Sean Bean => Bean Alert => Topic started by: patch on October 24, 2018, 11:14:27 AM
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Sean Bean: “Jeremy Corbyn does actually believe in what he stands for”
About to star in new series Medici: The Magnificent, the actor discusses the lessons of the medieval Florentine dynasty.
Sean Bean is having a vape and an espresso in the Palazzo Medici. As he puffs away in a chamber filled with autumnal Florentine sunshine from its grand arched windows, the English actor’s choice of vice appears incongruous in such luxurious surroundings. A tray with Prosecco and glasses sits untouched on an oval table.
I meet him here, beneath a high ceiling adorned with bas-reliefs and walls of Renaissance paintings, because he’s promoting Medici: The Magnificent, a big-budget Netflix series that sees the 59-year-old play the snarling, manipulative nobleman Jacopo Pazzi – head of a rival family to the House of Medici in medieval Florence. The first scene is a classic Bean entrance: wielding a sword at his enemy, his shoulder-length hair aflutter, he remarks: “Always looking for trouble, aren’t you boy?” Cue duel.
His green eyes flash similarly today, though his hair is cut short, there’s a brush of stubble, and he’s traded his doublet for a smartly pressed navy shirt. The Yorkshireman’s familiar Sheffield vowels are back, too.
“It [swordfighting] is something I quite enjoy, there ain’t no lines to learn,” he laughs, a veteran of fight scenes from more than three decades of playing action villains and noble fighters alike. “Every character I’ve played with a sword is always a good swordsman. There’s hardly anybody who’s crap is there?”
Wryly aware of his CV of macho roles – from a heartthrob rifleman in the Nineties TV series Sharpe and James Bond’s nemesis in GoldenEye, to Lord of the Rings’s Boromir and Ned Stark of Game of Thrones’s first season – he still regards Medici as a fresh career move.
The high-end drama was filmed in its historical setting, from the hilltops of Tuscany to this very Palazzo. “Subconsciously you absorb it,” he grins. “You just take it for granted that you are in a nice big cathedral with cobbled streets… When you’re at school, in history, it was a bit of a drudge wasn’t it? Because you couldn’t picture anything.”
Yet Bean jokes about flicking to the back of scripts when he receives them, so often has he come to an untimely end on screen (the real-life Jacopo was eventually hanged).
His tally of 25 deaths is so varied – showered with arrows, torn apart by horses, buried alive, decapitated, toppled off a cliff by cows and many more – that he’s become an internet meme with the #DontKillSeanBean hashtag. There’s even a “death reel” on YouTube, compiling his colourful demises. “I’m not complaining, I don’t mind about that, I’ve been some wonderful characters,” he smiles. “But I have been surviving quite a bit recently – well, up to about last year!”
He’s happy to laugh at his career, playing himself as a “spirit guide” cross between Boromir and Stark in Channel 4 stoner comedy Wasted, but says he prefers “personal, smaller dramas”. “If you’re playing one-dimensional characters, which you usually are in the big blockbuster things, that’s fine, that’s fair enough, but you can’t sustain yourself on that.”
One very different role clearly fills Bean with pride: the quietly haunted Father Michael Kerrigan in Broken, last year’s BBC series about a parish priest in a deprived north-west suburb. Bean has previously condemned Margaret Thatcher for destroying the north’s industries.
He was brought up in Sixties Sheffield by his father, who owned a welding business, and his mother, who worked as its secretary. His family never moved out of the two-bedroom former council house where he grew up.
Bean, who praised Jeremy Corbyn in 2015 after the Labour leader was first elected, appears frustrated today. “He [Corbyn] does actually believe in what he stands for,” he says. “Although he’s often made to make compromises ever since he’s become leader, he’s had a constant attempt to compromise him and I guess he’s treading a fine line – he’s got the press against him, hasn’t he, in the main?”
While Italian audiences will draw comparisons between their tempestuous politics and the factionalism of the Medici rulers, Bean also sees parallels with Britain.
“At least in the Medici, it looks believable what they’re saying, you think they’re actually feeling it,” he says. “Whereas today, you watch people talking and they sound like mouthpieces – like something with a CD in the back of it.
“It’s like Theresa May, she’s just like” – he puts on a mechanical voice – “WAH WAH, like a kind of robot. How can they keep repeating the same things and expect us to believe it? ‘Brexit means Brexit’? I mean, how many fucking times can you say that?”
He repeats in a slow-motion drawl: “Breeexit means Breeexit. It doesn’t actually make any sense. Nothing makes sense any more, nothing. It’s just like background music, lift music. And I think that, you know, [they’re] just kind of outright liars, really, for the most part.”
After playing his Machiavellian character, he reflects that politicians “use any means at their disposal in order to protect their positions and keep their privileges. And ultimately, they justify it now by calling it ‘democracy’, don’t they? But there’s a lot of strings attached!”
“Medici: The Magnificent”, produced by Lux Vide, is on Netflix from early January 2019
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/10/sean-bean-jeremy-corbyn-does-actually-believe-what-he-stands
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Very interesting interview! :thumbsup:
Sean has his own personal point of view about nowadays politics.
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https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=ru&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kinopoisk.ru%2Farticle%2F3278296%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Duzhe-segodnya-na-kinopoiske-mozhno-posmotre&edit-text=
Very nice interview with Sean.
I do not know how well Google has translated from Russian into English, but I hope the main thing will be clear.
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https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=ru&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kinopoisk.ru%2Farticle%2F3278296%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Duzhe-segodnya-na-kinopoiske-mozhno-posmotre&edit-text=
Very nice interview with Sean.
I do not know how well Google has translated from Russian into English, but I hope the main thing will be clear.
Thanks Clairette
Sean Bean - about the "Magnificent Medici", bad guys and screen deaths
Another villain in the gallery of images of Shona Bean is Jacopo de Pazzi, the enemy of the Medici house from the new series about Florentine intrigues
The new costume-historical series “Magnificent Medici” , which can already be seen today at KinoPoisk, tells about another page in the history of the Florentine rulers and patrons of art. In the name of saving his beloved Florence, the young Lorenzo Medici takes over the leadership of the family bank. He is actively involved in politics, extends the economic influence of the family and the city to the whole of Europe, becoming the head of the Florentine Republic. Patronage of Lorenzo in the field of art, the support of artists by the House of Medici, including Botticelli and Michelangelo, the construction of public buildings not only bring him the title of the Magnificent, but also cause the envy of competitors. The most dangerous of them - the Pazzi family, weaving a conspiracy against the Medici.
The role of Lorenzo is played by Daniel Sharman , and his avid enemy Jacopo de Pazzi is Sean Bean . KinoPoisk met Binom in Florence and talked about the history of this city, the feud between the Medici and de Pazzi, and also remembered the most spectacular deaths of its on-screen characters.
- Tell a little about your hero.
- Rod Pazzi was an ancient Florentine clan, which, unfortunately, went down in history only because of a conspiracy against the Medici family. Those were too powerful and rich, and this caused envy of many noble families at that time. My hero, Jacopo de Pazzi, initiated the plot and his leader, for which he was severely punished. I do not think this is a spoiler: the history of the Medici and the conspiracy have long been known historical facts. The problem of my hero was that his ideas about politics, society and lifestyle were too different from the views of the Medici. The latter were enthusiastic and innovative, but my hero was distinguished by conservatism and did not want changes in society. He was annoyed by the enthusiasm and idealism of the young Medici. He himself was considered an extremely pragmatic and mundane man to believe in lofty ideas and an ideal society. To be honest, I feel sorry for Pazzi, but not because his life was tragically cut short, but because he lived, tormented by envy. He could not appreciate his brilliant and artistic opponent Lorenzo Medici. For this, Jacopo was too cruel and crude in nature.
- In the series, Lorenzo is shown as an idealist, while Jacopo is shown as a pragmatist. How do you feel about idealism? Do I need him in the acting profession?
- I think you need to have a large share of idealism in order to decide to become an actor in general. The intention to live for a living from art can be considered a manifestation of idealism, and people who believe in it - crazy. However, what is idealism? Idealism is a way of thinking, a lifestyle. This is when a person who believes in his ideas often puts himself at risk, and when he falls, he does not learn from his mistakes. An idealist actor can expect too much from his viewers. He will hope that he will get only the most brilliant and creative roles. Idealism is necessarily necessary in our world, because if our world rests on pragmatists, then it is still created by idealists. I am also an idealist. It is more interesting for me to play in a small art-house project and enjoy the role, than to chase after blockbusters and big budgets. Although I also played in them.
- How did the British play the famous rulers of Florence?
- Difficult to give an exact answer. Could this be related to financing? However, I believe that the heritage of Florence has long ceased to be exclusively Italian and turned into a world and universal humanity, like the art that was supported by the Medici, is today part of human history. My hero, regardless of his origin, was the same person as us. I do not consider his weaknesses and vices, temperament and character purely Italian. Envy and rudeness can be inherent in people in different parts of the world.
- Do you like to play bad guys and villains?
- The bad guys play much harder. This makes me an actor’s excitement. It is at such moments that work begins to give me real pleasure. It is interesting for me to understand how these people feel, what motivates their actions, how they justify actions that I could never do in real life. I never killed. And he did not die. The acting profession is also interesting in that it is possible to die and revive in it indefinitely. By the way, I have not had a chance to play the worst of all villains - a serial killer maniac. And in the plans for this, too, no.
- And what was the most memorable death for you in the movie?
- From a visual point of view, the most beautiful and heroic was the death of Boromir from The Lord of the Rings . True, in my opinion, the action there is too delayed. From the moment when Boromir hit the first arrow, and until when he finally goes into another world, it takes more than ten minutes. But the most strange and fatal for me was the death in the film “The Field” by Jim Sheridan . There are cows following me. I try to escape, fall from a cliff and die tragically. Animals rush off the cliff after me. And at the end of the scene, a very strong frame is shown: the body of a man spread out and the corpses of animals scattered around him. Straight Sergei Eisenstein!
- Do you add something from yourself to the image or maybe learn something from your character?
- When I was young, it seemed that life brought me something new and unusual every day. With age - and I have already been in the movies for a long time - I learned to abstract from my work. My life does not intersect with the life of my heroes. Therefore, I don’t scoop anything from my roles. But in the case of the Medici, I learned a lot of interesting historical facts. For example, before starting work on the Medici project, I was acquainted only with their ingenious banking operations. When I read the script and prepared for the shooting, I learned how this family lived, I realized what the famous lily flower means - the symbol of Florence. I was surprised to find that the story of Shakespeare about Romeo and Juliet was not so original, because the Medici and Pazzi also had their Romeo and Juliet. Only the Florentine lovers were able to overcome difficulties and stay together.
- Where do you like to work more - in TV shows or in movies?
- Easier to shoot for television. First, television series are filmed, usually in chronological order. In the cinema, one cannot afford such luxury. Secondly, the mode of work on television projects is much more sparing: shooting can take five to six hours a day, and sometimes they even last only an hour or two. In the movie, the working day comes to 16 hours, and this is really exhausting.
- Do novice actors come to you for advice?
- To be honest, I think the representatives of the younger generation of actors are much more competent and self-confident than me. A friend of mine loves to say: “I raised, taught and raised my children. Now they have grown up, so they teach and educate me! ”
Today, the younger generation is growing up with ideas about their own uniqueness and exclusivity, and at this age I too often got it from my parents, I also had to overcome my shyness and restraint. Therefore, I do not like to revise my paintings. I'm always strange to watch myself from the side. Also, I would not want to suffer because of the mistakes that I still cannot fix.
- Your characters are very active on the screen. How do you train?
- I do not subject myself to special training or diets, like my American colleagues. I don't do sports regularly. I start training right before the shooting, but since, I repeat, I went to the cinema a long time ago, I had to ride, fence, wear heavy gear, or run fast. Therefore, for each new project I don’t need to start everything all over again, but just a little bit to remember what I once memorized. But as soon as the shooting ends, I again throw all the training.
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Interesting interview, thanks!
By the way, I have not had a chance to play the worst of all villains - a serial killer maniac.
Has he forgotten The Hitcher?? :huh???:
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Interesting interview, thanks!
By the way, I have not had a chance to play the worst of all villains - a serial killer maniac.
Has he forgotten The Hitcher?? :huh???:
a serial killer maniac
)))
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Sean Bean: " The Medici brings a piece of history to the viewer"
INTERVIEW - Actor Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones plays the sworn enemy of Lawrence the Magnificent in the historical series on the illustrious family of the Renaissance. Imagined by Frank Spotnitz, the saga is a hit in Italy and is broadcast on Saturdays on the Altice channel. This season is centered on the conspiracy of the Pazzi against the Medici in 1478.
With the adaptation of Elena Ferrante's prodigious Friend who arrives this Thursday on Canal +, it's one of the big fall hits of Italian public television. After two years ago, telling the story of Como, who allowed his lineage to become a major political force in Florence, the historical series The Medici looks at the rise of his grandson, the legendary Laurent the Magnificent, patron of the artists of the Renaissance. "A rock revolution", promise the showrunners, to discover discreetly on Altice.
This time, the Anglo-American-Italian fiction, always shot in the Tuscan countryside and its period homes, does not give in to the sensationalist temptation to give the story the accents of crime. No need to invent artificial poisonings like with Dustin Hoffman in season 1. The rivalry between the Medici and the Pazzi is enough to structure his eight episodes. Dark fort. In front of the young lion, played by Daniel Sharman ( Fear The Walking Dead ), Sean Bean ( The Lord of the Rings, Game Of Thrones ) takes the clothes of the conspirator, pragmatic and more rustic, Jacopi de Pazzi and is a captivating antagonist.
"Why this confrontation between bankers of the 15th century speaks to us? Because it is a parable of our time: the young generation challenging the established order, "said Figaro producer Frank Spotnitz ( X-Files, The Master of the High Castle). And to emphasize: "Laurent de Medici is an idealist and wants to use his privileges to remake the world. His leg shows why art and beauty are values to defend. It is a heritage that must constantly be remembered. The approach seduced Sean Bean. The British actor, accustomed to historical fiction, explained to us mid-October why, amazed by the very nice office of the mayor of Florence in which the round table was held. The town is indeed installed in the palace Medici-Riccardi. A building built for Como de Medici.
LE FIGARO - Why did you agree to go back in time in fifteenth-century Italy?
Sean BEAN. - I loved the first season of the Medici, masters of Florence on Como. I really like historical fiction. I discover a lot of elements. Yet in class, history classes bored me royally: only dates, figures, names. But as long as history appeals to imagination and images, it comes to life. Think of Shakespeare's plays: Henry V, Richard III. The Medici brings a piece of history to the viewer. I am also very curious about medieval times and the Renaissance. The bonus was to play in Italy sometimes where our characters evolved. We shot in mansions with period coats of arms.
Who is Jacopo de Pazzi, the adversary of Laurent de Medici, to whom you lend your features?
It's not a bad guy at a discount. Jacopo de Pazzi is a juicy character to embody. He is a lonely, cruel and arrogant man who does not understand at all the fascination that the Medicis have for art. He is only concerned with commerce and finance. This makes him despise and underestimate the Medici.
What surprised you most about your research on the time?
His violence. Jacopo de Pazzi has met a ruthless death, because yes I pass away again! He was hanged and his head was used as a balloon. She got stuck in trees etc.
Why do you like to die so much?
One passes the weapon to the left very often in the historical fictions. In the TV movie Henry VIII where I played the Catholic rebel Robert Aske, I was deceived by the king and nailed to the walls of the castle. In Black death , a feature film with Eddie Redmayne about the ravages of the plague, I was quartered between two horses. I think it's my favorite death!
You made your name in the 90s thanks to the TV adaptation of the Sharpe novels , this British soldier fighting during the Napoleonic wars. Has the way of doing historical series changed a lot?
Thanks to the green screens, one can give the illusion of a crowd of soldiers, of an immense cavalry, to reconstitute castles. With Sharpe , it was much more artisanal. We did not have many extras. They went back and forth on camera to make an illusion! It was very old school.
Will you be in front of your screen for the last season of Game of Thrones ?
Like you, I am in absolute ignorance of what will happen. On the other hand, I took part in a meeting of actors of the series in Belfast. It was hosted by American presenter Conan O'Brien and will be on the DVD of this eighth season.
http://tvmag.lefigaro.fr/programme-tv/sean-bean-les-medicis-amene-un-pan-d-histoire-chez-le-spectateur-_4cb04918-f4bd-11e8-885a-b1fb59570753/
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Curfew Interview with Sean Bean:The General
(http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/patchfolk/Sean%20Bean/sean%20bean%203/curfew/Naamloospppp_zps8wp7g42o.jpg) (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/patchfolk/media/Sean%20Bean/sean%20bean%203/curfew/Naamloospppp_zps8wp7g42o.jpg.html)
https://tvfeatures.bradfordzone.co.uk/2019/02/07/curfew-interview-with-sean-bean-the-general/
And Curfew Cast interviews,Character Guide and Episode synopsis
https://tvfeatures.bradfordzone.co.uk/2019/02/07/curfew-coming-to-sky-one-on-22-february-at-900pm/
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Sean Bean: Another baby? Yes. That would be nice
The actor is famous for his tough roles and how many ways he has died on screen, but he shows Andrew Billen his softer side
One rule always applies when interviewing the actor Sean Bean. Journalists may ask him about his latest project — in this case Sky’s new dystopian thriller Curfew in which he plays a terrifying underground car salesman. They may discuss the performances that have won him armies of fans in Sharpe, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. His subtler work, such as his Bafta-winning portrayal of a Catholic priest in the BBC’s Broken, will obviously be a focus. And do ask about his “hobbies”. His tortuous private life, however, is off limits.
Picture my surprise then, when, while waiting for him at the fancifully plush Rosewood Hotel in central London, I am introduced first to Bean’s wife. One doesn’t want to make out Bean,…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/sean-bean-another-baby-yes-that-would-be-nice-szq3j8w3p
Nice interview in @thetimes today, 👌🏻 @ashleybeanx
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https://www.instagram.com/p/BuCIU5anqlD/
Sean Bean, 59, reveals he is ready for more children after marrying fifth wife Ashley Moore, 33... as he admits age has helped him reflect on his past mistakes
Sean Bean admits he is open to the prospect of having more children at the age of 59 after finally settling with his fifth wife, former actress Ashley Moore.
The celebrated actor exchanged vows with Moore, who at 33 is 26-years his junior, in 2017 after a five-year relationship that began with 'a chance meeting' in his favourite North London pub.
But he admits four previous marriages, from which he has fathered three daughters, has not dissuaded him from considering a fourth child, and his first with his Moore, as he enters his 60th year.
Weighing up the possibility of more children, he told The Times: ‘Possibly, yes. With Ashley, yeah. That would be nice, that.’
Bean's relationship with his wife began unexpectedly, with the pair making an immediate connection after meeting in Belize Park bar The Cobden Arms, a stones' throw from his former home in the affluent London suburb.
'She was there with friends and I came in with my friend and it was just a chance meeting,' he recalled. 'I used to go in there now and again, but it was the first time she'd ever been in. We kind of hit it off.'
While Moore's 'optimism and vibrancy' has helped change his life, the actor says advancing age has also given him the ability to look back at his previous relationships with a greater degree of maturity.
'You know, you look back on things and and think, "Maybe I should have done that in a different way. Maybe I wouldn't have done that. I'd do that differently now."
'But then again, you're a lot younger, they're different times and you think, "Would I have done that? Would I really do it any differently?"'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6716585/Sean-Bean-59-reveals-ready-children-marrying-fifth-wife-Ashley-Moore-33.html
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#JosephFiennes #MartinClunes #SeanBean #ShaunEvans feature in the new Radio Times Magazine. Order it worldwide here <<< http://bit.ly/2Sap6vi
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https://twitter.com/YourCelebMags/status/1097827339441004544
https://www.yourcelebritymagazines.com/collections/joseph-fiennes/products/uk-radio-times-feb-23-2019-steve-coogan-joseph-fiennes-sean-bean-martin-clunes
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UK Express Review 10 Feb 2019: SEAN BEAN COVER STORY
Cover and large interview with photos.
