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John Simm Interview
John Simm | TV Projects | Music | Life on Mars | Playing Van GoghPlaying Van Gogh
Am I right in thinking that you had to crash diet for this role?
I did yeah but I can't notice any difference when I've seen bits of it. But I did lose loads of weight after Life on Mars – it should have been life on Mars Bars by the end! Very unhealthy living – it was just get up, go to work and come back and all you could eat was catering all day. So I went on a mad diet and I lost about a stone in about a week. But it was great – it did my head in a little bit, everything was a little bit trippy which was good for playing Van Gogh. I was literally living on black coffee and I was just kind of flying a little bit.
So you weren’t doing a Van Gogh-style the absinthe diet?
No, I've done that. I've tried that diet!
The drama concentrates on a very brief period of Van Gogh's life – why that period specifically?
Well it's the nine weeks that he spent in Arles with Gauguin and I don't think it's really been covered very much and it's such an incredibly important period of time as far as art goes. Van Gogh had this idea of creating a studio of the south where all these artists would go and congregate and work. It only ended up being him and Gauguin. He begged Gauguin to come down so he wasn't on his own and bearing in mind Van Gogh had bi-polar disorder – he was a manic depressive – obviously he didn't know that then. He needed somebody there but he was such a strange little man and he and Gauguin were totally different characters that they just clashed, but within that clash they created some of the most important works of art ever. They created some incredible work and the film culminates when he slices his ear off. Two years after that he's in mental home and then he kills himself so it's the beginning of the end really for him.
I did yeah but I can't notice any difference when I've seen bits of it. But I did lose loads of weight after Life on Mars – it should have been life on Mars Bars by the end! Very unhealthy living – it was just get up, go to work and come back and all you could eat was catering all day. So I went on a mad diet and I lost about a stone in about a week. But it was great – it did my head in a little bit, everything was a little bit trippy which was good for playing Van Gogh. I was literally living on black coffee and I was just kind of flying a little bit.
So you weren’t doing a Van Gogh-style the absinthe diet?
No, I've done that. I've tried that diet!
The drama concentrates on a very brief period of Van Gogh's life – why that period specifically?
Well it's the nine weeks that he spent in Arles with Gauguin and I don't think it's really been covered very much and it's such an incredibly important period of time as far as art goes. Van Gogh had this idea of creating a studio of the south where all these artists would go and congregate and work. It only ended up being him and Gauguin. He begged Gauguin to come down so he wasn't on his own and bearing in mind Van Gogh had bi-polar disorder – he was a manic depressive – obviously he didn't know that then. He needed somebody there but he was such a strange little man and he and Gauguin were totally different characters that they just clashed, but within that clash they created some of the most important works of art ever. They created some incredible work and the film culminates when he slices his ear off. Two years after that he's in mental home and then he kills himself so it's the beginning of the end really for him.
Did he kill himself because of his awful dentistry?
I know his teeth were bad weren't they? He had famously bad teeth – he looked like he had wooden teeth, all black and rotten – awful. He was constantly pipe smoking and the director really wanted that in.
So you were down in the South of France for the filming were you?
Yeah we filmed for a week in Arles.
The recreations of the pictures looked, to my untrained eye, extremely good – did you have ex-criminal art forgers doing it for you?
[Laughs] They were amazing. They are incredible recreations. I didn't meet the woman who did them, but they're remarkable.
Did you get to keep any of them? Well I've been promised The Chair but I've not got it yet! The Chair is mine but I just need to get hold of it!
You've done the acting and the singing but if we are talking about the art, what's your painting like?
I haven't done a lot of painting. I was quite good at it at school but my dad is an artist so I've always been around it – I've always been around canvases. I was really into it but as I grew up and everything took over I didn't really pursue it. I can draw quite well but I don't know I haven't tried painting for quite a while.
Van Gogh is the latest in a long line of really quite dark characters for you – some actors say they find it a quite draining mentally, emotionally difficult process playing a role like that. Do you find that you are unaffected or does it take its toll a bit sometimes?
To me they’re the most interesting parts. It does take its toll sometimes but you have to learn and I know to leave it at the door as soon as you've finished – as soon as you've wrapped. If I came home as Raskolnikov or Van Gogh I'd be in trouble and I think actors that can't leave it alone are missing something. As dark as you want to get it's up to you, and I do sometimes, but as long as I can leave it at the door it's fine. Those are the most enjoyable parts for me to do definitely.
I know his teeth were bad weren't they? He had famously bad teeth – he looked like he had wooden teeth, all black and rotten – awful. He was constantly pipe smoking and the director really wanted that in.
So you were down in the South of France for the filming were you?
Yeah we filmed for a week in Arles.
The recreations of the pictures looked, to my untrained eye, extremely good – did you have ex-criminal art forgers doing it for you?
[Laughs] They were amazing. They are incredible recreations. I didn't meet the woman who did them, but they're remarkable.
Did you get to keep any of them? Well I've been promised The Chair but I've not got it yet! The Chair is mine but I just need to get hold of it!
You've done the acting and the singing but if we are talking about the art, what's your painting like?
I haven't done a lot of painting. I was quite good at it at school but my dad is an artist so I've always been around it – I've always been around canvases. I was really into it but as I grew up and everything took over I didn't really pursue it. I can draw quite well but I don't know I haven't tried painting for quite a while.
Van Gogh is the latest in a long line of really quite dark characters for you – some actors say they find it a quite draining mentally, emotionally difficult process playing a role like that. Do you find that you are unaffected or does it take its toll a bit sometimes?
To me they’re the most interesting parts. It does take its toll sometimes but you have to learn and I know to leave it at the door as soon as you've finished – as soon as you've wrapped. If I came home as Raskolnikov or Van Gogh I'd be in trouble and I think actors that can't leave it alone are missing something. As dark as you want to get it's up to you, and I do sometimes, but as long as I can leave it at the door it's fine. Those are the most enjoyable parts for me to do definitely.
