Johnny English co-stars heap praises on Mr. Bean

Curtain-raisers:

• Reacting to yesterday’s Funfare scoop about her ex-husband Yilmaz Bektas and his girlfriend Ceren’s wedding on 11-11-11, Ruffa Gutierrez (photo) said, “Congratulations and good luck! I hope he will now leave me and my girls in peace.” Incidentally, in yesterday’s Miss Universe Pageant our bet Shamcey Supsup, who finished third runner-up, lost to Miss Angola, a colored beauty. Ruffa recalled that in the 1993 Miss World contest where she won Second Princess, the winner, Miss Jamaica, was also colored. Same thing happened in 1999 when Miriam Quiambao placed first runner-up to Miss Botswana, another colored beauty.

• The loudest whisper going around is that Mariel Rodriguez (photo) is moving to TV5 which is offering her something hard to refuse: as Willie Revillame’s co-host on Wil Time Big Time and two seasons of a reality show. Contrary to what the title of her current ABS-CBN show implies (yes, Happy Yippey Yehey), Mariel is reportedly not happy in that company and, watch carefully now, it’s obvious in her body language. Mariel’s husband Robin Padilla’s show Guns and Roses is ending soon and there are reports that Robin is also mulling over a very juicy offer from TV5.

• At the rate Cory Quirino (photo) is making her presence very strongly felt in the current search for the first Miss World-Philippines (she holds the franchise), always posing prominently among the contestants and waving like the aspirants, the judges might mistake her for a candidate and give her the Miss Friendship/Congeniality special award. Why, Cory is even the one featured on the Miss World billboards, holding a crown as if she’s the reigning one ready to give it to her successor!

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SYDNEY, Australia — At the recent press junket for Johnny English Reborn, produced by UIP (United International Pictures) and released locally starting today by Solar Films, Funfare had a chance to interview not only the lead actor, Rowan Atkinson (a.k.a. Mr. Bean), but also his co-stars Gillian Anderson (best remembered as David Duchovny’s leading lady in the popular TV show X-Files) and Rosamund Pike (who was a Bond Girl in Die Another Day starring Pierce Brosnan as 007), and Oliver Parker, the movie’s director.

They talked about how it was working with Atkinson.

How was your Rowan Atkinson experience?

co-stars with Rosamund Pike

Oliver: He’s one-of-a-kind as a performer; he’s at the top of his trade. He’s amazing in the way he can sustain an extraordinary style of work. As a result, he has formed his own way of work. He takes everything seriously. He won’t settle for anything less than his best. He’s fascinated by the construction of a joke; he has a very encyclopedic of all kinds of comedy, but at the same time he knows what his limitations are.

Rosamund: Fantastic! Interesting, fascinating! He’s so exacting, relentlessly funny. His timing is so perfect that we would be laughing at the start of the day and we would still find it funny at 7 o’clock at night after the shoot. With other comedians, the jokes become less funny since you’ve heard them already. But with Rowan, he always manages to twist the timing and do something different and he makes you laugh all over again.

You were in Die Another Day, a real James Bond movie, with Pierce Brosnan. How was it working on this spoof of an 007 movie?

Rosamund: Well, I really enjoy the parallel. I love it that Johnny English Reborn has so many tributes to all the Bonds. There’s the golf-course scene, the car-chase scene and the snow sequences. This movie is very ambitious in its desire to compete on the level of an action movie which just happens to have a lot of laughs.

Have you seen any of his TV shows or movies before you worked with him?

Gillian: I’ve seen him as Mr. Bean on TV. I’m a fan of his talent as a comedian. He’s unique.

Rosamund: I grew up on Mr. Bean. As a child, I used to find Mr. Bean hysterical. And then of course, when I knew I would be working with him, I started watching Mr. Bean all over again. He’s brilliant, he’s just amazing to watch. He’s a genius! He does it all --- verbal comedy, mime, slapstick, real clowning, everything!

Is Rowan as funny off camera as he is on camera?

Oliver: Well, people who have a slight knowledge of him will say, “No, no, he’s a serious person; he takes a joke very seriously.” But actually, as I have spent many times with him, I find him very charming in real life, a bit shy.

Rosamund: He’s charming, very self-deprecating, very modest and funny in a different way from any of his characters. He’s quietly funny, ironic and witty. It took us three months to shoot the movie and it gave me a chance to know Rowan really well. He’s a master of the double take.

Gillian: It’s funny but in my short experience with comedians, I have noticed that most of them are painfully shy and they are very funny only when they are in front of the camera or they are onstage. But there are comedians who are “on” all the time, who can‘t seem to switch it off. Rowan is the quiet type of comedian.

Oliver: He’s quite private in real life. He’s not interested in the showbiz part of his existence. He seems to keep a pretty distinction between what is personal and what is professional. 

Gillian Anderson (below, with Oliver Parker, the movie’s director)

Gillian: The very first time that I met Rowan to discuss the film, his back was to the door. He didn’t know that I was there and he was trying to open the screen door on the other side of the room in a very funny way, just like what he does in his TV shows and in his movies. I stood there watching him, trying to control my laughter because there was just something in the way he was doing it. It wasn’t a performance, it was for real! I’m not sure if I went out quietly and re-entered the room. I was just trying to contain my laughter.

It’s a good thing that you could contain your laughter during the shoot of the funny scenes.

Rosamund: You just have to hold on to it until the director says, “Cut!” and that’s when you can explode.

Gillian: Thank God, we did! (And then she laughed and laughed)

Describe Rowan in three words.

Rosamund: Brilliant. Clever. Shy.

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