Interview with Paul Bentall (Frank)
Category: Press Pack ArticleHave you seen Generation Z?
I have, and I was really impressed by it. It's an extraordinary, good piece of work. Scary, but quite accurate about the world at the moment. That sense of chaos and lack of control is in the back of everybody's minds, and it's quite a relief, in a peculiar way, to have it brought into the conversation instead of having this sense of denial that it's all absolutely fine. We've got Covid under control, there aren't going to be any more of those, we know what we're doing. No, you have absolutely no idea what's going on or how to deal with any of it. This show is saying: we made a mess and we do not know how to clear it up.
What were your initial feelings about the script?
Terror! Partly because most of my work as an actor has been in the theatre so I haven't done a huge amount of telly. It's the biggest TV role I've ever had, although I spend more time in prosthetics than anything else. I've never seen a zombie movie and I don’t know anything about the genre, but friends of mine thought it was a fantastic thing to be doing, so I figured I’d do it and see how it was. Then there was the prospect of working with people like Sue Johnston (playing Cecily), Anita Dobson (playing Janine) and Robert Lindsay (playing Morgan), so you knew it was proper. I didn't really know anything about Ben Wheatley, but my daughter, who is also an actress, thought very highly of him, and there is a long historical line of this sort of violence and extremity in drama, from Jacobean drama all the way back to the Romans. I did a play called Thyestes in the 1970s by the Roman writer Seneca, in which the king is fed his own son in a pie, so there was a strange circularity about it.
How did you enjoy the experience of working with Ben?
I loved working with him. He is incredibly encouraging and there’s a looseness in the scripts, so if you make a mistake, he’s not going to be correcting you straight away. It was joyous. The whole process was cathartic: if you're biting somebody's neck and you've got blood all over your face, you find yourself laughing. We did scenes which were so violent and bloody that the whole room was in fits by the end. It's very odd because you're talking about something completely horrific, but the only response is to laugh.
How did you get on with the makeup and the flesh-eating?
The whole process of getting the make-up on was very pleasant – I even fell asleep in the chair on occasion. They’re extraordinarily skilled and I found it very calming. The more relaxed you are, the quicker they are as well, so they can really be accurate. In terms of getting bloody, it’s like going for a swim. As soon as you take the plunge and you've got blood all over you, then the bloodier you get and it doesn't make any difference. It's sticky, but apart from that it's fine!
Could you introduce us to Frank?
Ben didn't really give us very many clues about who he was, so I decided he was an ex-public schoolboy, middle manager, chartered surveyor, solicitor, something like that. He's worked hard and been bit naughty, because his marriage has gone wrong and he hasn't seen his son for a long time. He's had an affair and has lost touch with the woman concerned. So there are indicators of what his life has been, but we don't really know who he actually is.
How has he ended up in a retirement home?
We know Cecily’s ill, but he doesn't. If he's ill, he gives no sign of it and he doesn't talk about it. So what's he doing here? I think it may be that there's nobody else to look after him so he’s just decided that he’d quite like to have somebody looking after him.
He's in a relationship with Cecily, then Janine arrives on the scene. How does he feel about them fighting over him?
He's thrilled! It's a real ego massage that he's never had before. He’s horrified at how far they take it, but there is also an element of him that thinks he’s the king of the castle, which I don't think he's had before. I also noticed that Frank talks about his feelings a lot once he's infected: I feel this, I feel that. This is a man who hasn't ever really connected with his feelings, he's kept everything buried. For the feelings to be that strong, he has to talk about them, which is something that he wasn't used to. The moment you get that, you realise that feelings don't always go where you want them to. They have their own force and momentum, so he’s attracted to Janine in a way that he wouldn't necessarily have expected. Ben said at one point that the infection makes you become more truly the person that you are, then it destroys you. Perhaps it's a bit like the aging process itself, in that your character becomes more and more defined as you get older.
How would you fare in a zombie apocalypse?
I would be the first casualty! I had to do CCF when I was a boy, so I was trained to take orders and basically fight the First World War. Had there been a Third World War in the 1960s, and I'd been that 17-year-old going into war with my gun and my training, I’d have been first over the top and the first to die. I don't think anything much has changed! I’d try to protect my family, and I’d be got. Either that or I’d be turned!