{"id":610471,"date":"2026-09-24T16:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/610471\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T16:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:44:11","slug":"i-get-lost-going-to-the-bathroom-john-hannah-on-world-travel-stealing-props-and-being-the-scottish-eminem-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/610471\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I get lost going to the bathroom\u2019: John Hannah on world travel, stealing props and being \u2018the Scottish Eminem\u2019 | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

How often do you get asked to recite that WH Auden poem from Four Weddings and a Funeral, and can you do it from memory right now? mattyjj<\/a> and simoit<\/a>
Not for a long time. I could probably do the first couple of lines: Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone \/ Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone \/ Turn out the lights? And with muffled drums \/ Something, something \u2026 let the mourners come. There you go. Terrible!<\/p>\n

Hannah in Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994. Photograph: Landmark Media\/Alamy<\/p>\n

In Steve Coogan\u2019s Paul Calf\u2019s Video Diary, your character praises Orson Welles\u2019 The Trial for its \u201ctremendous energy\u201d, while Paul says he would \u201crather watch Dave Lee Travis playing Macbeth\u201d. What\u2019s your actual opinion of The Trial [by Franz Kafka]? AdrianH1<\/a>
God, it\u2019s a long time since I\u2019ve read that. I read a lot of those books in my younger days, but probably, like a lot of people, even those who are graduates of English literature, I\u2019d be hard pushed these days to tell you what it was about, other than the persecution of some minor character.<\/p>\n

As a popular jobbing actor, you have a massive list of credits. Has anyone ever come up to you to express their appreciation for a certain role and you had no idea what they were on about? Kevcoe<\/a>
No. It\u2019s always heartwarming when somebody comes up and offers their congratulations on something a little bit lower down the pecking order. Fortunately, people rarely ever come up to tell me that they thought I was shit in something. I quite often get Paul Calf\u2019s Video Diary, and that Macbeth line. To be frank, I can\u2019t quite remember the context.<\/p>\n

Should Eminem be thanking you for Stan, rather than Dido, given that he first heard Thank You on the Sliding Doors soundtrack? vammyp<\/a>
It\u2019s strange how Sliding Doors and Four Weddings have travelled the world. It\u2019s certainly cool to think that somebody as far out of left field as Eminem has actually even seen something you\u2019ve done. Although, the story I heard was he was so sickened by the sweetness that he decided to counterpoint it with an obsessed fan trying to murder his girlfriend.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your Sliding Doors moment? Murdomania<\/a>
It\u2019s interesting that \u201csliding doors\u201d as an expression has become such common parlance, hasn\u2019t it? I certainly don\u2019t run for trains any more.<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t run for trains any more\u2019 \u2026 with Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors. Photograph: Alex Bailey\/Paramount\/Miramax\/Intermedia\/Kobal\/REX\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

I was so traumatised by your characters in Truth or Dare and Carniv\u00e0le that whenever I see you in anything else, I think: \u201cOh no, it\u2019s that horrible man.\u201d Do you enjoy playing characters like that? FioreSebek<\/a>
There you go: a prime example of something coming from left field. I do think that old cliche is true about bad guys always being more fun. I also get to play a lot of scientists or doctors, because for some reason, my Scottish accent makes me sound educated.<\/p>\n

Which was most fun: filming Charlie Brooker\u2019s police procedural parody A Touch of Cloth, or appearing in an episode of Black Mirror? MrMustard<\/a>
A Touch of Cloth was great fun. We certainly had to do a lot of takes for all the laughing. Black Mirror felt more like a 1980s dark BBC late-night psychopath drama. Working with Charlie was quite high-concept in Black Mirror, but high camp in Cloth.<\/p>\n

Apparently, you nicked some props from The Mummy to decorate your then-new home. What have you pinched since? Ludders<\/a>
It\u2019s like the old joke: you shag one sheep \u2026 You nick one prop. It was this fibreglass, spray-painted gold, Egyptian dog head with arms all going in different directions. I had a tiny garden at the time, and thought it would be something to look at other than a wall. But Brendan [Fraser] took the piss out of me, and constantly said I nick stuff. I can imagine Ridley Scott\u2019s allowed to steal Aliens and put them in his vineyard. Richard E Grant\u2019s a bit of a klepto too \u2013 he\u2019s got shitloads in his garden. And Alan Cumming is a bit sticky-fingered.<\/p>\n

