|
5th August 2002 JC: is Jackie Clark JW: is James Wilson James Wilson, known to fans every where as Daniel Wilson plays Paul in the new Big Finish audio dramas. James was one of the most animated and enthusiastic people I have interviewed to date and we spent a very pleasant, and long, lunchtime chatting about everything sci-fi. Thanks James it was a great laugh hearing about your obsession with Star Wars and the hundreds of figures you collect.
|
 |
|
Part One: Questions 1-7 'Long Live TP!' 1. JC: Can you tell us a little about yourself, are you married, do you have children, where were you born? JW: I'm not married. I have no children, but I do live with my girlfriend and we've just bought a place. So we are very together. I was born in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. Which is a lovely part of the world. I'd love to move back there, but I need to be close to London. It's not that far, you live in London and it takes you an hour to get anywhere. You allow an hour to get anywhere. Aylesbury is just an hour away too. But at the moment it's easier being in London. JC: How old are you? JW: I'm 24 years old. Nearly 25 embarrassingly enough, my birthday is September 3rd. 2. JC: Have you always been an actor? JW: Yes, I have actually. Ever since I was at school. Obviously I went to little school then I went on to Aylesbury Grammar School, and there acting was slightly frowned upon. As I mentioned to you earlier Psychology was something I thought about doing but then I did a school play and an agent came to see it. She was impressed, or however you want to put it, and came up to me and said, ' Have you ever thought about doing this professionally. I run an agency.' I said 'No I haven't really. But yeah I'll give it a go.' Mum and dad had always done amateur stuff so they said 'Give it a go.' I went off and got some photos done and started going to auditions and for ages I didn't get anything and I thought 'oh well, never mind. Carry on with the schooling.' And then I got a film, which is probably as far as credits goes, my biggest job so far. It was a film with Ben Kingsley and Christopher Lee. I was playing Christopher Lee's son. This was a major thing for my first job. It was filmed out in Morocco about the story of Moses. It was an amazing experience. I was out there for a couple of weeks and at that point I went 'Yeah! this is what I want to do'. That was while I was doing my GCSE's I was 15-16. From then onwards I started working more. I did pantomimes, and I got a job at the national theatre doing Oedipus and then Miss Saigon and carried on from there. 3. JC: What other shows have you been in? JW: As I just mentioned. Oedipus, Miss Saigon… I've done an episode of the Bill where I was one of the main characters. I did a short run in family affairs on Channel 5. Which was quite amusing. It was good fun. I've done a lot of presenting, I used to present on the Disney channel, and I did a bit with 'Ann and Nick'. I won a national competition when I was younger to be a presenter for a day. It was great, at the time I was still very young. It was a mixture of fun and opportunity professionally. I've done a couple of films for TV. I played a character called Darren who actually turned out to be a nasty character. He tries to… I don't want to say this… he tries to rape the daughter of the farmer who he works for. But she turns into a werewolf and kills him. So I got my comeuppance in the end. It was quite a bizarre piece. Since then I've being doing numerous things. I've been doing a lot of voice-overs recently for commercials and TV. I've done a few commercials for various products. Puma, British Rail, Ariel Soap powder… 4. JC: Do you find working on audio CDs different to plays/ TV? JW: Yeah I do. I really like it actually. Obviously you're restricted as it's just your voice. But then again that, in itself, can give you a different aspect. I mean you can give more through your voice. You're compensating for the lack of someone being able to see you, so it means you can be slightly more expressive. Nowadays in TV things are so natural. They don't want emotion. Things are quite monotone. Sometimes I think it's too natural, people don't show any emotion and just speak. I'm quite an animated person in real life and that's maybe why I like audio drama. I can exaggerate me, or rather the way I am, which is brilliant. 5. JC: What is your favourite medium? TV, radio etc? Why? JW: Having said all that… I'm gonna contradict myself now. I do prefer TV obviously, because it's a complete performance. You're there as a character. They can see what you're wearing, how you walk, how you hold yourself. Recording the TP I could turn up in my pyjamas and no one would know! JW: I love doing these CDs it's such a privilege to be involved in it. 6. JC: What did you think when you first heard the premise for the show? JW: I was intrigued. As I've already said off the record I am quite into this kind of thing. I'm more of a Star Wars than a Star Trek, and I mentioned to you I like Buffy and Angel. I do like these type of culty things. Straight away I was interested. When I read the script I went 'Oh wicked he's a good character. He's a sort of'… I think a lot of actors would admit that a lot of the characters they play… there is something of themselves in that character. JC: Yeah! Nick is John and I think he'd probably agree partly with that. JW: And Phil's TIM, pretty much. Yes. It was great and I was very excited about doing it. 6. JC:Had you seen the Tomorrow People before? JW: No. I hadn't seen anything of it. I knew nothing about it what so ever. Since doing it I've seen about five or ten minutes on video. But as I said to you… and I'll put on the record so Nick might read it… I want to borrow his DVD's. Although you've kindly offered to lend me yours. (James left clutching my DVD's under his arm Nick!) I would like to see it obviously.
JW: Fantastic, they're a brilliant company. I've done five TP now and I've also done two maybe three Dr. Who's as well. They are great. Jason is the main man, the one I mostly speak to. He's such a lovely guy. That's not showbusy... He is a really nice guy. We always have a great laugh on the recording days, everyone is very friendly. It is good fun. Hopefully it's like the original where it was very much like a family. We all get along really well. JC: Do you think they will make a success of it? Or is it a success? These questions seem old now, as there have been two or three releases since they were set. JW: Bearing in mind that you told me there were originally only four planned. I couldn't remember whether there were 3 or 4. I knew that there was an original idea to do however many and to see how it goes. We've done 4 and a fifth and it's going really well which is great. It's great for us, as I enjoy doing it, and it's also nice to know that people are enjoying listening to it. Long may it continue! |
|
