Monty Python’s Eric Idle Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

so um I'm not an actor at all I'm really a writer who just acts cajon me to create a character all you have to do is really get the hare rights the costume right but I'm a star Sean and then get the voice right that's I think caricature acting not real emotional acting on Monty Python's Flying Circus what was really good about it is I was actually with Cleese who's an impeccable actor Michael Palin who's a very very good actor Chapman is an real natural actor and Terry Jones who was a very good comic actor so when you're in a group you saw copying or you you're lifted up by their performances and that encourages you to go a bit further and be more confident in doing what you're doing and this was one of the first things I actually auditioned for the Pythons Reid audition on sketches it was sort of based on two things there was vivian stanshall from the Bonzo Dog doo-dah band would always do a bit of that and also there was a character in my pub her time called Monty was why we named the show Monty actually his little bowtie and he's very jolly whose life and soul of the party it's a very popular character it was played on American television when we recorded it in 1973 on The Midnight Special and Elvis called everybody's Squire because of that sketch which is amazing to me I just nearly died when I found that out I was just love that now I mean sky hey so an Elvis used to do Python sketch is in bed with his girlfriend Linda Thompson at night including the Pepper Potts idea oh if only there was footage the richest sketch I wrote with John Cleese and wrong the rare things I wrote with John it occurred to me a lot of Australians were called Bruce because I have a lot of Australian friends unless the idea at everybody's call Bruce it's kind of fun when everybody talks the same when everybody's call the same I think the best thing that it turned into a song the Philosopher's song which I really liked I think I think I had the most fun at the Hollywood Bowl when I played that character because we I could ad-lib in that character you know Bruce and I said you know look at this - Hollywood Bowl it's a typical Hollywood crowd all the kids are on drugs and all the adults are on rollerskates was true of that time that's a sketch written by John and Graham I wrote the second half of it and it gets into a long rant which I really love the rats it goat I used to I had to learn it so it was page after page either he won't stop talking I'm Michael Palin Spencer all the interviews trying to stop him talking shut up go away I like smoke too much it was very good I could do that up to about the age of 65 or 62 then he's just just like oh I can't do this monologue any longer is about 10 minute monologue I think Python pretty largely was about television it was on television and it was about television it was reflected all the sort of shows that were on television and the money program was a real program and it said the money program money talking about money Deutsche Mark and and he just then gets up and goes into this beautiful song and dance and all these singers come on dressed as Welsh ladies for reasons and I don't think there are any reasons and I write I think almost the first song I did on Python I kind of enjoyed doing that song I like that song the ruffles which was called all you need is cash the world's first mockumentary by the way I had done a clip of the Rutles for the song Neil Innes roads and they played it on Saturday Night Live when I first did it in about 76 maybe and it's a bit I'd written it's about that means if you're talking very sincerely to camera and he's talking and the camera starts to move away any moves towards it as they do and you keep walking walking and then the camera would go faster and faster for us and ended up running down the street and then Lorne Michaels said to me what are you doing this I said well I think that might make a whole documentary I'm doing on BBC two and he said no make it for NBC with me and you'll get a much bigger budget it was fun I got Neil Innes to write 12 new Beatles songs I didn't have a lead I didn't have a Paul and so I sort of backed into playing that role as well so I didn't really want to but when I did it was interesting to study Paul I think his wife and liked it the most Lynda loved that performance because he's look he's playing with his eyes of his to shoot me down in flames if I could tell them that so it's really a parody of documentary style talking people talk variously to camera and they emphasize words that wouldn't normally be emphasized they talk like that why I don't know and it was later used by stolen by The Simpsons which I didn't exactly say manner he's supposed to making documentaries talking to camera about the Simpsons well if you want I can cut you out of the film No it was fun playing the Beatles I mean it was really fun getting dressing up in the streets and running around and I liked that it was the most probably on the most fun times to have a hand filming the Holy Grail was the most miserable time I mean it was awful we're up in Scotland the day before we went filming the Scottish National Commission of something decided we were not allowed to use their castles any of them so we were stuck with one castle called dune castle which we shot from every single bloody act which was in private hand and now it's a tourist trap you can go there and go into every scene from the Holy Grail they've got it all set up which I'm very happy for I think it's funny because it was unpleasant and I think uncomfortable is very good for comedy and not enough money is excellent for comedy I think that was just a cadence I heard bring it you're dead you know bring bring it you did the dead collector so you haven't even have a name she a lot of our characters are man number three person in queue man with hair on fire please had the funniest because he's bringing out this man on his shoulder so it's kind of against or two people Hagley impress somebody else did they want to throw on the cards and I think the only good thing about the dead collectors I actually have one of the