Daisymaycooper talk with Mathew Baynton on June 11th INS live

anyone here know freeze over papers Luke I'll be falling yeah Billy not now about now hello everybody I wanna start by saying a massive thank you to everyone who donated to the black boys charity links I put up last week and if you're finding these script writing sessions helpful and you want to share a love and donate some money and this week I'm asking for people to donate to 14 year old grace he was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor Grace's and specialist is in need of specialist drugs that aren't currently available on the NHS and she really needs our help said to do donate to grace the link is in my bio and and we shall start so this week is an exciting one because I have Matt Benton and here is the start of ghosts the wrong mans and Horrible Histories and he's also my second cousin so let's just see if he's on he is waiting for now how big a parent in lockdown is possibly the worst thing ever I bet I'm good because that's my standard response but genuinely one hour ago my four-year-old daughter cher pants so I washed out in the bath when my son loves me what the word is for the bit that holds your balls and sex education lesson which I wasn't expecting nine and then Kelly started crying because she realized that she promised the kids that they would put icing on the cake so tired crying oh my god I feel your pain it is horrific me and my husband a start doing this thing where we know that my daughter shot herself but neither of us wants to bring her up because we don't want to be the ones to change her horrific anyway thank you so much doing this is amazing people have gone mental now you're coming on tonight a lot of fine girls say by asking you well I asked everyone which is how did you get into it how did you get into acting and writing okay rapping I'll try and do the shortest possible version occasion and the first bit I think is really important for for people to hear which is that I always loved acting and so I'd always done as a kid I used to go to like a Drama Kids you throw a group on Saturdays and stuff and loved it you know we did like Oliver and I was Fagin and genuinely up there with my best memories of acting just doing that then I did theatre studies at a-level and I had a conversation like towards the end of a-levels I had a conversation with my theatre studies teacher where I said is that might apply to drama school I'm thinking about that and he this sort of sounds worse than it is because I think he just wanted to kind of give me some realist and just basically said oh it's really really hard and you probably should and I just I was just like oh right okay little like steel in me though I wasn't like I'm gonna prove you wrong I was like sure you're right so then I think if I apply to do theater studies at University Royal Holloway and I didn't get an offer and the the woman who interviewed me basically said I'm not going to give you an offer because it sounds like you want to be an actor or a director or something like practical in the business and so you should go you should apply for vocational courses like drama school and Anna's got it was like oh I that guy said I shouldn't do that and you're saying I should and I guess it's just at an age where you just or at least I didn't have the wherewithal to just go well I know why one year out and I and I did a terrible job that I hated the idea was I would save up money for then like doing something and I didn't say that anything can you at this time well so that was three levels so I did I took a year out so I was however I would you are then 98 land and then I found out that Rose Bruford did a directing course and the logic in my head was like well I've been told I can't be an actor that's unrealistic but being a director somehow he's right yes and that's what I did and the first year of it was just the acting course because because they felt that directors should Foundation enacting and I just love this so much and it just it just kind of began to awaken that thing in me that like no this is and there was one particular acting teacher who said to me I think you should change to the acting course I think you're really good and I didn't because I was I don't know that would have been like admitting I'd made a mistake oh my god so he's like no I definitely want to be a director but thank you for the compliment it was enough sure her saying I think you're good you could be an actor was just oh I only needed it from one person and that like that just showed that seed and then I also at the same time I was like realizing that I'd always loved comedy and that I was drawn to that more than anything else I'd been through a phase of being like wanting to be a really serious artist and I sort of realized actually all my life I've just loved comedy and I've always just imitated and quoted sitcoms and unless I'd been seeing like fringe comedy groups that I just loved and they often had the same directors name on the you know same guy who directed these things and it was in the summer of my or before the summer of my second year at drama school I wrote letters to all of these companies that I loved just just fanboy letters just saying I absolutely love your work and I'm studying directing a drama school but I've got a whole summer and if you're doing anything could I come and watch you rehearse if it's one morning one day one week of whatever