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https://www.yourcelebritymagazines.com/products/uk-express-review-10-feb-2019-sean-bean-cover-story
https://www.ebay.ie/itm/UK-Express-Review-10-Feb-2019-SEAN-BEAN-COVER-STORY/223388559684?hash=item3402fee944:g:6nUAAOSwcY5cZAUp:rk:7:pf:0
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Watching Curfew? 📺
Read Free Car Mag's interview with Sean Bean for some juicy behind the scene's gossip.
https://motoreasy.info/Curfew-Interview … #MondayMotivation #Reading #Curfew @CurfewSeries
(http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/patchfolk/D1Ys2-oXgAEqrdB_zpsotnllmne.png) (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/patchfolk/media/D1Ys2-oXgAEqrdB_zpsotnllmne.png.html)
https://twitter.com/motoreasy/status/1105120637499179010
https://www.motoreasy.com/magazine/327/MotorEasy-Reading-Curfew-The-Race-Is-On-In-Free-Car-Mag
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Welcome to my Ned Talk: Sean Bean reflects on his Game of Thrones legacy
He was a good man; the first good man. And though nearly eight years have passed since his death on Game of Thrones, his spirit lives on. Such is the legacy of Sean Bean’s Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell.
As they say in the North, “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.” Pure-of-heart Ned was the lone wolf cut down so soon in the game of thrones by King Joffrey’s executioner. (Shocking to anyone who hadn’t read George R.R. Martin’s books, at least.) That was all the way back in the penultimate hour of season 1. But his remaining pack — Sansa (Sophie Turner), Arya (Maisie Williams), Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright), and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) — ensure his memory survives, even as they prepare for the massive season 8 conclusion to HBO’s fantasy epic.
Bean, 59, was one of the first actors to join the cast of Game of Thrones, alongside Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister); he even appeared in the elusive unaired pilot, shot (and later reworked) before the show officially got picked up. Ahead of winter’s long-awaited arrival in Westeros, the actor looks back on his time as Ned, the character’s lasting impact, and that one game-changing secret about his supposed bastard son.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: About that secret Ned took to his grave, did anyone from the show give you a courtesy call to reveal the truth about Jon Snow’s parents?
SEAN BEAN: No. Like with everything with Game of Thrones, it was kept very dark and secret. I think that’s the kind of magic and the glory of Game of Thrones — that’s why it’s so stunning and breathtaking when these secrets are revealed.
Did [showrunners] Dan [Weiss] or David [Benioff] tease anything to you about the character ahead of filming?
Yeah, we met for lunch in Soho, six or seven years ago now, before we started the pilot. We had a really good chat, and I was very thrilled to be asked to play the role. I think it was only myself and Peter cast at the time. I was very thrilled by the whole idea. I didn’t actually know at that time how enormous and massive this series would become. I was just getting my head around the part, as we all were. None of us really could’ve imagined it would be such a big-scale, tantalizing drama. Yeah, that was the beginning of the story for me. And, of course, I knew I wasn’t going to last very long. I accepted that.
During that meeting, were you able to get any teases for that big Jon Snow secret?
Not really. They said that some things happened, there were quite dramatic twists and turns. They let me know what they were within the first [season]. It was enough just keeping up with these intricate and complex story lines, with all the families and different worlds. Any more information would’ve probably been overload. As you can see, the death and how it’s developed, I think there’s only so much you can take at once. They only reveal what they want you to know, and that’s good, I think. That’s what makes it so exciting to find out.
Why do you think Ned resonates so strongly with people?
He’s very honorable, he’s very honest, he’s a man of integrity, and he does the dirty work, as he does at the beginning when he chops off the guy’s head. But he’s a man who’s very fair-minded, and he’ll stick to his principles through thick and thin, regardless of who he’s up against. With him going to King’s Landing and getting involved with such backstabbers, it’s something he wasn’t used to, and certainly not at that level. I think it was quite tragic to see him chipped away by these people until he was really struggling, and he was in very deep. Throughout, he maintained his honor and his integrity, and I think that’s something viewers really took to their hearts. He’s one of the very few good men. He was the first good man in Game of Thrones, and he stayed that way to the bitter end. His sons and daughters have taken those values for themselves, and it’s a much richer show because of that — because of him.
There was the pilot that we all saw, and then there was the original unaired pilotthis link opens in a new tab. What do you remember from filming the original?
I think there were some very good moments. It was experimental in some ways. I think they were trying to portray what could be achieved: the kind of wonder and awe, the vast scale and complexity, all these war-faring tribes, the magic, the beauty, and the treachery. I think trying to get that into a pilot may have been difficult, and perhaps the story was lost a little. But nevertheless, it gave you a sense of what it could be. We were just going along with what was down there [on the page], but though they didn’t use the pilot in its entirety, they used certain moments, and I think the pilot served its purpose. As I said, it shows you what could be done and certainly what was done thereafter. It was developed, it got bigger and bigger and bigger and more exciting and breathtaking. It was just an idea, I think. It’s impossible to get an idea of the whole season of Game of Thrones into a pilot. We were very pleased with what we’ve done, and we really enjoyed being on it, and we knew there was something special in that early stage.
What were some differences between the original pilot and the one that aired?
I remember a scene with Bran in the old tree and [his parents are] talking to him about life. He was very young at the time, when Isaac was playing the part. There are some nice scenes with [Williams as Arya]. I quite enjoyed those scenes because there was a lot of horrible backstabbing going on, and I think those scenes stood out because they were very natural and people could identity with them: a father and his children. I also remember the banquet, which was quite interesting. We shot it in Scotland, and it was a banquet with King Robert. All the families were coming together, there was a real feeling of this horrible tension, which represents what we did afterwards.
Coming full circle, what do you remember about filming your last scenes as Ned?
I suppose it was just the general downturn day, the slide into this pit of vipers that he couldn’t really extricate himself from. He was falling in, he was trying to keep his values, his dignity. At the same time, he had no support, but he still carried on. He stayed on for Robert as Hand of the King, and then he was on the throne himself and things got worse and worse. I remember filming that day. The death, that was wonderful because it was so unexpected. I thought it was amazing how they shot it. But I died, and then I had to do some scenes from earlier in the episode, so it wasn’t the end for me. We were in Malta; it was very hot. It was very colorful. Everyone was there, and with things like that there’s a sort of gallows humor to it. It’s awful what’s happening, and you start giggling and laughing. When the head fell off, there were mistakes. It didn’t quite work out sometimes. It was quite comic. So it breaks the ice a bit.
https://ew.com/tv/2019/03/14/game-of-thrones-sean-bean-ned-stark-legacy/?utm_term=D0A7BC62-4678-11E9-8BFE-9DB04744363C&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=entertainmentweekly_ew&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link
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Five minutes with Ned Stark: His 'Game of Thrones' predictions and whether he'll return
Fans are hopeful the former Lord of Winterfell could return — dead or alive — for the final season. What does Sean Bean have to say about that?
"Game of Thrones" fans are hopeful Ned Stark might return — dead or alive — for the final season, even though the former Lord of Winterfell was executed in an epic beheading on the wildly popular show almost eight years ago.
Eddard Stark, as the character was formally known, was the first of many major figures to die in shocking ways on the show, but his legacy cast its shadow on subsequent seasons.
As the series approaches its conclusion (the final season premieres on HBO on April 14), new theories have emerged about the ending, and interest in Stark has grown. Since the start of 2019, and particularly in the last month, Google search traffic around the character has spiked. One of the top searches since November: "Does Ned Stark Die."
The character was played by Sean Bean, who in a brief interview with NBC News admitted he may be one of the few who hasn't binge-watched the entire series ahead of the final season. In fact, he hasn't had much time to catch up at all. Though it's hard to believe, Bean has had a life outside "Game of Thrones" in the several seasons since his execution, taking on new roles that require travel.
Still, when he can, Bean says he tunes in at home, and is excited for the final season. In a relaxed interview, he talked about his predictions, whom he wants to see on the Iron Throne, and whether Ned Stark will return to Westeros.
Are you looking forward to the final season? How are you planning to watch?
Flying to New York, going to see the first two episodes, I think, over there. On a big screen, I think.
The way everyone would want to watch it.
Yeah! Otherwise, have just been watching it at home on my TV.
Have you been watching every episode as they’ve come out since Ned died?
No, I’ve kind of caught up when I can. I’ve been traveling around working quite a lot around the world. So, I’ve not really been tuning in. I’ve caught up a little bit. Interested to see what happens.
You didn't binge-watch the whole series the way others did ahead of the last season?
Not too much of last season, so I’m going to have to catch up before I get to New York. But you know, just dipping in here and there, it’s difficult to follow because of traveling around.
For the upcoming season, do you have any guesses for who you think might be the first to die?
Maybe Cersei, but I think if she does die it will be in the last episode. She might be the last to die. The first, maybe, I’ve got no idea actually. I suppose, I guess, they can just kill anybody they want now. Maybe they all die!
And if they all died…
It’s going to be a massacre.
What do you think would be a more likely potential scenario? Jaime killing Cersei or Cersei killing Jaime?
Probably Cersei killing him or maybe Bran Stark — but he’s a bit friendly with the Lannisters now, isn’t he? I don't know, but maybe he could just lose his mind and kill all the Lannisters. That’d be good.
Speaking of death, of the episodes that you’ve watched, whose has been the most satisfying death so far?
Me. Mine.
Yours??
Well, OK, it’s not really the most satisfying … yeah, no, I didn’t really enjoy mine. Well, parts of it, it was very quick. I can’t remember very much of it. It’s a good way to die: in one chop.
Who would you want to see on the Iron Throne at the end of the series?
Sansa would be good, because she’s my daughter. Either her or Arya.
There are a lot of fan theories about Ned potentially returning in some form for the final season, maybe as a white walker? Will we see him?
Who, Ned?
Yeah!
They’d be shedding a bit of money on bringing me back. ... I’m not aware of that at the moment. But I mean, maybe.
Are you excited for summer once the series ends?
Am I excited for summer? Yes. Summer is coming.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/five-minutes-ned-stark-his-game-thrones-predictions-whether-he-n989556
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Sean Bean Is Really Meaning to Catch Up on Game of Thrones
Ned Stark was not the first person to die on Game of Thrones. (That was Ser Waymar Royce, who got killed by a White Walker.) And he was not the first major character to die on Game of Thrones. (That was Viserys Targaryen, who got molten gold poured all over him by his own brother-in-law.) But eight years later, his surprise execution in the show’s ninth episode remains the most iconic death on a series that has seen more than its fair share of early departures. Ned’s passing crystallized something that readers of George R.R. Martin’s novels had long known: This was a grim, unjust world, and nobody was guaranteed to get out of it alive, no matter how beloved they were. But the moment would not have been so effective without the performance of Sean Bean, who brought a gentle humanity to the rough-hewn northern lord that underscored the tragedy of his fate. As Game of Thrones prepares to air its final season, Vulture caught up with Bean from his home in rural Somerset to talk about his favorite memories from his single season on the show, Ned’s legacy, and playing death scenes.
Do you remember how they approached you for the gig?
We met in a little café in Soho in London, me and David Benioff and Dan Weiss. I wasn’t aware of the books and they’d just sent me the treatment for the first pilot. They described what it was all about, the characters and the fact that I wouldn’t probably last for another [season]! [Laughs.] So they were very candid and I appreciated that. They were very excited and very passionate in the way they spoke, and I was very enchanted by the prospect of portraying this great man called Ned Stark.
Was that kind of character new for you at the time?
I’ve played characters before that were “decent” people, but not genuinely good, you know? There was always a bit of a [dark] side to the characters I played. Like Boromir in The Lord of the Rings. He was a good man, he meant well, but he had this weakness which cost him his life. They’re interesting characters, but Ned was just out-and-out a good man. And I’d never played a character with such a big family.
I’m always interested in hearing about the original Game of Thrones pilot, because it’s something the public will probably never see1. Do you have any strong memories of shooting that first version?
We were in Belfast for that and we shot a lot in the studio. We shot in Shane’s Castle2 for my castle [Winterfell], and then we worked in Scotland for the banquet. So we got around a little bit. It seemed a little fractured at the time because we were all trying to find our feet and find out who we were and how we interacted. There were lots of glimmers of potential, and I guess that was the idea, to try and display all these different dynamics in order to finance the show and get support behind it. It was more of a showcase, I think, than anything else. And then we reshot over half of it, we kept bits and changed things around, and it [became] more of a story rather than a montage.
When you say it was a showcase, what do you mean?
They had to introduce so many characters in the pilot that there wasn’t a great deal of time for developing the characters. It was a matter of portraying the different families, different characters, the strange people, and introducing them all. And then I suppose once that’s done, you can explore them a little further over ten episodes. The pilot was just a taste for the people who were making the decision whether or not to take it into a series.
For the second version they recast Catelyn, your wife3.
Yes, they did. We got Michelle Fairley, and I think they recast someone else as well4. Jennifer Ehle had just had a baby, so it was quite difficult for her. I’m assuming that the prospect of being involved for quite a few years may not have worked for her. Or maybe it was something else. I don’t know very much about that.
How did you get the news that they were reshooting the pilot?
When we knew it was going to go ahead, we reshot certain scenes with the idea of doing ten episodes in mind. I think we knew it was good. We didn’t expect it to be the phenomenon that it is now. Nobody really knew whether it was going to go ahead or not. And then when we got the nod, we were over the moon because there was so much potential.
Do you have a favorite scene in the first season?
I had a nice scene with Bran where we sat down near the waterside under the old tree. And I like the scene where I said, “Winter is coming,” of course! I never knew that would become such a worldwide phrase.
Why do you think those house words became such a thing?
It epitomizes George R.R. Martin’s writing. It’s not like you’re saying, “It’s going to be getting a bit cold before spring comes back.” It’s very loaded with danger and dread. It’s an omen — it means more than it actually says. It was good to be the one to say it!
How did it feel knowing you were only going to last one season?
It was fine. At least I knew where I stood. You can’t really change it when a good author has wrote it that way. You can’t say, “I want to stay on!” But he had a good innings5, the buildup to his death was good, and it was shocking. You can’t really ask for more than that in a character. And they decided to go with my northern accent, and that set the tone for the rest of the people that followed. They all had to learn to talk like me!
You read the first book, but none of the others. Was that a conscious choice, or did it just happen?
I didn’t want to get too involved in the books, so I kind of read the first one, not in any great depth. It was just to get a flavor, really. I didn’t want to get too attached to how Ned was portrayed and what the story was about, because I knew it was probably going to change. And I wanted to bring some of my ideas to the part.
What sort of ideas were those?
There’s only so much you can get from a book. If you truly copy it, it’s not going to work because it’s a book first and foremost, it’s not drama. I brought parts of me and my father, and parts of people who are father figures. I tried to bring an honesty and a sympathy to Ned. He didn’t know everything, he was vulnerable at times, and he didn’t try to hide it that much. I just wanted to bring a person who had frailties and vulnerabilities, who was strong and courageous and honorable, but he also had these faults. I wanted to get them over at the same time, so that the combination of all those emotions would make for a full-rounded and interesting man.
If you don’t mind me asking, which parts of Ned came from your own father?
My father, I always remember him as a very fair man with humor. Kind of quiet, really. But we respected him very much and we loved him very much, of course. He had a quiet authority. He was a mild-mannered man and a kind man, and I suppose those things rub off in your everyday life. I looked up to my dad.
Ned Stark has a culture shock when he comes from the North to King’s Landing. I was wondering if you ever experienced anything similar coming from Sheffield.
My background was very industrial — steel factories and coal mines and heavy industry. Coming down to London was quite a shock. It was so fast and kind of alien to me. I was going to RADA7 for drama school, and at one point I was thinking about going on the train back home! I didn’t know if I would be able to adapt. I missed my friends and my family, but I stuck it out. It was probably the biggest chance I’d ever had in my life, and I really wanted to do what I said I was going to do.
Going to Hollywood was very different. I guess there were some comparisons [to what Ned went through] in terms of a lot of shit with producers! I mean, it’s a typical thing of doing the rounds and getting told, “This could happen and that could happen, we’re going to do this and we’re going to do that.” And then nothing happens at all! There’s a lot of two-faced people and very shallow people in L.A. I’m not particularly fond of the place, but it’s been good to me in the sense that I’ve been offered work there and I’ve enjoyed it. But it’s certainly not somewhere I would feel comfortable living for any long period of time. You have to take everyone with a pinch of salt because everyone’s in it. They’re all very ambitious people, that’s why they go there, and I understand that. But at first, I didn’t understand that, and I couldn’t understand why people promised things and then they broke their word. I guess you could say that’s similar to Ned, somewhat.
At least no one has chopped your head off in Hollywood yet.
No! But you’re swirling around, trying to figure out what’s what and who’s who. It’s pretty cutthroat. I just don’t take it too literally, you know? I was quite young when I went over there for the first time and I was quite excited about the prospect of getting a job, and it didn’t really work out. I had to come back and do some more work in the U.K. and in Europe before I could go back with any weight behind me. But I’m okay now. They’re aware of me.
You’ve been off Game of Thrones for eight years now. Has the type of part you’ve been offered changed?
I was offered lots of parts on horses. Hairy men on horses with fur capes and swords and beards! [Laughs.] I’m very proud to have been Ned Stark, and it certainly helped us all with other work. We were given a showcase, and we took the opportunity to show what we could do.
What do you think has made the show as big as it is?
I mean, the sheer balls of the thing. It takes no prisoners. It touches upon all those very deep emotions — anger and jealousy and love and hate. People can see themselves in it. The characters might seem out of this world, but they’re very much like all of us. And anything can happen. When you can kill the main character in the first series, everybody’s in danger! It’s pure fantasy, but rooted in issues with power — the power of the throne, the power of the families, and the lengths that they would go to to achieve this ultimate power, which is quite a curious thing.
The only thing I can liken it to is The Lord of the Rings, which you were also a part of. I’m curious how the experiences compare.
On Lord of the Rings, we were all on this island in New Zealand and we didn’t really know just how big that would become. It’s just as well you don’t know what’s going to happen. If you think you’re going to be part of something phenomenal, it usually turns into a bit of an anticlimax. If we’d known, there might have been a tension or a nervousness, so I’m glad we didn’t and it developed into something enormous. But you always know when you’re doing something good. That there’s a good company behind it, a good director and producers, and you’re aware that it’s quality material. That’s very reassuring and it gives you a boost.
Both of them you left pretty early. What was it like looking at those experiences as they continued, from afar?
I don’t mind! I just did my bit and then I had to go! [Laughs.] I don’t get to argue about that, right? And the talk about, “Will this happen? Will that happen?” I guess because the [show has passed the books], people can speculate, whereas when the books were around, we did all of the books and it had to be that way. But now that there’s this quite exciting element, who knows what’s going to happen? It’s fascinating.
Do you get caught up in that guessing game too?
A little. I’m just like everyone else. I think that HBO and Dan and David and everyone, they know that and they love that. They love the secrecy of it.
and everyone, they know that and they love that. They love the secrecy of it.
Do you get any inside information, or are you out in the cold with everyone else?
I’m in the cold. I don’t get any updates, no information at all! That’s good, because I want to enjoy it like everybody else.
Did you know Jon Snow’s true parentage?
No, I didn’t. I thought he was my son.
When did you find out he wasn’t?
When it came out.
Really?
I found out like everybody else did, yeah. Nobody told me.
I feel like you hinted about the truth8 in some interviews.
There was always some small doubts or suspicions, but I wasn’t going to say that. But, you know, I knew more than other people.
I’ve heard you don’t watch every episode of the show, but you sort of keep up with it. Is that true?
I go in and out, yeah. With working and traveling and stuff like that, it’s difficult to keep in touch. But I’ve meant to just sit down and watch them all over one weekend. I like to binge-watch, especially for something like this.
you watch episodes without watching the ones in between, is it hard to keep up with the gaps?
Yeah. But I can switch it on and watch it for a while and then I think, Oh, I have to switch it off, I don’t want to spoil it!
Since you died at the end of season one, a lot of the actors who played Starks have had their own death scenes. Did anyone ever come to you for advice?
No. I think everyone likes to do it their own way, you know? And I wouldn’t ask anyone, “How did he die in that scene?” It’s very personal and only you should really know what you’re going to do. Dying is a very personal thing. You have to learn how to emulate that for yourself. It’s quite a weird thing. It’s just something you’ve got to do. I don’t particularly enjoy it.