very few genuine ad-libs in Python somebody said who's that then I said he's a king I said why is that oh I remember and that was a genuine ad-lib because we were writers we didn't run a live on our film scene there might you write that do the script we each got to play a knight and mine was Sir Robin and he's just basically a coward it's kind of fun to play a coward you know I think it's quite nice because I wrote that song bravely bolster Robin Ponca I'm a lot from this day enjoying this and he was not at all afraid to have his legs legs capped off and his bottom burned out he's like one of those things you're gonna just reveal growing unhappiness with the song so Robin had a thing I wrote which is not very good it's like a three-headed night but they're bickering all the time it didn't make the musical oh yes this is my favorite and that scene is all one take that's why it's funny please says always the funniest thing is stupidity the mic is saying right Scott stay here and I'll come back in a minute and mine just is very stupid not to leave the room until you or anybody had not anybody else so he's trying to understand his north country he's from the Yorkshire but he can't really understand the instructions just to stay here just just playing stupid this is all it is and it's delicious fun to play and Graham all he's doing it's big this is just as Hicks but he times them so perfectly it never treads on a laugh it never turns on a line and it's how not to upstage people it's a perfect lesson in that nearly departed which was very quickly departed well I remember very little this it was a sitcom they came to me so would you play a ghost who haunts this place we did it for a bit and it wasn't very funny and I said to them look the only way this would be funny is if this was a black family and their haunted by this awful English professor white guy hanging around I'll be funny then I said well we can't do that no we can't do that it's America I think that was what was wrong with her the script there wasn't enough conflict there has to be real conflict to be funny I think it only lasted about six and I think the only broadcast about three I'm not going to sit calm I hate it I'm no good at it I've done it twice and both times it was disastrous so don't ask me okay I won't do it the life of Brian came out of an ad-lib I made when a journalist asked me what our next movie was going to be I said Jesus Christ lust for glory John Cleese said I think that's very interesting nobody's ever been funny about religion who read the Dead Sea Scrolls we studied texts we studied terrible Hollywood movies you know surely this man is the son of God and so our movies a kind of parody of a Hollywood biblical epic and we realized we couldn't really write about JC because there's nothing you can complain about it man saying you know blessed are the poor feed and help people there was something more interesting about exploring what followers of a religion do both to the religion and to the people they follow and how unhealthy that becomes well mr. cheeky is based on our sparks the electric lighting guys there's some people you want in the trenches nothing would get them down so we wrote this sort of character mr. cheat he's got based on that you know they said crucifixion he says now now they said I could go free and live on an island somewhere now I'm Andy pulling your leg it's a crucifixion really we've ended the film with a song which I'd written and I done the demo and it wasn't very good it was like some things in life are better and they can really was sung very straight and rather boringly and I realized that the song should be sung by the character I was playing because he's been crucified now some things you know if I Bank I can really monument is much funnier because it's giving an ironic background to the song wise look on the bright side [Music] I think this is amazing how prescient Stan aka Loretta is because he's a transgender person appearing suddenly in the life of Brian I realized that I would have to play it very sincerely and that he'd have to mean that I want to be a woman I want to have a baby it has to be believable he has to want to have a baby I said well where you're gonna keep the fetus you're gonna keep it in a box where is it going to gestate don't you oppress me I'm not pressing you stand it deals with I think from 1978 it's very germane at the particular at this moment in time John Dupree and I after Spamalot we adapted the life of Brian as an oratorio and so we wrote a song called I want to be a girl for Stan which is very sweet and very tender I want to be a girl Mike Nichols who was a very severe about this would always say to the actors you must believe in what you're doing because if you don't believe in it why would you expect the audience to and I said Mike you're talking about the Knights who say me who nevertheless they must believe how the Knights Hussaini The Adventures of Baron Munchausen six months of Hell under Gilliam you know there's a disaster we drove down from France and they said oh we've delayed the shooting two weeks you know well couldn't you've told us we're here now and it was one of those films where everything went wrong just absolutely everything he didn't have enough money it was made in three languages and Italian English and Spanish you know I say in my book I would rather go back to boarding school than back in to Munchausen and they shaved my head every day this is great Gilliam lights and if I shave my head he'd shave his lire I show man he said good that's fine uh there were three ages and sometimes you'd be made up for three hours first thing in the morning and you turn at me oh no no no you're supposed to be young today he likes to create chaos because he's an animator and he's only happy when there's chaos and he's solving it but for the rest of us who are the chaos it was not so much fun I don't remember very much about that character except when I tried on the costume they had these huge thighs I said the Wardrobe lady it looks like he's got no dick get me an artificial dick and she knitted one and stuck it in there so I thought that was the motivation with this