oh my god company wrote straight back and said yeah we're rehearsing a show they were called spy monkey and their director was this guy Cal who never having met me called me said I read your letter to spy monkey I'm directing three shows this summer you are my assistant and I was like what oh he just took me under his wing they were all doing like clown kind of shows like physical comedy shows and that was like the beginning of a new education for me and it and I just learned just so much from watching them and then he they'd all trained with this man called Philippe goalie a who had a school in London and then have moved to Paris and cut a school there and so he said to me you should go there so that's what I did when I finished briefers so you did you stop the course out then I stopped the course out yeah just kind of stubbornly and how many that what was the degree so it was three years oh my god and in the middle of it and then I went to Paris and I did the city golly anything and then when I was finishing there I realized that I'd be coming I had the best time but I realized that be coming home to the absolutely nothing like you know no I had nothing to showcase or like any step into the industry and all I could think was I just have to make a show so I just I literally picked up the phone to the two funniest people I've met along the way and sort of workshops and said do you want to make a show and go to Edinburgh I reckon it will cost us about this much and if you're up for it I think this guy Cowell would probably direct us because he's been really nice to me and they and that's what we did and so we did like two years of you know just like touring in a van to art centers and playing tell me what the show was what was your not sure we did was called the bubonic plague and it was like three idiots had decided that they could write their own Shakespearean tragedy about a play I mean mostly the play that goes wrong have taken mine of clown idea and kind of branded it perfectly but that that was the vibe was like here of people trying to do a serious play and everything that can go wrong goes wrong and they hate brilliant it's just three people fighting for the audience's attention basically and we we would just upstage it was just vicious upstaging the first time that you'd put this show on yes we did I mean we literally didn't it like above a pub in Camden and then and then took it to the fringe and because it was this guy cow like he had directed the bouche and this company spy monkey were really successful and like done some really big Edinburgh shows that had been really big in Edinburgh and like been nominated for awards and so when we spoke to the venue there's a group of venues called the Pleasants which is one of like the main ones up there and we're applying for a venue and we were like we want just a little basement you know for tc2 thing because we knew and they were like yeah but our Christmas directed it so you're gonna this would be huge his shows a huge statement what we'll do we'll put you in the Queen dome it was called it which was a hundred and seventy five seater like three like which now seems kind of quaint but at the time is just like I'm imaginable [Laughter] we'll give you pain financial deal as if you were playing to 40 so you it won't what you have to do an Admiral's you give a guarantee that's like if you sell 0 tickets you have to pay venue as if you sold 10 per show or something like that like a guarantee of a minimum kind of thing and then anything beyond that is money that you make so they said we'll give you a really low guarantee but if your show sells then you're selling 275 tickets instead of 40 and we were like with that that is great thanks for that deal and then we played every night to like eight people in our amazing Saturday where we have 20 can you how do you promote a show like that we you do pay out the streets of flyers and oh my god you know the hell of begging people Italy begging people to come to your show and sort of handing out sometimes sometimes you try and give out some free tickets of numbers but those were there's a real danger in that because people if something's free people think is trash you know how I've never been because I don't think I could actually cope with it I think I haven't heard right now have you been to watch anything no I've never ever had the chance to go up there Charlie and I had s but next year it is amazing I mean you and I still go every years I can in a while because of kids but I just I love when you go into a small room and you see a bunch of people who are completely unheard of who blow your mind and you just go down start and I know I'm gonna see that person became the fact that it's people doing their thing and it's completely especially the free fringe it's like it's in as you know like when you're going to tell you there's so many conversations facing its unfucked where this list just exactly what you want to do but what's amazing is that there is that opportunity that I think I mean hearing that from you so we haven't had anybody on on this yet who started off by going to Edinburgh but having that kind of opportunity that you can say no it let's take a show let's do our own show nice to write our own stuff and take you up there is is amazing I'm really driving yeah like I just I can't and whenever I'd talk whenever I talk to anyone who wants advice of our games industry and things like knit I