Over the years, Danish directorLone Scherfighas presented many of her films at the Berlin Film Festival, most prominently her breakthrough 2000 hitItalian for Beginners, a story of lovelorn Danish outsiders trying to connect by attending a suburban language class. It went on to become a worldwide arthouse hit, paving the way for her other movie successes including the 2009Nick HornbyadaptationAn Education, which achieved three Oscar nominations and setCarey Mulliganon her way to stardom. Scherfig also achieved success with 2016’sTheir Finest, her first film withBill Nighy.
Her latest effort,The Kindness of Strangers, opened the Berlin Film Festival last Thursday and at the film’s press conference it was clear that Nighy, who takes a smaller role and came on as an executive producer, was in good, dry form:
“I was very pleased I got a call. ‘Would I come and play a waiter in Canada?' And by the time I got off the plane, I owned the restaurant.”
Every utterance that fell off the British actor’s lips was tinged with humour. In our following interview, he proved hilarious in that very distinctive way we have come to know from his appearances in films includingLove Actually, Shaun of the Dead,Hot FuzzandThe Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Scherfig explains why she loves working with the actor:
“Bill can write something really small and it becomes extra funny. He’s super critical with his own performances but also very generous and his timing is sublime. I love when I can give him something that he likes and he can take it and turn it into something you haven’t seen before.”
Where does your humour come from?
Bill Nighy: It’s a habit where you look for what might be amusing. In terms of talking in public I’m always grateful when people are amusing, so I’ve taken the example of other people. In plays I do think it’s bad mannered to invite people to sit in the dark for two and a half hours and not tell them a joke. So I leave plays without jokes to the younger artists. Although I work with very serious playwrights, David Hare, Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, and they all have one thing in common: they all write world-class jokes. It’s a great way of delivering information and also of welcoming people–then you may tell them whatever you want to tell them. The other thing is that the idea of getting laughs is endlessly addictive.
I never used to get comedy jobs until I was in my 40s. The most significant one wasStill Crazyabout a rock idiot who had been nearly famous years ago and I worked out a couple of things because I was so overwhelmed by the pressure of the job. I realised a lot of it is to do with pauses, when you pause and how long you leave. The mystery of timing is endlessly fascinating.
You have to do less and less in movies.
Nighy: I make it up as I go along and I’m never quite sure. It’s tricky because the camera sees everything and one of the things instinctively you discover is that less is required. As an audience member you see people on screen doing very small things and getting a very big laugh.
You’re going to be making another film with Lone,Falling for Florence, which she actually wrote for you beforeTheir Finestand where you’re the star.
Nighy: I don’t know if I’m the star but I’ve read an early draft, which was very, very good and I’m excited. I love working with Lone. It’s a father-son story set in Florence and is unashamedly an entertainment. It’s romantic and it’s funny hopefully. (Looks to the sky)
Is that God you’re looking up to?
Nighy: I don’t have a God, but just for old time’s sake, just in case. You never know. I don’t know there isn’t one. I have no information. I have not been contacted by the supernatural or had any connection with other dimensions. But I’m always cheerful about the prospect of there being one and I’m always slightly jealous of people who’ve actually had mail from that area, as it were.
You turn 70 soon. Is it scary?
Nighy: Not really. I still think I’m probably going to live forever. I mean no one ever came back and complained. So long as it doesn’t take too long and it’s not too painful. I think greater men and women than I have had to go through it. Some of the best people are dead and I don’t have plans to die any time soon.
As a parent how do you feel about the situation of the mother (Zoe Kazan) and her two children inThe Kindness of Strangers?
Nighy: People who are homeless or stateless haven’t done anything wrong. It can happen to anybody. You used to look at homeless people in the street and think they must have some specific problem that I’m not aware of, maybe a mental problem. Actually I have some experience of that going through my life and you realise the stages with which that happens. It could happen to anybody. It’s a simple process where you end up unemployable. You have an illness or whatever and then you can’t pay the rent.
What was the kindest thing that ever happened to you with a stranger?
