The Human Face - Fame
Hello, I'd like to introduce some friends of mine
This Norman, and down there's Sarah, and this is little Bert,
and I can recognise them because I know their faces and their bodies, of course
But over here are some creatures that I think you'll be able to recognise
because they are very, very, famous
Here perhaps one of the most famous actors in the world,
and here's another equally famous and I'll give you a hint - female
Here's another, possibly more famous even than the first two,
and finally a particularly fine actor or actress,
characteristic little dark mark there, just above the right hip
Now, did you miss any?
Well, if you did, here are the answers
Faces help, don't they?
Wherever we go we're assaulted by famous faces
Cinema, television, magazines, papers, hoardings
- you just can't escape the gaze of the famous
And what drives this mad merry-go-round
is the simple desperate craving - to be famous
Performers, actors, people who become actors want the fame
A star is someone and from the moment they would get up in the morning,
go in, go to bed at night, they are obsessed with only one thought,
"How can I be a bigger star tomorrow than I am today?"
That's what consumes them
I don't think it improves who they are,
because it's gratuitous the kind of fame that we're talking about
I mean, it's, by chance, it's flukish
You've done very little to deserve it, normally
Certainly television fame's like that
I mean, if you're - if you're Winston Churchill well you
- you've done the bit, you know, but by and large famous people
are not Winston Churchill
Good morning
Good morning Mr. Figus, we've been expecting you
Do sit down
Now, I understand that you wish to become an icon
Is it difficult?
Well, that depends
Would you say that your life has been marked by an unusual amount of suffering?
Oh yeah, definitely
Drugs? Drink? Sexual addiction? That sort of thing?
Lots
Excellent. And, would you say that you feel very vulnerable most of the time,
and would you be prepared to talk about that at inordinate length?
Oh yeah, no problem Is that it?
Well, there is one other thing
You have to die young, and preferably in tragic circumstances
Is that a definite requirement?
I'm afraid it is, yes
Phew. Alright then
Oh I forgot to ask, have you actually done...?
Oh, never mind Give me the Daily Mail, will you
Some people are just dying to be famous
A young actor called Ryan Martin is one of them
I think it would be a wonderful thing to be famous
To see people, you know, happy with your work,
and happy to see your face when you're walking down the street,
say, "Hello. How are you today?"
I say, "Great. I'm doing good."
They say, "l remember you man You're the one from"
- you know - "the picture on the screen."
I say, "That's me."
The music is - was an off-shot
I kinda - got a little bit disgusted with acting for
about two years - two or three years
A couple of weeks ago when I came out here,
I mean no one even looked at me,
you know, it's very humbling very humbling
I'll do whatever it takes I mean, I don't care
I wanna be famous, you know
That's all - that's what it's all about
If Ryan wants his face plastered all over Sunset Boulevard,
he'll have to impress someone like Mali Finn
She's one of the world's leading casting directors,
she persuaded James Cameron to cast Leonardo di Caprio in Titanic
and Curtis Hanson to give Russell Crow his big break in LA Confidential
I think that anybody can be famous,
and I don't think you have to have the face of a Leonardo di Caprio
or of a Mark Damon to - to be famous,
I think you simply have to have a face that is distinctive
Not surprisingly, she knows exactly what kind of faces she likes
See, some of these guys don't have a distinct enough look
OK. See this is - this is something that just doesn't do anything for me at all
Again - some of these look like they are - are - they're so
- there's some typically contemporary
Rick Edwards is an ex-Chippendale
He's come out to Hollywood for one thing
I would like to walk down the street and have people say,
"Hey, look at - that's Rick Edwards."
Well I can't speak for everybody, but I would assume or imagine that
- that a little boost on the ego, when you first get started,
and you first start getting recognised, it must be great
Three years ago I joined Chippendales and I was on the US National Tour
That was a - a great time A different city every day
You're travelling around in a tour bus Different State every week
Being on stage. Bright lights Screaming women. It's just the job
He's now working as the Scotch whisky Ambassador for Los Angeles Orange County,
so of course he wears a kilt
It's not Disneyland where we're dressing up as a character
What it is is, the kilt is a very formal wear,
and the Scotch company I work for is a very formal company,
and so it's no different than if I was wearing a tuxedo
- doing it, but because it's Scotland,
and it's Scotch Whisky, it's the Scottish tuxedo
"Ladies and gentlemen the next Scotch that
we're gonna sample tonight is the Johnnie Walker Gold Label
This one specifically just splits my kilt.