can only talk to my experience because I just don't know any other way so the advice make something just like find a way to make something and if that's you to or you know tick tock or what you know if you're just making stuff there's an opportunity for people to see you and you never know what comes next or who happens to see it but if you don't make anything then what then all you can do is hope that the phone rings and why is he gonna be yeah no that's so true this this might mean same feeling people who everyone in our year was like they're the one like they're the one and they didn't work like they just came out after our school and didn't work and why why is that I wonder whether it's what was funny in our year is there was kind of competitiveness where it's like and people would be that all sheet she's quite similar to me and she's gonna do well and I'm not going to do very well and then you forget that your applicants not just up against people in your year your applicant it's like the entire industry where there's all these people that look like you and that will go up although like on the flip side I also think that drama school creates a sense of competition that is less real in the real world because like at drama school everyone is the same age most people are and like you're all your life experience is pretty similar in that right now you're a bunch of students at drama school out in them out in the real industry there's such a breadth of age and type and background and the rest of it but in drama school you're all a bunch of drama students who in 1920-21 and so I think people sometimes carry that sense of competition and the feeling that like if they if you are doing something then that's like one that's like one less seat if someone's it has out in those jobs there that's like one less space for me on the bus that's so I don't think that's real I think that's a bit of an illusion I really think like there's there's room by but I do think that if you're passive then you just you just need everyone needs some luck but you need just an insane dose of luck if you're not doing something to get yourself to do something you know and also go sorry no no you go on please I think if you if you make stuff then it it already suggests that you're doing it because you love it and there is there are plenty of people who do it because they have an idea of like success which they think is going to make them happy and I don't know I I think I think you're you're in trouble almost even if you do get success if that's your if that's your way in yeah mr. bike mode like we'll just keep moving you'll get your first job which you will have said to yourself I just want to say to myself I'm a professional actor then I'm gonna feel happy you'd do that job and then you'll be like that was just the supporting role and then you get that lead and you'll be like I've gotta win something I you look back and go I didn't enjoy I didn't stop and enjoy it because of constantly thinking okay here I am but I currently feel that way now about a pool I just want a big house of the pool but it's funny though because you're completely right it doesn't when you manage to get to that bit you don't give a it's always the next thing but the magic is is in the creating and the writing and when when you just forget about everything else and you're completely present in it and just enjoying it it's just the best this is no different I don't feel different making like ghosts to how I did when I made those friend shows but at the same time as those fringe shows is when I first met new because I did Pantone yes that's right my grandfather took us to wallingford's pantomime to go and see Dick Whittington I think it was Newbury new old Newbury Newbury sorry dad the whole time is going that's it I'm sure we're related to that guy on stage and he ended up getting a program in the halftime which he never buys by the way cuz he always goes under and then I can't really remember what happened all I remember is just thinking oh my god we walked into this pub where all the cast were like having drinks afterwards and I was probably about 15 and dad came up and spoke to you there's a guy on stage doing says related to you that is so typical of dads it's like he's getting the reflected glory of you being on stage I know the story is how embarrassing that night we came to join you in a pod - it's feel calm us drinks sake anyways I'm desperate to ask you about to ask you about what happened after the Edinburgh show so how did it progressed from there so we did a set we did a second year in Edinburgh with a second show and and just just before we did the run in Edinburgh we've done like a preview tour around like we did the new we did Newbury and Basingstoke there was like a mini tour we did round that way and we so we do we were all kind of supporting ourselves with odd jobs and stuff and we had this conversation just before the end of my run where we thought that we were all breaking it to the others but we'd all come to the same conclusion which was that we couldn't afford to carry on after Edinburgh leg and so like we did that run with the knowledge that's like that would be it at the end of the run and both times we've done Edinburgh we've written all these letters to agents and producers and all of that stuff and no one okay we've got we didn't get much we did we just think it much press or anything just another show in the maelstrom