Thursday, December 04, 2008

would love to be next Doctor Who, reveals Robert Carlyle






ROBERT Carlyle has told Doctor Who bosses:"Come and get me."
The actor is one of the favourites to take over from fellow Scot David Tennant, who will quit as the Time Lord at the end of next year.
Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies has spelled out exactly what he's after: "Anyone playing him has to be capable of anything - action, heartbreak, comedy, wielding a sonic screwdriver..."
Given the 47-year-old father of three's versatile career, he more than fits the bill.
Roles have included the lead in Sunday night TV series Hamish Macbeth, and films such as The Full Monty, Eragon, Trainspotting and The World Is Not Enough.
Like ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston, Robert would certainly bring extra acting skills to the role.
But there's competition. Top is David Morrissey, who appears as a Doctor in this year's Christmas special.
There's also actor Paterson Joseph, who appeared in The Beach alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, who would become the show's first black Doctor. There are also rumours of the first female Doctor.
Robert laughed: "This has followed me for two years. But no one has ever approached me about it and I never wanted to talk about it because you can't talk about another actor's part.
"I would treat it with respect and regard it properly, but I would have to be approached about it first."
Robert's latest role is in 24: Redemption, a TV movie set between series six and seven of the Kiefer Sutherland smash hit show-which is out on DVD this week - sees his character Carl Benton running a school in Sangala and because Doctor Who is so loved by children, it's just as well that Robert loves working with kids.
He said: "A lot of my work is with children and there's a reason for that, because they really level you.
"They are very good at just walking up, saying their line, then going out to play.
"Whereas actors are sitting there thinking about it too much."
The actor lives in Glasgow with wife Anastasia and children Ava, six, Harvey, four, and Pearce, two.
And Robert admits that since having children there are roles he wouldn't consider - such as playing someone like Moors murderer Ian Brady.
He said: "My wife and I have three children, so that changes your perspective."
Robert's been very busy and has recently starred in The Last Enemy, Flood, 24: Redemption and the movies Stone Of Destiny and Summer.
Robert's appearance in 24: Redemption will have reminded America just what they have been missing.
And there's been a huge influx of Brit actors taking American TV by storm, such as Anna Friel in Pushing Daisies, Hugh Laurie in House, Ashley Jensen in Ugly Betty and Robert's Trainspotting colleagues Kevin McKidd in Grey's Anatomy and Jonny Lee Miller in Eli Stone.
So would Robert ever consider working in America?
"Anyone that knows me knows what I'm about, and I'm very much a British actor, a European actor," he explained.
"It's what I love doing, but that's not to say that I wouldn't consider something else, I'd be stupid not to.
"It's not to say that I wouldn't come back and I understand from Jonny Lee Miller that you can always build in gaps if you do something like that.
"But that's overstepping the mark slightly, I haven't been offered anything.
But to answer honestly, I'd have to seriously consider it."
While the DVD of 24: Redemption is out this week, Robert also has his latest film Summer released on Friday.
Back to the independent films like Riff-Raff, Safe and Priest that kick started his career in the Nineties, Summer is about two pals struggling in the margins of society. And during filming he was reminded of his own upbringing in Maryhill, Glasgow.
He said: "I was poorer than poor - I will never forget that. I don't know a lot of people from that time these days, but I've seen them through the years and I've seen what life has done to them. I've seen how it's affected them, good or bad, but generally the downside."
Robert was brought up by his dad Joseph after his mum left them when Robert was four.
His dad died two years ago but Robert has come to terms with his loss.
He said: "I cried my eyes out, but at the end of it I thought, 'We were close. There is nothing I regret.'"
It was his dad who supported him when he left school at 16 and Robert worked with him as an apprentice decorator before becoming an actor in his 20s.
In Summer, he plays Shaun, who cares for his childhood pal Daz, played by Steve Evets, who is in a wheelchair.
As Daz slowly dies, the film focuses on the bleakness of their lives.
The film won Robert Best Actor at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this year and he was also nominated for Best Actor at the BAFTA awards, where the film won Best Feature Film.
Summer was filmed in Bolsover, near Sheffield, where Robert made The Full Monty playing Gaz, an unemployed steelworker turned male stripper.
Speaking of his time on set, Robert said: "It was chaos.
Obviously, I'm recognised around the place and people approach me, but this was en masse.
"I didn't think about it until I was getting down to Sheffield, and then I realised that I was in the eye of the storm.
"I felt like the prodigal son. It was just magic."
Next year will come the film I Know You Know, which is directed by Justin Kerrigan, who directed Human Traffic in the Nineties.
Robert said: "It's a beautiful story about Justin's father. I play his father, who was mentally ill, and lived in a kind of Walter Mitty world.
"He created this incredible web of deceit and his son and everyone went along with it."
Currently, Robert is shooting the film The Unloved with Samantha Morton, which she's also directing.
Robert said: "It's her first feature and it's a very personal film about her life. I play her father.
"She asked me to play that part and I was very honoured."
Robert is clearly in demand and only time will tell if he's given the keys to the famous Tardis.

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