"This is my favourite one right here It's very smooth
You're going to detect a lot of..."
When I was seventeen years old, I enlisted in the army
Spent six years in the army as a paratrooper
My nickname all through the army was "Hollywood"
That's my drill sergeants called me
That's what everybody in my unit called me
- "Hollywood" - that was my name
And in 1 992, when I got out of the army I figured
"Do I wanna go back to lowa or Minnesota? Go to Hollywood."
So as they say in Scotland, our toast of Slangiva which means Good Health
and Happiness to you everybody. Slangiva Good Health and Happiness to you."
Unfortunately for Rick, the Hollywood the competition's tough
There's an estimated six million actors,
every one of them trying to get their face noticed
A fair number of them are filed in Mali Finn's office
This is where everything just gets spread out all over the place
We have file drawers here
We have African American men/women here
Actors with tattoos. Bikers We have speciality men down here
Foreign actors. Martial artists Musicians. We have teams here
Models and Asian Actors. Boys, girls, so, this is the work space
How many pancakes do you want Mary?
How many pancakes? Yeah
Michael Rix is another young actor who wants his face to be famous
It's cool, you know going down the street and seeing head on a big,
giant billboard with - premiering a movie, and everything
It makes - it does make a lasting impression,
but it makes more of a lasting impression that's really good
Did you sleep OK? I live with my two great-aunts
I actually hadn't seen 'em since I was a child,
and I kinda ended up here because one of them broke their hip,
so, I'm here and I take care of them - rent's free
And - it - it keeps me grounded
I - I play basketball regularly
It's something, it's another form of expression for me
I play with a lot of passion
I'm not Michael Jordan but - you know - I don't like losing
I came here, because it felt like I had a void in my life
I worked at the Ford Motor Company as an assembly man, for four years
I just didn't wanna grow old doing a repetitious job
Gosh put - the thing - man, I - I put it all off
It's so simple it sounds dumb But all Michael,
Ryan and Rick have to have is a face that Mali Finn likes.
I don't think he's classically handsome enough
There's a long face with this jaw that sticks out here
His eyes are most liquid - of all of these
It looks as though it's going to be an enlightening meeting for all of them
Film, television, magazines Faces, Faces, Faces
Why? Actually, the people who first realised how important
faces are to us were in advertising, because they discovered,
early on, that faces sold things,
and that famous faces sold things even better
But why? What's underlying this obsession of ours with famous faces?
Well, maybe part of the answer is to be found here
Faces are virtually all that we draw when we're first given a pen or a brush
Now, these children aren't painting pictures of Roberts, Cruise or di Caprio
The most famous people around them, are their mothers and fathers
They just have some paint, same colours of paint
Four colours, and they have - they're each doing in a circle,
but if you look at the circles, and the noses and the eyes,
each face has their own personality on them, which is like a footprint,
a fingerprint - the child's style, and it's imbued with their own emotions,
and their own experience of their mother looking at them
The mother's face is telling them how she feels about them
Crucial to live to know that mother loves you
They're interested in the pop stars
They're interested in princes, but I think they draw the person
that's showing experience that is significant in that face
there is a faces oh,is me!
Our obsession with famous faces isn't a new phenomenon
It began a hundred and forty thousand years ago,
when our modern minds were being formed
Most of the important things that happened to human beings
happened during our remote history
The history of civilised human beings is so brief
that it's not had any time to affect our minds,
so we still have stone-age minds living in silicon-age bodies
Lots of animals live in social groups, with a social structure,
including us, and if you do that you have to know the boss guy,
you have to know one another, but particularly you have to know the boss guy
You have to have someone that you want to look up to,
that you actually enjoy looking up to because
he kind of takes responsibilities, and you have to recognise him
So, fame is one way in which you recognise somebody
in a crowd who isn't just one of those sitting around there just like you,
but he's the guy up there, and that is nice for the guys up there,
but actually the rest of people down there,
are also glad that there is someone up there
So, as your tribe got larger, so large that
now you couldn't know everybody in it, it became possible,
for the very first time, for someone whose face
you've never seen before to have a major influence over your life
So, how could you know what this very important person looked like?
Well, the only place you could see their face was here - on money
Another famous JC
Good day
I'd like to have my head on a coin
Well - who are you?