of thousands of shows but I can so I came home at the end of that Edinburgh like thinking I came now's my moment where I have to decide what else I'm gonna do with my life and then I had a message this is how long ago it was I had a message on my home phone from an agent who had seen the show who had actually read our letter and ganya check out that show I think he'd seen something else the director had done and so thought yeah this would probably be quite funny and she said if you're still looking for representation but I'd love to meet you so I met her had this amazing like chat where we liked loads of the same stuff and it was and the whole thing was just so exciting to me I like I looked up who else they had on their books and there was all these like mega stars like Tilda Swinton and Stephen Fry was like this is incredible and at the end of conversation she went to him well I'm sure that you're meeting a few different agents and like I saw quite quite a few people in Edinburgh so I'm trying to quite a few people and you know let's um let's see stay in touch no what happened worse than that when she said I'm sure you you mean some other agent I went yeah and she went who and my back I just froze for a sec all you did I literally named the only agents name that I'd ever heard which would the directors agent I've met Claire King and just prayed that they do know each other and I went away and was just like fretting and and then I said and decided to do like a client bluff and I sent her an email the next day and said look I I've decided I just loved our meeting and I've decided you're the person I really want really luckily she took me on and then you know like from there I just the door was open to start auditioning for things and you know I got like you know my first jobs were really like there was one in a sitcom where I just played a guy dressed up as a chicken outside a fast food shop like one-liner bit parts and it was just like kind of making my way and in the meantime I was like jotting down ideas for four things to try and write and then really two things happened one is I was in a film with James Corden and we hit it off and that sort of led to us making the wrong mans together and the other one was I was getting cast in Horrible Histories which at the time was like in fact I think I think I even said to my agent I don't run or addition for it because like TV you know she it was it was one of those like emails this has come in do you want to go for it and CBBC you know and a few scripts touched a knife and I didn't read the script so I just called her and said look I don't think it's too easy baby don't rule it out like have a look at that have a look at the script and you know no one will notice like if you were worried about how it's going to look at your kids TV ya know so like not gonna stop you doing all the start and then I read the script I was like these are really like truly funny and I went and did the audition with the absolute breeziness of someone who doesn't really want the job right and and so I got it if I want the job I don't get it if I don't want it okay and then when and then when I got offered it they told me who else was was being lined up and they were all people I'd seen in Edinburgh and loved and I was like oh like if I knew that Simon fauna B and Alice Lo and Katie wicks or these kind of people were gonna be involved I'd have probably up the audition because I'd have been like yes I really want this that's amazing extraordinay and they're just because I mean how did it stop because you guys I mean I remember reading it you guys started writing the sketches for it as well yes oh well yeah there's there's a sort of tangled history in there like Larry herd was on the writing team before any of us got cast and in the first series he was just I think was just a kind of an easy addition for them to the cast to do like and he'll he's talked about this openly that he basically was there to walk on and say the king and because you really good they start he started getting bigger sort of things to do and then on the flip side a couple of our me and Ben would just enjoy just enjoyed doing it and asked if we could get involved in the writing so we wrote a bit on series 2 but not much we all just loved working together so we ended up just finding ways to come up with other things for us to do together yeah so I mean was it a shock when you found out how successful I'm sure I'm sure your ass is all the time but that this show had become for like a so children show that adults were watching it and it was it was I mean it is one of the best sketch shows that there has ever been it just I mean we loved it like so do you feel this with this country like you know all you can control is if you're proud of the thing that you're making yeah and you then then it goes out in the world and you just kind of hope but so it's not I think it would be false modesty to say I was completely surprised because I thought it was great so like what but but yeah the level of it the fact that it kind of transcended kids kids TV there were two kind of moments where that where it was like a wild realizations one was that we won best sketch show at British Comedy Awards and I think they had they stopped by the time you were making these come yet oh that's so good for you I had it's really nasty I always imagined it like a ream of class clowns it's like when you come and they all think that