Chris Barrie

Interview with Chris Barrie

With Samantha Osborn

Tuesday, 27 August 2002
As a huge fan of Red Dwarf and the sitcom The Brittas Empire both of which have kept me amused during my illness, I was thrilled when Chris Barrie agreed to let me interview him. I travelled to his office in Notting Hill to fulfil my dream.

Have you heard of AYME or ME before I contacted you and have you had any personal contact/experience of ME? No.

Do you have anything you would like to say to the AYME members? Only that I send my sympathies and hope that research continues to help combat it.

When did you first decide to go into acting? I considered it while I was at school, but didn't see it as a viable career until 1981, I then decided that I'd give it until I was 25 and see where it leads. Then I got to 25 and decided to give it until I was 30, by which time Spitting Image and Red Dwarf had come along. I never attended a drama school so I'm not a "proper" actor. Acting is good because it's open to everyone, with any type of career, this way they can bring their lifestyle to work with them. I started off by doing impersonations on Spitting Image. I was the voices and puppeteer of many of the characters.

How did you get into acting? I know that you were on Spitting Image, but was that where you started? How were you spotted? I started as a stand up comic impersonator at the comedy store in early 1982. That was where I was spotted to take part in Jasper Carrots' Election Special 1983 (BBC).

What is coming out in the near future that we can see you in? Tomb Raider 2 which filming will continue up until Christmas, hopefully to be released Summer next year. Red Dwarf (The Film), which will begin filming soon around March/February. There's also the possibility of a new British film, a cross between Lock Stock and the Italian Job, a chase caper.

What has been your most interesting piece if fan mail or experience with a fan? None that I can think of. There have been 1 or 2 unmentionables, but mainly the regular stuff, like could you sign this for me please. I've had some that are amusing, some off the wall. But it's mainly Craig (Charles who plays Lister in Red Dwarf) that gets the unmentionable fan mail.

What do you think has been your greatest achievement? As you get older your opinion of what a great achievement is changes, so mine would be that I have a 2 3/4 yr old and a 4 1/2 month old boy, so my greatest achievement is that I am "Holding my sanity together." In a professional kind of view I would like my greatest achievement to be to do more TV/Film and be successful.

What helps you to keep going through the bad times? I have a few hobbies such as photography, cars, motorbikes, football; I play for a local team. Once you have a family the kids drive you, but if you don't have an outlet you'd go mad.

What is your personal philosophy for life? To try and live a balanced life but don't miss out on opportunities. Here and now - this isn't a rehearsal - get on with it. DIN - Do It Now When I was younger and would go shopping then would contemplate buying an item, but now it's like "Just buy it!"

You seem to have been typecast as "unlikeable" characters, such as Rimmer and Gordon Brittas, does that worry you? Not really, no. I could have had lots of different parts in lots of different shows, or I could take a role that would make me instantly recognisable. If you do become typecast - then you have to leave it a couple of years so that your appearance changes in order to get new jobs.

Why did you leave Red Dwarf after series six? I needed a break! Doing Brittas and Dwarf side by side for several years takes its toll!

Are the any plans for any more "Red Dwarfs"? There are no plans for another TV series. It's much cheaper to do Gary Rhodes type shows, in a kitchen with a couple of lights, or Carol Smilie/Vorderman knocking on people's doors. TV producers don't want any Red Dwarf type of shows. The only place left for Red Dwarf was to go to film, to be able to get the finance through another source. Also there's always the potential for a series of films.

Did you ever think the "Red Dwarf" would gain such a cult following? I knew people would either love it or hate it; a lot of people are not into it. TV demands now that ratings are thru the roof immediately, or another series is not commissioned, in which case if Red Dwarf had been released now it would never have made it through the first series. By the end of the 1st/2nd series I knew it would take time but it would get a good following. I mean a woman came up to me on the street and started re-in-acting a scene from Red Dwarf, she didn't even say hello, she just started quoting at me.

Do you like the character Rimmer? Not really, no, I don't think that anyone would. Rimmer was a terrible person to play, he's selfish, and I had to think of how to make him funny. I think though, that all characters who are successful need a dark side to them. Like with Del Boy - quite nice but would do anything to further his career for himself.

What about Ace Rimmer? Ace is too good, people say, you should play Ace all the time, can you imagine that? In a regular episode some creature comes aboard and they all toddle off to see what it is, then they muck it up, if it was Ace, he'd go down sort it out and the program would be over in 7 minutes.

What is your favourite episode? Dimension Jump - (from series 4) because I got to play both Rimmers. Playing Ace was good, and the wig we had for that was great, just like real hair, was able to do the whole flick action. I also liked Future Echoes - (from series 1) and Better Than Life - (series 2)

Did you prefer playing Rimmer or Brittas? Well Brittas really. Rimmer was always told he was bad at everything, whereas Brittas was told he was good at everything. And if I'm honest, both were pretty screwed up. Red Dwarf was different to shoot because we had to get everything just right. Doug Naylor always wanted it to be our best, he wanted perfection. Which meant it took a long time to make episodes. Red Dwarf was filmed at locations like pumping stations, you know, they were never attractive places to go. In all these situations it took a long, long time to make the show, sometimes you'd arrive at the studios at 7am and wouldn't get away 'till about 11pm. So, it was hard work to make Red Dwarf, whereas Brittas was, you know, the producer was so, you know, do two or three scenes, a couple after lunch and it was like "Right off you go." We always had an Indian summer down in Bournemouth where we used to shoot it. It was always, Marks and Spencer's jacket, trousers, really dead comfortable and easy. Mike, I always remember, the producer, was always saying, "We don't want to over rehearse it." With Red Dwarf by that time the rehearsal had hardly been going. So it was in many ways a much more comfortable show to do, The Brittas Empire, but at the end of the day it was a more conventional and if I'm honest about it, a less memorable show. It doesn't bear thinking about; they're dusting off what Chris Barrie did. It'll probably be Red Dwarf mentioned before Brittas because it's a more memorable show. I think Brittas is still an underestimated show. I think it was a lot better than a lot of people thought it was. Some very good, inventive plot ideas, I loved it.