I’m sorry you’ve had to do it so many times.
Oh yeah! But now I’m doing it less. I get to survive a little bit more now.
When you watch the show, do you find yourself rooting for the Starks, or do you try to stay neutral?
Definitely the Starks. They’re my family!
How do you think Ned would feel about the way all his kids ended up?
He’d have mixed feelings about what happens and whether he’d have done things in different ways, but he’d probably think, Well, that’s the way it had to be. I don’t think he would say, “You should have done this, you should have done that.” I think he’d look on and say, “They have to make their own way.” He probably feels he should have done more.
you have a favorite character on the show?
I quite like, I want to call him the bald-headed …
Varys?
Varys, yes. I just think he’s interesting. As a character, he’s very full-throttle, you know? [Conleth Hill] has made a lot out of that character, and he’s really gone for it. I think he’s quite unique9 in the show.
If you could bring any character back to life, who would it be?
Me. [Laughs.] No, maybe King Robert. I’d bring him back. He had his head screwed on proper.
Do you think he was a good king?
Well, not really.
But he was better than what came after.
Yeah! He was entertaining.
I remember playing as you in the Goldeneye video game. Now there are Boromir and Ned Stark toys out there. Does a person ever get used to that kind of thing?
Kind of, yeah! I’ve got quite a few of them at home. You have to have a look at them because it’s in your likeness, and usually they get it, but you have to go, “That’s okay” or “That’s not okay.” They send your little head through the post and you look at it and say, “Yeah, that’s fine!”
Have you ever sent one back?
You can, but I’ve never made any changes. They’ve always gotten me pretty good.
I heard a rumor you used to get Rowan Atkinson’s mail. Is that true?
Once or twice, yeah. It just said “Mr. Bean, London,” and I think they just thought it was me. There was a photograph of Rowan Atkinson for him to sign, and I sent it back saying “Sean Bean!”
https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/game-of-thrones-sean-bean-interview.html?utm_source=nym&utm_medium=f1&utm_campaign=feed-full
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That's FUNNY !!! I wonder what they thought when they saw SEAN'S name on the picture of Mr. Bean ???
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Sean Bean: ‘Turning 60 was a relief. It’s all right really’
The actor talks to Robert Crampton about the advantages of ageing
(https://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/patchfolk/Sean%20Bean/sean%20bean%203/methode_times_prod_web_bin_5cfd72e2-d585-11e9-9149-9833d870d22d_zpswufatxog.jpg) (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/patchfolk/media/Sean%20Bean/sean%20bean%203/methode_times_prod_web_bin_5cfd72e2-d585-11e9-9149-9833d870d22d_zpswufatxog.jpg.html)
Sean Bean is in London for the premiere of World on Fire, a big-budget BBC drama that he stars in this autumn. He’s staying at the Soho Hotel, where we meet, in the modest room that he’s occupying for a couple of days before heading home to Somerset. After more than 30 years in London, arriving from his native Sheffield to attend Rada in 1981, Bean quit the capital five years ago. Now 60, he doesn’t miss life in the big city. He is, he admits, a committed homebody.
“We live in the heart of the countryside,” he explains in his mellow south Yorkshire tones. “We don’t have any neighbours and I quite like that. That’s why I got out of London; the neighbours in…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sean-bean-turning-60-was-a-relief-its-all-right-really-cb26zvcmf
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:( need to subscribe for whole interview. Hope it gets posted somewhere.
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:( need to subscribe for whole interview. Hope it gets posted somewhere.
I'm sure it will :giggles:
Sean Bean has been married five times. He must be a bloody nightmare
(https://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/patchfolk/EEbiwlWW4AAFt0v_zpsftqwme8g.jpg) (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/patchfolk/media/EEbiwlWW4AAFt0v_zpsftqwme8g.jpg.html)
https://twitter.com/mummyinthecity/status/1172874099477139457
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Thank you Patch <3
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Sean Bean: ‘Turning 60 was a relief. It’s all right really’
The actor talks to Robert Crampton about the advantages of ageing
(https://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/patchfolk/Sean%20Bean/sean%20bean%203/methode_times_prod_web_bin_5cfd72e2-d585-11e9-9149-9833d870d22d_zpswufatxog.jpg) (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/patchfolk/media/Sean%20Bean/sean%20bean%203/methode_times_prod_web_bin_5cfd72e2-d585-11e9-9149-9833d870d22d_zpswufatxog.jpg.html)
Sean Bean is in London for the premiere of World on Fire, a big-budget BBC drama that he stars in this autumn. He’s staying at the Soho Hotel, where we meet, in the modest room that he’s occupying for a couple of days before heading home to Somerset. After more than 30 years in London, arriving from his native Sheffield to attend Rada in 1981, Bean quit the capital five years ago. Now 60, he doesn’t miss life in the big city. He is, he admits, a committed homebody.
“We live in the heart of the countryside,” he explains in his mellow south Yorkshire tones. “We don’t have any neighbours and I quite like that. That’s why I got out of London; the neighbours in…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sean-bean-turning-60-was-a-relief-its-all-right-really-cb26zvcmf
Thanks to Beanland.de
The full interview: 'Turning 60 was a relief. It's all right really'
https://www.facebook.com/beanland.de/posts/2806951682703311?__tn__=K-R
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@SeanBeanOnline Brand New #SeanBean interview in UK Times Weekend Dated 14th September 2019. Available in print worldwide here <<< http://bit.ly/2kmmorJ
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https://twitter.com/YourCelebMags/status/1173550076356112391
https://www.yourcelebritymagazines.com/collections/sean-bean/products/uk-times-weekend-supplement-14-september-2019-sean-bean-interview
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Sean Bean on becoming a war heroturned conscientious objector in BBC drama
(https://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad116/patchfolk/Sean%20Bean/sean%20bean%203/world%20on%20fire/bbc-1179714_zpsxgysxesx.jpg) (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/patchfolk/media/Sean%20Bean/sean%20bean%203/world%20on%20fire/bbc-1179714_zpsxgysxesx.jpg.html)
The actor, 60, leads a glittering cast including Lesley Manville, Helen Hunt and Blake Harrison in the BBC’s new Sunday night wartime epic, World On Fire. Sean plays Douglas Bennett whose beautiful factory worker and jazz singer daughter Lois (Julia Brown) joins the Entertainments National Service Association and finds herself embroiled in a messy love triangle with a translator-turned-spy. Douglas has survived the horror of the First World War, but carries the scars of a mustard gas attack and battles PTSD, known then as shell shock.
After so many roles as a swashbuckling hero, Sean enjoyed the change of pace.
But he had one major caveat before he would sign up to do the show – he wanted writer Peter Bowker to guarantee his character would not die in series one.
During his long career, Sean has filmed some fantastic death scenes.
In GoldenEye he was splattered on a satellite dish, he was shot through the neck with a grappling hook in The Island, peppered with arrows in The Lord Of The Rings, and decapitated by his own sword in Game Of Thrones. Even in The Field he was trampled off a cliff by a herd of rampaging cows.
Sean laughs: “I had to check. I just said, what’s his story? Is he still around at the end? It is a bit of a joke but all those deaths were not in vain! They all meant something!
“But I did fall into that a little bit because the parts were interesting… they were all meaty, juicy roles and everybody likes to play a baddie and a villain, but I realised I was dying in everything and I just wanted to break out and survive!”
He continues: “I quite like that. Douglas is a strong man and he came back from war in pieces.
“He’s fractured, disturbed, damaged and it was interesting to portray a man who suffered so much psychological damage and physically too.”
Playing such a disturbed character did not come easily and Sean had to dredge up his own devastating experiences for the saddest scenes.
He says: “I try to find things in my life that were traumatic experiences. Without doing that you can’t really imagine how it must feel. It’s a personal pride thing, you have to dredge that up and it’s not always a pleasant experience
but it’s necessary to portray someone like Douglas truthfully.”
Sean based Douglas on his grandfather Harold who served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and came home a pacifist communist. Sean reveals: “My character is a conscientious objector and he doesn’t feel it’s a justifiable war in any sense. He thinks there should be diplomacy and dialogue, he doesn’t have the benefit of hindsight, he doesn’t know what is to come but he does know what happened to his life after the First World War. Why did they die in their hundreds and thousands? What were they fighting for? They were cannon fodder. Young men died or were killed and many came back broken and it was horrific and unnecessary. Douglas remembers men having their brains blown out and bloodshed. He’s suffering and he’s suffering greatly.”
Sean remembers his own grandfather Harold going through similar torment.
He continues: “My grandad was like that. He was a pacifist after his experiences in the war. My grandfather served in the Royal Navy and was sent up to Murmansk in north Russia near the Arctic for many years.
“I’ve got pictures of him and photographs and it affected him and he came back a shaken man. He got his mojo back in the years after but you could see it had an impact. It’s a long legacy.” The Second World War might have ended 15 years before Sean was born but it still loomed large in his childhood. He explained: “My mum and dad were kids up in Sheffield and they lived very close to the steel works. The steel industry was a target on occasions and they tell stories about gas masks and sirens and having to run and rationing.
“As kids we used to play in bomb craters, old buildings with walls missing. They’d be standing but one side would be missing and you could see all the different wallpapers in different houses in the rubble.”
Sean also drew on his experience of meeting real serving soldiers in the past during his time filming 19th century Peninsular War drama Sharpe in the Nineties.
He said: “When we did Sharpe there was a scene when there was an award for damaged soldiers in the Peninsular War. They had missing limbs and legs and they were men who had fought in the Falklands war and they were gracious enough to be involved in our series.
“Talking to them it wasn’t so much the physical side, as the mental side that affected them after the Falkland Islands. I think there have now been more who committed suicide than actually killed in battle themselves.”
World On Fire appealed to Sean partly because of its huge scale and great cast – but most importantly he was drawn by the quality of The A Word writer Peter Bowker’s storytelling.
Sean says: “It’s the Second World War which I think is always interesting and the fact that Peter is involved, and the BBC – but especially the writing. I spoke to Peter on a few occasions and he filled me in on how this wasn’t really a retelling of the war and the machines, the artillery, the infantry.
“It was a personal story of people coming together in the most extraordinary of circumstances, a very intimate portrayal of men and women whose lives changed dramatically – not just a few lives, everyone in the world. That is quite an extraordinary occurrence. This has left a big impression on me because I remember the characters and how difficult it was for people.”
One of the most compelling relationships in the show is between Sean’s character Douglas and Lesley’s character Robina Chase, whose son Harry is dating Douglas’s daughter. In fact, the pair have such chemistry that writer Peter penned extra scenes for them, realising they were stealing the show.
Sean smiles: “I hadn’t worked with Lesley before but I’d always been a big fan of hers. I watched her in Grown Ups with Mike Leigh many years ago which was fantastic and in every scene she always gives a good account of herself.
“She’s a brilliant actress and it’s been really very nice to work with Lesley. It’s an interesting throwing together of two characters who are basically very, very different.
“Douglas is a working-class, Left-wing pacifist, Robina is a gentrified lady of the manor who is very stuck in her ways and politics and has Right-wing views. But as the war unfolds, we soften our stances because we have to. At first we don’t get on, but my daughter is going out with her son and, in that funny way, they do have something in common because they’re so forthright in their beliefs. You don’t find many people like that. By the end they have quite a lot in common.”
As well as World On Fire, Sean has just wrapped several other projects. So what’s next? He groans: “I’m having a bit of time off! I’ve been working non-stop back to back for a few years so I’m enjoying my garden!”
https://newslanes.com/2019/09/18/sean-bean-on-becoming-a-war-hero-turned-conscientious-objector-in-bbc-drama/
https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1179714/sean-bean-film-bbc-world-on-fire
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https://twitter.com/MattNixson/status/1174613180355612672
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Thank you Patch !! That was WONDERFUL !!
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An interview with Sean Bean
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Sean Bean plays Douglas Bennett in World On Fire.
Describe the character of Douglas - what it was about him that drew you to the script?
Douglas was involved in the First World War and was so mentally damaged by shell shock that it has an influence on how he viewed everything to do with the Second World War. He doesn’t believe in war as a means of achieving objectives. He thinks there should be negotiation and people should be trying to communicate.
At this point, no one is aware of the impact that this second war is going to make on the world but from his experience of the First World War he always wondered what it was all for. The people who fought were cannon fodder with no real understanding of why they were fighting. For Douglas it was a futile war, that left him mentally scarred and suffering from flashbacks, anxiety, insecurity and a slight leaning towards madness.
Where does Douglas fit into the Bennett family set-up?
The Bennett family consists of Douglas, son Tom and daughter Lois. Lois is the backbone of the family and is a strong-willed woman. She runs the everyday life of the family, leaving Tom and Douglas to just sit about the kitchen and wait for her to make cups of tea and feed them.
They’re working-class men and are very down to earth. Douglas’ wife died years ago so he’s brought the children up somewhat on his own. He’s been trying to keep it together but he’s weak and he’s depressed from the First World War and he’s nervous and unsure about the future. It’s difficult for him to relate to his children at times and it’s difficult for them to know how to treat him without robbing him of his dignity or his independence.
Tell us about the relationship that develops between Douglas and Robina.
Douglas and Robina meet purely because of Harry and Lois’ relationship. It’s a very unlikely relationship, a working-class bus driver and a very gentrified lady of the manor as it were. They’re thrown together because of their children’s relationship. It's quite an interesting friendship that emerges between them. Some people are thrown together who would never otherwise meet, but Robina recognises that Douglas is an intelligent man and has a warmth of personality that she finds both alien and interesting to her.
Explain how Douglas and Jan are thrown together, and how that friendship develops?
A big element in the relationship between the Chase family members and the Bennett family is the young Polish refugee Jan, whom Harry brings home from war. Jan is being brought up by Robina, and Douglas gets to know Jan well and becomes really fond of him. He befriends Jan and plays football with him; he shows him some fatherly love. Douglas sees him as another son and I think Jan sees Douglas as a surrogate father figure. They form a really interesting and quite touching relationship.
How does he feel when his son and daughter both head off to service the war in their different ways?
As a pacifist, Douglas has to watch his daughter Lois go off to join the entertainment corps ENSA, and then sees Tom join the navy and go to war on the HMS Exeter. This terrifies Douglas, yet when Tom returns on leave he wants Douglas to sanction him becoming an objector and essentially going AWOL - but no matter what he is, Douglas is not a coward and doesn’t give his blessing to Tom.
He’s a man of morals and he knows what this would mean for the pacifist organization that he belongs to, but more importantly what it could mean for his son if he is caught. He could be court marshalled and disgraced and he doesn’t want that for Tom. Tom is many things, and headstrong, but to live his life as a cowardly criminal or be executed is not what Douglas’ wants for Tom, so the only way out of that situation is to encourage him to go back to war and possibly certain death. It weighs heavy on Douglas.
Describe the scale of this show.
It’s an amazing production that I became engrossed in as soon as I read it the scripts. In some ways it’s like a completely captivating novel and every individual seemed to be portrayed as unique. They all have their particular ambitions, dreams and jobs before the war starts and then their fears and dread as events unfold are the same across all the countries we show. They are all coming to terms with the changes that are happening in their lives and realise that, for some of them, ridicule, intimidation and persecution are coming down the line because of their beliefs and simply for being who they are.
Do you have any personal memories of family members who were alive during the war?
My mother and father were born just before the war started in the 1930s. They used to tell me stories about how they used to wear the gas masks. My auntie and uncle had an Anderson shelter in their shed (that’s still there today) that we used to play in it when we were little. It was very flimsy as bomb shelters go and I’ll always remember those moments. They were storytellers and there was a lot of humour and funny stories to be told of those times.
Is this a period in history that you are particularly interested and did you conduct any research to prepare you for the part?
I did a fair bit of research for the part but it’s something I’ve always been quite interested in as an area of history. The Second World War fascinates me, but it was the reparations that were set in place following the end of the First World War that heralded the introduction of Hitler. I’ve always been interested in how people like Douglas Bennett were shunned within that community. They were ostracised which must have been very, very difficult. You’re going totally against the propaganda and the general feeling of the country by actually standing up and saying, I’m a pacifist. That’s an incredibly hard and brave thing to do and you suffer for it.
How do we see Douglas being affected by his beliefs?
Imagine being in a closed-knit community and people turn their back on you. Shopkeepers don't want to serve you in shops and shout at you in the street and call you this and that. I would imagine you have to be pretty determined and principled to stick to your beliefs in the face of popular opinion. So that was interesting and just the fact that Douglas is physically and mentally not very well wasn’t really understood, certainly not in the wake of the First World War - shellshock was just frowned upon.
Today’s soldiers have a diagnosis now in PTSD and we can see how it works on the brain and how these people suffered in silence. It’s a difficult one. It’s a difficult illness to talk about, especially during the Second World War, so for Douglas to actually stand up and say, I don't believe in it [the war], was a really, big and brave statement.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/worldonfire/sean
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“It’s a game to them”: Sean Bean talks Twitter and volatile world leaders
In an upcoming BBC war drama, the actor plays a man who is now an activist for peace in real life. It makes him wish even more that Trump would step away from the internet
Acting legend Sean Bean is no stranger to action. But while gearing up to appear in BBC Second World war drama World On Fire, the reckless conduct of some of the most powerful men in the world is at the forefront of his mind.
Bean plays bus conductor Douglas Bennett, who survived a mustard gas attack in the First World War, but suffers from what we’d now call PTSD and now actively campaigns against a fresh conflict. The actor admires Bennett.
“He is a pacifist now,” Bean told The Big Issue. “He is suffering quite deeply with memory loss, tremors, flashbacks. And that, of course, influences his feelings towards this war. But he is a very warm personality, very warm with his children.
The 60-year-old actor – famed for a strong of roles in big and small screen smash-hits from Game of Thrones to Lord of the Rings – added: “He is not going to make many friends being a conscientious objector. But he is brave. He is not afraid to walk into a recruitment office with copies of Peace News, saying he thinks there is an alternative to war. He just doesn’t think war is the solution to the world’s conflicts.”
Neither, it seems, does the actor playing him.
“There are alternatives,” says Bean, warming to his theme. “I don’t like that gung-ho attitude to war. Diplomacy and dialogue are good things to try and re-establish.
“There is so much abuse being hurled around by big countries and the top men of those countries. It is like a game to them. All these tweets going backwards and forwards, and most of them were war-dodgers, the Bushes and Trump. They’re quite happy to promote war now.
“Look at Iraq and Afghanistan. What a huge loss of life for something that was so futile. Those countries are worse now than they were before.”
Read the full interview in this week’s Big Issue, available from your local vendor or online from the Big Issue Shop.
https://www.bigissue.com/latest/its-a-game-to-them-sean-bean-talks-twitter-and-volatile-world-leaders/
https://www.bigissue.com/magazines/meet-the-cultural-revolutionaries/
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“It’s a game to them”: Sean Bean talks Twitter and volatile world leaders
Read the full interview in this week’s Big Issue, available from your local vendor or online from the Big Issue Shop.
The full interview
“It’s a game to them”: Sean Bean talks Twitter and volatile world leaders
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“I have played a lot of heroes.”
From swashbuckling Napoleonic War soldier Sharpe to Bond baddie Alec Trevelyan – the rogue agent 006 who turned to the dark side in 1995’s GoldenEye – to Ned Stark (RIP) in Game of Thrones, Sean Bean has that elusive screen presence that the best actors bring to their work.
Bean has specialised in men whose actions speak louder than their words. Lady Chatterley’s groundskeeper lover in the sizzling 1993 BBC adaptation, warrior Boromir in the Lord of The Rings trilogy, Andy McNab in Bravo Two Zero, a footballing factory worker in When Saturday Comes – Bean’s back catalogue is packed with strong and silent types.
Of late though, he has been enjoying adventures in alternative masculinities. Roles that retain the strength and that unspoken, below-the-surface emotion that Bean portrays so well, but whose bravery is less about combat, more about survival.
There was an International Emmy for his role as transvestite teacher Tracie in Accused (2012) and a Bafta win for Jimmy McGovern’s Broken (2017), in which he played a conflicted, haunted Roman Catholic priest.
