Bob Hoskins Works "TwentyfourSeven"

iW: That wasn't scripted?

Hoskins: No!

iW: And you cradling his head as he cries -- that wasn't scripted?

Hoskins: No. It was all [basically] scripted, and we stuck mainly to the script, but you could float in and out of it. Whatever happened -- I don't know. It was a very natural process.

iW: Are Shane's friends in the film going to keep acting?

Hoskins: Yeah, I think so. Because they're so creative, There's so much energy there. Really, if they don't make movies, they'll rob banks -- and brilliantly.

iW Did you ever have anyone in your life like your character, Darcy -- someone who really inspired you when you were in high school?

Hoskins: I hated school, and school hated me. Teachers fucking hated me. But there was one teacher -- Mr. Jones -- and I still see him today. He's a big Welshman, and he'd say, "You're all right. Inside you're fine. A bastard outside, but inside, you're fine." And he turned me on to literature; turned me on to reading. First thing was Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. And then Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. I was 16; up until then, I'd never read a book at all. And then I was reading a book a week.

iW: Not only do you have a very natural presence onscreen, but you're also a great character actor as well, from "Hook" to "Nixon". Is there a favorite style of acting for you?

Hoskins: I don't know how to describe acting. It's just a thought process, as far as I'm concerned. You just got to try and find the character's psyche -- what's going on inside his head.

iW: But you've done so much stage work as well, which requires much more of an external expression, as opposed to acting for the camera, which is more internal.

Hoskins: Acting is a relationship. One of the first people you make a relationship with on the set is the cameraman, because he's looking at you. And you dance, you know what I mean? You learn to dance together. And on stage, you dance with an audience. It sounds pretentious, but it kinds of runs through the bloodstream -- the camera and you, it's the same pulse. And with an audience, they're running through your bloodstream.

iW: Have you ever thought of working with Mike Leigh, or approached him about working together?

Hoskins: I've known Mike for years; we're friends. But he's never asked me to work with him. But there's that whole long rehearsal process, and I think he thinks, "Oh, he'd never come." You know? (Laughs). But I love his work. And I've never actually spoken to him about work, ever. You know -- two plumbers get together, they don't talk about fucking pipes, do they?

iW: You've acted in large pictures and small, studio and independent films, from Spielberg to Shane Meadows. Do you see a consistency among the different directors you've worked with?

Hoskins: No; they're very different. Francis Ford Coppola, he just wants it wild. And he creates it wild. Steven Spielberg; he's done it all. And you're wondering why he's there, you know? Standing there with a big grin on his face, but you don't realize the work that he's put into it.

iW: And Oliver Stone?

Hoskins: Oliver is an extraordinary presence. He's actually a presence, you know? Quite intense, but fucking wonderful.

iW: And what's Shane doing next?

Hoskins: I'm supposed to be in it. It keeps changing. The first time it was about a 12th Century monk, and then it was a cowboy film; and now it's something else. He keeps asking me, "you are in it, ain't ya?" And I say, "Yeah, but show me what the fuck it is!" That should be interesting. And I've just written a movie...and I'm going to direct it.

iW: That's great! What's the story?

Hoskins: It's called "The Dance Hall in the Passage". Bits of my youth in the Sixties, put together and turned into a story. A fantasy, really. I'm supposed to be setting it up now. But the producers are getting really pissed off at me, because I keep running off and promoting "TwentyfourSeven".

[Stephen Garrett is a film editor and freelance journalist based in Los Angeles.]