I'm a peasant but an outstanding one
Alright. Well, there's three things you've gotta do
You've gotta pay me twenty groats, and then, you've gotta fill out this form
Thank you
What's the third thing?
Well, then you have to become King
Have you got a pamphlet on how to become King?
Yeah, there's a box at the back
Oh
The other way that you could have your face in a public place
for people to see what you looked like was to put up one of these
And the great advantage was that you'd be surrounded by other statues
- most of them of Gods - which made it clear how special you were
But you see no dress designers
No footballers No - restaurant critics
And let's not forget, no chat show hosts
Ladies and gentlemen It's the Julius Caesar Show
And on tonight's show the King of the Senate, Mark Antony,
the King of the Coliseum, Maxius Lucius And here's Julius
Thank you, thank you so much
Until recently, if you were famous, you were powerful - seriously powerful
Life and death powerful In fact, in medieval Europe,
the only thing that really mattered was your power,
not what you actually looked like
In those days, if they wanted an image of the king,
they took anybody's face, and I mean anybody's,
stuck a crown on it, and wrote the name of the king underneath
It seems extraordinary to us, but they didn't expect
a portrait of the king to look like him,
and we have to wait until 1 500 for the first portrait of an English king,
and this is Henry the seventh, it was Henry the eighth there,
that was actually painted from life, and looked like him
His left eye looks a bit odd - was that the painter or His Majesty?
Take the greatest ever - William Shakespeare,
here at the National Portrait Gallery
Did he actually look like this?
Well, we don't know, cos there's academic squabbling about
whether this was painted from life or painted after he died from memory
And here's the point - it's Shakespeare,
and we've got one dodgy picture of him - one!
And the reason why famous faces weren't well known?
Well, they just didn't have the technology.
Thank you Alfonso, excellent
Thank you Sir Excuse me Sir, the paparazzi are outside
Do you want me to - shall we give them a couple of minutes?
If we must
That's it. That's enough for tonight Thank you
If you wanna be famous today you start out with a photograph,
a simple eight-by-ten photo called a head shot is the fuel
which powers the whole fame machine
Head shots - actors send out to casting directors
On the back of the head shot it'll say,
"Went to college. He can fence He can ride horseback. Speaks a little..."
All these are lies
"Speaks a lot of languages Is a great story flair"
blah, blah, blah On the front is the head shot,
and you're hoping someone will say,
"Wait a minute. That's kinda - let me see that guy."
Head shots are important in Hollywood because looks are important in Hollywood
The look is the only thing that anyone remembers
People often forget what somebody's been in
What someone's name is
What someone's resume says, but they see the face,
they suddenly get terribly excited
You know, if you have a Ferrari you want to show it off to people and say,
"Hey look, I've got a great Ferrari here you know,
and look at the brochure This is beautiful."
And you wanna say "Well I've got a good face
This is what I look like Put me in something."
This is again your call
So, if you want to have a famous face, Mali Finn has to like it
We're looking for one thing only
We're looking for warriors, and that somebody who has very strong,
frightening facial features that just jump off the page at you
A lot of handsome guys here, that look a - ooh! there we are
It's very easy when you look at head shots to say "OK this person's it."
You can see it in the face
And other faces it's like you see the mischievous eyes,
or you see the dimples, or you see some distinctive feature,
but something's happening there that says,
"Ho ho, I wanna - I wanna get to know this person
I - you know - I like what I see here."
So how long have you got to get your face noticed?
On average, nearly half a second
These are mine, so of course they're all brilliant.
Actually I've never put him here
So for Michael, Ryan and Rick, that means a trip to see the king
of the Hollywood head shot, Kevin Major Howard,
who makes a virtue out of working at the back of his garage with no lights
I don't pursue the lighting schedule of a studio photograph. It's portraiture
Here Ryan I want you just doing this
Look straight ahead like this
I think because of the style that I shot in I have enabled the industry
- the actor within the industry
- to really get authenticity about whom he is,
or she is, to the performance level that when people
Iook at my work they actually feel that they're meeting that person
How's the career going? It's going good
Yes? It's going very good yeah
Tell me what's been going on?
Well I - I - I - I - well just - just kinda moving along, you know
What I try to do with available light is just
that's the light that's God given us
It's what we look like everyday of our lives
Every minute we walk somewhere Let's use that light
Rick, what I want you to do here You're gonna start off this way
Like - like this Butt back in the chair, just hang out
Really nice. You know who you remind me of a little bit?