“The characters I am offered now are quite reflective, and often disturbed by memories of the past,” he says. “It is great because I have more life to bring to it. I get offered the parts of grandads and think, ‘Oh, yeah, fuck, I’m 60 – I’m not the young man who gets all the girls.’”
A career of this longevity and breadth was beyond Bean’s wildest dreams when he started his acting journey.
“I wouldn’t have believed it when I was at drama school, living in a YMCA in London. No way,” he grins. “I was just looking to get a first job on stage and get a wage packet. Which I did. And it was 80 quid for Romeo and Juliet so I got my Equity card. These days you can skip all that learning and be a celebrity.”
Large parts of the series are set in Warsaw or Berlin. It is not just the English view of the war. And it is not glorifying war
Bean is outstanding, once again, in World On Fire. The stunning new BBC One Sunday night drama is written by Bafta-winner Peter Bowker (The A Word, Marvellous) and succeeds in the seemingly impossible task of finding a new way to tell the story of the Second World War on screen.
This is not another depiction of Winston Churchill and Hitler’s speeches, Spitfires duelling, Vera Lynn and the spirit of the Blitz. We know that history and have seen it countless times.
Instead, World On Fire takes its influence from The World At War, the groundbreaking 26-part documentary narrated by Laurence Olivier in the early 1970s, but also from the success of The Killing, which showed audiences were ready for subtitled drama. The series focuses on people across Europe whose lives were irrevocably affected by this global conflict, with an ambition to run for seven series, each telling the story of one year from 1939-1945.
“Large parts of the series are set in Warsaw or Berlin. It is not just the English view of the war. And it is not glorifying war,” says Bean.
“It is very intimate. These are ordinary people like you or me and it shows how the war affects their lives – which is vastly. And forever. For their children and for us now.”
Bean plays bus conductor Douglas Bennett, who survived a mustard gas attack in the First World War, but suffers from what we’d now call PTSD and now actively campaigns against a fresh conflict.
Spoiler alert: Bean will be sticking around. He is, he suggests, fed up of his characters dying early in far too many roles, notably Game of Thrones, and a stellar acting career in danger of being reduced to a meme.
“Did I ask whether I would survive? I did call Peter Bowker,” he grins. (The writer confirms this: “One of the things that swung it for him is that he wanted to make sure he didn’t die.”).
“I wanted him to be relevant throughout the whole series so I could see him develop.”
Bean talks with admiration about his latest alter ego.
“He is a pacifist now. He is suffering quite deeply with memory loss, tremors, flashbacks. And that, of course, influences his feelings towards this war. But he is a very warm personality, very warm with his children.
“He is not going to make many friends being a conscientious objector. But he is brave. He is not afraid to walk into a recruitment office with copies of Peace News, saying he thinks there is an alternative to war. He just doesn’t think war is the solution to the world’s conflicts.”
Neither, it seems, does the actor playing him.
“There are alternatives,” says Bean, warming to his theme. “I don’t like that gung-ho attitude to war. Diplomacy and dialogue are good things to try and re-establish.
“There is so much abuse being hurled around by big countries and the top men of those countries. It is like a game to them. All these tweets going backwards and forwards, and most of them were war-dodgers, the Bushes and Trump. They’re quite happy to promote war now.
“Look at Iraq and Afghanistan. What a huge loss of life for something that was so futile. Those countries are worse now than they were before.
“So Douglas has a very modern viewpoint that I think many people can understand. People now see it is a catalyst for more war, which is probably intentional. Perpetual war was mentioned in George Orwell’s 1984 as a tool to keep the population under control and create a war machine. Which is pretty much what the US military industrial complex is – many people have become billionaires from exactly that.”
Bean’s parents were children during the Second World War. He recalls stories of gas masks being grabbed when air raids targeted the local steelworks.
“My uncle still has an Anderson shelter in his little garden,” he says. “We used to play in it as kids. It was a good den, that. And there were still bomb craters around Sheffield when I was a kid. We used to have fights in them after school.”
He also invokes the local steelworks when talk turns to his own big issues. Bean moves rapidly through a series of interlinked subjects – from the rising levels of poverty and increased use of foodbanks to homelessness and fractured communities.
“It is about communities. You can go back to the miners’ strike. They shut down the mines in Sheffield and South Yorkshire, there is the closing down of the steelworks and the shipbuilding industry,” says Bean.
“All these villages are ghost towns now, riddled with drugs and unemployment. They are forgotten. The communities and all that belief they had in themselves has never been replaced. Libraries have disappeared. Youth clubs have disappeared. All those places the government don’t seem to think are relevant because they don’t provide profit, I guess. It is not right.
“Then there are the conditions in prisons – absolutely tragic. They are awful. They are medieval. There is no rehabilitation to speak of – prisoners then end up homeless. I know a few people back home in Sheffield. It is a vicious circle. They talk about longer sentences and more prisons but they are not addressing how to educate and rehabilitate people. It is just paying lip service and it is a load of shit.”
He is on a roll now, more impassioned, more fluent, more like the charismatic characters we have seen him inhabit than the sensitive, softly spoken actor he has appeared as thus far.
“The cutbacks in disability benefits – you can go on and on,” says Bean, eventually. “But when you see poverty levels going up and the use of foodbanks going up, it is awful. The levels of children living in poverty is rising significantly. It is so alarming in a society that likes to present this image of wealth and wellbeing that so many people are struggling.
“An extraordinary amount of people are living under the breadline. They are starving. But it doesn’t make headlines. We have to get to the bottom of it, instead of these token gestures.
“But you guys do a great job and highlight it and have a fantastic reputation. I remember when you first came out. I am really honoured you asked me to be part of it.”
https://www.bigissue.com/latest/its-a-game-to-them-sean-bean-talks-twitter-and-volatile-world-leaders/?utm_source=issue1379&utm_campaign=features
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Sean Bean discusses Wolfwalkers, one of the year's best animated films
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Sean Bean stars in a medieval-set fantasy playing a strong father who tries to protect his rebellious teen daughter while struggling to fulfill his duty to a corrupt leader – oh, and there are wolves involved.
While the setup might remind Game of Thrones fans of Ned Stark, everything else about the actor's new Apple TV+ animated film Wolfwalkers takes a very different path: The tale is set in 1650 Ireland and Bean voices Bill Goodfellowe, an English hunter ordered by the land's imperious Lord Protector (Simon McBurney) to exterminate wolves so woodcutters can clear a forest. Bill's crossbow-wielding daughter Robyn (Honor Kneafsey), feeling confined by a protected life in their village, ventures into the forbidden forest where she meets a mysterious girl (Eva Whittaker) with the power to communicate with wolves, setting events into motion that lead to an epic clash.
Some critics have declared the hand-drawn film, from directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, the best animated movie of the year while EW's Christian Holub noted the production "has extra resonance in the time of plague."
In the exclusive interview below, Bean discusses his voiceover role, the GoT comparison, and the film's message.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What initially excited you about this project?
SEAN BEAN: Well, I like animation. I used to love it as a kid. The original feature film Snow White – I saw that in the cinema, things like that. I was quite good at drawing myself as a kid, so I always had an interest in it. I quite like doing the voices for the faces – you've got a bit more freedom to create the character as you're going along.
I think some Thrones fans will get a kick out of Wolfwalkers because it's tough – at least at first – to not think about Ned and Arya with the relationship between Bill and Robyn.
I suppose there's a tendency when something is set during this period of time to think about slipping back into Ned Stark or Boromir. But the guy I play is quite a humble man, he's quite sensitive, and he's just an ordinary man following orders and doing what he's told to do. It's not until he sees another world through Robyn's eyes that he realizes the world isn't what he's told it was.
Speaking of Snow White, the hand-drawn style of the film is gorgeous, and a bit refreshing from the sleek CG animated style that we've grown accustomed to.
Yeah, isn't it? There's so much more realism with CGI, it's very clean now and we take that for granted. When something comes from someone with a pen or pencil, drawing pictures, one after the other, to create a whole film, it's brilliant. It's so unusual to see that these days.
There's also a level of – I don't want to say "darkness," because Wolfwalkers really is a family film – but there are some edgy moments in there that you would expect would get crossed out of the script if it was made at a major Hollywood studio nowadays for a summer release.
You feel like it genuinely means something, that there's a good story to be told that it still maintains its Irish roots and mythology and it was done by people who really felt they needed to tell a story that they felt very strongly and passionately about, rather than thinking about it as a commercial venture and having their hands tied by a studio. When I went to Ireland to [record] it, it was in a big old country house with animals running around. It felt like being at a friend's house and they would say, "let's just try this or try that." It was very informal. It brought a more earthy realism to it.
There's a certain amount of environmental theme there in terms of humans pushing into the wilderness. But what do you think is important for viewers to take away from the film?
I think it's important to remember that there are these stories that are made in mythology and are part of a [culture's] heritage. Wolves have kind of a bad reputation but are very free creatures who can teach Robyn a lot. It tells me that we shouldn't lose that wildness, that spontaneity, in our great search for new ideas amid lives that we lead that are often quite structured toward not finding those magical moments. Like I have a garden that attracts a lot of wildlife and I love being out there with the smells of the leaves and the plants and trees and the water. How I feel when I go out into my garden is probably how Robyn feels when she goes into the forest and finds the wolves. But it's the kind of thing I feel we need to hold onto and explore more of instead of being stuck in offices and in rooms with computers and listening to mainstream media. I think it's important that we go out and find out things for ourselves, and that should be encouraged in all walks of life
https://ew.com/movies/sean-bean-wolfwalkers/
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Sean Bean looks back on his Game of Thrones death scene
The death of Ned Stark ranks as one of TV's most iconic death scenes of all time, and actor Sean Bean still remembers what was going through his head — just before Ned lost his.
Bean discussed filming his final Game of Thrones scene during a recent chat with EW while promoting his new Apple TV+ animated film Wolfwalkers.
"It was horror and disbelief — that Joffrey changed his mind [about exiling Ned] — and then resignation and [realizing that he was] seeing his daughter for the last time, Arya," the 61-year-old actor recalls of the shocking scene in the show's 2011 episode "Baelor." "I was trying to think of all four [things]. It wasn't just, 'Oh God, I'm getting my head chopped off.' Those mix of feelings is what made it what it was, I suppose.
"It took like a whole day or so to film it and you so you have to just keep focused on the fact that you're about to meet your death without messing around," the actor adds. "I was very hot at the time, so that probably helped. And everybody else's reactions were fantastic — Cersei and the kids. It was very moving with a lot of pathos in that scene. Then I put my head in the block and I was finished for the day."
Just before the sword came down, Ned quietly whispered to himself. Director Alan Taylor explained in my book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, "[Bean] asked somebody what an appropriate prayer would be for somebody of his belief. People have tried to guess what he said, but it’s something private Sean created based on that."
The actor also briefly discussed the HBO drama's original pilot, which was substantially reshot.
"I thought [the original pilot] was all right, but I was only focused on the scenes I was in," Bean says. "We filmed in Northern Ireland and in Scotland and then the producers [David Benioff and Dan Weiss] made some major changes. I felt the body of it was there, that the spirit of the piece was there, but I think they felt the development of the characters and the story could be improved. So we ended up doing quite a lot of reshoots. It was a testing time for us all trying to get to know what we were doing in the whole scheme of things, and it was for the best."
Wolfwalkers is streaming now on Apple TV+.
https://ew.com/tv/sean-bean-game-of-thrones-death-scene/
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Star Sean Bean Boards The "Snowpiercer" Train For Season 2
By Barb Oates
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The first 10-episode season of this thrilling remake of the postapocalyptic dystopian 2013 film was a riveting ride. The series centered around all that was left in a frozen world — an amazing 1,001-car train called Snowpiercerthat was filled with 3,000 passengers, divided by social classes, who were left to follow the principles of the train’s builder Mr. Wilford: respecting work, honor and order. But social injustices led to a rebellion. So where did we leave off?
Let’s start with Layton,Hamilton’s Daveed Diggs, who led the Tailies’ rebellion over social injustices, facing off against the upper class and the train’s leader Melanie (Jennifer Connelly). While the Tailies advanced uptrain, it came with great sacrifice as Layton had to cut off the prison carriage, sending his friends to their deaths. As for Melanie, the true brain behind Snowpiercer, we learned that she chose her beloved train and saving a piece of humanity, and she thought that came at the cost of her own daughter, Alexandra (Rowan Blanchard, Girl Meets World), and her former ally Mr. Wilford, as both were left behind. But the season-ending collision exposed that there was a second perpetually moving train, and Mr. Wilford and Alexandra are on it, and they aren’t happy as they look to board Snowpiercer.
Here Mr. Wilford himself (the amazing Sean Bean, Game of Thrones) gives us some insights as a new power struggle emerges in Season 2.
Looks like you just can’t escape the cold and barbaric surroundings when it comes to TV series. What excited you about coming aboard and taking on the role of Mr. Wilford?
Sean Bean: I think it was the fact that I’ve seen the original film and was very impressed by that and when I was offered the chance to play Wilford, of all people, who didn’t star in the film, too much, it was a chance to elaborate on that character and I had no hesitation on getting involved.
When we last left the series, your train had attached to Snowpiercer. What can you tease about your train’s history/size and Wilford’s intentions? And then, what episode (and/or scene) are you particularly excited for fans to see?
Wilford’s train is really high-tech. He’s had quite some time to be able to refine the engine and the technical side of everything. It’s very lavish, as well. He’s built himself luxurious quarters so that’s kind of a contrast to the rest of the train, which gets worse as you get towards the back. There’s a scene where I’m introduced to the train again as a kind of returning hero and it’s very flamboyant and I’m in really good form, a bit like Oscar Wilde entering the London kind of co-op in the 1890s. And I tried to instill some of that into these particular scenes. He’s such a showman and he’s very flamboyant, which I enjoyed playing.
Lots of buzz surrounds whether Alexandra is your daughter. Clearly we know you can’t divulge, but share with us where the second season picks up and what type of relationship/loyalty Wilford has with Alexandra.
What I’ll say is Alexandra is very loyal to me and is behaving as though she is my daughter. The season picks up when there’s just been a war on the train and it’s in shambles. It’s wrecked and people are still weary of each other, and I come in just at the right moment with this new train. There’s a lot of people who support me still. It’s very false because I’m not going to do them any good whatsoever, but they’re the ones who are behind me so I capitalize on that and sweep them all up in this pomp and showmanship and promise them the world. So I’m returning on a good foot.
Tell us about Wilford’s amazing wardrobe and a few of your personal favorites.
They were all handmade for me by a wonderful tailor in Vancouver. There were about 10 made — all the finest fabric. All sorts — silk dressing gowns, pajama bottoms, Tom Ford underwear, fur capes, everything. Beautiful shirts, ties, waistcoats, Gucci slippers. The wardrobe is fantastic — so much so, I’ve asked whether I can keep it when we finish filming.
You were well into production on Season 2 before things got suspended due to the pandemic. What (if any) was the upside to having to shut down briefly? When you first got on set, what really wowed you about it?
It’s immensely challenging for production teams working in these conditions to keep everyone safe, and I have huge respect for them and, of course, all the front-line workers. There isn’t really much of an upside other than it gave me quite a lot of free time to catch up on everything and read a lot. When I arrived on set it was much quieter and focused; it was a smallish crew and it was interesting. It’s hard for everyone working under those conditions, but I thought they did an amazing job.
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'Snowpiercer' Season 2: Sean
Bean on Playing Mr. Wilford,
the 'Smartest Man in the World'
https://www.tvinsider.com/981533/snowpiercer-season-2-tnt-sean-bean-mr-wilford-alexandra/
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Why Snowpiercer's Sean Bean is "the driving force" behind season 2
The Game of Thrones star opens up about Mr Wilford’s “unusual role”
Snowpiercer season 2 spoilers follow.
There was a time when it felt like Sean Bean died in every single role, to the point where he even started to turn down shows which ended with the death of his character. So Snowpiercer must have been a welcome change, flipping things around by actually bringing Sean back from the dead for once.
Contrary to popular belief, Mr Wilford is alive and well in season two. And following that chaotic season one finale, he's here to take back Snowpiercer. But with the likes of Melanie Cavill and Andre Layton on board, Wilford's plan may soon be derailed if he's not too careful...
Sean admits that this "was a more unusual role" for him, and not just because Wilford follows a very different path to doomed characters like Boromir or Eddard Stark. "I’ve played parts where the character’s quite introverted. This man is the opposite. He’s very flamboyant, very showy and loud."
Described as a mixture of Elon Musk and Oscar Wilde (with a bit of Trump thrown in too), Mr Wilford is "a very witty, charming, seductive character, but his methods are extremely brutal." It's no wonder then that his arrival changes the entire dynamic of Snowpiercer, both as a show and also on the train itself.
Sean would go so far as to say that Mr Wilford is actually the "driving force" of season two, so it's rather fitting that he in turn became a driving force behind the scenes as well. Only a few scripts were written at the beginning, so Sean was able to have "quite a significant influence" on his character beyond that starting point.
"I had my input for how it could be improved, and it came to be improved. We weren’t stuck with scripts that could never be changed, and we adapted accordingly."
This collaborative approach absolutely paid off, imbuing Mr Wilford with the kind of moral complexity one would hope to see from a bizarre Musk/Wilde/Trump hybrid. "The things Wilford does are quite villainous," says Sean. "But you’ve got to think about why he does them. I’m not justifying some of the things that happen. But everybody’s got their own convictions in this. He’s very wilful."
Describing Mr Wilford as an outright villain is far too reductive, and that's precisely what makes him such a fascinating antagonist. "There’s an extreme right-wing feel to him. He doesn’t want to be lumbered with people who are not intelligent, or who he thinks are lower than him – people who he doesn’t think can be of use to him."
"It’s just survival of the fittest, with him being the fittest," says Sean. And it's in this respect that Wilford most clearly mirrors Melanie, his former ally and newfound foe. Although they're both at odds with each another at the start of season two, they're essentially two sides of the same coin, two "realists", and together, their reunion forms an explosive dynamic that threatens to derail what's left of humanity.
"We’re both very wilful people and very headstrong. We’re both looking for certain things, but mine is for more selfish, personal reasons. Hers is for the good of all. That’s where we clash heads. That’s where the conflict begins between us."
And then, of course, there's Alex, Melanie's daughter. At the end of season one, we discovered that Wilford adopted Alex after she was separated from Melanie and raised her aboard Big Alice. The pair have since developed a unique family bond, one which cuts Melanie to her core, but is this more than just a twisted power play? Is it possible that Alex could actually be Wilford's biological daughter?
"Even I don’t know," Sean laughs, but either way, he believes that Mr Wilford would use that big hanging question mark to his advantage.
"If there was the chance that people may believe that I’m her father, then I would promote that feeling. Wilford uses Alex as a pawn in the game they’re playing. He’s very shrewd. He’ll use those tools as a bargaining chip. She’s a very important character in the whole series, and she’s a very important character to me, for her loyalty."
While Wilford uses Alex to fight for control on an emotional front, he also has another powerful ally in the form of Icy Bob, a mountain of a man who can somehow survive the cold that forced everyone onto Snowpiercer in the first place.
When Andre Tricoteux's character first appears on the show, everyone is taken aback by his presence, and that was also true for Sean in real life too. "I came on set and here was this huge man in all these prosthetics. Nobody really told me about it," Sean recalls. "I was like, 'F**king hell.' I didn’t realise he’d look quite like that."
"Icy Bob is someone who my character likes to experiment on," Sean continues. "Because he’s so big, Wilford thinks he’s got a better chance of survival." So Wilford being Wilford, he manipulates the poor guy to his advantage. "'Come on, let’s all get behind Icy Bob,' he says. But really, Wilford's saying, 'Let’s all get behind me.' So Bob's very useful in that sense."
With all that cunning and Icy Bob by his side, it looks like Mr Wilford might not come to the same tragic end as Sean's other iconic roles. And although that can only be a good thing for Snowpiercer itself, those struggling to survive aboard the train would certainly disagree.
https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a35117858/snowpiercer-season-2-sean-bean-mr-wilford/
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Snowpiercer's Sean Bean says "it's hard to switch off" from filming "brutal" BBC drama
"It's kind of intense physically and mentally."
Snowpiercer's Sean Bean has admitted that "it's hard to switch off" when filming the BBC's new "brutal" drama Time.
