Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, Paddy Considine – In an interview with The Observer newspaper, actor Paddy Considine, discusses why he feels he is not a very good actor in some of his films and excels at his craft in others.
This British actor, as the Observer also claims, is widely admired and respected.
Stating that he doesn’t understand why people like him, he adds:
“But I knew there was some kind of jam, and I wanted to know why. So I went to an acting coach and even he was like, ‘What?’ And I said, ‘I can’t act. I want to learn how to act.’”
In 2011, Considine was told he had Asperger’ Syndrome, a diagnosis that made sense to him. Then, last year, a specialist told him that he may have Irlen Syndrome,which means that an individual has difficulty processing light , a condition that is also linked to autism.
As a result, the actor now wears tinted glasses, which has helped him to feel considerably more at ease in social situations and on set.
“In interviews from four or five years ago, I looked like a guy who wanted to see the exit with regards to acting. It was something I had to learn to love and appreciate because it was giving me so much. It’s very easy to run and hide, but there’s some part of me that won’t do that. Part of me said, ‘I’m not going to drown here. I’m going to swim.’ And that’s how it’s been. I don’t really know how to drown.”
He tells that success for him as an actor came unexpectedly, such as the role opposite Russell Crowe in Cinderella Man.
Considine is now more confident about his acting than he’s ever been. This month sees him in Pride, a dramatisation of the union between the gay community in London and a group of miners in Wales during the 1984 strike, and two new instalments of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher.
Considine ends the interview by saying that he is doing this for life.
“If I switch off now and think, ‘Well, Dead Man’s Shoes is the best thing I’ve ever done,’ then I may as well retire. But I might do my best stuff when I’m 50; I have no idea. I look at my friend Bill Nighy, he’s doing his thing. It doesn’t have to end tomorrow; it’s not based on my looks and my box-office appeal. So I guess I’m a lucky sod.”
The full article by Tim Lewis on the Guardian website can be read here