00:00Alex Gess is one of Whitney's finest show actors.
00:03Not only that, he's also playing for bongos.
00:06What a chance to do.
00:10This guy's played a poor popping raver, a teenage killer,
00:13serial adulterer and once did time for killing a pensioner.
00:16One of those is not true, it's the last one.
00:19Here's John Simm.
00:24I can't say that.
00:26I can't say that.
00:27Now look, John.
00:29Yes?
00:29When you're in Manchester, you've sort of been living up here
00:31during the weeks filming Life on Mars.
00:33Do you love the city? How are you feeling about it?
00:36I love it, yeah, absolutely.
00:37It's a great city in the world.
00:38Have you been sort of hanging out here a bit, like going out?
00:41I haven't had much chance, to be honest.
00:42The schedule's just a bit mad.
00:44I stay in, and I don't watch much telly.
00:46Stay in, break out the Sweeney box set, kick back, eat some fondue.
00:51Well, I didn't have to do any of the 70s stuff because I'm from now,
00:54and so I wanted it to be a big surprise when I got there.
00:57But I couldn't resist the Sweeney box set that was hanging around the office.
01:01If you're not watching the telly, you probably listen to music.
01:04Who are your musical heroes?
01:06Um, the Beatles.
01:09Obviously, Kinnicky.
01:10The Raleigh Stars.
01:14Now, they're the Beatles.
01:16I'm sort of a mindset about Stone Roses and Happy Mondays and all that.
01:19Yeah.
01:19You were actually in a band yourself called Magic Alex, named after the Beatles drug dealer.
01:25You told with Echo and the Bunnymen, have you got any crazy rock and roll stories from Magic Alex?
01:31Oh, yeah, loads.
01:31It was not enough time.
01:33You must have kind of played some dives because you did do the full kind of indie thing.
01:37You know, it was a bit scud.
01:37Where's the sort of grottiest place that you played?
01:41I think the grottiest place was a place that used to actually be a toilet.
01:46It was a public toilet.
01:47Where was that?
01:48I don't know.
01:48I can't remember.
01:48You played an actual shithole.
01:50No, it was a shithole.
01:52It was in Tunbridge Wells.
01:53But it was super...
01:54It might have been for a while.
01:54I think I played there.
01:55It is in Tunbridge Wells.
01:56It's like a round thing.
01:57Yeah.
01:57Oh, my God, guys, I think I had a shithole once.
02:00I think I slipped.
02:02I mean, was there a point at which you kind of had to choose between the rock and roll
02:07lifestyle and being an actor?
02:09Well, it was kind of carry on and sort of, you know, do the record deal and just do that.
02:16Or I couldn't do both, basically.
02:18And I was too far gone in this.
02:19I'd already done the lakes and, I think, human traffic and things like that.
02:22So I couldn't really pack it up.
02:23Just talking about human traffic, we had Danny Dyer on the show.
02:27Yeah, I saw him.
02:27And he said that a lot of the acting in human traffic was, shall we say, method, in that
02:33he was spazzed out of his box.
02:36Did you employ any of those rather non-Stalinowsky techniques during the film?
02:42Yeah.
02:43Was it fun?
02:44Yeah.
02:45But it was like that on 24-hour party, people, I've got to say.
02:48I've heard that.
02:49You had to be wasted.
02:50You could think, I actually am Bermond Sumner.
02:53Look, here I am.
02:53I did think it for a while.
02:55Yes.
02:55I was that wasted.
02:56It took me a while to come back.
02:58Yeah, stop it.
02:59You don't want to go too far down that road.
03:00John.
03:01So many highlights in your career.
03:03Life on Mars, 24-hour party people, human traffic, state of play.
03:05How do you avoid turkeys?
03:07How do you manage to avoid the likes of bad girls, for instance?
03:11Just say no.
03:12Just say no.
03:13But how do you know?
03:14I mean, I can't think of a bad thing you've been in.
03:15Tell me something bad you've been in.
03:18I don't know.
03:19I did a kids' programme when I was really, really young called Oasis.
03:23I used to go around telling everybody I was in Oasis.
03:25And I was actually in Oasis, but not in the way that I thought.
03:28Yeah, that was pretty bad.
03:30That sounds pretty rubbish.
03:31Yeah.
03:33Lauren said to me that you used to be a cage dancer.
03:36And Lauren said, fuck off.
03:37But you weren't a cage dancer.
03:38Tell me I was right.
03:39Well, I was a student.
03:40I needed money.
03:40I was a barman, actually.
03:42It just happened to be part of the job.
03:43You see, it was a bit coyote ugly, wasn't it?
03:45No, it was all.
03:46But any kind of outfits involved?
03:48I mean, I don't want to push you too much, John.
03:50Cycling shorts.
03:52Oh!
03:53Delicious.
03:54There's no pictures, thank you.
03:56Oh, God.
03:56Guys, everybody stick around, because later on, John Sim will be dancing in the cage.
04:00John Sim, everyone!
04:07Happy break.
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