Source: Speak Up
Language Level: Advanced
Standard: British accent
The Amazing Mr. Bean
The movie Mr. Bean’s Holyday stars the British comedian Rowan Atkinson. Directed by Stephen Bendelack, it is described as a “sort of sequel” to the first Mr. Bean movie, which was released 10 years ago. Rowan Atkinson talks about the movies’ basic idea:
Rowan Atkinson
Standard British accent:
The central idea of the movie is that Mr. Bean is in pursuit of the perfect beach. At the beginning of the movie, really, he’s in a rain-soaked Britain and he sets off in pursuit of a lovely beach in the south of France. You know, that is the story, it is a road movie, really, in which we follow his journey from London to the south of France but, you know, unsurprisingly, it is not a simple journey.
THE EUROPEAN DIMENSION
In actual fact Atkinson says that the new Bean movie is very different from its predecessor:
Rowan Atkinson
I think we always felt there was a different movie to be made with Mr. Bean. We did the first movie 10 years ago, which was you know, commercially successful, and I suppose, if we were going to make a sequel, it would have been logical to make it, you know, nine years ago, or eight years ago, rather than now. But I suppose it just took time, you know, with the other distractions, to get round to thinking about it and I suppose I certainly always believed that was a more Europeans-style movie to be made with Mr. Bean. Undoubtedly the first movie was more of an American-style movie, it had the story and format and sort of tone of an American family comedy, I think, whereas we always felt that there was a different thing to be done, and I was always interested to the idea of Bean being the more pro-active element, being the element driving the story, rather than him being a reactive element, a sort of satellite figure who was sort in the background while there was a story being driven by other characters, which was, I think, more the shape of the first film.
HARD WORK
In spite of the colourful characters he plays, Rowan Atkinson is known to be a quit and rather shy person in real life. He admits to finding filming hard work:
Rowan Atkinson
I haven’t found it difficult after the…passage of time, in finding him again, and understanding him and knowing how he would behave in any given situation. I think I’m… I’m pretty familiar, but I still find the business of shouting and acting him quite stressful, quite anxiety-inducing. I’ve always found him… it’s the very singular nature of the character and the fact that he is at the centre of the film, I mean, obviously, but I mean to be in virtually every shot, of every day of the shooting, is, I find, quite challenging. It’s not just my performance, as it were, that I have to have in my head, it’s how he’s being shot and how he’s being presented and the people and the characters that he meets all these things… you know, making sure that all the relationships between Bean and the people he meets work and work well. I’ve always found the business of shooting any movie, actually, very, very difficult. I think the bit before shooting’s great when you when you’re thinking, you know, “wouldn’t it be funny it be was in this situation” and that all sounds, you know… you know, relatively straightforward, but when you get down to the nitty gritty of actually trying to make the jokes work, i… I find that very difficult.
WILD WILLEM…
The film’s cast includes the American star Willem Dafoe, who plays a splendidly obnoxious Hollywood director called “Carson Clay.” Dafoe clearly enjoyed “doing comedy.”
Willem Dafoe
Standard: American accent
I’ve always been interested in doing more comedy and I think from my perspective, I’ve done a lot of comedy through the years! But it’s not. You know, kind of obvious, like something like Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart, if you’re ever seen that movie, I think is comedy, but all I can say is I look at projects and a lot of good comedies came up and a lot of good opportunities to do something slightly different, or at least whether that’s an illusion, you know, a self-delusion. It feels like it’s something different, so I can invest myself in a different way and it’s more fun.
THE YOUTUBE GENERATION
Mr. Bean is now an institution. In conclusion, director Stephen Bendelack describes the characters enduring appeal:
Stephen Bendelack
Standard: British accent
Bean endures because Rowan has a very singular vision and also be doesn’t over-expose himself, in my view, I mean, in an age where, if you so choose, if you want to post your own picaresque adventures on YouTube, for everybody else’s declaration, you can.
Someone with Rowan’s singular and original vision, in a way, I think, has more resonance now maybe than it did maybe five years ago.
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