki

I posted about my love for her before a few years ago and still Gugu Mbatha-Raw is pretty much my fave current actress. Right now she is in the news a bit more as she is starring in the new Loki TV series with Tom Hiddleston. Although I love her work I don’t know that much about her, she is very private, so it was nice to see this recent video of her telling us viewers a little more about herself…

She does it with smiles and such charm and yet, again, she does not reveal much about her private life at all. When asked about love she vaguely says it is ‘everything’, when asked about what the most romantic gesture is that she has ever received she keeps it close to the chest but does give a sweet little story of an 11 year old girl giving her roses and when asked about who she feels most privileged to have worked with she mentions her recent role of working as a UN Goodwill Ambassador. Her dream role is to play Cleopatra one day which I think would be awesome too. In her interviews she seems to accept that due to being in the spotlight there is a certain expectation of revealing yourself, and she does reveal some things, looking very open, but she also knows her boundaries of what to share or not to share. She does it well and with ease again in this recent interview with Jimmy Kimmel…

And here’s another fun one she did with Wunmi Mosaku and Tom Hiddleston…

Since that post I wrote of a few years ago, I’ve seen her in some more roles (yes, she’s always good!) and now she’s in Loki, I’ll make sure to watch her in that as well. She plays a judge called Ravenna Renslayer who apparently gets in on the action as well…

I think Tom is absolutely brilliant as Loki and I was always going to watch this because of him but I confess that I am even more excited to see Gugu do her thing and hold her own in this blockbuster TV production.

Tom Power

I’m over the worst of the recent Yannick Bisson preoccupation spell but I did come across an interview for Canadian radio with him the other night from a few years ago that I quite enjoyed. You don’t have to watch the whole thing, it’s 15 minutes, but I’m posting it here to just give an idea.

The questions were not always original questions but what I liked about this interview was that the interviewer, Tom Power, really seemed to listen and then consequently would pose follow up questions because of what he heard. He seems genuinely interested in the person he’s interviewing and seems to try and dig deeper in what makes the person opposite him tick. His questions seem to resonate with those he interviews too as they all become thoughtful when giving their answers. I’d like to see him interview Richard Armitage sometime.

Tom Power is a Canadian musician and he interviews a lot of musicians but also actors. I’ve recently been listening to a few other interviews he’s done and so far they are worth a listen, even if you don’t know much about that person or actor – or maybe especially if you don’t know that much about them. I watched another one with Natalie Portman (whom I also don’t know well) that I liked and that led me to a video that was mentioned of an intense and funny rap she did on Saturday Night Live that goes against her image. I really like some well-done sarcasm.

Anyway, I’ve only seen 3 or 4 interviews, but there are many more up on YouTube (mostly musicians but also actors, directors and even with author Margaret Atwood, which I haven’t seen yet). Link to a playlist of interviews here in case this has also whetted your appetite (there are a lot). I do plan on watching some more of them, it’s a nice change to the normal soundbite interviews on late night talkshows.

Meanwhile, let me leave you with two gifs from that SNL video…

I can relate.

Popping up with Richard

I’m a bad Armitage fan right now. Still haven’t gotten up the courage to see My Zoe yet and I admit to not minding so much that Richard is relatively quiet on social media. So much happening on social media these days that it gets exhausting to follow and him not being around so much is almost bliss – one less thing to occupy my mind with. Now Richard has popped up again and this time it’s not someting I want to ignore, so here I am, popping up as well with a blog post.

So, Richard Armitage is now promoting again, this time the audiobook of selected Chekhov tales he is reading. Yeah, really not interested in another audio book, but I do like seeing a new picture of our Richie again…

The image was used in a recent NME interview called “The Soundtrack of my Life” which was published yesterday. Not too revealing an article but a fun enough read.

He really is of my generation with his Abba and Eurythmics and Queen memories/choices. Imogen Heap I have heard of by name, listening to that song he shared I don’t think I need to hear more, it’s not for me. His Tina Turner story intrigued me as I remember wanting to go and see her as well during that tour but although I liked Tina Turner I was never a real fan and in the end felt it was too expensive. I thought I’d check the tour dates to see when Armitage would have been in Amsterdam to see her but according to Wikipedia she did her Dutch concerts in Arnhem not Amsterdam! Memory is a tricky thing, even for Richards. Maybe he stayed in Amsterdam, which is about an hour and a half away (or a little less) from Arnhem. That last video he shared of that Icelandic band’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest was awesome. I had seen part of it before, never the whole thing, and it just cracked me up.

Then yesterday evening another item appeared about Richard being in an Empire podcast. My brother had come by unexpectedly, so I chose him and a nice cheese evening instead of the podcast…

Richard still wasn’t a priority during the day today when I decided to spend it finally finishing my Audrey Hepburn in World War II book (post on that will be forthcoming). This evening after dinner I finally did make some time and listened to the podcast. I skipped ahead till I got to the Richard bit at 1 hour and 10 minutes.

So, the man is in New York. Lots of audiobook and Chekhov talk that were mildly interesting to me (I’m sorry, I just can not get hyped up about audiobooks!). I liked the latter part of the interview better when chat turned to other things. I really liked that little stage door story of when he realized that Toby Jones had played Dobby the house elf. Until this evening I too hadn’t realized that Toby had played Dobby.

I could identify with the getting fat and grey at 50 comment, because that’s what’s going on with me, but I somehow don’t think that will happen with him just yet. He commented on being semi-introverted and slightly anti-social, so that going into lockdown was alright for him (alone I wonder?) and with that too I can identify. He mentioned about staying off social media (yeah, noticed that) but that it was maybe time to come out of hiding now. The tombstone epitaph that he thinks would be fitting for him saying, “He was fully committed” – yeah, I can see that too. There wasn’t that much new in this interview but it was nice hearing him speak again.

A nice little Armitage distraction, but now it’s back to other things again for the rest of the evening, here in our garden with a little outside fire burning and a glass of white wine. The son is out, the daughter is watching a movie in her room, the husband is reading and I am tryping this…

… while I listen to the two little hedgehogs that live in our garden waking up and moving around in the undergrowth. Mr Esther was able to take a picture of them 3 days ago…

I think I may go back to Anthony Andrews land again when I sign off here. Been in that land for a little while now, ever since I posted about him in that fictional crush challenge I did…

… or I may pick up another book again. Needs to be a good one because I had quite some frustration with the Audrey Hepburn one and I don’t want to be frustrated again. Enough chat for now. Over and out

Richard loves to be alone

Lovely interview with Richard Armitage at the BBC yesterday. Not that much new for an old fan but somehow lovely.

For those of you missed my interview with @RCArmitage on #AfternoonLive yesterday here it is in full. pic.twitter.com/t7ftfNh1Nn

— Simon McCoy (@BBCSimonMcCoy) February 5, 2020

10 minutes wasn’t enough, I felt it would have gone deeper had there been more time, but some nice little tidbits gleaned anyhow. Simon McCoy seemed to be truly curious about getting to know more about Richard and challenged him a bit as well. I loved the critical questions about how planting trees would make a difference in Richard’s performance on stage and whether he is a selfish actor. That little North & South bit made me smile so widely and Richard seemed to enjoy the memory.

I hope they do get that beer together. And I’m totally with Richard on loving being alone, I love that too, as did Greta Garbo…

In fact, Mr Esther and I are really good at being alone together, like here back in 2008 on holiday at the family cottage my parents used to own.

I think we can fit a third person in for alone time who loves being alone as well…