A three-part series directed by Lewis Arnold (Des, Broadchurch, Humans), Time follows the guilt-ridden character of Mark Cobden (Bean), who's serving a four-year prison sentence for killing an innocent man.
Separated from his family, Mark befriends the nice-natured guard Eric McNally (Stephen Graham), who does his best to protect those behind the bars.
However, when one of the most dangerous prisoners identifies Eric's kindness as a weakness, Mark is forced into a difficult position.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Bean opened up about his physically and mentally "intense" role, admitting it's hard to switch off after filming a heavy scene.
"I can usually do that quite easily, but this is very bleak," he said. "It's kind of intense physically and mentally. It's hard to switch off sometimes, especially if you've done a heavy scene, and it's very emotional. That's a bit tricky to turn off."
He added: "I'm usually quite good at, as you said, switching off. And I do, most of the time. But there are some things in this that are so emotionally charged, so heartfelt and brutal, that it's difficult to rid yourself of that straight away. You just need a little bit of time."
Time will air on BBC One later this year.
https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a35354275/snowpiercer-sean-bean-bbc-drama-time/
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Sean Bean on ‘Snowpiercer’s’ post-apocalyptic, dystopian ride
He just wants to live.
That might be impossible when you’re iconic fantasy actor Sean Bean, who has famously died in “The Lord of the Rings,” “GoldenEye” and “Patriot Games.”
Nothing is closer to his heart than his most famous death scene, in which his Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell is beheaded on the steps of Baelor in “Game of Thrones.”
“I’ve died more than 20 times on screen, but never more violently,” says the 61-year-old British actor, who recalled his motivation in that historic TV moment. “I didn’t kneel thinking, ‘Oh God, I’m getting my head chopped off.’ It was more about the disbelief that I would never see my family again. The horror set in and then … the chop.”
Sitting in his Somerset, England, garden on a cold winter’s day, the actor, who is weathering the pandemic there, cheerily adds, “It was creative to behead me. I never really had any complaints — and never do. I’ve had some wonderful deaths, but I would like to branch out into the land of the living.”
Bean is very much alive on the new season of TNT’s “Snowpiercer,” a post-apocalyptic dystopian thriller about the passengers of the titular train that carries the remnants of humanity, seven years after the world freezes.
Sean Bean: I lived in London for 25 years, but six years ago, we moved to the country in England. It’s rural in my new town of Somerset and a great place to really get away from the world. I’m very lucky in the respect that my wife and I can live a life that’s secluded yet very beautiful and peaceful. We’re surrounded by trees, countryside and nature.
What is an ideal Sunday in the country?
I’ve been doing a lot of gardening. I really like to get outside and plant trees and wildflowers. I enjoy nature, wildlife and natural history. On an average Sunday, I’ll be out there with bats and birds flying overhead. I like to sink my hands into the dirt of my garden. When I’m dragged inside, I like to play the piano and watch Netflix.
Tell us about the new season of “Snowpiercer.”
My character, Mr. Joseph Wilford, is in top form. What I love about the show is it is wild, wacky, weird and fun. And we keep pushing it further and further. The series has really benefited in being daring and revolutionary.
Describe filming on a train?
It’s really not too bad because I love trains. The thing is it’s winter and windy when we film, so to spend four to five months of your year inside a nice, cozy train isn’t bad. Yes, it’s quite claustrophobic, but the interiors are amazing. The production crew built amazing interiors for different classes of travel, plus there are bathrooms. I have beautiful quarters. And the claustrophobic feelings only help with the intensity of the situations.
Why is train travel so appealing?
You can’t do anything but read and look out the window. Plus, time passes slowly on a train, which is nice in our busy lives. If you’re driving in your car, you’re concentrating on the road. On a train, you can really observe things. It’s much more civilized. I’d love to jump on a train right now and see all the little towns in America.
Is it true that you worked as a welder before you became an actor? How do you bridge the gap between those two jobs?
I didn’t have any kind of thoughts about acting when I was a young man growing up in England. But, at age 11, I ended up in an acting competition. Maybe that was the start of my career because after that I can’t remember wanting to do anything else. The only problem was back then it was considered a bit sissy for a boy to become an actor. It was frowned upon. I came from an industrial city that was about mining and the steel industry. Since it was a bit whimsical, this idea of acting, I became a welder. My dad is a welder. I found I wasn’t really meant for it. I stumbled across acting again, and that was it.
Do you have a favorite memory of shooting “Lord of the Rings?”
I think about those films quite often. It was such a magnificent time for me. For all of us. I don’t think any of us knew what to expect when we first arrived in New Zealand. (Director) Peter Jackson turned it into something really special. Otherwise, it was great being on the other side of the world. We had more freedom. Then the studio received the daily rushes and gave us even more freedom. All I can say is that story is very stirring. I read it when I was about 14 or 15. I never thought I’d be playing Boromir.
After “Game of Thrones,” do people ask about losing your head on a daily basis?
I don’t mind, but it’s a bit predictable. I’m just glad I was part of “Game of Thrones” playing an interesting and complex character who people are still quite interested in the fact that my head was on a pole.
Help us break some news. Could Ned, head firmly in place, appear in any of the proposed HBO prequels to “Games of Thrones?”
It depends on how far they go back — and it depends on what form he is in. It’s difficult to imagine him alive again in some form, but it would be nice to see him again. Maybe I’ll be back.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/arts-culture/sean-bean-on-snowpiercers-post-apocalyptic-dystopian-ride-2283673/
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Sean Bean slays it in the garden
The actor shares the mindful joy of being at one with nature – in his special boxer shorts
https://www.ft.com/content/ed856395-1476-4efc-ac2a-555d54088c5f
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I love the mental picture of Sean in his garden in a pair of boxer shorts with garden tools on them. Phew!!
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Sean Bean Talks About Derailing ‘Snowpiercer’
In an interview, the actor discussed Monday’s Season 2 finale, his character’s Trumpian qualities and whether he would be up for a “Game of Thrones” prequel.
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/merlin_185544105_33fc3674-b343-46a7-beab-eba53e53bf24-superJumbo.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://app.photobucket.com/u/patchfolk/a/e5751495-97bc-47df-9ec6-5a352c49ab0d/p/d0303bcd-8f28-45db-ad4a-3f28a93c5680)
This interview includes spoilers for Monday’s season finale of “Snowpiercer.”
As Ned Stark, the initial, if short-lived protagonist of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Sean Bean was the first actor to utter that show’s signature phrase: “Winter is coming.”
In his latest series, TNT’s “Snowpiercer,” winter has arrived — the Big Freeze, a cataclysmic temperature collapse that has disabled the Earth and forced a few thousand survivors to seek shelter aboard a train that hurtles perpetually around the icy planet. (The premise is taken from a series of graphic novels by Jacque Lob, Jean-Marc Rochette and Benjamin Legrand, as well as from Bong Joon Ho’s film adaptation.) Now, though, the story’s ice age might be ending; the Earth might warming enough to support life again. Once more, though, the biggest obstacle to this healing is humanity itself.
Bean’s character, Wilford, was little more than an idea in Season 1, a Wizard of Oz-like figure who had been installed in the minds of the passengers as the world’s savior. This lie was kept alive for years by the train’s designer and engineer, Melanie (Jennifer Connelly), who created Wilford out of old voice recordings that she edited into new speeches. But in Season 2, Wilford himself showed up, determined to take charge. This Wilford was more of a cruel Joffrey than an honorable Ned Stark, ready to kill and humiliate his subjects and engineer problems only that he could fix, and thus receive godlike worship in return.
Wilford’s gaslighting manipulations and abuses were an unsettling study of cultlike leaders, indoctrination, propaganda and authoritarianism. After a year of lockdown, the real-life parallels were sometimes too claustrophobic — and too relevant — to be seen as pure escapism.
In Monday’s Season 2 finale, Wilford once again attempted to sabotage humanity’s best hope, this time in the form of Melanie, who had ventured outside the train to gather data about Earth’s possible warming. (“See ya!” he shouted as the train rumbled by.) In the end, though, it was Wilford himself who was left stranded, the engine cut loose by a few passengers. Come Season 3, which is being filmed now in Vancouver, these two factions will have to reach a truce in order for “Snowpiercer” — the train and the show — to move forward.
During a phone call from Vancouver, Bean discussed diving into his fiendish role, why Wilford enjoys a good blood bath and whether the actor would be willing to do a “Game of Thrones” prequel. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
When Alex (Rowan Blanchard) slashed your throat in the finale, I thought you might die. But then I remembered reading that you had stopped taking roles in which your character would be killed off. Is that still the case?
[Chuckles.] It was a bit worrying, actually! I forgive you for thinking it might be the end. I think everyone expects me to die at some point in this series. That’s what I do.
I worked on a film recently called “Possessor,” and I was supposed to die in that. I asked them: “Why don’t you just badly injure me instead? You can put me in a wheelchair.” They said OK. So by the end of the film, I’ve got brain damage, but at least I’m alive. I’m not really that bothered by dying if there is a justifiable reason for it, but I don’t want to keep dying all the time. And it kind of gives the game away if you see me and you think, “How long is this guy going to last?” So when I do survive, it’s a bit of a surprise!
Wilford does a lot of surprising things. He would rather sabotage humanity’s best chances of survival than deal with his own petty jealousy. Wouldn’t it be more advantageous just to steal the credit for Melanie’s discoveries?
Yeah, I wonder about that. What does he actually want to achieve? There’s got to be an ultimate goal. But he doesn’t want anybody else to make decisions. I’m sure he’d like someplace safe to live, someplace more temperate. But if he can’t discover it himself, he would very happily sweep aside whoever did. He wants to be the one to say: “I found this myself. I’m colonizing it. It’s going to be named after me.” He’ll use any means to achieve that.
His willingness to sacrifice everyone else for his short-term gains reminded me of how some politicians responded in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Leaders in America got the nod that the pandemic was going to happen and sold their shares. People with prior knowledge preferred to make a profit first. It is a despicable reaction.
I wonder if that was a political move, right at the beginning, to put all the blame on China. I guess the origins of it don’t matter anymore, but I do wonder about this slandering of different countries for political reasons. In the midst of all this, they’re still being political, which is astounding.
Was there any aspect of Donald Trump that affected your portrayal of Wilford?
He’s an easy target. [Laughs.] If I’m honest, I used to enjoy watching Donald Trump. I found him highly entertaining and rather funny. I didn’t trust him. I didn’t like much of his policies, or what he believed in. But he talked like a regular guy, and that kind of brought you in. He also could just dismiss someone very quickly and start laughing about it. I couldn’t help but notice that and apply a little of that attitude in Wilford.
Trump liked to use the rhetoric and the platitudes that a lot of American presidents use, including Joe Biden: “We’re all in this fight together” or “Loyalty is rewarded.” It sounds a little more sinister coming from Wilford, but it’s the same kind of message — it sounds grand, but it doesn’t actually mean anything. Wilford’s a good orator. He likes the sound of his own voice, and he likes dressing up to address an audience. That’s why he’s successful — he’s attractive, charming and witty. But that just masks the savagery, barbarism and cruelty.
But there are other monsters out there, present-day and past, who are more fitting comparisons for Wilford. I don’t think Bill Gates is a particularly attractive character — he’s certainly a man who relishes control, and I’m a bit wary of that kind of guy. Jeff Bezos, various others, they’ve got so many billions, but they’re still trying to get more. It’s not even the money. They really want to be influential in the world and put forward their ideas. They want to continue trying to get to the top, whatever the top may be. That’s Wilford. He just wants to be top dog and have ultimate power over life and death.
Wilford is not exactly anti-science, but he seems only interested in certain kinds of science.
He’s like Dr. Frankenstein, with the capability of creating monsters. He spent a lot of time researching how to suffer extreme cold conditions, and that’s been demonstrated with Icy Bob (Andre Tricoteux) and now Josie (Katie McGuinness). He’s just experimenting. That’s another aspect of Wilford, meddling with people’s lives, treating them like animals. That’s where he spends a lot of his time, pursuing things that wouldn’t be allowed in normal society.
Like his bath ritual, joining people in the tub and convincing them to slit their own wrists?
It’s like a game. Kevin (Tom Lipinski) is lulled into a trance-like state, because he thinks so much of Wilford. He loves him. And Wilford convinces Kevin: “Get in the bath, sit in the bath. And I’ll talk about what you did and how it was wrong. Here’s a razor blade!” [Laughs.] It’s kind of his mantra: “Here’s a way to make it go away. You don’t have to worry. Everything’s fine.”
He did that with Miss Audrey (Lena Hall), too. He doesn’t care about people. He does care about Miss Audrey, in that he has a fanciful, romantic vision of her, kind of twisted and lustful. But apart from that, humans are just like ants to him.
Were there any scenes you found hard to wrap your mind around?
The mango sex scene was a difficult scene for me and Lena Hall. That took it to a new level of weirdness. We were making it up as we went along. I was putting the mango between her legs, she was putting it between mine, and it became a sensual encounter, in a warped and tasty way.
The way this season ends, the uncoupled train and engine will have to be reconnected. What does that mean for Wilford’s reign?
Maybe we’ll get to see him in a more reasonable light. There are moments where he has to bargain with people, comply with some of their demands and try to be diplomatic. He’s in such a dire situation, so he does have to work with Layton (Daveed Diggs). This might give the audience the impression that Wilford’s folding, but there’s always an ulterior motive — it’s never simple. That’s how cunning he is, how good he is at scheming.
HBO is developing several “Game of Thrones” prequels, one of which would be about Robert’s Rebellion.
Is that King Robert Baratheon? I keep hearing about so many different remakes. I mean, there’s a “Lord of the Rings” series coming, too. I might be too old to play Ned Stark again. That’s the trouble, isn’t it? It depends on how far you go back, doesn’t it? I’d love to reprise the role. Maybe they could do that thing they did with Robert De Niro in “The Irishman,” do a few alterations! [Laughs.] I don’t see why not.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/29/arts/television/sean-bean-talks-about-derailing-snowpiercer.html
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How the Game of Thrones toughie Sean Bean turned jail wimp
The actor tells Ed Potton how he’s playing against type as a middle-class wuss in Time, Jimmy Govern’s prison drama
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Sean Bean has built a career on playing bits of rough. He was Napoleonic rough in Sharpe, Middle-earth rough in The Lord of the Rings, Westerosi rough in Game of Thrones, and even arthouse rough in Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio. So it’s a shock to see him in Time — the pulverising new prison drama from Jimmy McGovern, the creator of Cracker and The Lakes — portraying a wimp.
Well, a relative wimp because Mark, the first-time middle-class convict whom Bean plays in the BBC three-parter, contends with prison in the way most of us would: with meek, wide-eyed terror. He tries to keep his head down but the bullies soon catch up with him. Nasty pieces of work who douse their
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-the-game-of-thrones-toughie-sean-bean-turned-jail-wimp-9gj6pmn2w
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Why Sean Bean found it hard to switch off after emotionally-charged prison drama Time
Sean Bean has made some tough dramas in his time, but perhaps none quite as tough as Time.
To prove the point, the British actor confesses that he found it extremely difficult to switch off between draining scenes.
Written by Jimmy McGovern,for whom Bean has also starred in Accused and Broken, this hard-hitting drama focuses on Mark Hebden (Bean). Racked with guilt, he has been sentenced to four years in jail for killing an innocent man.
Facing the unforgiving prison regime, Mark finds a welcome friend in the kind-hearted guard Eric McNally (Stephen Graham), who makes it his business to look after the inmates.
But, when one of the most ruthless prisoners starts to see Eric’s good nature as a sign of weakness, Mark is thrust into a tricky and dangerous situation.
Like all of McGovern’s work, Time explores the extreme emotions to which all people can fall prey. The drama is as harsh and uncompromising as the prison life it depicts.
Bean, 62, who has previously starred in such well-regarded work as Game Of Thrones, The Lord Of The Rings, Sharpe, The Frankenstein Chronicles and World On Fire, acknowledges how hard it was not to take the character of Mark home with him.
According to the actor, who hails from Sheffield in the north of England, “I can usually do that quite easily, but this is very bleak. It’s kind of intense physically and mentally. It’s hard to switch off sometimes, especially if you’ve done a heavy scene, and it’s very emotional. That’s a bit tricky to turn off.
“There are some things in this that are so emotionally charged, so heartfelt and brutal, that it’s difficult to rid yourself of that straight away. You just need a little bit of time.”
Bean has made a name for himself playing such gritty characters. So it is a delight to discover that in person the actor is the polar opposite of his screen presence.
He is warm, witty, laid-back and – perhaps most surprisingly – very softly spoken.
He also has a winning sense of humour. For instance, Bean has died so often on screen that a social media campaign called #Don’tKillSeanBean has been launched. The actor, who has been murdered at least 25 times in films, has even inspired a young musician to post a song on YouTube in which the chorus pleads: “Just this once, could you not kill Sean Bean?”
What is most appealing, though, is that Bean himself has played along with this campaign.
You can find pictures on the internet of him grinning while he poses in a T-shirt bearing the logo, “Don’t Kill Sean Bean”.
When asked how he feels about the frequency of his screen deaths, he is similarly playful. “I’m OK about dying on screen. I’m happy to die as many times as I want because it means I can go on to do something else!”
Mark in Time is just the latest standout role from this most industrious of actors.
A passionate fan of Sheffield United football club who has the motto “100% Blade” tattooed on his left arm, his continuing busy schedule is testament to what a magnetic screen presence he remains.
When pressed, Bean reluctantly picks out some highlights from his stellar career.
He is particularly proud of his performance as Ned Stark in Game Of Thrones – even though he was yet another character who met a grisly end.
“Playing Ned was good while it lasted. He was very moral, a good man. I’m glad I had the opportunity to set the tone and the accent of the piece. The Sheffield accent is a good one for everyone else to get stuck into.”
However, Bean is not one to blow his own trumpet.
Despite all the plaudits, he remains appealingly self-effacing.
As he looks back over the 37 years since he made his screen debut in The Bill, the ever-modest Bean admits that, “I feel very happy. I get a lot of fulfilment from playing characters I wouldn’t have seen myself playing a few years ago and doing things that are so varied.
“Recently I’ve been in dramas set in Renaissance Italy, a post-apocalyptic future and the run-up to the Second World War. Those are all things that pique my interest and keep my brain ticking over. And we all need to keep our brains ticking over, don’t we?”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/125298799/why-sean-bean-found-it-hard-to-switch-off-after-emotionallycharged-prison-drama-time
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Sean Bean on the making of Time, new British prison drama by Jimmy McGovern, and the gallows humour that helped cast deal with grim scenes
Forget lockdown. For Sean Bean, it’s more a case of locked up in an unsparing prison drama that confronts a British penal system failing both its inmates and the society it is supposed to protect.
Three-part series Time is a sometimes brutal – and, according to old hands, brutally authentic – look at existence behind bars. And such authenticity will be no surprise to anyone familiar with the works of its writer, Jimmy McGovern, whose “previous” includes such creations as Cracker, Broken and Accused.
Bean, a familiar face from any number of blockbuster films and television shows you might have heard of – GoldenEye, Sharpe, The Martian, Game of Thrones among them – is also a bellowing, sword-slinging salesman in a current TV advertisement that makes tea-drinking look terrifying. It plays up to his regular hard-man image and seems like perfect practice for playing a convict.
Which is where Bean subverts convention as Mark Cobden, a meek and mild teacher jailed for four years, whose life experiences thus far prove useless in coping with the career criminals and psychopaths suddenly surrounding him. Singled out for verbal and physical abuse, Cobden is intimidated and adrift. Did the character and his incarceration remain with Bean post-filming?
“Not really – I think I woke up in the middle of the night screaming about being in the hotel,” he jokes. “And a window blew out in a storm; I think I’d have been better off in the cell, because it was a bit more comfortable than the place where we were staying!
“I was OK; it was a lot of fun, actually: a load of fellas together every day and we had quite a laugh really, gallows humour, because the subject matter was so shocking and depressing and hard to stomach sometimes; we tried to keep our spirits up. We had a great bunch of lads, some great supporting actors.”
As the details of Cobden’s offence emerge he earns the respect of prison officer Eric McNally (Stephen Graham); and although their stories are largely tangential it is clear that neither belongs in a so-called correctional system to which prisoners, some with severe mental-health problems, return repeatedly.
