Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is an English actor, stand-up comedian, impressionist, writer, and producer. He began his career in the 1980s, working as a voice artist on the satirical puppet show Spitting Image and providing voiceovers for television advertisements. In the early 1990s, he began creating original comic characters, leading him to win the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 1999, he co-founded the production company Baby Cow Productions...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionComedian
Date of Birth14 October 1965
CityMiddleton, England
I did not become successful in my work through embracing or engaging in celebrity culture. I never signed away my privacy in exchange for success.
It may seem like improv because it flows quite naturally, and a little bit of leeway for improvisation is good, but you have to be judicious with it. So it's good, but sometimes people deify it. You can't improvise your way out of a paper hat.
If you start to disrespect the character you're playing, or play it too much for laughs, that can work for a sketch, it will sell some gags, but it's all technique. It's like watching a juggler - you can be impressed by it, but it's not going to touch you in any way.
Comedy is unique in the sense that laughter is a palpable noise that everyone makes.
Actors say they do their own stunts for the integrity of the film but I did them because they looked like a lot of fun.
But with comedy it's a simple premise. If it's funny, people laugh. If it's not, they don't.
Even great people are always slightly disappointing, which is generally what makes them interesting.
I've always been drawn to discomfort and that limbo of unease you get between comedy and tragedy.
Me, myself, personally, I like to keep myself private. I have never said I am a paragon of virtue, a model of morality. I simply do what I do.
As soon as I see period costume, I turn off. It's like hearing drama on Radio 4.
I don't go to premieres, unless I'm contractually bound to.
I don't like new bands. I don't want to be one of those pathetic old men in their forties who knows exactly what 18-year-olds are into.
I don't want to go around making everyone else agree with me. I don't feel the need to do that.
I find impressionists slightly annoying, really.