PLUME: Would you say that you enjoy the creative process more, or less, than you did earlier in your career?
ATKINSON: I enjoy the creative process as much, if not slightly more, now. The problem is – well, there are 2 problems… There’s worrying about whether you’re doing the right thing, you know, for yourself, or for your career. Things that when you were 19 you didn’t worry about. You just did whatever you fancied. Whereas there’s no doubt that the higher the profile you have, the more conspicuous, let’s say, your failure would be, and you become slightly self-conscious about that. You worry about failure more than you should do. Secondly, in the modern media world – particularly in the US, much less so in Europe – marketing is the name of the game. Marketing is what gets you noticed, and that side of it something – this side of it, if you like, doing interviews – is the side of it that I least enjoy, and yet is 50% of the project.
PLUME: I’m sorry…
ATKINSON: That’s right – you apologize on behalf of all your brethren. It’s not your fault – it’s just the nature of the beast. And it’s particularly difficult in the film world, I think. Whenever I do a film like this – and Johnny English, for a British movie, was relatively high budget… low budget in Hollywood terms, but high budget in British terms… and it was a long, quite tortuous process getting it to the screen. It took about 3 years, all in all, and then there’s all this drudging around the world trying to sell it to people – trying to attract attention to it – and then after it, all you want to do is make the smallest film on the smallest budget in which the only aim is to capture some really funny stuff and convey it to the audience in the simplest and most direct way. Or you want to do a theater show – you just want to stand on a stage in front of 50 people and perform. You just want to scale it all down, you know, so you don’t have to worry about all the faff that surrounds so much entertainment – in particular movies – these days.
PLUME: Compared to film, do you find the TV or stage process more fulfilling?
ATKINSON: It’s certainly easier. Film is the perfectionist’s medium, so in that sense it should appeal to me, but the problem with it is it’s such a long and tortuous process. I love the efficiency of television. I love just simple little things in front of a video camera – no real props or sets or extras, you just do something and get it out there, and it’s all very quick and efficient. And I do like that, I have to say. Stage is even more pleasing in that sense, in terms of efficiency. The only problem with the stage is you have to do it a lot more than once. You have to do it night after night, and I find that very irritating.
PLUME: Just the repetition?
ATKINSON: Yeah, the repetition is the problem. As far as I’m concerned, once you’ve got it right, you should stop. Whereas the irony of the theater is that once you’ve got it right, you’ve got to do it again and again and again – and so it goes on. I love the intimacy and the control that a performer has in the theater, but it’s not very efficient in terms of finding an audience because, as I say, you’re only entertaining about a thousand people a night instead of 10 million.
PLUME: Have you had any thoughts of doing another one-off stage show that’s recorded?
ATKINSON: Yeah, I haven’t done any of that for 10 years or more… No, no thoughts about it. I mean, again, it’s one of those things that I could easily return to, but I don’t know.
PLUME: What is the one project that you’ve always wanted to do, but have yet to be able to?
ATKINSON: Hmmm….
PLUME: Besides just chucking it all and racing cars for a living…
ATKINSON: Yes! Well, I wouldn’t presume to make a living at racing – that’s the problem. Otherwise I might. I don’t know… The thing that I hanker to return to, I think, is Mr. Bean – just because I never said never again. I like the character. I find him funny… I find him ridiculous, but I find him funny. So that’s why it has been in my thoughts today, and you asked me rather a timely question about it.
PLUME: Of course, it really comes down to you making the decision to do it, doesn’t it?
ATKINSON: Yes, it probably does. And the good thing about a Bean movie is that it’s actually quite cost-effective. But then also, because I don’t consider myself enough of a writing talent to get it going, it means galvanizing a machine to make it happen – but yes, you’re absolutely right. Yeah, it is mainly a matter of me deciding to do it, and I’m just slight in two minds as to whether to finish off the Johnny English thing by making another one, and then doing Mr. Bean – or the other way around. I really don’t know.
PLUME: But it has to be nice to be at a point in your career where you have choices…
ATKINSON: Yeah, it is, and I’m pleased that there are franchises about where you can kind of choose which route to follow.
PLUME: Or you could just be in other people’s films…
ATKINSON: Yeah… Well that’s less pleasing in many ways, just because you throw yourself into the hands of others, and other people’s creative instincts – which are not always as acute as you had thought they might be…
PLUME: Are you saying there were issues with Scooby-Doo?
ATKINSON: Ummm… There, it’s not for me to say… but you can probably gather what I’m getting at.
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