“I didn’t find it that depressing – even though I was supposed to be depressed and scared – because we knew we could just get in the car and leave any time,” says Bean.
“And you’re so focused on what you’re doing that you don’t really have much time to think about it. We stayed in the cells with a radio and things, so I felt quite at home, but yes – you could always open the door and go out, not like the guys inside for real.”
If Time looks like it was shot in a genuinely grim Victorian penitentiary, it was: the now disused Her Majesty’s Prison Shrewsbury, whose history is peppered with executions and suicides. All of which chimes with McGovern’s trademark determination to confront life’s ugly truths.
“Jimmy’s writing is just extraordinary, he’s brilliant,” says Bean. “He knows what people are; he puts ordinary people into extraordinary situations and that’s what’s so fascinating for me. I just love his enthusiasm and the way he writes the characters. I’m blown away by his work.
“He’s a fascinating character. He comes on set now and again and he’s very well respected, of course. He’s a very ordinary guy in a sense, but an extraordinary writer.”
Along the path McGovern lays out for him, does Cobden achieve any sort of redemption?
“I think he does,” says Bean. “He’s trying; he’s open to the idea of changing his attitude. He wants to live a good life and there’s so much to be said for that. He doesn’t want to have secrets. [When convicted] his marriage was falling apart, his young lad didn’t really know what was going on and he was hardly a father figure to him.
“He believes there’s an opportunity for atonement,” he adds. “He feels as though he has a lot to offer and he knows he’s on the right track. It’s something he’s been searching for all his life.”
Time is available from August 6 on demand from BBC First, via Now TV and myTV Super.
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3143595/sean-bean-making-time-new-british-prison-drama-jimmy
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Sean Bean And Stephen Graham Discuss Their Roles In The BBC First Drama, Time
https://www.augustman.com/sg/culture/film-tv/sean-bean-and-stephen-graham-discuss-their-roles-in-the-bbc-first-drama-time/?fbclid=IwAR1-UeeDbs92RyzxoA9A699tGJUPnqO9PV6RjX4O36WQ32OHT7T6fqk8TGU
https://seanbeanonline.net/forums/index.php?topic=5703.msg125468#msg125468
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Sean Bean is alive and well and living in Somerset
British actor, famous for his on-screen deaths, plays a newly arrived inmate in the prison drama Time
No, Sean Bean does not die in the new British miniseries Time.
It’s an understandable concern, given that the English actor has developed a reputation for perishing onscreen, often in ways that are dramatic (The Lord of the Rings), gruesome (Game of Thrones) or both. But he takes the topic in his good-natured stride.
“It’s the first thing that people say: Do you die in this?” he says with a chuckle. “It’s nice to be able to say: Wait and see. It’s not something that I’ve ever been that worried about. Certainly not early on in my career, because I was playing some really bad people, very bad guys, and they kind of deserved to die. They didn’t have much of a future ahead of them.”
He continues: “Now I’d prefer not to die because I think I’ve done it that many times and there’s got to be a really good reason if I’m going to die again. I prefer to stay alive. But I’ve never really complained about it. I’m very proud of my death scenes.”
In Time, Bean stars as Mark Cobden, a high school teacher sentenced to four years in prison. “I killed a man,” he tells a fellow inmate, though we soon learn it was drunk driving and not murder.
His costar is fellow northerner Stephen Graham, who plays prison officer Eric McNally. The two have a history on the screen, having played a transvestite (Bean) and his boyfriend (Graham) in a 2012 episode of Accused, written by British screenwriter Jimmy McGovern, who also wrote Time. And Bean also starred as a Catholic priest in McGovern’s 2017 TV drama Broken.
“He’s a great writer,” says Bean. “He’s very well respected over here in the U.K., and actors want to work with him because of his skill at creating brilliant dramas. He seems to get under the skin of the characters.”
That is certainly the case with Time, which presents realistic, three-dimensional figures. Bean’s character is initially out of his depth in prison, but soon learns ways to adapt, some of them unexpected. And Graham, far from the stereotype of the sadistic prison guard, is a tough but fair-minded fellow, forced into doing something illegal after some of the inmates threaten his son, who is doing time in a different jail.
Bean says he was sold on the strength of the script. “I read it and I was just amazed at how he managed to incorporate everything that is controversial and topical … something that was so moving and so tragic and yet hopeful. It had all those ingredients.”
The setting also had an appeal for the actor. “I’ve always been quite fascinated by that aspect of life and how things occur in prison,” he says. “We all like watching dramas or documentaries about prison because we know we’re not in there. There’s a kind of macabre fascination.”
He resolutely avoided doing too much research, the better to capture the sense of confusion and dislocation as his character first arrives in prison at the beginning of the first chapter of the three-part series.
“I wanted it to be a shock and a surprise, to kind of be genuinely bewildered and confused and scared,” he says. “To be faced with that kind of mayhem and madness, that is something that I wanted to be unaware of until I actually shot the scenes. That’s what it would be like, and that’s what I wanted an audience to feel.”
Bean is speaking from his home in Somerset, having just returned from Vancouver, where he’s been working on the third season of the post-apocalyptic series Snowpiercer – in which he doesn’t die, or at least not yet.
“I play a villain in that but he’s a very charming villain,” he says. “There’s something about him that people like. And that’s the other side of the coin, whereas Mark Cobdon, I guess he’s a little bit more like me. He’s a bit of an introvert, he’s quiet, he listens to things, he takes things in. I like to play characters that are quite innocent in some sense and not tending to know everything.”
He continues: “And not necessarily loads of dialogue, but something where you can see the person that you’re playing taking in their surroundings and the emotions from other people around them, and how that affects them. Sometimes it’s good to just soak things up and react without saying a word … which is not very common these days, not very often you get writers who actually write in pauses and time to reflect. And that’s what Jimmy McGovern does.”
My time almost up, I ask Bean about his most famous role (and death) in The Lord of the Rings, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this December. Surprisingly, he lights up at the mention of it.
“I think about it most days really,” he says. “It was just something that made such an impact on me. Almost a year of my life being over there [in New Zealand] with everyone and bringing this book that I’d read as a kid to life. I’d have never dreamed that I would be playing the character of Boromir!”
The magical nature of the subject matter, he says, seemed to spill over into the production. “It felt like we were in another world … and we could just imagine and try anything and be anything we wanted to be. Such fond memories. And it certainly helped all of us in our careers, but that wasn’t really the idea. It was just being able to work with someone like Peter Jackson and all these other brilliant actors.”
He singles out Christopher Lee, who was almost 80 at the time. Lee had starred in the movie Dracula in 1958, the year before Bean was born, and the younger actor still remembers watching it as a boy. “Being terrified by him!”
When Lee died in 2015 at the age of 93, he held an interesting record, since broken by American actor Danny Trejo. He had perished more times on-screen than any other performer, with more than 60 deaths, including one as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings.
Bean, with a mere 25 deaths, is a relative lightweight. But give him time.
Time is available now on the streaming service BritBox in Canada.
https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/television/sean-bean-is-alive-and-well-and-living-in-somerset
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Sean Bean on Time, makeup and his trans role: ‘If I did it today, there’d be an uproar’
In Time, the actor known as Game of Thrones’ Ned Stark had to show the terrors of prison … mostly by sitting in silence. He talks religion, looking rough – and the role he played that would not be made now
Mark Lawson
Sat 25 Dec 2021 08.00 GMT
Across three Sunday nights last summer, Sean Bean was remarkable. BBC One’s Time saw him play a teacher jailed for killing someone while drunk-driving. With Jimmy McGovern’s script often leaving him silent and alone in his cell, he painted an astonishingly affecting portrait of the regret and terror of a previously respected professional banged up with veteran criminals – and he frequently did so using expressions alone.
How is it to try to grab the audience entirely through looks? “As you get older, it’s sometimes a bit easier!” says Bean, 62, with a laugh. “When I started out, I used to count up how many lines I had and want some more. Now, it’s: ‘Oh, fuck, do I have to remember all that?’ So I don’t mind silence.”
Is it not technically harder to convey everything facially, though? “Yeah, it is,” says Bean. “But if the character is alone, it’s about trying to think what they are thinking. You can draw on situations in which you have felt alone, or sad, or nervous. That can be uncomfortable, but it gets you to the truth.”
As well as fewer lines to learn, Time also allowed Bean to reach the makeup trailer later. As a leading man, his time before shooting is usually spent trying to look as good as possible. Here, he needed to look rough.
“It’s not as if I didn’t have to do anything. I shaved each day but aimed to get the effect of someone using a cheap razor in a little cracked mirror in their cell,” he says. “You do have to wear some makeup or you look a different texture from everyone else. But I put on the bare minimum, nothing too flattering. You want to look like someone who’s exhausted and in shock. That wasn’t too difficult some mornings!”
Bean deliberately chose not to speak to any prisoners as part of his preparation for playing Mark Cobden – who is often the only person on his wing experiencing incarceration for the first time. “I wanted the locations – the cells, corridors, exercise yard – to be new and shocking to me, as they are to him. I wanted just to react to what was around me,” he says.
The drama intercuts the experiences of Cobden and Eric McNally, his supervising prison officer, played by Stephen Graham. Their scenes together are acting as grand slam final tennis, each participant judging whether to match the pace of the other player or change it. Watching Time called to mind theatrical experiments in which actors have swapped the main parts in a play on alternate nights – the king and Bolingbroke in Shakespeare’s Richard II, the brothers in Sam Shepard’s True West – and I fantasised about seeing the drama with Bean as the prison officer and Graham as the inmate. Was the casting ever up for discussion? “It was always me for Mark and him for Eric. But it would be really interesting. You should ask Jimmy about remaking it that way.”
Four years ago, in another McGovern drama, Broken, Bean played Father Michael Kerrigan, a Merseyside Catholic priest forced to double as a sort of social worker because of state and council cuts. Time and Broken are linked by Mark and Michael having been baptised into the same faith: Michael is a Catholic believer who struggles with doubts, while Mark has lost his faith but is tempted by a prison chaplain to lapse from atheism.
Bean, who grew up in a practising Catholic family in Sheffield but was deemed “too out there” as a child to be encouraged towards the priesthood (as McGovern was), says: “The church offers Mark a lifeline. Jimmy McGovern claims not to believe in religion, but Catholicism is a thread in his work. In Time and Broken, there’s a tension between what the characters say they believe or don’t believe and what they actually think.”
Where Father Michael is seen by society as a good guy and Mark Cobden as a bad man, the truth is far more complex. “They’re both very self-critical, and a mix of fallibilities and good qualities,” says Bean. “That ambiguity is what makes Jimmy’s characters so rich. And we’re all like that, aren’t we? We all like to think we have mostly good bits with a few bad bits – but others may think we have more downs than ups.”
Time was his third primetime BBC collaboration with McGovern. Before Broken, there was 2012’s Tracie’s Story, which gave Bean his boldest screen role. Known as an action actor – the titular 19th-century soldier in ITV’s Sharpe, Ned Stark in Game of Thrones – he played, in blond wig and false breasts, Tracie, the trans alter ego of an English teacher.
There are increasing calls for authentic casting, in which the identities of actor and character match. But for McGovern alone, Bean has played a priest, a prisoner and a transexual, none of which he has been. Would he defend pretence?
“I think so. I come from a generation that started in repertory theatre, playing a different role each week. The aim was to play as many parts as possible. Whereas there’s a tendency now to argue that characters can only be played by someone like them,” says Bean. “I think that is restrictive and counterproductive. We risk getting into a situation where drama is dictated more by which boxes are ticked than the story being told. I often think that, if I did Tracie’s Story today, there’d be an uproar. I have a feeling it would be questioned and wouldn’t even be made, but it’s one of the roles I’m proudest of. It seems such a shame if actors can’t play a range of parts.”
While in Time, Broken and Tracie’s Story, Bean was unable to draw on personal experience, the four-part BBC drama he is shooting with Nicola Walker – written and directed by Stefan Golaszewski, who made the BBC Two hit Mum – is called Marriage. Is it painful or useful that Bean is currently on his fifth?
“Well,” he laughs, “the show is about a longterm, 27-year marriage, which isn’t something I know about.” His lengthiest stretch of matrimony so far is seven years. “It’s about the small things that happen in a marriage, how you stay together. There are really few words in this. It’s all in the silences and pauses. So it’s another very different shift for me, which is what I like.”
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/dec/25/sean-bean-on-time-makeup-and-his-trans-role-if-i-did-it-today-thered-be-an-uproar
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'There are increasing calls for authentic casting, in which the identities of actor and character match. But for McGovern alone, Bean has played a priest, a prisoner and a transexual, none of which he has been. Would he defend pretence?
“I think so. I come from a generation that started in repertory theatre, playing a different role each week. The aim was to play as many parts as possible. Whereas there’s a tendency now to argue that characters can only be played by someone like them,” says Bean. “I think that is restrictive and counterproductive. We risk getting into a situation where drama is dictated more by which boxes are ticked than the story being told. I often think that, if I did Tracie’s Story today, there’d be an uproar. I have a feeling it would be questioned and wouldn’t even be made, but it’s one of the roles I’m proudest of. It seems such a shame if actors can’t play a range of parts.”'
I am kind of fed up with this woke line of thinking, and I think Sean Bean expresses his thoughts brilliantly here. Definitely too limiting for actors. Also, the whole point of acting is to convey characters, not yourself.
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Sean is so right. If 'Wokeism' is allowed to triumph, where would actors be? As a friend of mine so rightly commented, will it only be convicted murderers who are allowed to portray convicted murderers? I rest my case.
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Game of Thrones star Sean Bean on why he loves living in Somerset
The five times married star dubbed the second greatest Yorkshire man says he has found contentment at last
When fans saw Game of Thrones star Sean Bean near Wincanton it was hard to believe that the man once named the second greatest Yorkshireman that ever lived was moving to genteel Somerset.
Rumours started swirling after diners at The Wagtail pub spotted the Lord of the Rings star in the county amid reports he was looking at a property near the small village of Maperton, Wincanton.
The rumours about him moving here turned out to be true and over the last six years, Bean has given several interviews in which he has revealed why he moved to Somerset and how he has finally found peace in the county.
And by the sounds of it, any fans hoping to bump into the five-times married, Sharpe actor might be better hanging around local garden centres than the Somerset celebrity set.
So why did Sean move from London?
According to the 62-year-old it was because he had been driven out of his home in Belsize Park that he once shared fourth wife Georgina Sutcliffe by neighbours “who objected to everything”.
They divorced in 2010 and Sean told The Times his neighbours “went to solicitors” about his pet chickens in the garden.
“I wanted to put a roof terrace up for wildlife: they got together, having wine parties talking about how they were going to stop me," he added.
“I thought ‘F*** me, I’ve had enough of all this."
Why not Hollywood?
Sean once lived in the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles when he was starring in films like National Treasure and Flightplan with Jodie Foster.
But he told an interviewer: “I don’t think I could ever put down roots there. It’s one thing living in a hotel and knowing you’re going to be going home and another thing settling.”
Why Somerset?
Bean is known as a man of few words and when not working he prefers solitary pursuits such as reading, listening to music, playing the piano, welding and sketching.
But the actor, who married fifth wife Ashley Moore in 2017, says his favourite pastime is gardening and he is out there "most days".
"We bought the house from a designer called Ken Bolan, and we fell in love with the way he’d created this kind of haven," he told one interviewer.
"I’ve made it a little bit wilder. "
When a Grade II listed mansion in Totteridge, north London where he lived with his third wife, Abigail Cruttenden, went on the market for Ł6 million, it became clear he didn't intend going back to the capital.
What is his Somerset garden like?
The word he uses most to describe it is "wild".
"When we moved to Somerset I left the garden alone for a year, so I saw what grew naturally and what didn’t, and I went with that," he told one interviewer.
" I planted trees, shrubs, plants and flowers that actually do well in my garden. I didn’t go with fancy stuff that you have to keep taking in and out and looking after.
"I just think, if it dies, it dies, it’s not supposed to be here; and if it survives, I’ll plant more of it."
Over lockdown he planted lots of trees and put in bird boxes and bat boxes.
"I take it quite slowly and then I reap the benefit year by year, which is a wonderful feeling," he once said.
Where did the love of gardening come from?
Growing up in Sheffield in the ’60s and ’70s he loved football and exploring derelict farms, scrapheaps and old bomb craters with friends.
Gradually he became interested in birdwatching and started roaming the pockets of greenery in the industrial, steel city.
"My granddad did a lot of vegetable and fruit gardening, and he was very regimented, but he got great produce," he once said.
"And there was my next-door neighbour, a guy called Ron Howard, who was our neighbour for about 40 or 50 years. I learnt a lot from both of them, and I gradually grew into gardening as well.
" I remember planting trees in Mum and Dad’s garden; it wasn’t very big, but I tried to get as much hawthorn and native trees and bushes as I could, and loads of nest boxes for the birds. That was how I got into gardening."
Why does he like it?
He likes it because he forgets about work and says it helps free his mind from everyday stress.
"I find I just focus on the moment," he told one interviewer.
" It’s a kind of mindful process: you know where you are, you know you’re in the present, but at the same time your mind is wandering and visualising and imaging colours and structures and shapes," he said.
" It’s precise, in the sense that you know exactly what you’re doing, but other ideas are also formulating – you’re planning for the future without really recognising that. It’s an interesting state of mind."
What does he wear?
His uniform is either overalls or a camouflage T-shirt he gets every year for Christmas from his wife and kids but always takes them off when not in the garden.
"I’m not going to go to the supermarket wearing camouflage and hiding behind bushes or anything like that!," he told the Financial Times.
"I’ve also got a few pairs of boxer shorts with nice little pictures of tools on them – hammers and chisels – so that puts me in the mood and I think, right, I’ve got work to do. Sounds a bit crazy, but it works for me. "
He is a big fan of Monty Don.
He watches Gardeners World every week and says he likes the way Monty Don goes with nature rather than fighting against ti.
"He has a wonderful way of looking at gardening," he explained in one interview.
"He is more of a naturalist in a sense and almost like a painter in the way he treats and visualises the world around him."
Does he still like Somerset?
He told one interviewer he was "fortunate to live in the county and added: "In Somerset I feel as if I’ve really found the place where I feel settled and content."
When asked about favourite place in the world he said: "If this is a heart thing, then it would probably be my home town, Sheffield.
"If it is somewhere now that I’ve chosen to be, it’s here in Somerset.."
What next?
He recently appeared in Tim, Jimmy McGovern's acclaimed three-part series Time so there are no plans to retire just yet.
The grandfather of four told an interviewer he loves what he does and enjoys the challenge of experimenting with new roles.
"But I value my time out of that also," he said.
" I really enjoy my time at home with my family, with my wife and with nature. "
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/game-thrones-star-sean-bean-6404044
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/sean-bean-game-thrones-star-6933047?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
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We have been lucky enough to host an interview and photoshoot for the @thetimesmagazine with the wonderful @sean_bean_official
RISE hosts so many amazing people, and it was such a pleasure to add the super-relaxed and super-friendly Sean to that list!
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/296842314_737826194114478_8981564673893333498_n.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/296842314_737826194114478_8981564673893333498_n.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CgtlLoiMWXv/
https://risefrome.com/
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Sean Bean: ‘I’m a romantic… otherwise I wouldn’t have kept getting married’
The actor’s latest TV drama Marriage is all about a long-term relationship. He talks about what it’s like to play a husband of 27 years — when he’s been married five times in real life
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/_methode_times_prod_web_bin_35d90236-1276-11ed-b7ce-9b24bf628db2.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/_methode_times_prod_web_bin_35d90236-1276-11ed-b7ce-9b24bf628db2.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds)
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/_methode_times_prod_web_bin_851ec33a-1276-11ed-b7ce-9b24bf628db2.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/_methode_times_prod_web_bin_851ec33a-1276-11ed-b7ce-9b24bf628db2.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds)
Before he set off to meet me, Sean Bean was chatting to his gardener’s son. The boy, who mows the lawns of his two-acre Somerset manor, asked about Bean’s plans for the day, “and I said I was doing an interview about this TV thing called Marriage. He’s only 17, but he laughed. The cheeky get.”