they're funnier than everyone else and nobody has any respect for each other was it like well tell me just tell me give me a clue so what that night was cuz I've always wanted to know but also like the they they set they used to set it up to be like that I always thought like so like sponsored by a substance no offense to Fosters but you're already saying this is just boozy and dinner you got like crisps and this this kind of sounds bye ha mati comedies really hard and it's as crafted as anything else and I always thought like it's a great thing because it gets overlooked in comedies never win the Oscars comedies never win back the best film like it's it's the category that disqualifies you from all general award ceremonies so to have an awards that is just for comedy is like a way of celebrating that it is an art form but then they do it in such a way that they go this is a load of isn't it we just think they would encourage it to be boozy and that the people that will present the awards were like it wasn't like the luminaries of of comedy it was just like people from reality shows I just hated it anyway you didn't gave the year that Kevin Bishop went completely mental like a year that was like a year before we threw something at me enough stories that they were friends and it was it lonely like he was really incredulous that they'd won but it was just banter between them fake him won best sketch show and everyone stood up and applauded and we were just like and I think I mean partly that was like wow our show's bigger than we realized and partly probably it's just that people didn't see us as competition because we like they could they could be happy for us wait another moment miss light was we did a prom we did this Horrible Histories prolong and it was it meant that we came face to face with with the audience and when we arrived in you know cars on the morning of the prom we got mobbed out of the cars and they had to like they had to get they have to help us into the building tele unless you just don't know so you have this sense that you've read some good reviews and seen some people tweeting and saying this is great but so different when it's like oh there's a bunch of thousand people there all screaming it's insane it's insane it's so such fate that you were all brought together to do this and just luck well yeah that's famous I'm optimistic and believe in ghosts you're a scientific kind of guy I take it I'm just like it's all it's all random luck and you just have to wake up every morning and go oh great I didn't have a heart attack in the night here's enough I mean the thing about making it into the industry I think is personally motivation is like eight see 90% of it yeah you you have to believe in yourself and you have to keep on going even though you have those not backs like you think if you did you taking that advice from that first teacher what you know and just not what's really what what really moves me actually is just how little encouragement you needed you just needed that one woman to say how great you were and that's all you needed and I think that shows as well how sensitive this industry is and we're all just these terrified very fragile kind of china dolls and we don't want to put ourselves out there because I suppose you you have to completely bare your soul to do please say that people say you've got have a thick skin to be an actor and the truth is like yeah it would be nice to have a thick skin to weather the industry but you have to have a thin skin to be a good actor so it's not possible you know you haven't got some little vulnerable thing in you that's like I think this is the important thing to admit to yourself because that vulnerable place is the thing that makes you watchable know someone who's bulletproof confident so I'm gonna say I'm going to start with some questions I don't I didn't realize how long we've been talking we've got 20 minutes left BAM I've asked you that this would this really interested me this question by Deborah Armitage says what differences do you apply when writing to children all right in France um surprisingly few really yeah we just write what we think is funny and the way I like to talk about it but you know I've said this a few times in in interviews is that I what I quite like about writing for a family or pre watershed audience is that it's like having the teacher in the classroom it makes it she it makes stuff feel cheeky and like against the rules whereas if the teachers out of the room and anything goes it's like it doesn't make you as giggly yes the searching and that's so we like our thing and you'd like if you watch go so you're glad reading the stuff that we've done we're constantly trying to to push as as hard as we can against the barriers of what's acceptable for that audience and there's just a lot of cheek in so you know for example ghosts we have a politician who has no has only has the top half of his clothes on and you know it's obvious how that guy died it's not explicit and this this seems like where he'll reach up to get something and you just see one of the others go in seeing it yeah and I find it really fascinating quite how mature kids are when it comes to humor and stuff like I mean when we were Kate when Charlie and I were kids we could watch stuff like the royal family in the office and you think of stuff like the Simpsons that we grew up with that and how funny that was yeah and and I suppose