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INTERVIEW THREE (back..)
Stewart: Welcome back, eh we're now
gonna have a chat with Billy about his career, his fledgling career in
theatre after college, so Billy you got a job in St. Andrews?
Billy: Yeah, yeah
Stewart: Just as you left college,
what was that?
Billy: It was em, while we were still
at college eh, St. Andrews had a theatre called The Byer Theatre and they
were doin some shows and they came to audition the people who were about
to leave theatre and they were doing a show called 'The Slab Boys' by
John Byrne a fantastic play ah which was made into a movie actually a
few years on and 'The Diary of Adrian Mole' which is a musical on stage
and its actually very funny
Stewart: And who did you play in that?
Billy: I played Adrian,
Stewart: Adrian?
Billy: [Laughing] Yeah,
Stewart: Don't look like an Adrian
Billy: Eh, uh That's coz I've no got
my glasses on
[Stewart laughs like the Dr from The Simpsons again]
Billy: and my school tie,
Stewart: He he he
Billy: 'em no but it was great even now
it still rates as one of my favourite jobs it was just fantastic whether
it was because it was my first professional job you know, starting to
get paid an- and you know, working with actors who have been in the theatre
for twenty years and it just- it was just a great, great time
Stewart: Were you surprised that it
kinda of happened so quickly? Relatively, because the kind of stereotypical
image is that you leave drama college then you tout yourself round every
agent in town and hopefully you'll get to stand in third, eh-
Billy: Yeah
Stewart: -spear holder, to the left,
Billy: As I say I don't know I- I think
luck has got alot to do with it ya know, it just happened they were casting
two plays that em, I was eh.. you would think easy to cast in for those
plays and we did them and it was quite shocking at first I think but it
was brilliant just a great, great time and it was really hot summer as
well I remember that. So the days were spent lazing on the beach, swimming
in the sea and then doing the shows and this great theatre it was brilliant,
just a great time.
Stewart: And so after that what did
you do did ya…?
Billy: Em then I, eh started working
eh, with quite a lot of the theatres in Scotland. I went from there to
the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh which was fantastic, eh which I've worked
on there quite few times before doing Shakespeare plays and also some
modern plays there as well an Ian Heavy play called em, 'An experienced
woman who gives advice' which I thought was a brilliant play as well,
some- some great writers in Scotland ya know.
Stewart: So, I mean out of all the
pl- I mean how many plays have you done since you left college?
Billy: Oh god, I don't know.. it must
be.. do the figures anyway so-
Stewart: And is there any that you
go 'that's my favourite I would love to do that again' or is it the kind
of acting thing you go 'the end of the show, last night, that's it, thank
you very much, had a great time, I want a new challenge'?
Billy: No eh.. normally by the end of
a run I do feel that way, I feel like yeah this has done its run and I'm
ready to finish and it doesn't matter how long the run is I think you-
you have it embedded in your mind when it finishing. And a few
days before it finishes you think its about time that this run stopped,
and whether you've been doing a run for threes months or whether you've
done it for two weeks it doesn't seem any different. But there is a few
plays that I've done that I've thought id love to do that again. Especially,
I work a lot with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and they do new plays,
and its great to do a new play I think because it's like- it's like a-
ya know, an empty canvas. No ones ever played that character before no
ones done that play before, and that makes it very exciting ya know? And
sometimes when I finish those even though I think, oh it's about time
this finished now at the end of the run, a few months later id think oh
it'd be great if wed done that
Stewart: Mmmm
Billy: You know, I'd like to have tried
that slightly different. So there are plays that I wou- I woul- I- that
I would do again yeah.
Stewart: And what actor up here, that
you've worked with has made you go 'You're fantastic and I am gonna use
you as a kind of, role model' is there any actors up here? There are too
many,
Billy: The- there is a lot actually there
are some great actors up here em, male and female, I think the- the- the
actresses up here are incredible and luckily there are em, writers who
are writing for them, so there is plays like eh, I did a play called Widows
by Arial Dorfman who- who wrote eh.. [tuts] Oh god, made into a pla- a
film with Sigourney Weaver.. ehhh.. Death and the Maiden,
Stewart: Right,
Billy: Quite famous and he- he wrote
this play called Widows, which had I think, about 9 women in it and 3
guys so it had people like Anna Louise Ross, em, Irene MacDougal, just
fantastic em Scottish actresses you know? As- as well as the guys
that I work with as well like Tony Cownie I think is an incredible actor
as a comic actor he's one of the best I've ever seen who- he now eh, directs
up here and eh, in fact once he was doing eh, Liz Lochead who's a writer
up here.. and down there and everywhere!
[Both laugh]
Billy: Em doing her version of Molière's
Tartuffe and I was laughing so much I had to leave it was.. eh, he's an
incredible actor. And people eh, there so many, Mark Cox, Paul Riley,
just, there's so many great actors you know? Yeah,
Stewart: And.. is there any kind of
theatre ambition you have left, I mean obviously well talk about this
later, the films you've done Billy,
Billy: Mmhmm,
Stewart: Is there any- Do you see yourself
going back to theatre? Eh.. I mean what's your plans with you? Do you
have any plans?
Billy: Yeah well.. eh.. I think as em,
as I said to you before my first love was film. I've always been you know,
I used to go to the movies any time I could when I was a- when I was younger
and eh I only got interested in theatre through drama school and now I
have a love for both so I definitely would never say I'm only ever
gonna do one or the other. You know? Like at the moment em, I'm looking
at eh, a movie that hopefully I'll be doing later on but in- in-between
time, before that would even start I'm doing another play, I'm doing a
play for the Traverse, eh a wonderful play called 'The Ballad of Crazy
Paola' written by a- a Belgian writer but it's been translated by Stephen
Greenhorn who's a fantastic writer up here eh, so I'm really looking forward
to that, it's just a two hander with another great actress, Kath Howden
who's- who's incredible and I've never worked with her before, I'm really
looking forward to that. So, yeah, So I'd, yeah I'd definitely work in
theatre. Whatev- if it's an interesting eh, script and an interesting
character I don't really mind what medium it's in you know?
Stewart: Billy, thanks very much for
your time,
Billy: Thank you!
