Posted on Sunday, 3rd July 2011 by Declan Palazzi
BEVERLY HILLS, California – Most people see Ian McShane as a villain these days, so he wants us to know that he definitely plays a good guy in Jack the Giant Killer.
That was one of the attractions of accepting a role in filmmaker Bryan Singer’s upcoming venture into the world of the fairy tale.
“I’m playing the good king who has this kidnapped daughter,” he says.
Not that he minds playing villains. Currently, he’s chewing up the scenery as Blackbeard in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean adventure. But he just wants people to remember that he’s not always evil.
After all, he has been lauded for his performance as 19th-century British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli in a TV miniseries based on the iconic politician’s life. He also played Monaco’s Prince Rainier, husband of Grace Kelly, in an NBC film about the Oscar-winning actress turned fairy-tale princess. And he moved North American audiences to tears with his touching performance as a grief-stricken father in We Are Marshall.
In fact, he’s played a pretty eclectic assortment of characters in the course of a career of more than four decades.
“But you’re defined by the characters you get known for,” he says. And whether he likes it or not, his defining role in recent years was as the villainous Al Swearengen in the hit HBO series, Deadwood. The 68-year-old McShane is tremendously proud of his work in that series, and not just because he buried his British antecedents in this most adult of adult westerns.
“There was a deeper story to Deadwood:How did America come about? We see the makings of modern America in the birth of capitalism in this small town.”
McShane earns a lot of money on this side of the water, but you get the sense that he’s not that enamoured with American culture – and that includes the American entertainment industry.
For example, voodoo dolls figure in the plot of Pirates of the Caribbean, and McShane says he knows exactly what he’d do if he had real voodoo powers.
“If I had a voodoo doll, I’d make it of the executives of HBO who cancelled Deadwood,” he snorts. “But I don’t believe in any of that.”
He doesn’t believe in the fabled Fountain of Youth, either, although in the new Pirates film, everyone – from Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow to Blackbeard – is searching for it.
“Do people really want to be that young? Well, we’re in the right place for it today – Beverly Hills!”
As the son of Manchester United great Harry McShane, he’s naturally a huge soccer fan. But when he’s asked if he’s watched David Beckham play in Los Angeles, he’s full of disdain.
“Why would I watch soccer in America? That’s like seeing baseball in England.”
When he’s working in the United States, he doesn’t watch much American TV, either.
“But I like watching news in America. Not Fox – that’s ridiculous. I do watch MSNBC, and even that becomes ridiculous after a while. But you do get hooked into it because of the madness of America. American politics – showbiz for ugly people, you know.”
Unlike many stars, who tiptoe around potentially controversial subjects, McShane says what he thinks. He’s refreshingly honest – even when he gets around to explaining why he enrolled all those years ago at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in order to study acting.
“I was 17. Didn’t know what the hell everything was about. I had no idea, which I think is the best way to enter into something. All I knew was that it was a nice place to meet girls and have a drink.”
He’s been around long enough to have co-starred with Richard Burton in 1971′s Villain – an experience that prompts memories of all-night drinking sessions – and to have co-starred with child star Hayley Mills in 1966′s Sky West and Crooked, the only movie directed by her father John Mills, the legendary British actor whom the younger McShane revered.
But what about this villain thing? His swarthy charisma seems tailor-made for projects – be it Swearengen in Deadwood, Judas Iscariot in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth or Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean. Then, of course, there was his show-stopping stage portrayal of the devil in a London musical version of The Witches of Eastwick.
There’s even a mild touch of villainy in the roguish antique dealer, Lovejoy, whom McShane played in a popular British TV series.
He’s always interested in what makes a villain tick. Take Blackbeard, for instance.
“There’s a line he has in the movie: ‘I’m just a bad guy. I can’t help myself. I’m a bad man who revels in it.’”
Still, McShane was interested enough in the Blackbeard legend to bone up on history. He discovered that the real Blackbeard may not have been the nefarious character of legend.
“He never really killed anybody. He existed mainly by intimidation . . . with this whole image he projected, with the beard and flying the skull and crossbones.”
As for Judas, McShane suspects he’s been misunderstood. That’s because the world needs bona fide villains.
“There’s an old Italian saying that, when Jesus got to heaven, there was Judas, sitting on the left hand of God, because you have to have a bad guy for the whole story to work. Otherwise, the story doesn’t make any sense.”
McShane also works out psychological profiles for his characters. Disraeli is a case in point.
“He was a really interesting guy. The key to him is that his father took the entire family out of the Jewish faith and turned him into a Christian. So Disraeli always felt he was an outsider. Yet he had this ability to think outside the Victorian era, which made him a really fascinating character.”
So what was most fun about Pirates of the Caribbean?
“Cashing the cheque,” McShane says promptly. “I got to keep an outfit afterwards and my grandkids get to see the movie, which is really kind of nice. I gave Blackbeard’s scabbard to my grandson.”
And what did he do with his paycheque?
“Gave it to my wife, like I do with all my movies. No, I don’t buy anything for myself.” He insists he has everything he needs. “Look, see,” he says, pointing to the hole in the ancient pair of jeans he’s wearing
And what does he do when he’s not working?
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I live at the beach, read, listen to music, have a good time until the next gig.”
Tags: Guy, Ian Mcshane
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