That even a teenager is amused by the irony at least prepared Bean for my inevitable questions. This slow-burning, naturalistic drama charts four weeks in the 27-year marriage of Ian and Emma: how their love endures despite domestic irritations and long-buried tragedy. Did Bean reflect on how it might feel to have remained with one wife rather than to have married, well, five? Bean chuckles ruefully. “I knew
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sean-bean-im-a-romantic-otherwise-i-wouldnt-have-kept-getting-married-q0q7zbh2g
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/s-l1600(1).jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/s-l1600(1).jpg?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185527268281?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338722076&customid=&toolid=10050
Sean Bean says intimacy coordinators ‘ruin’ process of filming sex scenes: ‘It would spoil the spontaneity’
Actor said he would feel ‘inhibited’ by presence of intimacy coordinator
Sean Bean has suggested that intimacy coordinators “spoil the spontaneity” of sex scenes.
The Time actor has filmed many intimate scenes throughout his career, most famously opposite Joely Richardson in a 1993 adaptation of DH Lawrence’s raunchy novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
In a new interview, Bean discussed the impact intimacy coordinators – specialists who work on film and TV sets to choreograph and allow actors to feel comfortable while filming sex scenes – would have had on the show.
“I should imagine it slows down the thrust of it. Ha, not the thrust, that’s the wrong word,” he told The Times, adding: “It would spoil the spontaneity.
“It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things. Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hand there, while you touch his thing…’ I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise.”
He continued: “Lady Chatterley was spontaneous. It was joy. We had a good chemistry between us, and we knew what we were doing was unusual. Because she was married, I was married. But we were following the story. We were trying to portray the truth of what DH Lawrence wrote.”
The intimacy coordinator became a standard figure on mainstream film sets in the wake of #MeToo in order to protect female actors.
Acknowledging this, Bean said: “I suppose it depends on the actress.”
Discussing a never-aired scene from the Netflix series Snowpiercer in which he was naked with a female actor, he added: “This one had a musical cabaret background, so she was up for anything.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/sean-bean-intimacy-coordinator-lady-chatterleys-lover-b2139443.html
‘Games of Thrones’ Star Sean Bean Says Intimacy Coordinators ‘Spoil the Spontaneity,’ Decries Censorship
“Game of Thrones” actor Sean Bean says intimacy coordinators “spoil the spontaneity” of shooting a sex scene.
“It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things,” Bean, who played Ned Stark in the hit fantasy show, said of having an intimacy coordinator in the room. “Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hands there, while you touch his thing…”
“I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise,” he added, comparing his experience to the raunchy 1993 adaptation of “Lady Chatterly’s Lover,” in which he starred opposite Joely Richardson.
“‘Lady Chatterly’ was spontaneous,” Bean said in his interview with the U.K.’s Times Magazine. “It was a joy. We had a good chemistry between us, and we knew what we were doing was unusual. Because she was married, I was married. But we were following the story. We were trying to portray the truth of what DH Lawrence wrote.”
Bean also decried the censorship of his work at the behest of TV companies or advertisers, citing the “Snowpiercer” TV series, in which he currently stars, where he filmed a scene naked alongside Lena Hall. In the bizarre Season 2 scene the duo become intimate with the aid of a mango (as in the fruit). But Bean said “I think they cut a bit out actually. Often the best work you do, where you’re trying to push the boundaries, and the very nature of it is experimental, gets censored when TV companies or the advertisers say it’s so much. It’s a nice scene, quite surreal, dream-like and abstract. And mango-esque.”
When the interviewer pointed out that intimacy coordinators can help to protect actors in the wake of #MeToo, Bean responded: “I suppose it depends on the actress. This one [referring to Hall] had a musical cabaret background, so she was up for anything.”
In the interview, Bean, who played Boromir in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings franchise, also turned his eye to fan conventions, describing one (unnamed) LOTR convention as “just a cattle market” when he attended as a guest.
“I didn’t like how the organizers treated the fans,” he said, explaining that when he tried to write messages in addition to signing autographs he was cut off by the staff. “They’d say, ‘No, no, just a signature. He needs to pay more for you writing a message.’ And these fans are good-natured, positive people who were getting tossed around and overcharged for things.”
Bean said he would not attend future fan conventions.
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/sean-bean-intimacy-coordinators-1235335687/
British actor Sean Bean, 63, says 'intimacy coaches' are ruining sex scenes in Hollywood
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11088427/British-actor-Sean-Bean-63-says-intimacy-coaches-ruining-Hollywood-sex-scenes.html
Sean Bean says he doesn’t regret getting married five times: ‘I’d live it all again’
‘I suppose there is that romantic in me, otherwise I wouldn’t keep doing it,’ actor says
Sean Bean has said he doesn’t regret any of his failed marriages and that he would “live it all again” as he reflects on being a “romantic”.
Bean – who has been divorced four times – married his current wife Ashley Moore in 2017.
Ahead of the premiere of Marriage, a new BBC drama which follows the ups and downs of longtime married couple Ian (Bean) and Emma (Nicole Walker), Bean told The Times he truly believed each of his marriages would last “forever”.
“I’ve obviously experienced more marriages than most people,” he said, adding that his failed relationships didn’t sway him from trying to find love.
“I suppose there is that romantic in me, otherwise I wouldn’t keep doing it,” he added. “But I don’t regret anything. I’d live it all again.”
Bean first got married in 1981, to his secondary school sweetheart Debra James. The couple divorced in 1988.
He later married fellow actor Melanie Hill in 1990. The couple had two children together, daughters Molly, 30 and Lorna, 34. Bean and Hill split in 1997.
Bean married Abigail Cruttenden in 1997. They divorced in 2000, two years after welcoming their daughter Evie, 23.
The Sharpe actor began dating Georgina Sutcliffe in 2006 and the pair later married in 2008. They divorced in 2010.
Opening up about his numerous attempts to find love, Bean credited his traditional upbringing and his parents’ long marriage.
“It’s not as though I’ve been gallivanting around,” he said.
“I suppose I could have seen how things developed, got to know them better before taking the plunge. But I didn’t because I felt strongly about all these women, otherwise I wouldn’t have married them.”
When asked whether he thought each marriage would last “forever,” Bean said: “Yes! Of course I did. It’s not something you take on lightly, is it? It’s not flippant or trivial. It’s a huge commitment.”
Marriage begins on 14 August at 9pm on BBC One.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/sean-bean-marriage-divorce-regret-b2139488.html
Sean Bean weighs in on state of masculinity
Sean Bean has claimed "a lot of men these days are made to feel like apologists for their sexuality and their masculinity" as he discussed his latest acting project.
The 63-year-old British actor has starred in The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and recently won a BAFTA for his role in BBC One drama Time.
Ahead of the start of his latest project, BBC drama Marriage, Bean spoke to The Times newspaper in London about how he feels views on men have changed in the post-#MeToo movement world.
When asked if he believes it is harder to be a man now, he said: "Yes, I suppose it is, really."
Bean added: "Certain aspects of a man's character are frowned upon now as being discriminatory or boorish.
"But I think you've got to be careful we do not lose sight of what a man is.
"Look at the old heroes in mythology, history - there's a great respect for a man's adventures and his strengths.
"A lot of men these days are made to feel like apologists for their sexuality and their masculinity.
"And I think that's something that men have to retain and celebrate as much as women celebrate their femininity."
https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2022/0806/1314294-sean-bean-weighs-in-on-state-of-masculinity/
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Sean Bean called out by female stars following his sex scene remarks
Rachel Zegler, star of Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’, urged ‘Game of Thrones’ star to ‘wake up’
Sean Bean is getting criticised for his comments on intimacy co-ordinators used for sex scenes in films and TV shows.
The actor, whose credits include Sharpe, Troy and Game of Thrones, was asked about these specialists, who became a standard figure on sets in the wake of #MeToo for the protection of female actors.
“I should imagine it slows down the thrust of it. Ha, not the thrust, that’s the wrong word,” he told The Times on Saturday (7 August).
The Earth has been mysteriously slowing down for 50 years - now scientists think they know why
“It would inhibit me more because it’s drawing attention to things. Somebody saying, ‘Do this, put your hand there, while you touch his thing…’ I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise.”
He also said of his Snowpiercer co-star Lena Hall, with whom he filmed an unaired sex scene: “This one had a musical cabaret background, so she was up for anything.”
Hall has now replied to the comment, writing on Twitter on Monday (9 August): “I probably need to clarify some information in this random article since people are reaching out to me like ‘girl, are you ok?’”
“Just because I am in theatre (not cabaret, but I do perform them every once in a while) does not mean that I am up for anything,” she continued, calling Bean “an awesome actor” who “made me feel not only comfortable but also like I had a true acting partner in those bizarre scenes”.
Hall stressed the importance of intimacy co-ordinators, calling them “a welcome addition to the set”.
West Side Story star Rachel Zegler who filmed love scenes with 25-year-old Ansel Elgort when she was just 17, replied to Bean’s comments, also.
She wrote: “Intimacy coordinators establish an environment of safety for actors. I was extremely grateful for the one we had on WSS – they showed grace to a newcomer like myself + educated those around me who’ve had years of experience.”
She urged Bean to “wake up”, stating: “Spontaneity in intimate scenes can be unsafe.”
Meanwhile, Jameela Jamil, referencing Bean’s complaint that intimacy co-orindators could reduce sex scenes to “technical exercises”, wrote: “It should only be technical. It’s like a stunt. Our job as actors is to make it not look technical. Nobody wants an impromptu grope…”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/sean-bean-sex-scenes-rachel-zegler-b2141192.html
https://deadline.com/2022/08/sean-bean-intimacy-coordinators-actresses-1235087908/
Sean Bean’s ‘Snowpiercer’ Co-Star Lena Hall Responds to Intimacy Coordinator Comments
In response to Variety’s article covering Bean’s comments, Hall posted an eight-part Twitter thread in which she said: “Just because I am in theater (not cabaret, but I do perform them every once in a while) does not mean that I am up for anything. Seriously does depend on the other actor, the scene we are about to do, the director, and whatever crew has to be in there to film it.”
She also defended Bean, saying he is “an awesome actor and made me feel not only comfortable but also like I had a true acting partner in those bizarre scenes. It was us against the world and we were gonna tell that story.”
“If I feel comfortable with my scene partner and with others in the room then I won’t need an intimacy coordinator,” Hall continued. “BUT if there is any part of me that is feeling weird, gross, over exposed etc… I will either challenge the necessity of the scene or I’ll want an IC [intimacy coordinator].”
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/sean-beans-snowpiercer-co-star-lena-hall-responds-to-intimacy-coordinator-comments-1235336761/
1. The infamous mango scene wasn't a naked scene. I was "naked" (but not really naked) in the bathtub/suicide scene (which I guess is in that same moment) but Sean Bean was in the bathtub fully clothed in a tuxedo.
........3. Sean is an awesome actor and made me feel not only comfortable but also like I had a true acting partner in those bizarre scenes. It was us against the world and we were gonna tell that story.
https://twitter.com/LenaRockerHall/status/1556737418908389376?cxt=HHwWgMC-6eeb0porAAAA
Sean Bean's remarks on intimacy coordinators miss the point entirely
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Oh, Sean. As Tyra Banks once said to Tiffany in cycle four of America's Next Top Model, we were all rooting for you. He's always gently encouraging us to "believe in better", his enthusiasm for Yorkshire Tea warms the cockles of our hearts, and there's the acting. Let's not forget that. Broken! Game of Thrones! Time! Lord of the Rings! He's given us so much, with plenty more still to come.
But the affection that myself and so many others have for Bean is rooted in personas, and not the man, because we don't really know the man at all. However occasionally, we gain some insight into what the people we blindly ascribe so many positive attributes to think and feel about certain things, and the truth can leave you feeling deflated.
In a recent interview with The Times, Bean was candid about his thoughts on intimacy coordinators, a now common but relatively recent introduction on film and TV productions.
"I should imagine it slows down the thrust of it,” he said of how actors on sets decades ago might have reacted to the mapping out of a sex scene with a qualified professional, rather than the off-the-cuff approach that was not just widespread practice, but the only practice.
Bean added: "Ha, not the thrust, that's the wrong word. It would spoil the spontaneity. It would inhibit me more because it's drawing attention to things. Somebody saying, 'Do this, put your hand there, while you touch his thing…' I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise."
Bean's comments, while disappointing, are not unsurprising. He has operated within certain parameters for the vast majority of his long and illustrious career. To change those parameters does, of course, seem a shame (if it ain't broke...), or the death of the 'good old days' that were not, as we know, so good for scores of women.
But new measures, such as intimacy coordinators, are not for the benefit of Bean. Sure, men can gain invaluable insight from their input as they really consider how their female counterpart is feeling in a given moment. It's an opportunity to reevaluate entrenched behaviours that harm women. But first and foremost, the practice was introduced to protect women given that they are the ones who have been and continue to be subjected to the lion’s share of abuse and exploitation.
Losing that "spontaneity" Bean values so highly is a small price to pay for women feeling safe doing the work that they love, and that painfully obvious truth should have stopped him dead in his tracks before pressing ahead and laying it on the table.
It also suggests that Bean hasn't worked under the guidance of an intimacy coordinator, or spent time in the company of the most accomplished of the bunch. I've spoken to multiple actors who have praised those facilitators for making their jobs significantly easier, and even making their approach to sex scenes more intuitive.
I'm certain that Bean would say he's sympathetic to the concerns of women (who wouldn't be given the horrors and indignities that come with the territory?!), but the cognitive dissonance on display in that interview communicates the inverse. Bean and his male peers will naturally have had their various respective challenges to weather over the course of their lives and careers, but they will never understand the alienating feeling of being on the back foot for the simple fact of being a woman.
Had that safety net been put in place aeons ago, countless female performers could have been protected from predatory behaviour, and in turn the industry transformed. For Bean to lament the absence of impulse behind-the-scenes in the capturing of those intimate moments is to ignore the bigger picture.
https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sean-bean-intimacy-coordinators-comment/
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Oh for goodness' sake.
Cannot say anything public these days without crazy amounts of scrutiny.
Wasn't he under scrutiny for his comments regarding straight actors should be able to play gay roles (and vice versa)?
Like come on. We are all human. We all have different experiences and preferences. Bean isn't wrong here. But neither are people who are more comfortable with 'intimacy coordinators'.
Lets just accept that we all have different views and move on, not examine every little comment under a microscope.
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Sean Bean, 63, is told to 'wake up' as he is criticised by West Side Story's Rachel Zegler and Jameela Jamil after saying intimacy coaches 'ruin' Hollywood sex scenes
Sean Bean has come under fire for saying intimacy co-ordinators 'ruin' Hollywood sex scenes by spoiling the spontaneity and reducing it to 'a technical exercise'.
The Game of Thrones star, 63, was criticised by British actress Jameela Jamil and West Side Story's Rachel Zegler, from New Jersey, after making the comments in a recent interview with The Times.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11098485/Game-Thrones-Sean-Bean-63-faces-backlash-saying-intimacy-coaches-spoil-sex-scenes.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline
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Agree with you 100% SMcFirefly. I think some of Sean's comments were "tongue in cheek", but a sense of humour is not allowed these days.
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Game of Thrones star Sean Bean’s views on sex scenes might be rational, but they’ve stirred up controversy
Did nobody give Game of Thrones star Sean Bean a heads-up to keep his views on sex scenes to himself? He’s a white man in his 60s, and even if what he blurts out is innocuous, there’s a high chance he will be vilified – which is exactly what happened this week.
In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, he should have just stuck to discussing gardening and his latest BBC TV series about a couple reflecting on their 27-year marriage. Instead, he spoke honestly and unreservedly –rare enough today – about shooting sex scenes, his five marriages and how it’s harder to be a man today.
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/comment/game-of-thrones-star-sean-beans-views-on-sex-scenes-might-be-rational-but-theyve-stirred-up-cont
Dame Emma Thompson defends intimacy co-coordinators after Sean Bean remarks
Dame Emma Thompson has defended the use of intimacy co-ordinators on film and TV sets after Sean Bean said they "spoil the spontaneity" of sex scenes.
A string of actresses, also including West Side Story's Rachel Zegler, have criticised Bean's comments.
The use of intimacy co-ordinators, who choreograph intimate scenes, has become widespread in recent years.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-62502506?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Emma Thompson has defended the role of intimacy coordinators on set in a new interview.
Responding, Thompson defended the profession and appeared either to mishear the host or not know who Sean Bean was.
“So I don’t know who the actor was but maybe he had an intimacy coordinator accidentally at home,” she added.
https://variety.com/2022/film/global/emma-thompson-intimacy-coordinators-sean-bean-1235338803/
Explaining the Sean Bean Intimacy Coordinator Scandal
Actor Sean Bean is regarded by many as one of Britain’s most talented actors. He is best known for his roles in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Game of Thrones, The Martian, BBC’s Time, and most recently, Marriage. The BAFTA winner, however, has found himself in trouble as a result of his most recent interview with The Times. Discover all there is to know about the current controversy in the sections below.
https://technotrenz.com/entertainment/explaining-the-sean-bean-intimacy-coordinator-scandal-2116777.html
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Sean Bean: ‘I used to read scripts from the end to see if I was still in them’
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The actor, who is about to star opposite Nicola Walker in new BBC drama Marriage, talks about chemistry, crying and being killed off
Sean Bean used to be known as an action hero – a gritty Hollywood hard man who usually died before the credits rolled. Yet the past decade has seen him become one of our most reliably excellent dramatic actors: a tender, terrific performer with multiple awards to show for it.
Now 63, he trained as a welder in his home city of Sheffield before discovering acting, winning a scholarship to Rada in London and becoming a member of the RSC in 1986. He found mainstream fame in the 90s as the swashbuckling hero of ITV’s period action romp Sharpe. His film roles have included a terrorist in Patriot Games, a James Bond villain in GoldenEye and Boromir in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. On TV he has starred as Mellors in the BBC’s 1993 adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Mr Wilford in current dystopian drama Snowpiercer and Ned Stark in Game of Thrones.
Bean won an International Emmy in 2013 for his performance as a crossing-dressing teacher in Jimmy McGovern’s Accused, followed by a Bafta in 2018 for his role as a troubled Catholic priest in McGovern’s Broken. His next collaboration with the writer was in the 2021 prison drama Time, which won Bean his second Bafta for best leading actor.
He now stars alongside Nicola Walker in writer-director Stefan Golaszewski’s new BBC drama Marriage, about a middle-aged couple who have been together for 27 years. It’s all a long way from Napoleonic derring-do and Bond villainy, and also somewhat ironic given that Bean has been wed five times. He moved to Somerset with his fifth wife, Ashley Moore, in 2017, and recently said: “I’m a romantic, otherwise I wouldn’t have kept getting married. I don’t regret anything. I’d live it all again.”
Were you a fan of Stefan Golaszewski’s previous series, Mum?
I watched all of Mum and it was extraordinary. Bold, uncompromising, provocative in its own way. I just thought: “Here’s a man who writes exactly how he feels and translates that on to the screen.” There’s no dilution of his original idea. Stefan’s work has pathos. He picks up on all people’s little foibles. Those vulnerabilities and insecurities that we all feel but rarely express. I was listening to the Velvet Underground yesterday and the lyrics somehow reminded me of his scripts. It’s this dark reality, which sometimes seems quite cruel and sad, but with sly humour. Stefan should call himself “the Lou Reed of screenwriting”(laughs).
Was the chance to act opposite Nicola Walker a factor?
I was bowled over by her performance in [ITV crime drama] Unforgotten. She has a very natural approach to performance and we complemented each other. Sometimes you just have chemistry with someone. That’s what I had with Nicola.
You play suburban married couple Ian and Emma. Tell us about their relationship?
On the surface, often not a great deal seems to be happening, but underneath there’s a lot going on. Through Stefan’s economy with words, you realise they’re often saying the opposite of what they truly feel. There’s a wealth of emotion to be mined from everyday interactions.
It feels like theatre, or a Mike Leigh film…
It’s very much in that vein. Stefan said the other day how it’s hard to be a human being. To come downstairs every morning and have to speak to people. Cats and dogs don’t need to do that. They just sit there (laughs).
The opening scene is set on a plane, which seems cruel. Don’t you have a fear of flying?