Eric Robert
No, Ray Leota
I hear that
It would be smart for you to actually to take your eight-by-ten,
find - send it to Ray Leota, send it to Ray Leota's manager, and his agent
Well, Ray Leota...
Photo double
We - not - no...
You could be cast simply as his brother, or twin
I like to recreate in the camera what I physically see in life
When you and I both meet we look into each other's eyes
When we do such things, our ears are not in focus, Our shirt is not in focus,
this background is not in focus, so I really try to record
that authenticity within the photograph
For instance, when you look in my eyes, you see that relationship
but that's not being in focus
It's the same thing I'm trying to create in this photograph
You can see her eyes They really come off the page
But it's because of I've shown you within the camera
that illusion of our ears are not in focus, like hers are not
The clothing is not in focus,
and so all you get is her representation of who she is authentically
OK, Michael. Kevin Major Howard, nice to meet you
My favourite...
Nice to meet you. Right, what I want you to do is sit up with
Pan down just a little Oh yeah
Good Michael. Good. Right there Where are you from, Michael?
Eh, Detroit, Michigan
Detroit? Yeah
How long you been out here? Eh, three years
You're a baby out here? Yes I am
And how's it going? Eh, it's steady
Photography gave birth to me more the concept of a famous face,
but the people having their picture taken a century and a half ago,
when the camera was first invented, had actually done something significant
Well, the Victorian era was one of rapid change,
of technological developments, not only in things like photography,
but the development of the railways, the canal systems,
and people looked after the sort of makers and shapers of that era,
and wanted to record their impact on that world
and the best way to do it was through that idea of eminence,
that portrayal of biography
and the promotion of the image through the photograph
Local clerics were incredibly popular
So they had - they were sort of local celebrities in their own right
There were writers, scientists,
the sort of leading figures of the new technologies
You're on my toe
Sorry
The next development, which led to the democratisation of fame,
was the revolution in publishing
Now, one of the things that emerged was
a whole genre of celebrity publications,
and they were called things like "Men of Mark"
"Men and Women in the Women in the Day", "Our Celebrities",
"Living Celebrities" and their titles give away really people's responses,
and attitudes to - to what was in those - those albums
So now we've got photographs and the popular press
Well, the third invention to transform the human face is the movies,
because you try and think of all the famous faces that you can
- I bet about half of them are movie stars, and yet, here's the odd thing
When movies first started, from the point of view of the actors' faces,
it wasn't that different from going to the theatre
To prove the point, here's an old piece of film from 1 909
showing one of my acting ancestors, Sir Stilton Cleese, playing the Dane
To be, or not to be? That is the question
When movies first started, they looked a bit like theatre,
because they were filmed in a wide shot But that didn't last very long
Movie-makers soon came up with the close up,
and fame and the face were never the same again
The close up I think changed everything because suddenly you were
Iooking at a different head than you'd ever seen before
You were looking at a giant head I see your head
You're what? Six five? Six six? You have the head of a man that height
That's all I ever see. I don't see a head like this. That is Godlike
That brings it kind of importance
"My God, he's fifty feet high
He must be able to be champion of the world
He must be better than anybody else
And the first person to experience what that was like was Charlie Chaplin
He was for a period of time the most famous man in history because in Africa,
they would run his one- and two-reelers on sheets,
so the natives in Africa could see him, and so there was no place on earth
where he could go where his face wasn't famous,
and I don't think that had happened before
Chaplin had just happened and he was beautiful in a way
That famous shot at the end of City Lights,
and that face, that smile that he makes,
that ends and irises out of the movie
It's an amazing shot. It's - but it only works because of his face
And its power only became evident when he came back
to Britain for the first time, in 1 921
And remember, England's a little country
When he left, he was an unknown guy who went and he toured America for a while,
and suddenly this thing happened in that prop room,
when he discovered the character of a tramp
I mean, it's a very, you can't fabricate - you can't repeat it
And suddenly he was coming home, and it was, you know, to their little place,
and my God they went nuts, didn't they?
