00:00It is lovely to see you both and especially you considering you had your fall not that long ago.
00:06I'm very happy to see you here sitting and smiling.
00:08I'm very much better, thank you very much.
00:10Good. Gemma, you are sitting next to a living legend of the stage and this
00:16whole film being about stage and critics and stuff.
00:20First of all, just what is it like getting to act with Ian McKellen?
00:24I mean, a dream, an absolute dream.
00:27But because of who he is as a person and then, you know, on top of that, there's the incredible
00:35talent. I mean, that's undeniable and everybody knows about that.
00:41But it's just a complete joy to work with you. I mean, we had so much fun.
00:46It was just like from day one, wasn't it? Access.
00:49It was very… I was worried I'd be a little nervous and starstruck because I'd grown up
00:55watching Ian and being… I mean, he isn't an icon.
01:00That's enough of all that.
01:02Yes, I can never quite believe that I'm in the film, that everyone's cast me.
01:08I'm so thrilled to be there. But I suspect you're a little bit the same.
01:12Yeah, you never lose that.
01:13It was a slight surprise. We were making a movie.
01:18We became friendly. But actors are quite good at getting friendly very quickly.
01:24Because you have to relate to people.
01:27Yes, absolutely.
01:28Immediately on screen and you've got to be ready for that.
01:33No, it was a lovely relationship.
01:34So it can be very intense making a film, intense
01:39friendships, which hopefully don't fade away and just vanish when the film is over.
01:44Well, you're holding hands.
01:46And it looks like it's a genuine friendship.
01:50I do remember actually coming to see your one-man show back… what was it?
01:54Five years ago at the Harold Pinter Theatre.
01:56And I imagine doing something like that on your own is a lot of pressure as well,
02:01because the reviews are all just going to be about you.
02:06And I'm curious if you remember what you felt like at that time having all eyes on you.
02:12This is how I like it to be.
02:15Probably what I thought.
02:17Is there a feeling like there is?
02:18One thing about a one-person show is, yes, it is entirely up to you.
02:22Yes, it is entirely your fault.
02:25But then you don't have anyone else getting in the way.
02:29And what I can tell you is, it's not a strict poll that we can rely on,
02:36but people in Orkney and the Isle of Wight and Belfast and London all laugh at the same things.
02:46We're predictable.
02:47The audience were the same everywhere we went.
02:51But we were only there for one night,
02:53so what you're getting there is a particular sort of audience who
02:56were interested in me or what I had to say and do.
03:00So they were likely to have the same mindset.
03:03But wasn't that interesting?
03:06Is there anything for both of you that you've heard
03:09in reviews that has really stuck with you over the years?
03:13Because I know even just from like, you know,
03:15we put these things on YouTube and you get comments and I get,
03:18you know, I always get comments about my eyes being like bug eyes and things like that.
03:21You know, there's stuff that sticks with you.
03:23And I'm curious from reviews that you've had,
03:26are there things that really stick with you?
03:29You've had nothing but wonderful reviews, I'm sure.
03:32Is that the problem?
03:34No, no, no, no, no.
03:36Do you know one thing that did stick with me was,
03:39I'm actually from like quite working class stock.
03:43My mum and dad have got real like, you know, East End accents.
03:48And I had an East End accent until I went to drama school.
03:50It's coming out a bit there.
03:51And they knocked it out of me.
03:52And then I did this play where I was playing a cockney
03:55and they said, oh, her hammy cockney accent.
03:58And I thought, I'm doing my own accent.
04:00But maybe it was because I, you know, I was maybe trying too hard.
04:03Like if you had to do Bolton again, like really go and do it,
04:06would you overdo it or would you be all right?
04:09It's one of the shameful things of my professional life is that I don't do accents.
04:15Why?
04:15I can't.
04:16You can.
04:17I know, I've never put the work into it.
04:20I never play American, for example.
04:22There'll be lots of offers.
04:25No.
04:26One of the worst reviews I ever had was from Howard Hobson,
04:31who was the major critic of the Sunday Times,
04:34which is virtually the character I'm playing that has that job.
04:40The best part of Ian McKellen's Hamlet is his curtain call.
04:44That is damning if you're playing Hamlet.
04:45And, you know, I looked that up the other day and he didn't write that.
04:50So had you fabricated it?
04:52No.
04:53I think I've wrote my own bad review.
04:55Wow.
04:56Was he?
04:58He wasn't. No, he didn't like it.
05:00Well, we are all our worst critics.
05:01He said it was a Woolfitt production without Woolfitt.
05:03Woolfitt was a great barnstorming actor who was renowned for not
05:08employing very good company around him.
05:11To make him look better.
05:13A Woolfitt production without the Woolfitt.
05:14But this other line about the best part of Ian McKellen's Hamlet was his curtain call.
05:18It was apparently my own bad review that I'd done.
05:21Mind you, do you want to see the curtain call it was made?
05:24I bet it was. I bet it was.
05:26Something to behold.
05:28Listen, I hope this friendship lasts because it's adorable.
05:31Even just sitting here and watching you two talk together.
05:33It's so lovely.
05:35Good luck with the film.
05:36Thank you so much.
05:36Good critic, yes.
05:37September the 13th, I believe.
05:39Yes, there we go.
05:41Thank you so much.
05:42Bye.
05:44And you have beautiful eyes.
05:46You do.
05:46Beautiful.
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