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Stephen Mangan
Stephen Mangan has made a highly successful career playing loveable rogues, from Green Wing's libidinous Dr Guy Valerie Secretan, the infamous Dan Moody in Alan Partridge and Josef in 2006's improvised comedy Confetti.
But now he's turned his hand to something new in Col Spector's indie comedy, Someone Else. Mangan plays David, a photographer who ditches his three-year relationship with girlfriend Lisa (Susan Lynch) on the possibility there’s someone else out there, but discovers the grass isn’t always greener...People probably best know you as Dr Guy Secretan, have you always been a comic actor?
I didn't think so to start with, I saw myself very much in tights and swords and shouting at people and then I realised seeing me doing that was probably more funny than it should've been! I think Someone Else was great because it's great to play parts where you can do a bit of both; make 'em laugh, make 'em cry – that's the dream!
I didn't think so to start with, I saw myself very much in tights and swords and shouting at people and then I realised seeing me doing that was probably more funny than it should've been! I think Someone Else was great because it's great to play parts where you can do a bit of both; make 'em laugh, make 'em cry – that's the dream!
Is that what appealed to you about Someone Else?
Well, firstly we'd originally done a short film probably oh God, five years ago called New Year's Eve about a guy who gatecrashes a party and bumps into this young woman who he flirts with only to discover she's only fifteen, and gets kicked out by the host who is also the girl's uncle. When we did it Keira Knightley played the fifteen year old, and she was in the middle of her A-Levels at the time so you'd do a take and turn around and she'd be doing her French A-Level revision.
We really liked it and Col who wrote it was very keen to take that idea a bit further so he rewrote it with that scene in it, expanded David's character, and it was all done with me in mind which is always very nice as an actor, to get a director and a writer working to your strengths!
In the twelve months before I'd shot the first series of Green Wing, Festival and Confetti. The directors of Festival and Confetti had both seen Green Wing and enjoyed Guy's arrogant bastard character, so the parts they were offering me weren't a million miles away from him, and Someone Else was such a different kind of part, that really appealed as well...
Well, firstly we'd originally done a short film probably oh God, five years ago called New Year's Eve about a guy who gatecrashes a party and bumps into this young woman who he flirts with only to discover she's only fifteen, and gets kicked out by the host who is also the girl's uncle. When we did it Keira Knightley played the fifteen year old, and she was in the middle of her A-Levels at the time so you'd do a take and turn around and she'd be doing her French A-Level revision.
We really liked it and Col who wrote it was very keen to take that idea a bit further so he rewrote it with that scene in it, expanded David's character, and it was all done with me in mind which is always very nice as an actor, to get a director and a writer working to your strengths!
In the twelve months before I'd shot the first series of Green Wing, Festival and Confetti. The directors of Festival and Confetti had both seen Green Wing and enjoyed Guy's arrogant bastard character, so the parts they were offering me weren't a million miles away from him, and Someone Else was such a different kind of part, that really appealed as well...
David's not as loveable is Guy is he?
No but he's more three-dimensional; he's in a loving, great relationship with this woman played by Susan Lynch, and everything's going fine but he panics and thinks, "Is this it? If I commit to this woman even though I love her and want to be with her, maybe I’ve maybe there's someone else out there who is the devastating love of my life?"
I think that's probably more honest about relationships than a lot of films are, I think a lot of people have that panic but whether they act in the same way he does is a different matter. I mean it's classic 'bloke'; he has an affair with someone and he leaves his girlfriend, and then his new girlfriend leaves him, and he's thrust into the hectic and difficult world of single dating which is sometimes great and sometimes not, and he's not too great at it.
No but he's more three-dimensional; he's in a loving, great relationship with this woman played by Susan Lynch, and everything's going fine but he panics and thinks, "Is this it? If I commit to this woman even though I love her and want to be with her, maybe I’ve maybe there's someone else out there who is the devastating love of my life?"
I think that's probably more honest about relationships than a lot of films are, I think a lot of people have that panic but whether they act in the same way he does is a different matter. I mean it's classic 'bloke'; he has an affair with someone and he leaves his girlfriend, and then his new girlfriend leaves him, and he's thrust into the hectic and difficult world of single dating which is sometimes great and sometimes not, and he's not too great at it.
Given he's a total bastard, who much are you willing to say you brought to the character?
Ha ha ha! I think I've contributed more than my fair share to the mountain to relationship blunders! I mean I got married this year, so it's taken me a while and also our generation is encouraged to go out and get careers, so we've spent more time flapping about. I've been there, I'm no expert!
Ha ha ha! I think I've contributed more than my fair share to the mountain to relationship blunders! I mean I got married this year, so it's taken me a while and also our generation is encouraged to go out and get careers, so we've spent more time flapping about. I've been there, I'm no expert!
