Articles/Interviews

"An actor is like a milkman. He has to keep putting his product before the public otherwise they are going to go elsewhere for their milk," says Oliver Reed. He's making quite sure no such fate awaits him: as a result the list of Oliver Reed films in the pipeline is formidable. Oliver is not only one of the busiest actors in England, he's now also a major box-office draw. In Italy he's currently enjoying enormous popularity - understandably he has made a few films there in the last year. One of these is Dirty Weekend which co-stars him with the suave, cool Italian heart-throb, Marcello Mastroianni, and is produced by Sophia Loren's husband, Carlo Ponti.

Reed plays a revolutionary leader who kidnaps Mastroianni and his girlfriend (played by Carol Andre) when they set out for a weekend of amorous divertissement. While waiting for the ransom to be paid the girl finds herself reassessing her relationship with her lover, and drawn to the brutish strength of her captor. So it's Oliver and not Marcello who gets the girl: something which no Latin lover can possibly approve, but it shows how Oliver Reed has come to dominate the screen. He is a man of forthright opinions. "As far as sex and violence is concerned, the cinema should reflect the feeling of the moment, but it shouldn't be a negative thing. Wanton sex just to sell a few tickets must be wrong."

In his time Oliver has participated in some very powerful love scenes. He was much celebrated as being the first celluloid male nude (in Ken Russell's Women In Love). "I've hardly been offered a film since which doesn't have a nude scene. But I've done it once and that's enough. I shall enjoy telling my grandchildren that millions of women saw me naked!"

He squashes the idea that love scenes are fun, or erotic. "Never forget that in a movie love scene you may be in bed with a pretty girl, but there are fifty other people around, the director is shouting instructions, you have your make-up on, you've got to remember your lines and what you're supposed to be doing to the girl. It's very rare to feel sexy as well. Of course it has been know to happen, but not as often people believe."