Colleagues Comment on Robert Carlyle's Acting Talents
Director Antonia Bird:
"He's the best actor in Britain. He's an absolute fucking genius. just brilliant."
Actor Kate Hardie (on working with Carlyle in Safe):
"He seemed so cool, so together and dignified. Most young actors just want to be sexy and hard, shout a lot, basically. Bobby's strength is that he's not afraid to open up his emotions."
Antonia Bird again, in Neon November 1997:
"Like the great American actors, he's a very detailed, serious professional. There's a fashion for saying, 'Oh fuck it, I'll just get on the set and do my stuff', but he arrives after having thought very carefully about the day's work. It's easy to label it as Method, but it's not. He's better than that."
Director Ken Loach quoted in the New York Times 10 August 1997:
"I think with Bobby you have a sense of solidarity, a sense of injustice, a sense of where you belong, where you're coming from, how you see the world, what side you are on. It's not a question of political correctness. It's about how every little instinctive judgment you make about people has a political base."
Helen Barlow, writing in The Sunday Age (17 November 1996):
Unassuming and deliberate as he speaks, he is none the less quietly powerful, closeting a powerhouse of emotions that he unleashes on screen.
Deirdre Macdonald, writing in Scottish Accent Oct/Nov 1996:
He has no interest in becoming a sex symbol. He calls himself an actor who is Scottish, not a Scottish actor. His great ability not just to act the part, but to become the character he portrays, has made Robert Carlyle appear a complex character. From psychopath to gentle lover his roles have encompassed a whole host of emotions, and he has brought to each of them not just great talent but also an uncompromising belief in his view of the craft of acting.
The Independent 22-28 March 1997:
Industry insiders talk in hushed tones about Carlyle as the finest actor of his generation. "Not since Gary Oldman have I worked with someone like Bobby who can do anything", comments Scott Meek, an executive producer on Hamish Macbeth, the charmingly off-beat Highland policeman Carlyle plays. "He has that ability to become someone else. When I watch Trainspotting I see Begbie not Bobby - and Bobby's been a persoanl friend for years. Begbie still scares the shit out of me, and I know Bobby is a very nice man. The sheer animal ferocity of Bobby's dark characters doesn't leave your head very easily."
Andrew Duncan on RC, and Bobby on himself as an actor (Radio Times 1997):
He is more of a chameleon than most actors, and has an especially nice line in psychopathic nutters (the vicious Begbie in Trainspotting, a serial killer in Cracker) to contrast with the likeable Hamish. "I want to keep audiences off balance, so they don't know who I am or how to take me. If I duck and weave, as Frank Bruno might say, I'll have a longer shelf life."
He is helped, he adds, by his features. "Biologically, I'm lucky - an angular face and dark colouring which shows up well on camera. I'll spare you the actors' pretentious rubbish, but a face reflects experience, so if you concentrate on a character something happens to you physically. Many actors look at the costume before the part, and that seems crazy to me. It's much more fun to be ugly. Not that I think I'm ugly, but I've never considered myself good-looking."
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