Gillian Anderson at the Johnny English Reborn UK premiere

You might have seen my earlier report from the unseasonably hot premiere of Johnny English Reborn where the stars walked the red carpet, posed for pictures and signed autographs for the mass of fans present and answered questions for HeyUGuys (HUG) and the rest of the press (ROTP) in the media area.

Gillian Anderson – Pegasus

ROTP: This is another authority figure you’re playing. How do you always get to play them?
GA: I don’t know. Talk to them about it. Those people. I don’t know I’m getting tired of it!

ROTP: It’s also like with Miss Havisham (Great Expectations TV project) as well. How did you get into that role?
GA: Read a lot. Did a lot of research. It’s different for everything that I do. I just try to get into her head but I haven’t seen any of it yet.

HeyUGuys: When you say research what was it you were…
GA: Just reading everything about Dickens, everything that’s been written about the character in the past and reading essays on her. I try not to watch very much as I don’t like to be influenced by other things so I didn’t watch anything but just reading, just taking in information hoping that at on some level it all sits there somewhere and comes out.
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Daniel Kaluuya at the Johnny English Reborn UK premiere

Daniel Kaluuya – Agent Tucker

DK: Look at the people with a lot of mechanisms!!

ROTP: How is this role compared to your previous roles in Dr Who and Psychoville?

DK: This role? I wear great suits! No hoodies or trackies. Hey, this is Ted Baker baby! [laughs] It was cool man, really nice and really fun. I don’t know, every production is different and you like to mix it up all the time so you don’t want to compare each one to every single one but it’s bigger.

ROTP: Was it nice doing an outright comedy?
DK: Yeah. There’s some mad moments isn’t it. There’s some nice little dramatic moments? That’s what’s nice It is cool doing an out and out comedy instead of being depressed and eating tuna.

HeyUGuys: Bough was the original Johnny English sidekick. How do you think you changed that because I thought you were fabulous?
DK: Thank you sir.

HeyUGuys: I was wondering how it would work so how did you do it?
How did I do it? Read the lines and was like “Hey, there are the lines” [laughs]. I wanted to make it character-led and make people realise that Tucker is so in awe of Johnny. It’s that conflict, he’s in awe of him but he has to make sure that he doesn’t mess up so he has to be authoritative but go “Wow” You’re amazing”. It’s kind of a nice thing to play.

HeyUGuys: The sweetest scene I saw was the one in the bedroom where Johnny comes to find you. How was that? That was really quite a very cool scene

DK: That was a really nice scene, a really nice scene. It’s got my favourite line it it where he says “Tooting”. Rowan Atkinson says “Tooting” better than anyone else on the planet so that was really cool It was a really nice scene and a really touching scene.

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Mark Ivanir at the Johnny English Reborn UK premiere

Mark Ivanir – Karlenko

ROTP: What can you tell us about your character?

MI: I play an ex-KGB spy and arch enemy of Johnny English and now he is a rich man and Johnny is trying to get something from him, I’m trying not to spoil anything. We’re playing golf and having fun!

ROTP: How did it fell working opposite Rowan Atkinson?

MI: Incredible, incredible. It’s like in a way as if Charlie Chaplin was alive, I would say it’s basically the same thing because he is a genius of comedy and it was a great experience to see how he works and be part of it.

ROTP: Do you prefer playing the bad guy?

MI: I love it! I don’t want to play heroes, they’re boring.

HeyUGuys: Is it hard to keep a straight face and maintain focus when you Rowan is pulling faces?

Yes, yes! there were a few times where I asked to do another take because it was really tough.

HeyUGuys: And did they fly you in in the helicopter?
Did we fly in? Erm, no. It was the magic of movies but we spent eight days in a helicopter Rowan, Daniel and I which was great and at certain moments it was like ‘boof!’, it was great [laughs]

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Togo Igawa at the Johnny English Reborn UK premiere

Togo Igawa – Ting Wang, martial arts mentor

ROTP: How was it working with Rowan Atkinson

He’s a very very nice man. Can you imagine someone like Peter Sellers who on screen is very funny but in real life is very demanding? He’s not like that at all. I worked with him and it was very relaxing and very very nice.

ROTP: Tell us about your part in the film

Johnny English has been living  in a cave in Tibet in order to meditate and my part is as a martial arts master of him. Five years he has been in the cave and the master says that now is the time you can come out so I can train you.

HeyUGuys: I saw the film and really, really enjoyed it…

I haven’t seen it actually!

HeyUGuysYou’re in for a treat but was it difficult playing the scenes seriously? Did he play the scenes in between laughter?

Quite seriously because it’s a good contrast between him and Ting Wang, the master, otherwise it didn’t work.

HeyUGuys: You mentioned Peter Sellers. Did you work with him at all?

No, I’m too young! [laughs]. I was in a French film called the Hedgehog. It was released but it’s not a big film like this so nobody knows it. It’s a very, very good film and they want to release the DVD at the beginning of December. Buy it and see it! [laughs]
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Johnny English Reborn is released in UK cinemas on October 7th
Photos by Madison Hart