Nighy: This is not the kindest, but a man once saved my life. I was about to walk in front of a lorry and he pushed me aside.
So you didn’t die then?
Nighy: I didn’t die and I said to him, “I think you just saved my life,” and he just went off. It was a long time ago.
I was once without clothes because I was young and I was a mess and I never had any money because I was an actor. I used to go on jobs and on a couple of occasions people used to bring in old clothes for me to wear, none of which I would be seen dead in, but you had to pretend you were grateful and bury it somewhere and go back to wearing the same t-shirt and pair of jeans you wore in the first place which you would wash every day. I had one pair of socks. I used to rely on the costumes from whatever job I was doing as they’d let you have them for half price and take it off your fee. I remember standing in the theatre and the designer was saying we need the costume back and I had nothing else to wear and they put men on the door and it was a tiny theatre so I couldn’t get out. There was an actor standing next to me, Paul Jesson, and he said, ‘How much is it?’ She said, ‘35 pounds’. He got his checkbook out and said to repay him the money when I had it. It was a pretty kind thing and it meant I could walk home not naked.”
Are you surprised to be part of part of the moviePokemon Detective Pikachu? How did that happen and what did you know about Pokemon before?
Nighy: You could have written what I know about Pokemon on the end of a pin. I knew about the cards and I knew it has become an app, but I didn’t know it’s now the second biggest company in the world after Apple. I didn’t know after they released the trailer recently it was on Twitter, I think–I don’t have any social media—and 280 million people watched it. You just realise this is a very serious outfit and now I kind of love the whole thing. I have come to know quite a lot about Pokemon because I immediately bought every Pokemon book there is and the masterwork is the Pokedex, which gives you everything you need to know. There is an enormous amount to know because the level of detail and depth they’ve gone into about every Pokemon, about the Pokemon trainer and the geography, which island they come from and which of the seven superpowers they have. They all have three at least and it’s quite tremendous. I met the man who drew them all–there were 820 altogether and I think it’s gloriously daft and wonderful. It’s like a treasure hunt you just plug in your phone. You can have a treasure hunt in Strasbourg; they will link to the satellite and you can go looking and it’s fun.”
After twoPirates of the Caribbeanmovies, (Dead Man’s ChestandAt World’s End) you have reteamed with Johnny Depp forMinimatadirected by Andrew Levitas.
Nighy: It’s a biopic of the great photographer Eugene Smith and it centres on the scandal where a huge factory in Japan was poisoning a whole community and children were born deformed. They were getting away with it until Eugene went there and very heroically and against great odds got photos of that and they were put into Life magazine and it changed everything. I play the editor of Life magazine and I had a great time filming in Belgrade. It was great to see Johnny again and to work with him—without 250 white dots all over my face. He said, ‘It’s weird you’re not a squid. Where are your pyjamas?’ I said, ‘I’m not wearing f…ing pyjamas’. I mean it was bad enough being put into computer pyjamas with 250 white bubbles and a skull cap on the top and trainers which are enough to kill me but then they said here is Johnny Depp the most beautiful man in the world and I almost wanted to kill myself. “Hi, how are you? I’m from England.” Members of the crew would avert their eyes. No one would have lunch with me because it was too sad. Then they said I was supposed to be one of the scariest things on the ocean waves.
You could work with Depp inFantastic Beasts. You were inHarry Potter(The Deathly Hallows Part One), after all.
Nighy: I would love to. Why am I not in the newFantastic Beasts? What’s happening? I don’t understand how that happened.
Would you like to appear in anotherLove Actuallymovie?
Nighy: Yeah, I’d be there like a shot. We did a reunion forComic Reliefand the big news about that was I still got into the trousers.
Nighy: Oh yeah! You can say what you like about me, but there’s not a lot of me. We had a very nice time. We had a dinner afterwards with Hugh and Chiwetel and Richard and everybody and it was great to see what has happened to them since we did the original. I’d be very happy and this time I’d get it right. I never think I quite get it right. So that would be cool.