Because, he was returning to us It was like the prodigal's son coming back
Where Chaplin went, everyone else followed But now it's all much quicker
There's this insatiable appetite for famous faces,
driven by the inexorable expansion of modern media
The media has changed the concept of fame
There's just so much more media than there ever was before
Not just because of television and radio, but because of the lnternet,
because of this vast proliferation of magazine publishing, and they need faces
They need - they need to have something, an image, to put on their cover,
and inside it's gonna make you, the reader, stop and pause and look
So this desire to be famous is matched by this machinery
that says we need famous faces
We need famous faces or faces that we can make famous
because that's somehow the - the fuel on which all of this operates
The magazine cover that everybody wants their face on is Vanity Fair,
the ultimate barometer of how famous your mush really is
In terms of celebrity - in terms of Hollywood is a very important cover to get
To get yourself on that cover it kind of signifies that you've arrived
It's Jude Laws' turn to be officially declared famous
on this cover of Vanity Fair
But how much of this great British actor did they really want?
...all great covers, they are all great covers, I think we need to come in...
On a beautiful face
There you get the eye contact, which is nice
This one's the best one that shows intensity on the face,
and the different kind of character he could do
I love these large - these larger scale...
I think they always look so much better on news-stand
It's whether they can sell magazines
Whether there's something instantly appealing about their face
that's going to get them on the magazine cover
Not that they're particularly good at what they do
I mean, how often do you see Woody Allen
on the cover of a magazine, for example?
How often do you see any of the really powerful directors?
When's the last Martin Scorsese cover you saw in Vanity Fair?
Well, you didn't see one because why would they?
That's not the nature of fame
Michael, Ryan and Rick are still some way from the cover of Vanity Fair,
but today they have a once in a lifetime chance
to get a bit closer, by meeting Mali Finn
I'm very excited about it
It reminds me of a Shakespearean quote from Taming of the Shrew,
Petruchio, goes Such wind as scatters young men through the world
to seek their fortunes further than at home where small experience grows
Ryan is definitely a character actor
He would never play a leading man role for me at the get go
I have thrust myself into this maze happily to arrive and thrive as best I may
He has almost hawk-like round nose here
Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home
Very tight, little thin lips
And so I'm come abroad to see the world
Very squinty eyes
I'm very excited. I hope that she'll call me in for an interview
His face is so ill proportioned
And cast me in a major motion picture That's my ultimate goal
His face is a very closed face to me
What impression do you think your features get?
Well, my nose is the first one to the door
So that's an interesting impression I suppose
You have a very - very prominent nose...
Yes it...
...a very hawk-like nose There are other noses like that
It is a very big nose, and it's - and - and it's
- it's one of those features that stands out immediately, and
- and it's going to - it could either limit you in terms of what you apply,
which naturally will - to a great extent, but there - also because
- because it is so prominent, actors have had prominent, you know,
features that have - that have really made them stand out, so
You have crooked teeth Crooked teeth yeah
I love crooked teeth Oh really
Yeah - yeah - yeah - yeah They're very good teeth
Very crooked. That works fine OK
They work for you That's good
And very big ears Yeah
That you're hiding right now And probably a smart thing to do
No, so I imagine the comedy, you know, the comedic characters and
- and every once in a while, the nasty side kick
Yeah
I feel a little humbled
It was very shocking and I felt a bit uncomfortable at first
because I'd never had anyone done it before you know, but it was
- it was - refreshing to have someone so honest
and so professional to really confront you with
what you need to do to be successful or unsuccessful
I think it's a great opportunity
Rick's face is more beautifully proportioned
I'm just looking forward to it
It's a stronger, fuller, wider jaw line
I think I can get a lot of direction from her
This eye looks like it's a little bit smaller
She'll kind of give me a - her opinion
Both of them have quite - large foreheads
Her ideas. A recommendation maybe
There's an openness about his face
If you were the casting director, how would you cast yourself?
What kind of roles?
Probably a kind of soap opera type - maybe leading man
Soap opera leading man
Sure
Why do you say that? Be specific about that
Um?
In terms of your eyes, your lips, your nose...
Shape of the face
I've been told I have striking features
Ahum
You know, so
Well, everything is - very well proportioned
You have these beautiful eyebrows here
You have this - you know, you have this strong jaw line, and
- and you have - you have - looks like you know your ears and your
- your cheek bones, everything seems very well proportioned
Your face is too pretty for me And I would put you in a soap opera
You would? Yes, I would
So you kinda agree with me, then?
Yes I do. I do. And I think that's a good place to start
We could start it in soap operas, Meg Ryan A lot of people started in soap operas
They do...
... But don't come to me until you get a few bruises and you know,
until you have a scar on your
And until, you know, your teeth are a little crooked...
