| In the US and Canada, Sean can still walk down the street in relative anonymity (although I share my prediction with him that things may change dramatically with the release of Lord of the Rings). Does he have any thoughts about the media attention he often receives in the UK, where he's more or less a household name? |
| "I suppose that's inevitable that you have attention. I wouldn't say I enjoy or thrive on it. I just think it's something that comes with the job, you know. I don't go out seeking fame or looking for publicity. But at the same time I do accept that because of the nature of the work I do...there will be that. And it's obviously nice when people appreciate your work - and that's a good thing. |
| "I didn't really follow up on Patriot Games. I probably should have got myself over to do a bit of publicity...I never really capitalized on what I'd done. But this time around, I've got three films coming out, and I hope to be around to promote them. I feel much more comfortable with publicity now." |
| Does he enjoy travelling all over the world to film on location? |
| "I'd like to spend a bit more time at home...see my kids a little bit more. One of the reasons why I'm doing my next film in London is so that I can stay close to home to be with them. |
| "But I do feel very lucky. Actors and actresses are usually taken to places that nobody ever gets to see. In Anna Karenina we filmed in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, and you get to see incredible things that nobody else has seen before. So I'm in a very privileged position as far as being a tourist....New Zealand...Germany....Canada.... |
| "I've gone from Ronin to Essex Boys and Extremely Dangerous...Lord of the Rings, Equilibrium and Don't Say a Word.... It's been a really good couple of years." |
| "Filming Equilibrium in Berlin...that was the first time I'd been to Germany. I've always been quite interested in the first and second world wars, and how after the first world war, the second world war developed...so it was good to be right in the middle of somewhere with so much history. A lot of it, like Checkpoint Charlie, has become a bit of a tourist attraction. But you can see a lot of The Wall. You can see where it actually runs through the street. You can see where they chopped it away and tarmacked it. It went right through the middle...just before the Brandenburg Gate. I was in this fabulous hotel called the Adlon, which had been rebuilt...and there was the Reichstag...and then we were filming outside this airport which was built by Albert Speer...this very imposing structure, very German, which made you feel quite small to be around. I walked round Berlin...and there's so much new money being invested...and things have just sprung up everywhere...skyscrapers.... But it's a good place, an interesting place. I'd like to go there again. |
| "And New Zealand's a great place. The people are so easy-going.... I feel the same way about New Zealand as I do about Sharpe. I mean, I'd like to go back to the Crimea [where the first episodes of Sharpe were filmed] at some point and just see what it's like, ten years on... Yalta...all those places me and John Tams used to go together. I feel that way about New Zealand.... Before, I knew where it was, but I didn't know anything about it...but now it's somewhere I'd like to go back to." He pauses thoughtfully and grins. "Maybe if England were playing a test match there...." |
| I wonder how, having gone on record as being a nervous flier, Sean handles the long hours spent in the air to such far-flung locations as the South Pacific. Did he inherit his fears from his father, who used to take the family on trips to Spain by motorcoach when Sean was a child? |
| Sean reminisces.... "We used to get on the coach in Sheffield on a Saturday morning...Cornell's Tours, I believe it was called...about six o'clock...and get to Spain about midweek. We used to drive to London...and then to the ferry...go over on that...through France...there were no videos on the bus, nothing like that. I just remember stopping at motorway cafes in the middle of the night....and by the time we got there it were time to come home again anyway...we spent that much time travelling.... I was probably about 12...13...." |
| "Anyway, I'm not bad now. I'm much more comfortable with flying now than I was before...I think because I've done so much of it. But helicopters I'm still pretty terrified of. Just ask Orlando Bloom." |
| I ask him about being flown down from Sheffield in a helicopter to attend a GoldenEye press conference in London. "We had a few drinks before that... and we were flying quite low." He laughs, a little self-consciously. "If I can see the ground, I always think I can jump out and save myself." |
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I remind him that in Windprints, he's hanging out of the open door of a helicopter, pretending to be a cameraman filming the ground that's hurtling by below. Wasn't that somewhat scarey? "Yeah," he says, his eyes and voice full of mischief and adventure. |
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It's very late, and someone from Wardrobe has been by to collect Sean's costume. She's surprised to find us still chatting in Sean's trailer. I ask where there might be a phone so I can call for a taxi. Sean, helpfully, offers to give me a lift with his driver. My hotel is on the way to his hotel. He needs to change out of his costume first though... so I obligingly wait outside. Inside, the last vestiges of Patrick Koster are stripped away, and ten minutes later, Sean Bean emerges in his t-shirt and track pants, running shoes and a loose sweater. He's lugging that battered brown leather carry-all...an ordinary guy again.... ...until tomorrow. |
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