What kind of reaction do you get from fans now? Is it any different? Not really, I mean when you're off the screen for quite a long time, like I've been there's obviously a slower recognition rate. But the real dwarfers or whatever will recognise me pretty quickly and they just say, "When's it coming back? When can we see more of it?" So, I always have to go along with them to a certain extent because you never know what they're like. They just ask about Red Dwarf and when it's coming back.

Never been harassed then? Not really, no, that sort of wears off. The older I get, the older the Red Dwarf audience gets, to a certain extent. Then you've got someone like yourself, you're 17? Yes.
I mean you would have been a toddler when we first started so you must have come to it reasonable late, series 5 or 6. So I think when we repeat the main batch of shows we're going to get a lot of people who are like 8-12, you know, to see it again. It's a show that I think is reasonably timeless. As it wasn't set on Earth in the 1970's. Do you know what I mean?
Like 'The Good Life' and things? Yeah, I mean The Good Life they all have a retrospective for people. I don't watch them because I think they're incredibly funny, I watch them to see the period. 25 years, the way we were conceived, how people in suburban used to live, like in The Good Life. And Dad's Army of course doesn't have that problem either because it's set in the Second World War, the Home Guard. You know we've all heard something about it, most generations and again even if you don't know much about the Home Guard then you've got this set of characters who are forced into this world that they're in, it's just the chemistry. The same as The Brittas Empire, same as any group, same as Red Dwarf even, it's the same with any group that are forced together to exist.

How different was shooting Tomb Raider to doing a normal TV programme? Very. There seemed to be so much time to do everything on a big Hollywood movie. I say Hollywood movie, I mean there were about four Americans working on it. But it's Hollywood money of course, Paramount International. It was just everything was so big, I was slightly awestruck actually when I went in. They'd built what turns out to be a massive interior of a manor house inside a shed. You just got the impression that there'd been rather large dollops of money hurled at it. Plus all the people that worked on it were very"¦um"¦ had an air of professionalism, not that there isn't on television. But I mean, televisions much more, oddly enough television is the more political one, as there's a more political angle it seems to me. Whereas the movies, the movies everyone seemed very relaxed and together and there seemed to be a lot of time to do things. Whereas TV they're always watching the budgets and the clock. And Tomb Raider was fantastic. I wonder whether it'll be like it this time? A different director this time, the guy who directed Speed and a camera"¦ Director of Photography they're called, Dutch man. So it'll be fun. But yeah, just the scale of it that's the most important bit, the scale we're working on. Quite daunting when you come in, and see all these, you know, people. And the problem of course is that you can't really create chemistry immediately. TV you've got lots of rehearsal time and some films you do as well, but with Tomb Raider you just go in there, you know. We had a chat with Angelina about how she saw the family set-up, a chat with the guy who played Bryce and the director. But you knew everyone else was concentrating on the scene that they were shooting that day; do you know what I mean? It's almost expected that you come in and just get it right immediately. I've always thought it was a good idea to kick it around a bit, see how it is with everyone else, you know. If I'd have suggested that, they'd probably have looked at me as if I was completely mad. And said, "Well you can kick it around after we've shot it", but at the most you just say your line in a reasonably effective way and we can go home, you know.

Have you got anything planned after the Red Dwarf movie and Tomb Raider 2? Uh no. I'll be glad to get that all done. If this time next year I've done Tomb Raider 2, the other one I'm in line for and Red Dwarf, if we've got all that in the can by this time next year, I'll be happy. Then as you say I'll be able to have a rest. Hopefully the combination of these two, three will put my name on the map a bit more. Then I might get a couple of new jobs or back into TV. The thing about TV drama is that it's a close-set. You've probably noticed that the same people appear all the time. Unless you break into that mould you just don't get the work. I've been considered for a few things, but they're either wrong or I haven't been able to do them. So I'm not going to take second man on tube for anything, you know, just to get my foot in the door.

If given the chance again what would you have done differently? I suppose it goes back to what I said earlier about, you know, when you're starting off in the business you've got to take what you're offered. I could've hung around and waited for something. Maybe if I had waited for some period drama or whatever I'd have got into that avenue, then things might have turned out differently. But I wasn't, I got offered an irritating hologram. I would say that compared to many people, I've had a fair run of it. I had Spitting Image before that of course, you know. And actually coming out of Spitting Image, that was a funny old time because I did that, I did a few TV programmes as well. I was filling in as a voice artist and puppeteer; um I was thinking how can I get out of this? Why did I accept this job and get stuck under a puppet? Then suddenly Red Dwarf came along and helped me out of that, you know. I knew who the writers were because I'd worked with them on Spitters. Um, but I didn't, I think by then I was 27, 26/27, when I started to do Red Dwarf. I think I was just glad to, there was no need to wait anyway and I know as I say, after the first couple of seasons it was going to be good. Five and a half million likeminded people, so um, I was just glad. Then when Brittas came along I was thinking well, two shows, running side by side as they did for a while. You know, I couldn't have asked for much better really. The only problem was the typecast thing. To be honest with you, I cut out this existence for myself.

And finally do you have any advice for any readers who want to get into the acting business? Be very, very, very sure that it is what you want! Be prepared to occasionally diversify within the industry and above all be prepared for rejection!

With thanks to Chris Barrie