I'm asking you to do I mean it is it a case of you don't talk down to kids you know it's just you can't it be the same as going like I'm gonna write a show people from Manchester and having an opinion on what people from Manchester think is funny as if it's different it's like you can only think something is funny yourself or not you know but that's the only criteria when you're writing comedy and then beyond that it's all the same stuff about whether the characters interesting whether the story is moving on and you know all of that but yeah in terms of yeah just just oh yeah never like I would never think to sort of say I don't find this funny but a kid would love it yes it's gonna be rubbish mixels them you know the reason those films are great is because then they've just made great films that kids can watch like there's no sense of like well this isn't for adults now oh my god say tree now well I'm sure you sit through it and as many Pixar film society and they and you can watch them again and again and again because they're they're really well-written and genuine masterpieces like have you seen on word yeah yeah we rented it the other day and we did like you know we made little cinema tickets at home I had to buy a packet of crisps from a multipack that I had I'm gonna carry on with these questions gonna try and pack as many as I can in and this is from the enchanted dog who asks is it possible for a completely untrained writer to write a good script definitely think a lot of without realizing it just have the the kind of the basic ideas of rules of screenwriting in their head from watching stuff and I think how I put it I think that I think the key thing is to be able I don't know to be able to listen to the idea if that doesn't sound to you wonky to be to be able to keep checking in with the thing that you're making and seeing if it's if it's turning up turning out where it wants to be I think like you can end up if you push too hard you can over complicate ideas but you know you might kind of go in that direction and it's like you're pushing it uphill yeah many the moment you stop and you'd go in this direction you find that it just it just bolts along what is it it knows where it wants to go no I know I know exactly what you mean I also find that a lot of people that started right as they start writing try and copy a style that's already out of other other work and I always think that because they think although that person has got experience so I'll use their work as a kind of template so I'll do I know this that they do dramas about a missing child and I'll do something about that first but it's quite you know it's a minefield because like one thing I would say is a lot of I think a lot of new or young writers get fixated on the idea that that's that that's the key is having a brilliant original idea and I think that's a bit of a fallacy because you don't need an original idea like I think it's more important that your voice is something different and original and if you're kind of if you find a way to be honest with the way you write then it can't not the original because it's you and no one else is you so if imitating someone helps you get started then it's maybe not a bad thing like I think the first things that I did were all probably pretty like strongly copying stuff I'd loved and I think over time there like stayed it's like stabilizers on a bike or something relating this now and I don't need that I don't need like I can stop pretending that I'm writing Monty Python or wherever admit that this is me and it's not quite what I thought it would be it turns out but it's me so you know and I think just it's I never did a creative writing court on a lesson or anything studied writing in any way I've just I've just I only started writing in order to have a show because I wanted to be an actor and then and then I loved it yeah and also and also meant I could write stuff for myself that I liked cuz moves so great a good script you like you must feel oh my god all the time base I'm always part for the same kind of characters where I'm like the angry waitress other yeah I mean it's just and you think I've seen this so many times and it's completely 2-dimensional it's late it's just lazy and you just think and that's why I get annoyed when that you say people say it's all about the idea and about the premise whereas I think the most important thing you do is you start with your characters like don't think I'll this would be great set in a chip shop do do your characters first and then figure out where they are and move on sorry get me questions if you okay so somebody's new purchases asked I'm just wondering if you have an idea and a basic outline and you want to start taking it further is it wise to keep it quiet is it common for ideas to be stolen and is there any way you can protect yourself from this so I think I mean like with I literally just spoke about how the idea in a way is not the important thing that's not to say you know there are that you do hear about ideas being nicked there's also a very real sense that like I because a completely original idea is a bit of a false notion that things similar things will come along at the same time like right now those of the inbetweeners guys have just released a football sitcom and there's also one that I think Apple TV have just made to football sitcoms but like I think it's been pretty hard to go I had the idea of doing a football