Page 27 - Fujifilm Exposure_16 Bob The Builder_ok

A REAL HART TO HART “It’s only a cameo if you’re famous... Otherwise it’s a bit part”
He may regard himself as British cinema’s busiest unknown actor, but Ian Hart is suddenly in danger of getting famous. With two films on release and a key role in the eagerly awaited first Harry Potter movie, Hart might well have to brace himself soon for the rigours of stardom.
Not that he will allow this to take his feet off the ground, for the Liverpool born actor is as down-to- earth as they come. His work reflects this, just as it displays admirable range and variety since his searing performance as John Lennon in the 1993 film Backbeat. Further eye catching roles have come in Land & Freedom, Nothing Personal, Hollow Reed, The End Of The Affair and David Kane’s ensemble comedy- drama, This Year’s Love.
Reunited with Kane on Born Romantic, a salsa-flavoured romantic comedy, Hart has a small role as a know-it-all cabbie who dispenses his pearls of wisdom to an attentive John Thomson. But is it a small role, or a cameo, that is the question?
“It’s only a cameo if you’re famous,” Hart chuckles. “Otherwise it’s a bit part. It just depends on how you look at it. But a good part is a good part regardless. It’s interesting when you look at that cast, because Olivia Williams was in a massive, huge blockbuster, Craig Ferguson has been in a couple of hit films, as has Adrian Lester too.
“But they all want to do the work, and good writing is hard to come by. And also the ensemble thing has a tradi- tion in theatre. I haven’t done it in don- key’s years but it still has that appeal.”
Hart’s obvious motivation is to work with good people on interesting projects rather than taking easy money for less challenging jobs. Liam is cer- tainly an interesting project, being the
first thing Jimmy McGovern has written directly for the screen. With Stephen Frears directing this tale of working class strife in Depression era Liverpool, the project was in good hands.
“I think Stephen was drawn to Jimmy’s script,” nods Hart, who plays a redundant docker who drifts into Fascism. “ Reading it I didn’t think that some parts of it were all that far removed from my experience growing up in Liverpool. I went through the Catholic education, so everything about learning the catechism, about Hell and damnation, all that stuff about going to your Holy Communion was just the same at my school.”
There is also a curious parallel with another film Hart appeared in set in the same period, Ken Loach’s Spanish Civil War drama, Land & Freedom.
“That was the other side of the same coin really,” he nods. “When I started doing my research for Liam, I realised that there was a lot of stuff I had before from doing that. Books I got off the shelf that were the same background, and then the characters had a very obvious
departure point.” While such intelli- gent, political tales clearly appeal to Ian Hart, he is not above appearing in something less intellectually demand- ing. He made his Hollywood debut in Tony Scott’s Enemy Of The State a few years ago, and found the experience educational to say the least.
“The days I worked I enjoyed, but it became miserable for me when they wouldn’t let me go home. I also found out that a week’s not ‘a week’ there. A week is six days, and if they worked you one day a week it would take six weeks to work ‘a week’. So on a six
week contract I was on it for a little over a year. I was going to do Life with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, but couldn’t because I was still under contract to them.”
Such lessons are hard learned, and never forgotten. But at least Hart is able to enjoy his current Hollywood UK production, starring as
Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone.
“It’s all about variety being the spice of life,” he grins. “The people who are in it are people I wouldn’t nor- mally get to work with, actors like Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Zoe Wanamaker. It’s good to sit and keep company with people like that, you might learn something.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
Liam and Born Romantic were originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative. Both are released
Photos: (top) As the know-it-all cabbie in Born Romantic; as Liam’s father in Liam.
EXPOSURE • 25
facing the camera