If you took part in Celebrity Race Across the World, would you still narrate it in the third person? AngryTomato<\/a>
Well, the bottom line is I wouldn\u2019t be doing Race Across the World. I get lost going to the bathroom. I\u2019ve missed planes, turned up on the wrong day, got off the train at the wrong stop \u2026 I\u2019m no good at stuff. So I\u2019d be terrible.<\/p>\n

Have you ever had more fun on a set than on Spartacus \u2013 thundering great big lines of fruity dialogue about \u201cThracian whores\u201d while lounging about in various states of distress with Lucy Lawless? mikebhoy<\/a>
It was pretty spectacular. As we mentioned earlier, it\u2019s always fun playing the villain. You only got the scripts as you were shooting, so you never knew what was coming next. Some of the stuff, you could not believe. I think in episode two, I come into our chamber with Lucy Lawless. We\u2019re about to have a bit of how\u2019s-your-father, but it\u2019s been a stressful day, so she gets one of the servants to get me going by fellating me, so I had to deliver all this dialogue, while pretending to be fellated. If I had to live in Roman times, I know where I\u2019d like to be. I\u2019d definitely want to be upstairs.<\/p>\n

\u2018Pretty spectacular\u2019 \u2026 with Lucy Lawless in Spartacus. Photograph: Alamy<\/p>\n

Did the Co-op employ you to do their voiceovers because you have the perfect Scottish accent to rhyme \u201cgood\u201d with \u201cfood\u201d? OnTheEdgeOfEurope<\/a>
No, I think that was one of those happy coincidences. I don\u2019t think they realised that it could possibly rhyme. It\u2019s like when Eminem rhymes all these things with \u201corange\u201d. I\u2019m the Scottish Eminem!<\/p>\n

In Agents of SHIELD, you created Life Model Decoys of people. If you could make one of anyone in real life, who would you choose? NotCEEFAUXhonest<\/a>
My dad. He died 11 years ago. My mum, too. It\u2019s funny, you still miss them. I wish I could phone them up and tell them what was happening, what was going on. As a parent, my kids are never off their phones, but you never hear from them unless they want money. I think back to when I left home at 16 and, if I wanted to phone my parents, I\u2019d have to grab a handful of coins and head across the street to the phone box, which I probably did once a month. Recognising how things are now as a parent, I sort of wish I\u2019d got to know my parents better. If you asked me who I could have dinner with, alive or dead, I\u2019d speak to my mum and dad. I\u2019d ask them all this shit I wish I could have asked them before.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve had a really diverse career, despite some people\u2019s attempts to pigeonhole you as a Scottish mummy\u2019s boy. What\u2019s left on the bucket list? AmongstTheWaves<\/a>
Well, when I turned 60, I joked with my kids that I was retiring. What that meant was I felt comfortable with what I\u2019d achieved. Maybe there were sort of gaps, maybe it wasn\u2019t quite as great a career as I would have liked, but I was going to step back from trying to have a career. I think I spent too long seeing jobs as a step to the next job, and didn\u2019t really appreciate the moment. So turning 60 I thought: \u201cBollocks to this, I\u2019m just going to do stuff that I like, that\u2019s filming somewhere nice, or is especially well paid. If it\u2019s got two out of three of those things, I\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve never been busier\u2019 \u2026 in Bad Day at the Office.<\/p>\n

The reality is that I\u2019ve probably never been busier. Stuff like Bad Day at the Office comes out of left field. After decades of complaining about playing cops and being a Scottish mummy\u2019s boy it was nice to do something that was so ridiculous, strange and experimental that, at 64, you could never have imagined it.<\/p>\n

Do you and James Nesbitt ever go out for a pint together just to watch the confusion on people\u2019s faces? RobinGoodfellow<\/a>
We used to play five-a-side back in the 90s. The last time I bumped into him was when his daughter and my son graduated from Manchester uni, last summer. It\u2019s good if people think I\u2019m Jimmy Nesbitt, because I can then swear at them and be rude and he gets the blame.<\/p>\n

When did you last use the expression \u201cby Jupiter\u2019s cock\u201d<\/a>? wellywearer2<\/a>
This morning, funnily enough.<\/p>\n

Bad Day at the Office is in UK and Irish cinemas from 30 October<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How often do you get asked to recite that WH Auden poem from Four Weddings and a Funeral,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-610471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}