It would be easy to resent a man for whom so much has gone right but Simm wears his success lightly, and is down to earth, unaffected, and warm. Here, he talks about Manchester United, bad teeth, and owning his own Van Gogh painting - sort of...
TV Projects
You've been in some of the most acclaimed TV shows over the last few years. Is it luck or are you very selective about the projects you take on?
'I'm very selective – once I got to a point where I could be selective I was very selective. I look at the writing – that's got to be really good. I don't know – many factors come into it. Whether it's something I've done before, whether it pushes me, whether it interests me... all sorts of things. It's mainly the writing. If it's a great story and great writing then I'm interested.'
As a fan, what kind of things have you enjoyed on TV in recent years?
'To be honest I don't really watch that much TV – I know that's insane but it's true. With children, my little boy monopolises the telly.'
So it's a constant diet of Balamory?
'We've gone past that – although we've just had another one so I think we'll get that all again, but he's on Star Wars and Superman and stuff like that which is great. I've literally seen all the Star Wars films about 300 times! Curb Your Enthusiasm I liked that. I watched all of them. That's the one thing I've watched all of.
'I liked Bleak House – I thought that was brilliant and The Street by Jimmy McGovern. I watch stuff by Jimmy McGovern, Paul Abbott, Abi Morgan and Tony Marchant. They're writers that I respect and work with. One of the greatest things I've seen in recent times was No Direction Home, the Bob Dylan thing – that was great.'
Music
You are very into your music aren't you? Would you have rather been a musician than an actor?
'I get this question a lot – I was a musician, I am a musician. You can buy my album on iTunes!'
Oh really? I read that you'd split up.
'Yeah we did but we released an album so it's all out there now. The album's got great reviews on iTunes. It's had a couple of reviews in The Times and The Guardian and stuff like that so it's pretty good – I wouldn't have put it out if it was rubbish.
'We did two tours with Echo and the Bunnymen, I've played the Royal Festival Hall, Manchester Apollo, Brixton Academy, I've been on stage with New Order, I've been on Ian McCulloch's solo album. So I've got no regrets on that side of my life at all. I couldn't possibly have – I'm very, very lucky.'
I also read that you are a massive ballet fan is that true?
'I wouldn't say I was a massive ballet fan, but I go. I like to go, because ballet is so alien to me, like it's so not my thing, that I just find it all incredible. If I go to the theatre it's kind of like a busman's holiday for me. If there's somebody in the play that I think is a bit dodgy then it ruins it.
'It's like when you're watching films or anything – because I'm an actor if somebody is even slightly crap I pick up on it and think "oh they're crap" and the whole thing, the whole illusion, is ruined.'
So if you had a choice between spending an evening watching Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo or Darcey Bussell which would it be?
'Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo – let's not get hysterical!'
Life on Mars
Life on Mars has probably seen your level of fame really go through the roof. What's that experience been like?
'Do you know what, I haven't really noticed any difference ever since The Lakes and Human Traffic. The Lakes was 10 years ago so I've sort of had it for 10 years on and off and you get levels of it – it goes up and down.
'If you are on telly at the time you get loads of fan mail and you get loads of recognition. If you aren't, you get it every so often. I still get people stopping me - it doesn't really change for me. I don't like the fame thing at all. I'm just really used to it. It's a weird thing, it's a strange thing.'
Life on Mars is one of the more glossy and populist things you've done and The Yellow House is anything but – would you say that was part of the reason you took it?
'No I would have taken that any time – at any point in my career. To play Vincent Van Gogh – no way am I going to turn that down.'
I read that you rather improbably spent the best part of an entire day on a stag do queuing to get in to the Van Gogh museum.
'Well that was the day after the night out and there was a horrendous queue. I never made it – I gave up because my hangover was too bad! But yeah I was desperate to go. I love Van Gogh – I've always loved Van Gogh. It's one of those parts that I'd compare to when I played Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment – it's a gift for me, and like New Order in 24 Hour Party People.
'I'm a big fan of all those things. I love Crime and Punishment the book, I love New Order and I love Van Gogh and so I'm very lucky in that way and I kind of think wow if I get this chance then I'm going to do it.'
So essentially the only thing next for you is to get cast as playing Eric Cantona or something and then you've done it all?
'Ryan Giggs is probably more likely!'
Playing 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 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 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, bearing in mind Van Gogh had bi-polar disorder – he was a manic depressive – but obviously he didn't know that then. He needed somebody there but he was such a strange little man. 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 a 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 quite a draining, emotional and 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.'
