has admitted he reflected on his own behaviour in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which he branded ‘an education for me’.
The actor and comedian, who will portray Jimmy Savile in later this year, was inspired to co-write a new series based on the anti-sexual harassment movement after arguing with co-star Sarah Solemani on the set of 2018 Michael Winterbottom film Greed.
‘I was just playing Devil’s advocate and firing off salvos, knowing I was in the safe space with Sarah Solemani,’ the 56-year-old revealed in a new interview. ‘And someone said, “You two should write something.”’
That something turned out to be six-part comedy series Chivalry, about feminist director Bobby (played by Solemani) hired by old-school producer Cameron (Coogan) to try and ‘detoxify’ the film set of his big-budget film following #MeToo.
Coogan agreed that that movement was a revelation, as well as ‘an education for me.’
‘As a man, you rewind and look at your behaviour,’ he told .
The Alan Partridge star also revealed that his initial reaction to #MeToo was to ‘shut up and listen’ but said he felt it wasn’t the right choice on an ongoing basis as he criticised ‘passive’ men for remaining silent as it ‘does confer some responsibility’.
He explained: ‘A lot of men have felt strangulated, petrified, and don’t know how to even start that discussion. So they don’t say anything, and after a while that point of view atrophies, because it’s unheard.’
Chivalry’s cast also includes as the film’s leading lady, 2022 Oscars host Wanda Sykes as a studio executive, Lolly Adefope as Cameron’s assistant and Aisling Bea as intimacy coordinator Tatiana.
Coogan recently made waves on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway in character as Partridge, stunning the hosts as after the shipping company to replace them with cheaper agency workers in March.
He also weighed in on Will Smith at the Oscars for a GI Jane joke he made about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s haircut, allegedly not knowing it was due to the hair loss condition alopecia.
Coogan slammed Smith’s actions and called it ‘the epitome of everything horrible and twisted about Hollywood’.
Chivalry starts at 10pm on Friday 21 April on Channel 4.
