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Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean is the number one show in Ch 5 these days. Strange but true! Yvette Sitten tells us more about the reticent star. Imagine in the same house as Rowan Atkinson. He would be pulling one of his rubber faces at breakfast, telling hysterical jokes at lunch, doing a Mr Bean impression at dinner. Imagine the fun, imagine the wit - it would all be so jolly ... wouldn't it? Not according to the diminutive Chaplinesque star of the worldwide hit Mr Bean: "Half of me is shy, even dull. People who meet me for the first time frequently call me a miserable old git. It used to be that people would expect me to come into a room and crack them up, but I've kind of assumed that the word is out that I'm not funny and that's a pretty good word to have." Atkinson has always shunned the celebrity limelight. Yuo won't find him at Hugh Grant's latest bash or John Cleese's birthday party. No, the man would rather spend time with wife Sunetra, a BBC makeup artist, his year-old son, or close friends like Stephen Fry, the actor and writer. Fry was best-man at Atkinson's secret New York wedding in February 1990 and his description of Atkinson is probably the most incisive: "Rowan has not an ounce of showbiz in his life. It is as if God had an extra jar of comic talent and for a joke gave it to a nerdy, anoraked, northern chemist. He is a very decent, gently shy man, but funny he is not when people first meet him." The youngest of three sons from a wealthy farming family in Durham, Britain, Atkinson broke away from the family business by studying electrical engineering at Oxford University. And instead of following his two older brothers into business, was talent-spotted by the BBC while participating in a University revue. He appeared in Not the Nine O'Clock news, a satirical news programme, and his career took off. "I felt there was something inside me crying to get out, some means of expression, some channel, which is what drove me onto the stage, but it was only when I got to Oxford that I took it seriously and considered a professional career. I was planning a sketch and pulled these faces in front of a mirror for ten minutes and have never done it since - in order to prepare. That was when I realised I had malleable features that could be used to comic effect." Atkinson went on to create the hit comedy series Black Adder, but the show only took off when Ben Elton joined, helping to write the script. Over the next three series, it evolved into a mixture of slapstick and scatological insults, and got voted both best and worst programme in one newspaper poll. But Atkinson, by this point, had Mr Bean up his sleeve. Mr Bean soon won a handful of awards at the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux television festival and is now screened all over the world. It is the most popular inflight comedy and its video sales are escalating. With them has come a whole new audience of under-12s who love Atkinson's silent, churlish and childish creation. And no wonder, as Atkinson admits that he was very much like the character when he was nine years old. "There's still a lot of Mr Bean in me. He's politically incorrect and socially inept; he has no social grace or manners; he's selfish but also sweet, innocent and well-meaning. I wasn't that obsessive when I was a child. I had, to a certain extent still have, some of Bean's self-centeredness. I'm someone who likes to get his own way. I prefer to look round the back of things rather than take them at face value. Bean, too, is someone who, presented with a signpost, won't just read it and walk on; he'll always want to go round to the back, wonder how it's put together, pull a bolt out and oops..." But, in one way, Atkinson is completely different from his screen alter-ego. While Mr Bean tries to control the events around him, he invariably makes a slip-up and ends looking silly. Atkinson, on the other hand, tries to manipulate events around himself and is terrified of failure. "To control everything is the only way I've found to achieve peace of mind, because I find it very difficult not to get my own way. In a West End play a few years ago there were things I knew needed to be much better, and because there was someone more powerful than me in the equation, it couldn't be achieved. That just made me ill, got me down. If something prevents me from using my own judgment, it just makes life miserable. The best way to avoid that is to have control, then if it fails, you know which person to blame." Atkinson has recently moved into film. Although he had parts in the brilliant British film The Tall Guy with Emma Thompson and Jeff Goldblum, Never Say Never Again, and Hotshots Part Deux, it is Four Weddings and a Funeral that Atkinson will be remembered for. Playing the bumbling novice priest who just cannot get the marital vows quite right, his is one of the funniest scenes in the film. Because of his need for control, he has turned down many Hollywood offers. "In America, I am a relative nobody, not known at all. It's quite a sobering experience. But just because I feel my lowly status, it doesn't mean I say that I should compromise my ideals." However, he did provide the voice for Zazu, the jungle bird in the Walt Disney cartoon The Lion King. Despite being in the company of megastars like Jeremy Irons, Whoopi Goldberg and Matthew Broderick, it was Atkinson's dazzling performance that had critics raving. A Disney spokesman said, "Like Robin Williams in Aladdin, Rowan's performance was almost totally ad-libbed. Audiences are lapping it up." It has sparked a flood of offers from the movie capital. Although a film version of Mr Bean was being discussed with studio executives last year, movie-goers will have to wait for further announcements. In the meantime, Atkinson is doing very well indeed. He owns his own production company with Ben Elton and writer Richard Curtis. He is a multimillionaire and was reported to have earned £750,000 (S$1.76 million) for his BAFTA-winning Barclaycard commercials as the bungling, pompous secret service spy who refuses to use a credit card - and pays dearly for it. He owns a £500,000 rectory home in Oxfordshire as well as a £1 million house in luxurious West Chelsea, London. One of his chief passions is cars. He once owned seven prestige motors but has since cut back to three - a £140,000 Aston Martin Virage and two Lancias. In fact, when he took a year off in 1991, the star amazingly considered working as a lorry driver. "I could stop now and say, 'Well, I enjoyed the success, but I think I can't stand this any longer. I will go and drive trucks for a living.' But I realise now that in truth I could never retire. I don't mind the meetings and preparation before a programme but I can't stand the performing. Showbusiness is a sandwich with a vicious filling. Even though I hate the filling, I still like the sandwich." It's probably rather a good thing that this funny man isn't riding high on British roads. Apart from the obvious loss to television, Atkinson was actually banned from driving in 1988 for two weeks after police nabbed him for speeding. His recklessness probably reflected his penchant for pushing himself to the limit. He was such a workaholic that he developed an ulcer four years ago. Since then, he has tried to slow down - in more ways than one, as he has also sold the offending Aston Martin that he was caught in. He spends much of his time with his family. His private life is a taboo subject, and he refuses to discuss his marriage or his attitude towards fatherhood. His friends say he can be incredibly generous; as legend has it, he once conned a family out of their home while he installed a baby grand piano as a Christmas present. And he likes DIY - fiddling with screwdrivers and shaky shelves is his idea of a good time. So the man who claims to be one of the unfunniest men in Britain paints himself as a portrait of mundane suburbanity. Can such a complex man really be so banal? Or could it just be an attempt to shield himself and his family from overwhelming publicity? If so, he has cleverly succeded in convincing everyone of his dull facade. There has been no exposes of Atkinson, no startling media revelations. You know what, I'll just bet that Atkinson house rocks with laughter. |
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