{"id":322,"date":"2016-06-13T22:59:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T22:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/?p=322"},"modified":"2016-06-14T13:31:42","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T13:31:42","slug":"1994-life-was-exciting-as-a-busy-young-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/1994-life-was-exciting-as-a-busy-young-actor\/","title":{"rendered":"1994. Life was exciting as a busy, young actor."},"content":{"rendered":"

As a young actor, (well not so young actually … 27, in fact ) over 20 years ago, I was booked to do a show for\u00a0Aquila Theatre Company<\/a>. \u00a02 shows, in fact. \u00a0It was early in the company’s development and my flatmate, Robert Richmond, was their new Artistic Director and employing all his mates, much as he still does nowadays!<\/p>\n

I had been\u00a0cast in two shows, Philoctetes<\/strong> and The Wasps<\/strong> – two classic Greek shows in an all male cast of four.<\/p>\n

\"Miss
Logo for the world-wide hit musical<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had to leave\u00a0the West End show, Miss Saigon<\/strong>, to do this job, envoking my “betterment” clause.<\/p>\n

This betterment\u00a0caused some distress to the Miss Saigon company, they having just appointed me to be the understudy to two main roles in that show, Thuy and The Engineer. \u00a0But the point of the “betterment” was to get out when something “better” came along. \u00a0Or so I thought. \u00a0It emerged that it was customary that\u00a0the actor did not<\/em> get to decide what was better for his<\/em> career! \u00a0This came as a shock and after \u00a0a bit of a shouting match with the resident director,\u00a0\u00a0I eventually\u00a0left the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and started rehearsals in a church hall in Peckham with three other actors, all of whom I was putting up in my flat for the duration!<\/p>\n

The Aquila job was to tour all over US, playing at Universities, doing these two plays and workshopping with the students. \u00a0Aquila Theatre Company were developing a reputation for this (and have done exceedingly well in the meantime). \u00a0I was young, had done Miss Saigon\u00a0already, was ambitious and the decision to take this job was a no-brainer for me. \u00a0 The only down side was the fact that there was to be a 6-8 week gap between tours, during which we would not be paid (and\u00a0a consequence of which meant it was 99% certain we would be unemployed in that\u00a0time to boot). This was annoying, but what could any of us do?<\/p>\n

We all duly signed these two separate contracts and our passports were\u00a0sent off to the US embassy in London\u00a0with\u00a0a particular\u00a0work visa application (I forget what it was called) to work as specialists in education.\u00a0The cast comprised 1. me, 2. Robert Richmond (directing and in it), 3. Dennis Conlon, who brought his young son, Sean, to stay with him, in my house for the rehearsals and 4. a grizzled-looking older geezer called Steve Owen. \u00a0We all had varying experience and\u00a0competence – but we\u00a0knew how to party and were close mates. \u00a0 (Incidentally, Dennis’ son, young Sean, soon was to become a multi-millionaire boy band member, known for being the talented one in 5ive!) \u00a0But back to the main cast: Steve Owen filled in his visa application form by ticking “yes” in the box, asking whether the applicant had ever been convicted of a drugs-related offence. \u00a0There were only 5 questions altogether! \u00a0One of them was whether the applicant had ever been a member of the Communist party! \u00a0He then scribbled his “mistake”\u00a0out and ticked “no”, which was the correct (and true) answer. His passport picture\u00a0could not have looked more stereotypically like a pot-head if you tried, with uncombed thinning hair and incredible\u00a0un-uniform teeth, like wonky and dilapidated tombstones\u00a0in an unattended graveyard. \u00a0He and the\u00a0other two, Robert and Dennis,\u00a0had already been in receipt of one of these visas, and it was considered a formality.<\/p>\n

It was a hectic time and the flat was full to bursting. \u00a0It was compounded by the fact that there was for some reason an official water shortage and so we could not go to the loo, wash up etc. and we had to fetch water from a stand-pipe outside the notorious and criminal Peckham Rye pub, “Kings on the Rye”.<\/p>\n

As we rehearsed, I was offered a job: \u00a0Lead part in a new German TV series, paying a huge amount of money and 7 months filming in Hamburg.<\/p>\n

It was un-turn-downable. \u00a0I was offered a fee that could have easily paid off, even after tax and agent’s deductions, my flat in East Dulwich (worth at time of writing \u00a0in 2016 circa \u00a3850K+).<\/p>\n

