Articles/Interviews
Return to ListingOLIVER REED
Continuing his series in which he probes beyond the outward appearances to get to the real person underneath, IAN BROWN this month talks to OLIVER REED
BROWN: How big a help to your career has been the fact that your uncle is the director Sir Carol Reed?
REED: He has given me a lot of good advice, but I have never accepted any help from him. I was determined to make the grade as an actor on my own - or give it up. I always said to him that I would only act in one of his films when I felt I was in the cast because of my ability and not just because I was his nephew.
BROWN: Why do we never see you on the stage?
REED: I'm a full-time film man. I don't like the theatre or the atmosphere in the theatre. But I'll watch any film you care to show me - even dreadful ones. I'm fascinated by the whole business - always have been - and I love working in it.
BROWN: But didn't you start in the usual way in reps...
REED: No. My uncle suggested that a good training in a provincial theatre would be the best thing for me. Perhaps he was right. But I just wasn't interested. I wanted to be in films, so I took a job as an extra and worked my way up from there. It was a long haul, but it's paying off now and it has been a lot of fun on the way.
BROWN: Had you always wanted to be an actor?
REED: I think so, although I had a rather turbulent youth and wasn't too sure what would happen to me. I was expelled from thirteen schools and was more interested, in rugger, cricket and boxing than learning anything. When I left school at 17, I became a bouncer in a Soho striptease club. Wonderful experience, that, although I was only there for a few weeks. The police raided the place and I escaped through a cloakroom window.
I thought I'd try boxing - but I only lasted two fights. I won the first easily and thought I was on to a good thing. Then I got a terrible beating and decided I was on to a bad thing and gave it up.
That was about the time I started thinking seriously about taking up acting. I took a job as an operating theatre orderly in a Surrey hospital so that, with the shifts, I would have time to do the rounds of agents. Nothing doing - and then I was called up for my national service. I was in Malaya and Hong Kong most of the time and when I came home the agents gave me the old story - 'No experience - no job.' That's when I became an extra. This led to small parts - then bigger parts. Hammer Films gave me the lead in The Curse Of The Werewolf and a number of other horror films. These gave me the chance to gain film making experience quickly and thoroughly, and I was ready for the roles in non-horror films that came along.
BROWN: Obviously, your success has been in a large part due to your appeal to women. I've seen you described as a mixture of Bogart, Bogarde and Brando. What would YOU say was your appeal to women ?
REED: I have a kind of Neolithic look and people are always surprised to find I speak with a public school accent. I'm afraid I don't care how I look. I wear dirty old shoes and jeans because they are comfortable. I don't like pretty, pretty clothes.
BROWN: But how about personal appearances...
REED: Oh, I don't mind dressing up for those. Being paraded around and gawped at is part of being a film star. Though I'd much rather be pottering around in my old togs at home in Wimbledon with my wife Kathleen, my son Mark and my dogs. I think it's stupid for actors to complain about the disadvantages of being famous.
BROWN: Do you worry about where you go from here ?
REED: No. I've stopped trying to plan my future. I used to say to myself, 'I'll take this part, because this film will do me a lot of good.' It never did. Or I'd say 'This won't do me much good, but I'll take it.' And it would turn out very well for me. I came to the conclusion that you just can't tell so I just do the best I can with a part and see what happens.
Mind you, I like a variety of roles and so far I've been lucky in this respect. I've just finished playing the role of Bill Sykes in Oliver! and it was a wonderful part to do. This one in The Assassination Bureau for instance, gives me a chance to play for the first time a dashing, elegant David Niven-type of part. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
Ian Brown, Photoplay Film Monthly, July 1968
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REED: He has given me a lot of good advice, but I have never accepted any help from him. I was determined to make the grade as an actor on my own - or give it up. I always said to him that I would only act in one of his films when I felt I was in the cast because of my ability and not just because I was his nephew.
BROWN: Why do we never see you on the stage?
REED: I'm a full-time film man. I don't like the theatre or the atmosphere in the theatre. But I'll watch any film you care to show me - even dreadful ones. I'm fascinated by the whole business - always have been - and I love working in it.
BROWN: But didn't you start in the usual way in reps...
REED: No. My uncle suggested that a good training in a provincial theatre would be the best thing for me. Perhaps he was right. But I just wasn't interested. I wanted to be in films, so I took a job as an extra and worked my way up from there. It was a long haul, but it's paying off now and it has been a lot of fun on the way.
BROWN: Had you always wanted to be an actor?
REED: I think so, although I had a rather turbulent youth and wasn't too sure what would happen to me. I was expelled from thirteen schools and was more interested, in rugger, cricket and boxing than learning anything. When I left school at 17, I became a bouncer in a Soho striptease club. Wonderful experience, that, although I was only there for a few weeks. The police raided the place and I escaped through a cloakroom window.
I thought I'd try boxing - but I only lasted two fights. I won the first easily and thought I was on to a good thing. Then I got a terrible beating and decided I was on to a bad thing and gave it up.
That was about the time I started thinking seriously about taking up acting. I took a job as an operating theatre orderly in a Surrey hospital so that, with the shifts, I would have time to do the rounds of agents. Nothing doing - and then I was called up for my national service. I was in Malaya and Hong Kong most of the time and when I came home the agents gave me the old story - 'No experience - no job.' That's when I became an extra. This led to small parts - then bigger parts. Hammer Films gave me the lead in The Curse Of The Werewolf and a number of other horror films. These gave me the chance to gain film making experience quickly and thoroughly, and I was ready for the roles in non-horror films that came along.
BROWN: Obviously, your success has been in a large part due to your appeal to women. I've seen you described as a mixture of Bogart, Bogarde and Brando. What would YOU say was your appeal to women ?
REED: I have a kind of Neolithic look and people are always surprised to find I speak with a public school accent. I'm afraid I don't care how I look. I wear dirty old shoes and jeans because they are comfortable. I don't like pretty, pretty clothes.
BROWN: But how about personal appearances...
REED: Oh, I don't mind dressing up for those. Being paraded around and gawped at is part of being a film star. Though I'd much rather be pottering around in my old togs at home in Wimbledon with my wife Kathleen, my son Mark and my dogs. I think it's stupid for actors to complain about the disadvantages of being famous.
BROWN: Do you worry about where you go from here ?
REED: No. I've stopped trying to plan my future. I used to say to myself, 'I'll take this part, because this film will do me a lot of good.' It never did. Or I'd say 'This won't do me much good, but I'll take it.' And it would turn out very well for me. I came to the conclusion that you just can't tell so I just do the best I can with a part and see what happens.
Mind you, I like a variety of roles and so far I've been lucky in this respect. I've just finished playing the role of Bill Sykes in Oliver! and it was a wonderful part to do. This one in The Assassination Bureau for instance, gives me a chance to play for the first time a dashing, elegant David Niven-type of part. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.