A little chip in the tooth?
Exactly. I want all of those things Right
Because I really like real faces, and that's what I try to populate
my films with, are faces that have blemishes, and have a reality to them
It's terrible to look at somebody's face and say,
"Your face doesn't look real." You know...
I felt a connection just talking to her, and felt a lot of honesty
It's just a vibe. It was a great vibe sitting in there
For my special play it's gonna go real well, I'm gonna make sure of that
I don't know whether he has any of the stupid features
that are going to really mark him as a film
It's very important, you know, being an up and coming actor
to meet as many casting directors as you can
His face is more perfectly proportioned than Ryan's
The more casting directors you meet, of course, the better
His eyes are the most liquid of - of all of these
This is like - like a piece of pie like golden
He would definitely play the supporting, the best friend of in films
It could really skyrocket your career almost over night if - if they like you
There's a - a sweetness and an openness about his face
Talk to me a little bit about - how
- what kind of roles you think you'll play?
Leading man. I've got a very domineering presence
And how do you see your face? Tell me about your face
Talk to me about...
My eyes are piercing My - my smile is enticing
You have beautiful teeth
Yes, I have very beautiful teeth Never had any cavities
And you have very full lips
Yes... Carry on, you'll make me blush
Good
I can be just as kind-looking on the wing and too can I say Lucifer himself
I perhaps would never cast you in a mean-spirited
or villainous or bad guy role initially.
Well, that's good
I would - yeah - I've been quite blunt with you
I don't know if you're gonna play the leading man. You may.
Right
Usually I - I think of leading men has having something that is
- that is - that has - of someone who has something very facially distinctive
the minute they walk in, that just really holds my attention
She told me that she didn't really see me in a leading man type,
and that deflated me, because l - I always thought me as that, but,
then I thought about it, you know, most really, really,
great actors are supporting, they help and I'm good so
I'm - I'm inflated now about the - you know - the interview but yes,
initially I was a little - I guess inside myself
- a little disappointed to what she said
Not that she said anything wrong, it was just different
from the way I viewed myself
But, I'm a very optimistic person, and I can work with what I get
So, which face will Mali choose? Would she go for number one,
Ryan who has a nose for Shakespeare? Or what about number two, Rick?
Would she go all soapy about his pretty-boy looks? Or is it number three,
Michael, who thinks he's a bit of a devil,
but does he have the face of an angel?
Michael has a face that invites me in immediately
There are - his eyes as he says - and he said
"l have piercing eyes" and he's absolutely right
And his wonderful warm smile. I would use Michael more than the other two
I remember one last thing about fame It's luck. It's luck
Almost every movie star that we could mention got famous
because they had a good part in a hit movie that someone else turned down
So they didn't, basically, except for a man like Stallone
who wrote his own part, or Ben and Matt Damon,
who wrote their own parts in Goodwill Hunting, stars become stars by accident,
and they know that, and that insecurity goes with them for ever
And what's waiting for Michael if his face does become famous?
I mean, when I came here to America eighteen years ago,
and I did Remington Steele, I remember when Remington started coming out
on TV going through the shopping mall with the - the family,
and you know somebody would recognise me and my kids, my children,
would say, "Dad, someone recognised you."
And I'd say, "Where, where..." And it makes you swell doesn't it
It makes you feel good, you know
I think the biggest emotional effect was when my Estee Lauder campaign
started kicking in, and I was in South Africa making a movie,
and I went into a mall, and suddenly there were enormous posters
of myself selling the perfume Pleasures, mascaras and stuff,
and they were massive, I was completely freaked out,
it was so weird that I felt embarrassed to be standing there
and looking at myself in case someone saw me, and to this day I still feel,
you know, in the front of the magazines where all the ads are?,
and so if I'm sitting on an aeroplane,
I, of course I want to look at the ads,
number one I love other people's ads
and number two I want to have a look at my own,
but I could never dare to open the beginning of a magazine
in case an air hostess walks past just as I'm looking at myself
I've found that the greatest single advantage of it is
that it gets me to meet people I wouldn't otherwise meet
Oh yes, much of them, sure, oh,
you can think of lots of advantages, I mean like money
Oh yes!