Filming of this, my “breakthrough role” started after the Aquila Theatre company 8 week hiatus. \u00a0So… I was theoretically able to do the 1st part of the tour then the cast would be able to rehearse a replacement in the unpaid 8 weeks. \u00a0I offered to pay for the entire cost of these rehearsals, including all wages and venue hire as well as putting everyone up. \u00a0It was the least I could do, given I was now minted!<\/p>\n

However, this is where I discovered having success as an actor makes actors\u00a0bitter. \u00a0This was to be my Withnail and I moment.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, the company were not happy with this offer! \u00a0I had signed the contract (actually both contracts!) If I even attempted to leave, I would be sued for breach of contract, I was warned! \u00a0There was some lawyer or other, who was\u00a0connected to Aquila and he was, I was informed by the cast, who as I have already explained had worked for the company already (unlike me), a stubborn and ruthless man. \u00a0Like the owner of the\u00a0company.<\/p>\n

This preyed heavily on my mind, but\u00a0the 2nd Aquila contract (after the hiatus) in question started around\u00a0February 2005 and it was around July\u00a02004. \u00a0There was time! \u00a0We were to start the 1st half of the Aquila tour sometime in September.<\/p>\n

I was then offered\u00a0a job in Croatia; \u00a02 weeks on a US TV film, with Pierce Brosnan! \u00a0My immediate future was looking\u00a0like: 2 weeks in Croatia on\u00a0Pierce Brosnan job, return and go on tour to the US for 10 weeks, have a 8 week hiatus, be sued and then go to Germany for 7 months!<\/p>\n

The fly in the ointment of all this was the thought of being\u00a0sued – and this was preying heavily on my mind. \u00a0I went to Croatia, had a laugh for two weeks on the film The Nightwatch.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The
DVD Cover of The Nightwatch, 1995, Shot in Croatia during the war!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I came back to London, I had no idea what to do about the\u00a0problem of being under contract and having by now signed my German TV contract. \u00a0I had in effect signed up to two things, which clashed. \u00a0 My offer of paying for everything was not taken up. \u00a0Why? \u00a0I have no idea. \u00a0Maybe jealousy? \u00a0I was sick with worry. \u00a0It seemed to me that if I went and did the 1st part\u00a0of the tour, then Aquila\u00a0would have a better case that I was letting them down for the 2nd part and the lawsuit would take me down. \u00a0However, the threat of being sued did not make me particularly amenable to the idea of even doing the 1st part of the tour. \u00a0The owner of the company was not exactly dealing with this in a reasonable manner!<\/p>\n

It was left to the migration policy of the USA to help me out.<\/p>\n

We then received our visa applications back. \u00a0Steve Owen, looking like he was Howard Marks’ best client, with his scribbled out wrong\u00a0answer to the drugs \/ busted question was granted his visa. \u00a0To everyone’s relief. \u00a0So were Robert and Dennis. \u00a0However, my application was denied! \u00a0wtf?! \u00a0I was the only person with a real reason to come back – having just bought a flat! \u00a0 Was it just a racist policy to ban foreign-looking people (this was 20+ years before Donald Trump!)? \u00a0Who cares?! \u00a0I was free! \u00a0Even I \u00a0knew Aquila theatre Company\u00a0could not very well force me to work for them\u00a0in direct contravention of the explicit ruling of US immigration dept! \u00a0It would be illegal! \u00a0My contract with them was null and void! \u00a0Also my offer to pay for the rehearsals, which had been turned down, no longer needed to be on the table! \u00a0So off it went!<\/p>\n

I did the German job. \u00a0It was called Echt Harder<\/a>. \u00a0I managed to get a mate of mine, the actor Kay Siu Lim, ( who had a big part in the Pierce Brosnan film, incidentally) a part in an episode. \u00a0For a short 6-7 month period, I was\u00a0the main role and I loved it. \u00a0Kay Siu said to me, “It’s like in Croatia, except you are Pierce Brosnan!” \u00a0It was true! \u00a0I was! \u00a0I earned\u00a0a London house! \u00a0I loved it too and was not going to be sued – and it was all down to a bewildering and apparently\u00a0racist US immigration policy, whose\u00a0decision I never appealed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a young actor, (well not so young actually … 27, in fact ) over 20 years ago, I was booked to do a show for Aquila Theatre Company.  2 shows, in fact.  It was early in the company’s development and my flatmate, Robert Richmond, was their new Artistic Director and employing all his mates, much … Continue reading 1994. Life was exciting as a busy, young actor.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,11,66,78],"tags":[79,81,83,84,82,80],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}