It was OK because I knew it wasn’t a real plane. I did fear flying for a long time. I’d grip the armrest, almost in tears. I used to have to have a lot to drink before I even got on the plane, then a lot to drink on it. By the time I got off, it was shocking. But suddenly, around 9/11, there was all this talk of possible attacks on planes and long-range missiles from terrorists. I thought: “Why am I worrying about engine failure if there’s all this going off?” And somehow I got over it. I still can’t stand turbulence but I’m much better now, thank God.
There’s a devastating crying scene in episode one of Marriage. How did you channel that emotion?
To express it truthfully you can’t wing it. You’ve got to think about something upsetting in your life that fixes the feeling in your head. That means going back to unpleasant memories but there’s no other way. You often don’t need to do sob or wail, because when people cry, they usually try and hide it. Facial expressions are incredibly articulate when you’re trying to hide powerful emotions. We’ve all seen that on the news or documentaries, when people are reliving tragedy. The only way to replicate that is to think it and live it.
Were you delighted by the reaction to Time last year?
Very happy. It was four years in the making from Jimmy McGovern’s initial idea, so a lot of work went into it. The subject matter interested me. A lot of us, especially men, think about being sent to prison and wonder how we’d cope.
Do you think it was an accurate depiction of prison life?
Prisoners and prison officers have said how realistic it is. It even started conversations about the prison system – the shortage of staff, how people are left to stagnate, how we should make more effort to rehabilitate them. Certain people are dismissive of prisoners but they need our support, both while they’re inside and after they come out. It was good to stir up controversy and raise those points.
You first worked with Stephen Graham a decade ago on Tracie’s Story, an award-winning episode of Jimmy McGovern’s series Accused. How was being reunited with him on Time?
We’ve formed a great working relationship, us two and Jimmy. I’d always admired Stephen. He’s bang on in every role, especially This Is England: chameleon-like. So I jumped at the chance to work with him but never imagined it would be as lovers (laughs). But we got stuck in and had a brilliant time. The final scene was me watching him get taken off to prison, while I went free. And then at the end of Time, Stephen’s character got sent down, while I was getting out. I said to him: “Fucking hell, Stevie, this feels familiar, doesn’t it?”
Which role do you get recognised most for nowadays?
It used to be Sharpe, then it was Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings. But now I get Time too. It was so widely seen and people tend to remember it.
Is it true that you don’t like being killed off? There’s a compilation of your death scenes on YouTube…
I’ve seen that. Is it called a Death Reel? I’m not too bothered. If it’s a good part, it’s worth dying for. With scripts, I used to read from the end to see if I was still in them. I’d go: “Oh no, I only last until page 34.” When you’re starting out, you’re much more dispensable. Now they might keep me alive and get their money’s worth (laughs).
Game of Thrones was a shocker, wasn’t it?
When I first met the Game of Thrones writers, they told me: “You die but you’re in it for nearly the full season.” But he was a great character and it was a good death, so I didn’t mind. Boromir’s [in The Lord of the Rings] was probably the best death I’ve ever done. It was just so heroic and tragic. I did get a reputation for dying on screen but I’d prefer to stay alive now, if you don’t mind.
There’s also a YouTube compilation of you saying “bastard” in Sharpe…
That’s quite funny, I didn’t realise how many times I said that. Maybe it would be a good thing to show drama students: here’s how to say the word “bastard”, as demonstrated by a specialist.
You started out in theatre, but it’s been a while. Would you like to do more stage work?
Possibly, if it’s a project I felt passionately about – and if it’s not for too long. You get these six-month runs sometimes and it’s a wonderful experience, but it does become repetitive. I don’t like being formulaic. I enjoy changing it up with different media, different genres, unique avant garde directors. I’d certainly describe Stefan as such, and Marriage as an unusual piece.
Is it strange to be 63 and still a sex symbol?
Am I? That’s news to me but I’ll take it as a compliment and say it feels great (laughs).
You live in Somerset now. What took you there?
It was just by chance. I moved down to London for drama school and ended up staying for 35 years. But my friends were slowly drifting away and I began to realise London wasn’t the nucleus of everything. And then my wife and I just saw this wonderful, curious house, which made our minds up. It’s set in two acres of lovely land with wild gardens. It’s not a big house but it’s quirky and interesting.
And you’ve become a keen gardener?
I was out this morning, actually. I find it very relaxing and comforting. There’s a lot to look after. I’ve made it wildlife-friendly because I love to attract birds and butterflies, insects and animals. We’ve got a pond with swallows flying over it. There are stoats, weasels and bats. We’ve planted trees, shrubs and meadows. It keeps me busy, although I do get a bit of help. Jeremy, my gardener, does all the spadework. I just put things in position. He digs the holes.
You’re a big music fan. What have you been listening to recently?
Mainly old stuff. I love the Velvet Underground, as you’ve probably guessed. The Beatles, Stones, Bowie, Iggy. I put on Brian Eno’s [1978 ambient album] Music for Airports in the background quite a lot.
If you had your time again, would you still be an actor?
I would. But it’s not ended yet (laughs). I’ve had wonderful experiences and travelled the world. It never really crosses my mind to do anything else, but I’d have loved to be an artist. I try and draw or paint. I get all the pens and pastels together, then just end up doodling on a bit of scrap. I love using my hands and my imagination, being productive and making things. I suppose acting combines all those elements. That’s what makes it so rewarding.
What’s next?
An opera of a religious nature called The Witches Seed. My friend Jonathan Moore has written the libretto and I’m voicing a character. Gabriel Byrne, Chrissie Hynde and Stewart Copeland are involved, so it should be interesting. Otherwise, I’m enjoying some time at home. Taking a breather, recharging my batteries and pursuing my other interests. There’s more to life than acting, isn’t there?
Marriage starts on Sunday 14 August on BBC One, 9pm/BBC iPlayer
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/14/sean-bean-interview-marriage-nicola-walker-chatterley
The Witches Seed
https://thewitchesseed.com/?lang=en
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Knights of The Zodiac's Sean Bean Talks Playing A Father Figure and Greek Mythology
Sean Bean spoke with Game Rant about his Knights of the Zodiac character Alman Kido and the lasting appeal of Greek mythology.
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Anime and manga fans have been treated to plenty of their favorite titles being adapted into live-action, with even more projects on the way. The most recent of these is Knights of the Zodiac, Sony's upcoming movie adapted from the popular manga and anime Saint Seiya, which promises not only some impressive action and deep storytelling, but also impressive star power, with a cast that includes Famke Jannsen, Nick Stahl, Mark Dacascos, Madison Iseman, Mackenyu, and Sean Bean.
Directed by Tomek Bagiński, who counts Netflix's The Witcher and its spinoffs The Witcher: Nightmare and the Wolf and The Witcher: Blood Origin among his credits, Knights of the Zodiac tells the story of Seiya (played by Mackenyu), who rises from fighting for money to battling for the fate of the world and to protecting Sienna (played by Madison Iseman), who is actually the reincarnation of the Greek goddess Athena. Along the way, Seiya embraces his own destiny and learns to harness magical powers with the help of Alman Kido (Sean Bean). Knights of the Zodiac finds its basis in Greek mythology, and it uses those ancient tales to propel its action-packed story.
Speaking with Game Rant, Sean Bean provided deeper details on his character, and the qualities he found within him. Elaborating on his acting process, Bean said, "It's a question of finding that knowledge, maturity, intellect. It's like looking back on one's own life. You look on when you were younger, you realize you hopefully learned a bit more over the years." The actor added that Alman Kido is "a very educated man, very successful businessman and a billionaire who is retired and follows his true passion which is ancient history and folklore and Greek mythology." Bean also notes the conflict that Kido finds himself in, and how his task of protecting Sienna weighs on him, saying:
He's quite laid back, but he has a heavy weight on his shoulders in terms of his responsibility to Sienna and trying to find someone who can provide her with the energy and support she needs in terms of the cosmos and the cosmic energy she needs every day. As you said he's a father figure and a mentor, but he's aware that he's in a very dangerous situation. It's quite perilous the journey that he's taking in order to keep Siena on the right track which would lead to transformation into the goddess Athena. So he's well aware of the consequences but he's quite steady and a level-headed man.
Incidentally, Bean is no stranger to Greek mythology, having played Odysseus in the 2005 film Troy. Beyond that, though, the actor said that he has always been interested in Greek mythology, and highlighted how many of the stories passed down for centuries are "surreal" and "bizarre." "Experiences like Zeus having children from his forehead and things like that, or how Hera, I believe, puts a stone in his belly and he thinks he's having another one or something (laughs)."
In regards to Knights of the Zodiac, Bean said it was the inclusion of Greek mythology that drew him to the project, but it was how the story remixed that folklore that he found most interesting. "When that was combined with the Japanese culture, the manga, the anime, I thought it was a really interesting mixture. It took me a little bit long to get my head around it, but I think it's fascinating that they're able to draw the two cultures together and create such a thought-provoking and exciting piece of work."
https://gamerant.com/knights-of-the-zodiac-sean-bean-interview-greek-mythology/
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Sean Bean Recalls His First Onscreen Death & His Infamous Trend Of Dying
Exclusive: Sean Bean recalls his first onscreen death in the historical drama Caravaggio and his infamous trend of dying in movies and TV shows.
After over 30 years of meeting his maker, Sean Bean is looking back on his first onscreen death in the historical drama Caravaggio and his infamous trend of dying. Though having found larger success with the British war drama series Sharpe, Bean made his acting debut with the British procedural series The Bill and Caravaggio. The English actor has since become a household name thanks to his roles in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Pierce Brosnan's first James Bond movie GoldenEye and HBO's Game of Thrones, all of which shared one unique element for the actor.
While speaking exclusively with Screen Rant to discuss the live-action manga adaptation Knights of the Zodiac, Sean Bean looked back on his infamous trend of dying on screen in movies and TV shows. In addition to reiterating his appreciation for his Lord of the Rings demise, Bean recalled his very first onscreen death in the historical drama Caravaggio and how it would kick off the rest. See what Bean said below:
Lord of the Rings was a good one. My first death was a film called Caravaggio, which is about the artist Caravaggio, by Derek Jarmain, he’s a wonderful guy, great director. That was my first death, I got my throat slit, which is okay, it’s your first day, so you’re thinking, “Oh great.” [Laughs] But then it goes on, and on, and on. I suppose the best death was Boromir in Lord of the Rings, that was a very epic kind of death, it was very emotional, very moving, and Peter Jackson allowed me enough time to die and milk it, and get the music and pathos. I like that one.
Since his death in Caravaggio, Bean has become something of a running joke among audiences for whether his appearance in a film regarding life or death stakes will see him survive the events of the story. In the near 40 years following the historical drama, the English actor has died 23 times on both the big and small screen in a variety of projects, ranging from simple gunshots to more outrageous means of demise.
The '90s in particular proved to be one of the more fatal for Bean onscreen beginning with the Western drama Lorna Doone, where he accidentally drowns himself, followed by the Oscar-nominated Irish drama The Field, in which his emotionally stunted character is pushed off a cliff by a herd of cattle. After a handful of more grounded deaths in Clarissa, Patriot Games and Scarlett, he would see a more grand demise in 1995's GoldenEye, in which his James Bond villain is dropped from an antenna and has a satellite subsequently dropped on him.
https://screenrant.com/sean-bean-death-onscreen-first-dying-trend-comments/
#KnightsOfTheZodiac star Sean Bean reflects on his legacy of onscreen deaths, including his very first one in 1986's Caravaggio and his best demise as Boromir in #LordOfTheRings:
https://buff.ly/42e1sCL
https://twitter.com/screenrant/status/1655296977469358080
#KnightsoftheZodiac star #SeanBean offers a hopeful response to the idea of returning as Ned Stark in the future of the #GameOfThrones franchise: https://buff.ly/3NNnVlP
https://twitter.com/screenrant/status/1655354091927752705
Sean Bean Interview: Knights Of The Zodiac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z37W4rrDDg0
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Sean Bean Interview: Knights Of The Zodiac
Knights of the Zodiac is the 2023 live-action adaptation of the Saint Seiya manga filled with over-the-top action, vibrant special effects, and a talented cast to bring it all to life. Sony Pictures teams up with the anime powerhouse Toei to bring the story of Seiya and the Goddess Athena's Cosmo-Powered Knights to the big screen. While live-action anime films have a reputation for falling flat, Knights of the Zodiac goes all in on its flashy fight scenes and world-ending family drama.
The film features a young girl named Sienna (Madison Iseman) who has mysterious powers awakened inside of her that threaten the safety of the world unless she learns to control them. Her father, Alman Kido (Game of Thrones star Sean Bean), and his close friend Mylock (Mark Dacascos) work to protect her and attempt to find the Knights destined to protect the goddess Sienna is shaping into. They are pursued by her mother, Guraad (Famke Janssen), and the intimidating Nero (Diego Tinoco). Things begin to heat up when the young Seiya (Mackenyu) accidentally awakens abilities in a fighting tournament that lead him right to Sienna and a battle for the world's fate.
Sean Bean's character Alman takes on the responsibility of nurturing Sienna so that her powers could someday be used to save the world rather than end it. However, his ex-wife Guraad has different plans, and their disagreement may be the trigger that starts the largest battles the world has seen. Sean Bean recently joined Screen Rant to talk about his role in Knights of the Zodiac and reflect on some of his best on-screen deaths.
Sean Bean on Parenting a Goddess in Knights of the Zodiac
Screen Rant: Alman's relationship with his daughter provided many of Knights of the Zodiac's most emotionally potent scenes. I hope that none of your children in real life have threatened the safety of our planet, but did Alman teach you anything new in regard to being a father?
Sean Bean: Not really. He's a father or a mentor, but it's a slightly different situation because he's bringing up this Goddess. She can be a bit difficult, not difficult with me, but with my ex-wife, [Guraad], and all the cosmos [energy] she's received. I thought he was a very, very well-rounded, very well-written character. He was sympathetic. And that followed his true passion, which was mythology, Greek mythology, ancient history, folklore and that kind of stuff.
To come across this young girl, this little baby, really was kind of almost [like his] destiny to find something that he believed in, he studied, he was passionate about, and to come across this, which he's probably searched for all his life was quite a massive turning point for him. From then on, we see how things develop with his wife Guraad. They were happily married, and things change dramatically when Sienna comes into our life. So I guess he's got a father's responsibility. But on top of that, he's got the responsibility to help bring up a goddess and the wisdom and the good things that she can bring to the world.
You seem to be well aware that a majority of the characters you've played have perished on camera. For you, what are some of the most memorable deaths that you've had to act out throughout your career?
Sean Bean: I suppose Lord of the Rings was a good one. And my first death was a film called Caravaggio, which is about the artist Caravaggio. [It was a] Derek Jarman film, and he was a wonderful guy, a great director. And that was my first death, and I got my throat slit. It's your first day, and you go "Oh great!", and I suppose the best death was Boromir in Lord of the Rings. That was a very epic kind of death, very emotional, very moving. Peter Jackson allowed me enough time to die and milk it. Yeah, great music and pathos.
It all came together so well. I imagine your James Bond death in Goldeneye, having to react to a satellite falling on you, was a little hard to play out.
Sean Bean: Yeah, at the time as well. Because green screen wasn't as fancy as it is now so, you know we had to use our imaginations. *laughs
With the Game of Thrones franchise seeing a resurgence thanks to House of the Dragon, and with a couple of spin-off series in the works, would you be open to playing Ned Stark again in some sort of flashback or side story?
Sean Bean: *laughs I don't know if Ned would ever be incorporated again. I'm not that clued-up about the [new series]. I've heard it's really good. You know, I'm gonna see that. But yeah, it's always nice to think that you could be involved in some way in such a great series that's something that became [so known] worldwide. I don't think at the time that we knew how big Lord of the Rings was going to turn out, and the same with Game of Thrones. So you know, if I were ever asked again, it would be nice to be involved in some way. And it's the same with Knights of the Zodiac. I wasn't familiar with how vast that was in this scale of popularity and the following it has, so you know maybe [Knights of the Zodiac] will one day become a similar kind of thing.
https://screenrant.com/knights-of-the-zodiac-sean-bean-interview/
Sean Bean Interview: Knights Of The Zodiac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z37W4rrDDg0
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Sean Bean on Knights of the Zodiac’s "unique" fantasy – and a James Bond reunion
Outside of dying in films, Sean Bean is perhaps best known for his stints in Middle-earth and Westeros. Having been a fixture of the high fantasy scene as both Boromir and Ned Stark, it’s clear the British actor knows a thing or two about what it takes to stand out from the pack in what’s becoming an increasingly crowded marketplace.
That’s something Knights of the Zodiac aims to do. Based on the hit Saint Seiya manga and anime series, the new action movie blends Greek mythology with fantasy hallmarks, focusing on the story of a man – Bean’s Alman Kido – enlisting warriors to protect his daughter. Plot twist: his daughter is also fated to be the vessel for the reincarnation of the goddess Athena. Worlds away, then, from the more intimate political intrigue in Winterfell.
GamesRadar+ recently sat down with Bean to discuss his latest role, including working with The Witcher’s Tomek Baginski on his first feature film and being "hooked" by the source material. He also discusses a long overdue GoldenEye reunion with Famke Janssen, who plays his ex-wife – and potential god-destroyer – Guraad in Knights of the Zodiac and, famously, Xenia Onatopp in the 1995 James Bond movie. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You’ve been part of some of the biggest fantasy franchises in Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. While this is a very different type of fantasy, how do you think Knights of the Zodiac stands out in what is a more crowded genre than 10-20 years ago?
I wasn’t that familiar with [the manga] Saint Seiya, the Knights of the Zodiac, the kind of history behind it, and how successful and how popular it was in Japan and in certain parts of the world [like] South America and Poland.
But I think what makes this film unique is the fact it’s combined two kinds of elements, which are very interesting to me: Greek mythology – which I was always interested in growing up as a kid – and the Japanese culture, the anime, the manga. Combining those together complements each other very well in the end product. It’s quite fascinating and it’s very exciting.
I read [in a 2019 interview with Vulture(opens in new tab)] that you only read the first book to prepare for Game of Thrones. Was it a similar approach here? Or did you come in fresh?
I think I read a little bit more than that! As I said, I wasn’t that familiar with it. I spoke to the directors and the producers and we explored it a little bit. Once I got into it, I got hooked by it. I tried to incorporate that in my performance.
It became more apparent as we went along filming how intricate and how fascinating the themes of the stories were. The end product is quite unusual.
I’m a huge Bond fan, so it was great to see a mini-GoldenEye reunion with Famke Janssen in this. I know you have appeared in one other film since then, but what was it like sharing the set and sharing the screen together again? Was the chemistry stil the same?
We were all a bit younger then! [laughs]
It was good to work with her again. It’s the first time me and Famke really had any scenes together. On Bond, we saw each other on set, but we didn’t really have any scenes together. I worked with her on [Don’t Say A Word], had a telephone conversation [scene] and never saw her on that film either! So it was nice to actually have scenes with her and thrash it out in the later scenes in the movie. That was good.
I spoke to the Knights of the Zodiac director Tomek Baginski a few years ago for The Witcher – he has a real eye for visual flair. What was the thing that impressed you most about working with him?
He was very clear about what he wanted, he was brilliant with the crew, and great with the actors. He was able to separate the acting and the emotional subject from the crew. He looked like someone who really studied [the source material] for a long time – which I believe he has, because it’s very popular in Poland.
He said at the premiere it’s been years and years since he wanted to try and bring this to an audience. He’s finally had the chance to do it. I think he did a wonderful job: he’s very steady, not a man who gets too excited about things, and he’s very focused on what he’s doing. And I respect him for that. He’s fulfilled his dream with this film because he’s done a great job of it.
Knights of the Zodiac is set for release on May 12 in the United States and July 28 in the UK.
https://www.gamesradar.com/sean-bean-interview-knights-of-the-zodiac/
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Sean Bean, interview for PRO TV News. The actor is filming in Romania for the film "The Yellow Tie"
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/Naamloospppppp_6EjNfzMbbnX3Jt3YXobyAJ.png?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds) (https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ad116/patchfolk/Naamloospppppp_6EjNfzMbbnX3Jt3YXobyAJ.png?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds)
https://seanbeanonline.net/forums/index.php?topic=5816.msg126818#msg126818