Chapter 1: What advice does Russell Tovey give about overcoming imposter syndrome?
Hi.
Hi.
How are you?
I am absolutely shattered.
Shattered. I felt shattered coming on, so I said it before you got there. Don't want to get it in there before. I am exhausted. What are you going to do after this? Look at my eyes. Can't see them, they're shut.
I want to talk to you about my sleep patterns, but I won't.
Go on, tell me about your sleep patterns.
No.
calling okay well to me it's not well it is because you're emailing someone yeah i know but i thought i'd let you get it out james can always take it out um who we got on the pod today joe we've got russell toby
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Chapter 2: How does Russell Tovey prepare for acting roles?
I love Russell Tovey. Have you met Russell Tovey? No. What do you know of Russell Tovey?
When I think of Russell Tovey, I think of him and her, and I think of... History Boys? History Boys, which I've never seen. And I think of him being a proper actor.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly what it is. Richard Laxton, who directed Him and Her, I saw him years later and I was asking about that sort of thing and he said, working with Russell Tovey is like having a foot massage. That's the end of the story. Is it a Steinbeck piano or something? Right. He said it's like having an amazing musical instrument where you can just go, can you just play one note up?
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Chapter 3: What unique experiences does Russell share about filming 'Him and Her'?
Thank you. Oh, amazing.
Right.
Well, I wouldn't mind talking to him about this process. He didn't mention me being a musical instrument that he could change notes with.
Why is that? Because I think I'm an anvil. Would you say Russell's better than you at acting? Yeah. Why?
Why?
Well, I don't know.
Don't just go, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm rubbish and I'm living with being rubbish. Be better. Why?
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Chapter 4: How does Russell Tovey describe his artistic journey?
He's here now. He can explain it. all right okay you're still stunning how long have you been recording before i come on i love the fact you do this we were just discussing david said would you say russell's a much better actor than you and i said yes he went why and i said i don't know and david went well no don't just say you don't know Work out why.
When I think about you, Russell. Hello, Russell. Hello, David. You look like you're interested, son. I'm interested. I'm interested.
There's 52 minutes left here.
I think about someone who knows how to act. Yeah. How do you know how to act?
Because you didn't go to acting school as well, which really pissed me off at the time because I thought, well, he's obviously been to acting school because he's very good.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Russell provide about the art world and emerging artists?
And then you went, no, no, I didn't.
Very nice of you, Joe. Well, let's just start by saying that I think you're both very fine actors. No. I feel like we all share. You can say no, but I think, you know, I listen to the show and I hear you, especially David, are very much like asking people about,
what it is to be an actor what how do you do it as if you don't understand what that is really or appreciate what you've got i think what i've learned and i think all three of us here can i say russell i'm loving this yeah that's all right you can i think all three of us I think all three of us definitely share an imposter syndrome when it comes to the business.
I mean, I'm pop psychoanalyzing both of you now, but I feel like knowing you, Joe, and listening to you, David, and seeing your work, I think we all have... an imposter syndrome. And I still feel like I've only just begun, even though I started doing this when I was like 11. Every time I do a job, I feel like it's my first job to a certain extent. It's weird.
And I think being young and not going to drama school, and you saying that, Joe, that was a positive. It is a positive, 100%.
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Chapter 6: How does Russell Tovey balance acting and his passion for art?
But when I was a kid and when I was going into the business and not going to drama school, I absolutely felt othered. And especially being working class and then doing theater, I felt very much like... what the fuck am I doing here? How have I managed to do this? And at any point, someone's going to tap you on the shoulder and go, ah, busted, get out.
So that feeling makes you work harder, I feel like, and makes you want to prove to yourself and prove to the people around you. And I guess that is the antithesis of privilege, is that you feel like you have to work harder to prove yourself. But going back to what I was saying about
That then, with you asking me that question, David, which I was kind of hoping you would ask, is that I feel like what comes easy to one, what comes easy to us, to a creative person, is something that you end up running away from because you assume or have the assumption that everybody can do that because it's piss easy to you.
But the minute you go, oh, no, this is actually maybe my gift, maybe the thing that actually has been bestowed upon me uniquely, and I'm going to claim that, then you have the opportunity to really step into your own gift, your own offering of what you can do. And I feel like with you, David, is that you have this
Well, unique ability to tell a story just by a look, by the way that you connect as a character to anything. It's so emotional, but yet it's so funny. And you earn the silliness of the things that you do. But then you have this absolute quality of pain and loneliness.
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Chapter 7: What are Russell's thoughts on the impact of art on society?
And you bestow that so effortlessly that you feel like that's not something that you... can claim as talent because it's piss easy to you but that is unique to you and the same with you joe is that you have this this you know you're both sitting there very lucky i want to spend the evening with you you can spend you can spend all night with me we're both prepared to now get on the train
That's a big deal, yeah.
Yeah, it's going to be over 25 pounds.
Get on that train. That's what I feel. And I feel like that's why you two are mates, because you both share this sensibility that you're outside of whatever it is you're doing. And what you're doing is kind of like unimportant in comparison to the people that you...
have on you invite on this show for example but it it it isn't because what you have is your gift that's unique to you and no one else can do that and that's something that i think we all as creative people have to claim and get to a place where you go oh this is what i do and that's why people keep wanting me to do this because they obviously like that and it's easy and if it's easy then that's brilliant isn't it because i've got to think about it the amount of times i've got a role when i've gone
oh, this is really easy, this character. Let's make it a lot harder for myself. Let's really put an accent or put something in. Oh, that's interesting.
Do you do that? Do you make it?
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Chapter 8: What projects is Russell Tovey currently working on?
I think sometimes over the years, I think there's something that a process of learning over the years to go, no, you're here because of this, rather than going, oh God, I need to make this more complicated.
So Russell, when you're given a part, do you go, right, this is what I do and this is what I'm going to bring to it and they can like it or lump it?
It all depends on the part, the accent, the time in history that it's set, the status of this guy, what they represent. All of them factors come into play, but fundamentally, everything you do is you. Every character you draw on comes from your personal experiences that you are cherry-picking.
you cherry pick your own autobiography every time you play a character and yes you might be playing a character outside of yourself but you can only use if you're instinctive this is as an actor which I think you both are you can only use your own shit to flesh out the character that you're playing can't you fundamentally so every character you're playing is you even though you are someone else because that's all you've got
Do you think there has to be a bit of that character in you somewhere? Because I felt like we wrote this thing a couple of years ago and there was a character in it which was really hard to cast. David, David in the Cockfields. And we had some really great actors come in, but we just felt there wasn't a bit of them in this character. Do you know what I mean? And no one was doing anything wrong.
Everyone was brilliant, but they clearly just didn't have a bit of that
person in them that wasn't coming across and then we found an actor who was brilliant and obviously had a bit of that character in them and it just was like fuck we were sort of scared because we like if he can't do it no one else we've met has got that little something in them so i sort of know you mean it's like there's got to be
got to be something in them yeah there's an authenticity or an effortlessness that you find with an actor when they suddenly stand or something or yeah it's just an energy isn't it but again that's something that as performers you get to a stage where you you everyone goes there's nothing to do with you it's the part and when you're growing up you beat yourself up and you think oh i could have done that part i'm a load of old shit i was obviously crap in that audition and then as you get older and you spend more years in it you go it isn't me
I just didn't have that thing that they're looking for. Well, that's not my fault. I just don't have it. Like you're saying, you met amazing actors. You don't look at them, other actors, and go, well, they were all shit.
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