character your big thighs and a huge dick I kept the dick by the way I have that dick still being Italian they'd also knitted the ball so it's really nice the cat saw destiny CATSA which i think means and it's our him [Music] Kaspar I think Spielberg produced it and they asked me if I'd be in this movie it's a special-effects film so there's hours of waiting around which you remember more than the actual acting bits because it's much longer and I don't remember much about dibs I don't think I've seen it for a while you were playing the boyfriend they want a wannabe boyfriend of Kathy Moriarty I think and this is dibs but I don't remember very much about the movie at all actually except you know there were some nice people around Alan Smithee is the name that the guild put on a film when the directors taken his name off it and so I was playing Alan Smithee the eponymous director and what he does in the stories he steals the film he just steals it and runs away with it and the first cut was shot quite quite interesting it's directed by Arthur Hiller who directed love story and he has Ryan O'Neal in it with me I was Bruce Willis in it you know he had real people in it all over the place and it was some semi documentary but Arthur Hiller tried to make it real he tried to put motion in which I thought was a very right way to go with it until they fired him so Alice smithy became the director of the Alan Smithee film i rather disappointed because I didn't get a Razzie nomination and it got five Razzie nominations I think he won all five as the worst film worst director worst script but I was disappointed I didn't even get a nomination I'll get it one day honey i shrunk the audience it's a 4d film which means that it's filmed in 3d you're wearing glasses but everything happens in the building special theater for all these effects about 25 minute film Rick Moranis was in it we shot it and it was kind of interesting as you had to do it with long takes like a play because they were adding in all the special effects then I got to write one which was the Pirates in 4d with Leslie Nielsen and I wrote some jokes you know what the pigeons go overhead and they they drop water on people's heads and they think they're going poop on the heads yeah we shot that one in Puerto Rico it was really great fun I'm not a pirate ship because Leslie insisted I was in the movie or he wouldn't do it and so he had a lot of fun the meaning of life we had the most trouble with because we didn't know what it was about I always run Python we didn't know what we were doing we just said well let's just start writing and see something emerges and so we start writing bits and pieces and it became about an expedition to Afghanistan World War three sponsored by advertising and you know it has many good bits and pieces but we couldn't for the life of us determine what was the the film is about I said I think what this could be about is the meaning of life and they all kind of like that because that applies to almost everything it's got some a great parts which is still very offensive I'm happy to say vomiting and blood liver donors there's a couple more scenes missing of that character because I I remember a scene just you know doesn't matter the ER lost a leg quite a fight you good then yes beauty isn't it he's very indifferent to pain and then later on I think there was as Laura seen you all right yes yes I'm cheating about a lot he said okay yeah it's just being a bit horny he's lost his leg but he's really the about has made him horny I don't know well they still have that some of the things got lost maybe it's in the app takes I don't know heads at the tiger michaël of the back end routines I like that because it's about lying we were coming down through ages I just take a lift on the back there's a pro Czarist a shanty chief know why you really hit and they won't they never tell you why they're there dressed as a tiger so it's a perfect Python thing the whole thing is talking about why are you dressed as a tiger and never explaining it this is all about being funny avoiding answering the question why you're dressed as a tiger doesn't matter why they're dressed as a tiger have they got my leg I think Gaston was a gift from Terry Jones Terry Jones was directing the whole film this time he gave me two parts I think one was Gaston and one was the Protestant wife who we've had sex twice and we've got two children very sweet playing little northern lady because I'm from the north yeah I like those little voices Gaston was like French you know French waiter come with me come with me there's a big long lead in we take him all over the bloody place and he starts to abuse the camera and the audience is it's it's a gag on the audience so it's nice off well the man in pink isn't really a character he sings the galaxy song which is one of my favorite songs it's all right with John Duprey and I'd written all these lyrics about the universe and the size of it and the scale of it and well who who was gonna sing it and then I thought well I'll wear something extravagant so I got a pink outfit made and I think we got a silvery wig and he only talks he just sings it's not a lot in the character hurt so much as the the song delivering the song properly which is kind of sweet he takes Terry Jones off into the universe and since although Lady and brings her back we're 30,000 light-years from galactic central point evil right so we said those aren't the facts and I say they're not the facts anymore all right the facking they work in 1982 and they were the facts then it's science has changed its mind not me I get a lot of from Professor Brian Cox he's a particle physicist and cosmologist and so he's always giving me saying that's not the true facts and I did a gag with him in o2 where I got him run over by Stephen Hawking which is my favorite thing ever it's one major physicist running over another one it is wheelchair I don't look for characters I fired my acting agent 20 years ago so I don't want to be in films I hate it I'm a writer that's what I like to do I like to think things up write characters and get other people to do them and that's much more fun [Music]

