Bill Nighy
Bill Nighy
William Francis "Bill" Nighyis an English actor. He worked in theatre and television before his first cinema role in 1981, and made his name in television with The Men's Room in 1991, in which he played the womaniser Prof. Mark Carleton...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth12 December 1949
CityCaterham, England
meaningful real thinking
I used to think that prizes were damaging and divisive, until I got one. And now they seem sort of meaningful and real.
rain acting machines
You have all these plans to act, and maybe do it rather elegantly, and then they turn the rain machine on.
play ideas two
Opening a play is just tough. The idea that actors are weirdly protected from it is a myth. If you imagine yourself having to spend two and a bit hours cooking bolognaise, remembering a whole major work by David Hare and speaking it at the correct moment between chopping carrots and stirring the onions in front of an audience - the normal human response is 'Please, can I go to the airport?'
christmas auditions actors
It can't be overstated how wonderful it is not to have to audition any more. Any actor will tell you, it's like Christmas.
men kind shirts
I'm a jacket man. And if I'm without one, I am kind of seriously disabled. I don't know how to operate in shirt sleeves.
beautiful rain glamorous
I wanted to be a journalist, I thought it was glamorous and that I'd meet beautiful women in the rain.
heart writing people
I admire David Hare as much as I admire certainly any writer ever. What I like about his writing is it is very conscientiously, in one way, an attempt to reproduce the way people actually speak, but it's not just an attempt at naturalism. It's stylised and it's heightened, to great effect. It's elegant and it's funny and that's the way to my heart, frankly.
people stage walks
I know really, really famous people who are terrified every time they walk on to a stage.
romance faces romanticism
I have nothing against romanticism. I'm all for it. I'm helpless in the face of romance.
people proud
I generally do things I'm proud to be in and generally I'm in things people like.
play trying fifty
I quoted David Hare one of his lines the other day to illuminate whatever point we were trying to make in the conversation, and I said 'What play was that?' and he said 'It was your line, you said it about a hundred and fifty times in The Vertical Hour.'
shoes brown
Never go anywhere you have to wear brown shoes.
actors ruins
You can ruin your life wanting to be an actor.
You get older and you see yourself and say, 'God, he's old, who's that?'