Macworld UK Online – 3rd October, 2003

By Paul Hooper

Richard E Grant, best-known for his role as unemployable actor Withnail in the 1987 classic movie ‘Withnail & I’, said he made the decision to become a Mac user to stop him becoming a ‘historical curiosity’.

“A stills photographer on a film saw me clacking away on a portable typewriter, and warned me that I was at serious risk of becoming an historical curiosity unless I bought an Apple Mac laptop,” explains Richard.

Richard bought his first Apple laptop in the early 1990s and has “upgraded ever since, every three years.”

“I’m currently using a PowerBook G4, and am longing to have the latest version that can burn its own DVDs.

“I initially bought Macs as I was advised they were idiot-proof, and being a natural techno-saurus, took the bait. I was very alarmed some years ago when it was rumoured that Apple itself was going the way of the dinosaurs, but very happy to have had my loyalty rewarded with faultless design, ease of use, tactile, colourful, jube-jube looking iBooks, the utterly brilliant iPod jiggle-free music library, and the large screen for DVDs.”

The End?

While being a fan of Macs for well over a decade now Richard has had the occasional serious problem. “I wrote a novel some time ago, and had resolutely backed up as I went along, but neglected to print out any of the pages until I typed THE END. Fast-forward six months and publisher’s advance half spent, I scroll back to the first page to begin editing. Half way down the first paragraph, the screen freezes, then goes blank. Panic stations. I dutifully try all the things I have been trained to do. Half an hour later, I thought I was having a seizure, then vomited violently. Into the car and down to the Apple guys I had bought my machine from. ‘No problem’ was the word from on high.

“Two weeks later and a couple of grand ‘lighter’, they had unscrambled the text with one small problem. Every letter was joined together and the letter ‘V’ missing. As the main character’s name began with a ‘V’, I was ready to throttle anyone. Plus all my back-up floppy discs had an indelible fault so no salvation there. Having gone every colour in the anger spectrum, I asked if it was my fault, to which came the calm reply – ‘these things happen. Airports get shut down. Don’t take it personally’. Since which time, floppy discs are brontosauri and I print everything just in case.”

With mail

Richard’s childhood was spent in Africa, having been born in Swaziland, and he has been a lifelong letter-writer to keep in contact with friends who moved away – though he admits that “the advent of the Internet and email has been revolutionary.”

“One of my best friends, whom I last saw when I was 13, left to live in Perth and not long after I wrote to him asking to have news of Australia and his new life out there. 33 years later, having tracked me via my old school Web site, he replied with ‘Sorry this is a bit late in coming, mate’. Then when I did a film in Sydney, he flew over and we never stopped talking for about 48 hours – so we owe the internet for bridging the gap.”

Having to travel a lot to get to film locations has mean that Richard has become expert at tapping into ISPs abroad. “The relief of getting online when installed in foreign parts is enormous,” Richard explains.

Email has become extremely important to him over the years: “I do all my correspondence on email including dealing with fan stuff, requests from my official Web site, invitations, digital photos, everything.

“It’s very useful for sending scripts in seconds via broadband back and forth between London and Los Angeles, whereas even the best of fed-ex can’t begin to compete with this. I like the informal immediacy of email, though loathe the landslide of junk-mail that has hit my inbox in the last month.

Someone somewhere thinks I need medical help, Viagra and ways to increase my mortgage, loans and dental care,” describes Richard.

Action!

Macs and the Internet are also helping Richard extend his skills into directing. “I have written a screenplay that I will direct in Africa next spring, and have made an iMovie of the locations with music and basic sound-effects that has been instrumental in getting people involved and seeing what and where they will be working. Invaluable.”

Richard believes that the popularity of Macs in the creative professions is “perhaps to do with the fact that they are so perfectly designed, are very user-friendly, sort of idiot-proof (though I have challenged that myth on a regular basis), and are perceived as the smaller, idiosyncratic, less corporate company, as opposed to the megalith Windows brigade.”

Richard is currently appearing in Stephen Fry’s directorial debut ‘Bright Young Things’ and was able to get some help from the Mac-fanatic Fry while on the set.

“I needed a DVD burned of the iMovie I made of all the African locations I’ve filmed for my screenplay, and asked Stephen what to do and where to go as my G4 can’t burn DVDs. He sent me to his Apple Mac doctor in Tottenham Court Road who was fantastically helpful and got it done there and then in the shop,” explained Richard.

Hiccups

Richard is also very grateful to Macworld magazine, describing how “David Fanning at Macworld has been my laptop doctor and very generously guided me through the techno-squalls that intermittently scramble my brain.

Nothing quite matches the stress when something goes wrong or the sheer relief when it then gets righted.”

Apart from the occasional hiccup Richard is very happy with his Macs though he has one gripe – not with Apple, but with “those bastards who sussed that DVDs could be zoned unlike CDs which are the same worldwide. I would be glad to have a laptop that could switch from zone one to two, to take advantage of Amazon’s DVD library of movies.”

Despite this minor niggle Richard is still smitten with his Macs. “Shopping, travelling, home movies, email, mini cinema, music, photo library, script writing, internet surfing – all this magic in a small flat box – it’s nothing short of a techno-miracle. Apples forever,” exclaims Richard.

Thanks to David Fanning and the staff of Macworld UK Magazine for sending the Temple this exclusive article. If anyone wants to check out Macworld UK Magazine, click here.