I think it's part of a business deal
You know, I think it's very similar to you know,
if I give you, you know, a book - from my bookshelf,
it doesn't mean you can come and take as many books you want any time,
and that if I go to a premier, to publicise my film,
you'll take some photographs, sell them and make some money,
my film will be publicised, and that's - that seems like a fair deal to me
I don't see why, that suddenly means you can put a lens
through my bathroom window
I think once - once people identify certain characteristics in you,
and fame sort of inflates all that, you know
You have to be famous for something
- I'm famous possibly for being nice
- being agreeable, for being genial
So a lot of people project onto me,
"Oh he'd be very sympathetic about this, that, and the other."
... They see a kind of completely simplified version of what you really are
The trouble with fame is that you can't ever switch it off,
which is why I like spending time in Santa Barbara,
a small town in California well clear of Los Angeles
I like the relative anonymity I have here, I can walk down the street
and nobody really takes any notice
Back in London, well, I enjoy being recognised by the people
who live and work in my local community,
Iike the Greek Cypriot fellows who run the local greengrocers
What are these Turkish cherries then?
What?
Turkish stuff you've got here? Does your mother know?
Is my mum here?
No. Flash of alarm there
Seriously, what do you think of the black cherries?
They're nice The black cherries are nice, yeah
Oh well give me about a half a pound
Give me about half a pound?
Hold on, you haven't paid for those Unfortunately we know where you live, mate
So, you can't get away
If you're as slow as that, you don't deserve to get paid
Oooh
Right, out we go Do you wanna bag?
No - no the hands are working just...
You see, that's the kind of recognition I like, and I think everyone does,
because it makes you feel part of the community, you know,
to those guys I'm just the man who lived round the corner for years
and who apparently is sometimes on the television, which is - is great,
cos it feels natural, and they know me a bit, so it's real,
whereas this business of getting recognised from the television
-to be totally honest, I've never been a hundred per cent comfortable with it,
because it feels, well, artificial I mean, they don't know who I actually am
You shot him!
Only a bit
In this frenetic, crowded, yet socially isolated modern world,
the ability to quickly spot a famous face is essential
If you lived in a - in a village of three hundred people you knew
who the squire was, and the doctor was, and all that,
and so everybody had a role, and everybody recognised who they were,
even if you were the ploughman's boy, you know,
people knew who you were and what you did, and why you were there
When you live in this enormous anonymous aggregation of,
I don't know how many million people there are in Greater London,
but it's a heck of a lot, and nobody, you don't know when you get on
the tube unless you've been travelling on it with three other people
for the past fifteen years, you don't know who you're sitting next to
You don't know what they do They are anonymous
So by and large you avert your eyes, you don't want to recognise them
They are - and so you listen to your Walkman
You do actually need to - to have somebody who you recognise
It's as well as your friends, or - or and so a famous person is
- is useful to you because you orientate yourself towards him, and
- and see yourself within the social structure, with him up there
Here's my take on it
I think most of us today aren't quite sure what our life means
or what the purpose of it is
And then we see someone over there, and everyone's looking at them,
and we think to ourselves, "They must know something that I don't"
Well, unfortunately they don't
Whereas back when Florence Nightingale, Duke of Wellington,
Abraham Lincoln were famous, well, they had something to say,
they were seriously interesting
Which is perhaps why we now put them on our bank notes,
but I can't help wondering who are we gonna be putting on
our bank notes in a hundred years' time?
How about Posh and Beck's on a fiver?
Or maybe George Clooney on a dollar bill?
We still have the same notions of fame in a modern society
as we did in ancestral hunter-gatherer societies
but the whole thing has been hugely amplified
and detached from the reality of our own everyday lives
What seems to be happening is that we're - our brains our wired up
so that fame is assumed to be a result of high achievement
In the modern world that's not the case but our brains are still
operating on the basis of a world where fame was something you earned
So all the trivia on these racks, all this obsession with air-brushed
show business pond life, clear example of evolutionary wiring gone wrong,
because all these very famous people
don't have a single idea between them that will help your lives
So my advice is - ignore 'em Don't listen to a single word they say
Ryan Martin is still playing his guitar in Santa Monica
and stacking shelves in a supermarket to make ends meet
He's just finished playing Hamlet in the Redonda Beach Players Winter Season
Rick Edwards has auditioned for a number of roles in daytime soap operas
He's not been cast yet, but he continues to represent
Scotland's main interest on the west coast of America
Michael Rix has been cast by Mali Finn
as a warrior in a sequel smash hit movie
The Matrix.
Action No, no, no, no, no
They're wrong?
They're wrong, they're wrong. Oh