because it's like why stick on with footballers so like you can't patent that yeah so I think it's kind of more important to get out there and talk to people especially if it's gonna help you develop an idea than to be worried about um you know is it going to be stolen because you know if someone stole the idea but couldn't couldn't write it whether it's not going to go anywhere anyway like the important thing is how you execute an idea not the idea itself I think yeah no I totally agree with that and I I think it's also like you said it I mean you think of stuff like when bug's life came out at the same time as ants and how completely you different those two films were or Megamind and Despicable Me come out at the same time make it there's so many different ways to interpret the same idea and I think this country being a mock convention we thought well the The Office has done it Charlie looks like Gareth from the office has the same haircut like it's just going to look like we're plagiarizing the shows exactly what we did like because I saw your taster that you've made it wasn't the idea that the BBC bought it was you and Charlie they didn't like you don't watch a taster and go oh my god a mockumentary about two people in a village in the country I need that idea you watch it and go those two are so funny and they've made this thing that's perfect for them that's what that's what they bawl they didn't buy the idea right almost lovely that you say that like it's not you know I don't think it's it's not like anyone reads a synopsis for something and goes oh my god you're not loving an idea for two hours you're loving characters and dialogue the idea is literally just an excuse to with which like it's the plate that you deliver the meal on it's not the meal right I'm gonna ask you and next question this is from we find a lot of the same questions different written in different ways do you have to go to a specific acting school or can you go to a university to get into the industry I mean yeah you spoke to trav about you know he studied law and then just got into it because he was doing plays and the drama society like I was paranoid when I first got an agent that because I hadn't trained as an actor apart from like clown school in Paris that I remember all all my first auditions sort of think like watching their eyes flick down to the CV on the table and thinking I'm just like what am I doing here they're just gonna see my background and you know I thought if you hadn't been too rather then but it turns out that what I found is they're actually they producers directed love to see people who whose story is not that you know it can be great to have gone to those places if it works for you it's also great if you're a 40 something person who had a completely different life story and is now doing the acting thing you know it really doesn't matter what your background is it's like you know the roots into the industry it's really I know people kind of would love in palance's about about how to get in and I'd love to be able to give that but there's so many ways that people get into it and it really doesn't matter which way you took and there's people who haven't trained in any way shape or form and there's films that get cast by it you know Shane Meadows and you know this that there's directors who actively Andrea Arnold who look for people who haven't done any acting before and I love that and I love when you see like kids do a brilliant performance in a film or something because it absolutely gives the lie to to all of the that we that many of us persuade ourselves about the craft yes yes yes eight-year-old can you know like what everyone watching this when he finished YouTube the Elliott et audition have you seen it no I'm gonna write that down it's just it's the kid it's the kid getting the job free tea and he's doing like an improv and they're saying so the the the setup is you know that they're taking the alien away and you don't want him you don't want him to go and this kid is just in the fantasy he's just playing make-believe so beautifully and at the end of it Spielberg's like kid you got the job you know okay that's a kid like really we can tell ourselves so much about what makes good acting but ultimately it's just are you really really in the moment playing my god that is so lovely to hear you say that because I believe them I think you either have it or you don't and I and I think there are ways to make it better but if you don't have it then I don't think there's any way to teach somebody how to guess it and I like yeah find what's helpful for you is you know there's stuff that I've there's as I've experienced who are really helpful others who completely aren't there's books I've read that are really helpful in books I've read that aren't it's like whatever feeds you inspiration and fantasy whatever makes you go I love it you know and the stuff that doesn't or that makes you feel more anxious just forget it as we go round that up now what would be your biggest piece of advice that you give to anybody that's wanting to get into the industry I would say I might try and do a few really quick yes Brighton might rev said write letters this is so easy to just write to people and it was so great to see that Trevor literally got jobs by doing that and I got to go and spend that time with that director who turned out to be the first person to cast me in anything and then the person who