August 2000

The REGiment got together for a second time and emailed REG another bunch of probing questions, which he very kindly answered for yet another exclusive REG Temple interview.

1. Lisa wants to know: Which of your characters do you think is most like you?

REG – I haven’t played that guy yet as far as I know. But what do I know?

2. Of the following, which is the strongest reason you like acting?

a. Working with all sorts of people.
b. Becoming someone else for awhile.
c. Wearing nifty costumes.

REG – All of the above,plus travelling the world and getting paid a pigload of dosh. Never having to work in an office,ever!your question has made me realise all over again what a lucky bastard I’ve been,considering…….

3. Is there anything, perhaps a childhood fantasy or something, that you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t yet?

REG – Sing. I think I can, but I’m in a minority party of one on this,which is not to say that I will give this idea up yet…

4. Wedding-cake Annie asks: What would be your first act as world leader?

REG – Abolish the military – reallocate all that cash to education and healthcare and get those soldiers to keep our kids fit – we are the second most obese tribe outside of the USA.

5. What’s your favorite dish and how good a cook are you?

REG – Adventurous cook – like doing it,and have a passion for puddings – steamed, sticky toffee’d, crumbled, baked, whatever. Anything without chocolate or cream.

6. Jennifer A asks: If you weren’t acting, what would you be doing, besides going batty?

REG – Writing writing writing and going batty

7. What’s the oddest thing a fan has ever given you? How about the best thing?

REG – Embroidered underpants. Best is a lifelong commitment and undying loyalty, – worship really! In all it’s dayglo unreality.

8. Jenny (and Anna) asks: What ever became of ‘Rogue Male’? I was really looking forward to that.

REG – Ask the BBC radio times. They published the bogus article which I knew nothing about. Sadly.

9. What is the next project after Wah-Wah? How’s Wah Wah going?

REG – ‘Wah-wah’ is in re-write mode. To make the American female role bigger. Recently met the king of Swaziland who gave permission and backing to make the flick there next spring.

10. Jyllian asks: What is your nicest Childhood memory..something that stands out in your mind.

REG – Being given Pelham Puppets and a marionette theatre which changed my life and fixed the direction it has taken ever since.

11. Is there anything you like to collect?

REG – Antique toys, illustrated children’s books, furniture, puppets, -am a hoarder.

12. Linda: As you may know, your U.S. fans suffer from extreme REG withdrawal since we don’t have access to your work performed in Great Britain. Do you have any completed or upcoming projects that you know will be released in the U.S. other than Little Vampire and the next installments of Scarlet Pimpernel?

REG – Thanks for your support! – ‘Wah-wah’ which I hope to write/direct in Africa next spring.

13. Any trips planned to the U.S. (for work or pleasure) in the near future?

REG – I hope to visit LA and New York before Christmas, work depending.

14. Nikki: Who would you most like to have a One 2 One with…..you can choose two people. One dead, one alive!

REG – Mozart – genius with a great sense of humour and extravagance and writer of sublime music. Tony Blair – to demand all our misspent dome money back please. Pronto

15. Do you have any regrets (if anything!) in life?

REG – Not being able to sing brilliantly, but it’s not anything I think about that often. That my father never lived long enough to know his grand-daughter and see that I succeeded at making a living ‘showing off’.

16. Kemma: If the roles were reversed and you were the one asking the questions to the fans, what would you ask?

REG – Why me? What are YOUR passions, ambitions, hopes,dreams? Are you doing what you always dreamt you would become? Are you in love? -all the usual things.

17. Ellen Barkin said during an interview, “Acting is a matter of giving away secrets.” So … what secret have you given away?

REG – I disagree with ms Barkin. I think interviews are where people often give secrets away. A role may expose aspects of your experience, but it is a role, written by someone else, not you yourself, though obviously something of the person’s personality is revealed.

18. Di probes: Which of your domestic appliances do you love/hate the most?

REG – All of them when they work./all of them when they don’t. Like a mobile phone when stuck somewhere, but hate the noise they make and the noise other people make talking at top volume to say ‘i’ll be home in four minutes’ etc ad nauseaum, like they’re discussing rocket science.

19. Which textures do you most like to touch with your fingers or tongue?

REG – You mean apart from the obvious body parts? – tulip stems. Texture on the tongue is wonderful. Smoothness of plums, cashmere, silk, thick hair, nape of my child’s neck, gardenia petals, toffee apples, new paper, linen sheets……

20. How do you feel about roller-coasters?

REG – Nausea and unbridled terror. Runaway train at Disneyland almost had me hospitalised.

21. Tellu (&Di): I bought a book by Kathy Lette because there was your recommendation, and it was a very good & funny book indeed. Can you recommend some other books for us to read, please?

REG – AS Byatt’s ‘Possession’, Martin Amis ‘Experience’ and ‘Money’, Justin Cartwright’s ‘Masaai Dreaming’, Nadine Gordimer’s ‘My Son’s Story’, Simon Callow’s ‘Orson Welles’, Sebastian Faulks’ ‘Birdsong’, Steven Pinker’s ‘How The Mind Works’, JK Rawlings ”Harry Potter’, Rose Tremain’s ‘Sacred Country’, everything by Peter Carey, especially ‘Jack Maggs’, Steve Martin’s ‘Pure Drivel’, ‘Perfume’, Gabriel Garcia Marquez ‘Love In The Time Of Cholera’…..

22. I’m going to get a big dog sometime in the future, any suggestions for his/her name?

REG – Big dog? Sorry you got me there.

23. Pat: With all the audio books that you’ve done, is there one book that you like to read that you haven’t? If so, what is it?

Martin Amis “Experience”

24. Is there one “shooting” experience that you would like to relive?

REG – Working with Julie Walters. She made me laugh from dawn till dusk. Unfortunately the flick was a disaster, but we laughed till we cried.

25. Di also asks: In *With Nails,* you say you have yet to meet an actor who can’t quote VERBATIM their worst review. WITHOUT PEEKING, quote your worst review — and, to restore the ego, your best review.

REG – Steady the buffs Diana, to those two ‘places’, even for you, I am unwilling to go,….today.

26. Without naming names (or with, if you’re willing), tell us about the most difficult showbiz personality you’ve worked with. Give lots of detailed, juicy examples. Or, in more general terms, what makes someone difficult to work with?

REG – Naming names = no employment. Second raters who act like they’re special and are clearly not. Actors who don’t listen, don’t collaborate, waste time talking about what they’re going to do in a scene for five years and then do exactly the same thing they were doing before they got motormouth. Actors that complicate what is straightforward and logical.

27. Susan asks: What’s the most surprising thing you learned about:

a) yourself,
b) others; while putting on the W4W event?

REG – Chutzpah to pull the event off in the first place considering all the odds told me against it in terms of the timescale and old movie ‘non-sell’ prospects. People’s generosity, support, lack of cynicism, love of that flick, humour, willingness to put themselves out for something, kindness, love, call it what you will, but it is something that re-affirmed my faith in our ability to make a difference. Absolutely gobsmacking. Moved me profoundly. Thankyou thankyou thankyou!!!

28. Do you play any mescal instruments?

REG – Flute and piano.

29. How did your CD “To Be Or Not To Be” come about and would you like to do another?

REG – I can’t sing, but would love to do an album of ‘noises’. I was asked by a record company to record bits of Shakespeare -that was it really.

30. Anna wants to know: Who on the planet can’t you stand and why?

REG – Politicians – Seem to me a bunch of lying, dishonourable, overfed fuckers. Plus the usual suspect list of Ku Klux, neo-Nazi, fundamentalist extremists…….