The 57-year-old actor and director of Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman on his latest movie with Ana De Armas and Marvel icon , filming sex scenes and why he wants to be like Jeff Goldblum…
Shock news – your new movie isn’t a rock biopic! What’s Ghosted about?
I know! I’ve skewed a bit. My pitch for Ghosted is: boy (Chris Evans) meets girl (Ana De Armas). He really gets into her, thinks she’s kind of wonderful, mysterious and fantastic. So he follows her to the other side of the world, only to find himself embroiled in a crazy adventure where he’s way out of his depth and she’s his only means of survival. Does that sound good?!
It’s a movie that’s all about flipping expectations and having fun. But I’ll say you get to see Chris Evans being the damsel in distress for a change!
Have you ever been ‘ghosted’ yourself?
I’m far too adorable to ghost!
Why did drop out of Ghosted?
Ghosted was Chris and Scarlett originally. Then there was a clash with another project that Scarlett had to do, so she regrettably had to leave. I’d not long before seen Ana in the Bond film No Time To Die and said, ‘Well, if we’re gonna have to pivot, then Ana De Armas is the one.’
Also, no spoilers, but there are more than a couple of surprises in there. Let’s say when you’ve got Chris Evans as your star and producer, he’s ‘connected’ and he’s not afraid to pick up the phone…
Would you rather be stung to death by ants or hornets?
Ha ha – like the torture scene in Ghosted?
Bullet ants are very nasty but the murder hornet is particularly gruesome. There are crazy guys on the internet who’ll let these insects sting them so you can see the reaction. They’re nutcases!
In the Amazon, 11-year-old boys are taken into the forest and made to put on a glove with a bullet ant in each finger. They then go into a fever for three or four days, and when they emerge they’re men. So, if forced, I’ll go for four days of fever from a bullet ant.
Are you still pals with after making Rocketman? Do you still get a hamper at Christmas?
I’ve been away for two years. So if Elton was trying to deliver a hamper, which he usually does personally, by the way… ha ha, no he doesn’t, but it’s a good rumour to start, eh? I’d be a liar if I said we had tea every weekend. But I saw Elton over the summer and I’m close with , too. They’re a very loving, generous couple.
Rocketman featured a terrific sex scene between Richard Madden and Taron Egerton. How do you get actors in the zone for that?
It really comes down to gauging how comfortable the actor feels. It’s different for everybody. Ana and Chris, for example, were very happy too… er… simulate that… that… moment where these two characters make love. because those guys had some stuff they had to work through. But they were very brave and we created something we felt really quite beautiful in.
You made your own screen debut, aged nine?
Yeah, I was in Bugsy Malone as Baby Face for all of 45 seconds. Though it seems longer in that you have a long line of kids going, ‘Give this to Baby Face’, ‘Give this to Baby Face’, ‘Give this to Baby Face’ and it goes on for a while. So of course the audience expectation rises, like, ‘Who is this Baby Face?’ until you finally get to me.
As I said to my dear late friend Alan Parker, the director of Bugsy Malone, years later, it’s one of the best introductions in cinema history. And Parker, in his curmudgeonly old way, went, ‘What, you and Orson Welles in The Third Man?!’
Do you miss the acting?
It generally comes to me through friends or people I’ve worked with. Like when. I had a free slot and I thought the script was incredibly funny and irreverent, and Billie’s a huge talent. But I don’t go out auditioning any more – I don’t have time. But if people ask me and I’m free, I’ll do it because I do have fun. Compared with directing, it’s a lot less responsibility.
What hobby do you wish you had more time for?
Piano. But I noodle, at best, so it would drive my wife, Dalia Ibelhauptaitė, mad because she’s an opera director and she studied piano for 15 years. Maybe it’s some deluded fantasy, but I’d like to be like Jeff Goldblum playing a bit of jazz piano in my later years. He makes it look really cool.
Are you an opera fan?
As a child actor, I was at Glyndebourne playing Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so I got the opera bug a bit then. And since I got married, I’ve seen every opera Dalia’s directed and a few more.
I love it. It’s great. It always feels grand and special, and if the music’s good and you’ve got that orchestra and beautiful visuals and scale, there’s always a lot to absorb. Going to the opera always makes me feel very grown up.
Ghosted is on Apple TV+ from today