Channel: GQ

Views: 1,838,074

Rating: 4.9652052 out of 5

Keywords: iconic, monty python, monty python and the holy grail, iconic characters, eric idle, the life of brian, life of brian, monty python's flying circus, eric idle career, eric idle interview, eric idle gq, eric idle characters, monty python characters, eric idle 2018, eric idle iconcic characters, eric idle iconic, eric idle monty python, eric idle movies, holy grail, eric idle simpsons, always look on the bright side of life, gq, gq magazine

Id: Qbchmshpsz0

Length: 20min 27sec (1227 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 02 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Theres_A_FAP_4_That]

Fuck off, we are the Judean People's Front.

[u/tsdguy]

Life of Brian is now available on Netflix along with a lot of Python material.

[u/eghhge]

Biggus Dickus

[u/Musk-Generation42]

“I don’t think it ought to be blasphemy, just saying Jehovah.”

The Life of Brian Interview with a Preacher and a Priest is also very funny. The religious think the film is about Jesus Christ, but the movie is focused on the followers of religion, how they behave and their tendency to screen out conflicting views.

https://youtu.be/CeKWVuye1YE

[u/Duhpe]

Now that's what I call a god!

[u/EquinoxEventHorizon]

You lucky bastard. You lucky, lucky bastard. Proper little jailor’s pet aren’t we? You must have slipped him a few sheckles, eh?

Slipped him a few sheckles?! You saw him spit in my face!

Aww what I’d give to be spat at in aface! There’s been nights I’ve dreamed of being spat at in aface!

😂