News and updates on the work of Scottish actors around the world.
Due later this year, Henshall will play German officer, Werner Kraus in Serbo-Croation film How I Was Stolen by the Germans.“My wife is Croatian and we have a friend who is a producer in Belgrade and he was in London saying ‘how do you fancy coming to Serbia to do a film there?’ I said ‘sure’ so he sent me the script where I play a German officer in World War Two who falls for this little boy. The boy doesn’t know who his father is and ends up wanting this German officer to be his dad. It’s a very nice story.”
“I don’t speak German and (director) Misa (Radivojevic) is 90% deaf and doesn’t speak English, but I had a number of interpreters and everyone wanted to help. But I had a nice time, Misa is a proper auteur, it was a very creative place to work.”
...Another film due later this year is Kevin MacDonald’s epic, The Eagle of the Ninth. Unlike rival film, Neil Marshall’s Centurion, The Eagle of the Ninth will focus on Channing Tatum’s attempts to find his lost legion’s golden emblem in honour of his late father.
...“I have a small part, the first fifteen minutes, if that. I haven’t seen it or done any ADR yet so I might not even last that long! The chief of my part is a chariot race through the forrest with Channing Tatum and I just had the best time. The chariots were amazing, for the real hairy stuff they had stuntmen, but I got to do most of it myself. I had such a ball.” [Richard Bodsworth]
The last six months have been especially busy for Douglas Henshall, with film after TV drama after film. The Silence, How I Was Stolen By The Germans and Eagle Of The Ninth are a few of his recent projects still due for release. I manage to catch up with him just before he heads out to Los Angeles to explore opportunities on the other side of the Atlantic.
What will you be doing in Los Angeles?
I’m just going over there to do some meetings with agents at the tail end of pilot season. And to get a little bit a sun to be honest. I’ve been in Dublin filming.
...Another part you did recently was a Briton in The Eagle Of The Ninth, and you said it was a really fun part to play.
Yeah, it was great fun for me to play. I didn’t have much to do. I think was in about the first 15 minutes of the film. But I had a whale of a time riding chariots! I mean its just the greatest fun. It really is. It’s like a go-kart for an adult. Its this cut-out wicker basket with like, two wheels, with no suspension obviously, because they didn’t have any suspension then, and all you’ve got is two strips of leather attached to two stallions. And you’ve got to try and control with that! These are horses with a proper opinion about whether they want to go left or right. But, oh man, I had such a good time.
...So you’re looking to do things in America now?
Well I’ve always been looking to do things in America, America’s never asked me to do anything. It’s not that I never wanted to. Its just the way that my careers gone, but I think if you want to work in America you have to make the effort and go and thats why the last couple of years I’ve started to go.
How long will you going out there for this time?
Just a couple of weeks. I’m meeting with some agents and managers just for some pilot TV shows and we’ll see what happens. I’m just going to start going out there a little more often. At this time of year in Los Angeles there’s this kind of casting frenzy, there’s all these pilots to be made. A very small percentage of those get picked up by the TV stations. You get a lot of British actors go out there, you know, swallows in spring. [Douglas Henshall.com via Dougie Fans]
