She made her name with 'Spaced' and 'The Royle Family',
but Jessica Hynes is now ready for her big-screen
close-up in 'Son Of Rambow'.
There's something instantly likeable about Jessica Hynes. It's not
the work that she's done - although both Spaced (which Hynes not only
co-stars but also co-wrote with her buddy Simon 'Shaun Of The Dead'
Pegg) and The Royle Family (in which she plays the always-snacking,
forever-dieting Cheryl) are near-perfect sitcoms - nor is it the
comedienne's humble-verging-on-wallflower personality. No, what's
instantly likeable about Jessica Hynes is the simple fact that she
doesn't try to be liked. At all. In fact, you get the impression that
doing an interview for a movie she's just starred in is right up there
for Ms. Hynes with going to the supermarket to get toilet paper and
sorting out the mess in the glove compartment. "I'm just not very
good at that whole celebrity nonsense," she deadpans when we met up
last week at Holborn Studios in London. "It's not that I mind doing
interviews and all that, it's just that, well, it's not that important
to me either. I'd rather be playing with my kids..."
Hynes - who, up until last year, was working on her maiden name of
Stevenson (more on that later, surname fans) - gets to work with two
particularly talented kids in her latest big-screen adventure, Son Of
Rambow, a wonderful British comedy about a chalk and cheese pair of
11-year old schoolkids who team up to make their own sequel to First
Blood. Like Gregory's Girl, The Full Monty and Billy Elliot, it's one
of the small British comedies that manages to be both hilarious and
touching. Hynes plays single mum to the sheepish Will (Bill Milner),
the family part of the Plymouth Brethern (think the Amish on misery
pills), and therefore such evils as music, movies and television are
forbidden. When Will is roped into doing favours for troublemaker Lee
Carter (Will Poultner), a bootleg VHS of First Blood warps his tiny
little mind, and he's soon leaping out of trees and diving into ice
cold lakes so that the duo can make the best action movie possible
for a TV competition.
Q: There's a rule in Hollywood that you should never, ever work
with children, or in any movie that features Sylvester Stallone.
What went wrong?
A: What went right more like? I'm so lucky to be in this film, as it's
just a wonderfully funny and moving piece of work. I just didn't realise
it was going to be so good when I signed up, so, you know, hats off to
Garth Jennings, who wrote and directed the whole thing.
Q: Was there a lot of research involved when it came to playing a somewhat
repressed Plymouth Brethern who's getting over the loss of her husband
whilst trying to bring up two small kids and look after grandma?
Did you go method on us?
A: I didn't really need to do all that much research on the raising kids
part � I have three of my own now - but there was a little work to be
done on the Plymouth Brethern front. Garth had talked to many of them -
he grew up beside one such family, and that's what gave him the idea -
so, there was a lot to go on there. It was really in the script though -
this woman was unhappy, and looking for a way forward.
Q: This little movie couldn't find a British backer, the money finally
coming from a lone French woman, who clearly recognised the blood,
sweat and fake blood that went into it. Surprised?
A: Yeah, it's definitely a shame when a director who, with his debut
feature, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, hits no.1 in the US and the
UK still has to go cap in hand all around England. And he still gets
rejected. Even if I knew Garth just for his wonderful Blur video, Coffee
& Cigarettes, I would have thought someone here would have coughed up
the $7million.
Q: The last laugh may be with Garth, of course, Son Of Rambow knocking
'em dead when it debuted at last year's Sundance Film Festival.
A: The response was instant, and I think all those people who had
turned it down must have felt like Decca saying no to the Beatles.
Serves 'em right, I say.
Q: Even though you are now a very recognisable face, it strikes me
that, off-screen, you're far more Plymouth Brethern than you are
Paris Hilton. You don't seem to do the whole red carpet thing...
A: Yeah, I am far more Plymouth than Paris. Always have been. I guess
I just don't need it in my life, you know. It suits some people down
to the ground, but not me. I'd much rather get on with the work, and
then just go home. I've got enough on me plate without having to worry
about what dress to wear every single night.
Q:You've known your husband, Adam, since you were both 18, the two of
you getting married in 2001, and now the proud parents of three kids.
So, how come you decided to change from Stevenson to Hynes only last
year? Your husband's ego getting a little too bruised?
A: No, Adam isn't the type to let such things get to him. Not that he
ever said, anyway. I just wanted to have the same surname as my kids,
that's all. I felt it was a little silly, in a way, to be Stevenson
when all my kids are Hynes. I don't think it's going to affect my
career too much. It's not like I'm J-Lo...
Q:Last time I spoke to you, we discussed the ongoing possibility of
you and Simon finally getting around to another series of Spaced.
Any progress?
A: Well, there's an American version coming out now. Warners have
bought the rights, and it's going to be remade for American
television. That's kind of put the kabosh on it for now. Not sure
what's going to happen there, but it would be wonderful if we could,
nonetheless, get back to those characters some day. There's a few
loose ends we'd love to tie up.
Q: Talking about tying up a few loose ends, you must have been happy
with The Royle Family reunion, The Queen Of Sheba, in December 2006.
Quite a wonderful finish to such a wonderful series...
A: That was amazing, getting to bow out like that. It was always
Caroline Aherne's intention, I think, to go one more round, but
she really pulled something special out of the bag with that one.
I was even in tears, and I'm in it.
Q:In the meantime, you've got Phoo Action, based on the cartoons of
Jamie Hewlett, starting on BBC3, and you're also hoping to get your
children's book, Ants In The Marmalade, finally published...
A: My hopes are high for the book, and Phoo Action was just a delight
to write, because Jamie's cartoons were so wild and imaginative. But
I'd like to get stuck into something new pretty soon. When the kids
are gone to bed, of course...
Words: Paul Byrne
'Son of Rambow' is in Irish cinemas now.