directed my Edinburgh shows and you know that just came from writing a letter and saying please can I come and watch so so write letters for sure if you're right when you want to write I think find people whose opinions you trust and make peace with criticism like I think the hardest thing when you start with writing is that you like we're all inherently lazy and when you get criticism onto here are the ones that go is perfect you don't need to touch it will be the best make the best thing you can make then the most useful thing in the world is someone whose opinions you trust saying you could improve it here here and here and hit and this is my opinion on how yes and you agree but you might learn you might kind of go well you're wrong about how to fix it but if I'm honest you're right that there's a problem there and I'm gonna fix this instead but and that that is so important being able to take on notes from people that you trust but also figuring out who those people are who are giving you notes that you need to completely ignore because there are Teli producers who think that their writers animal first version of this country where you got like all the wrong notes right and it went all in the wrong direction and but you know the the the lesson from that process was like I'm sure when you made it the next time around you knew exactly what you wanted yeah I mean it probably wouldn't you probably wouldn't have been as sure I'm guessing but maybe not as strident and confident about this is how it should be done because we did that but let me like find people who you trust and are like actively look for criticism yes another thing I'd say I would say is I think like we all watch stuff that we love and find inspiration in it but it can also make you feel like what's the point you just if you're just watching stuff that you think is mastered then every time you open that document you are just gonna go oh I'm not like you no I'm not Amanda Iannucci so why am i bothering this this is a piece of advice is watch crap fight like open just find some time to to watch stuff that you think he's feel like it would just make you feel like you deserve that place that you were looking for in the industry what is I think it just it just puts you back in touch with that feeling of like well come on if that can get commissioned but if you're only watching the stuff you think is amazing it can I think he can like wake you and just it can it can give you that sort of feeling of like just let's just stop [Laughter] before but absolutely of course course you should watch it that's what inspires you're motivated to give it a shot yeah hundred percent it's yeah so I can't I can't think of anything else really wow just what okay the one last thing I say is whatever the thing is that you're working on finish it because that is 99% of people who say they're gonna write something don't finish it so you've already put yourself in the top top god-tier of people who want to be writers just by finishing something and I'm saying that to myself as well oh my god Wow I'm this has been I've learned more from this it's amazing you're amazing thank you so to talk to you kids on with our partners and go out for a drink or something it how I need a drink no no because I'm preggers so I can it's killing me but I mean I think they much amazing that's amazing and I'm going to ask you why you're live would you come back and do another session that would be amazing fabulous I think it's really fantastic and I think like people are getting a huge amount out of it I think it can feel like such a close shot and like such another world and it really it is an industry that sort of has a problem with access and stuff but it does also have a lot of a lot of desire to find foot new voices I think yeah and then there's no way of bridging that gap between broadcasters and production companies they're desperate for new talent but and new talent trying to get with production companies and broadcast it's just it seems like it's mental and it seems like they'd rather be nice the only thing I can think of is like BBC writers room but they have some way of bridging the gap yeah I that the only scheme I kind of know about in terms of script writing I know that there is one Andy Riley who writes a lot of great stuff for my rights on V and things like that he's doing a kind of mentoring scheme which he's done for several years which specifically aimed at bein writers who want new bein writers who want to kind of have mentorship so if anyone watching this would fit then look up Andy Riley yeah enough there's not enough schemes like BBC writers room there should be should be more well I was talking to Tom Davis and try maybe we'll try it like I said to get a platform up you know and just try and get as many people involved in it to encourage people and to try and yes but make it get people into the industry somehow and but thank you so much thank you and we'll definitely do that dream once this Bay is that but I mean if you're free in a couple of weeks do another session that would be amazing yeah how's that all right and my laughs it's been a pleasure thank you all for watching and yeah see you next week

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Views: 9,573

Rating: 4.9764013 out of 5

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Id: MAWVAcEk9C4

Length: 67min 54sec (4074 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 12 2020