Ivan’s Interview with Samantha Meah on her Show on BBC MW (28th May 2018)
(For an embedded Youtube video go to our sub-page, to watch on Youtube go here.)
Many thanks for valuable help with the transcript goes to Laura Bélisle aka Huw Parmenter’s TeamParmenter on Twitter and Instagram.
Samantha Meah:
Ivan Kaye fans around the world, this is what Ivan told me when I asked him what‘s the worst advice he was given as a young man.
Ivan Kaye:
Now, that is easy! The worst piece of advice that I have ever been given was to be myself.
I know that a lot of people end up thinking that ultimately that‘s the answer to everything, that being yourself means that you won‘t have to make any secrets about anything and people will understand what‘s laid in front of them.
But to do with my work, when I was myself, as I‘m an extremely affable chap, I like to get on with everybody, I like to smile when I‘m in pain and I like to make sure that everyone goes and everything is tickety-boo and enjoyable in a company or in a filming or in any circumstance.
And that‘s meant that sometimes people think that it‘s very easy to tread on me.
And so, for example, I used to – I did a show Sam Saturday a thousand years ago, where … It was my show and I had a director who was impeding my wonderfulness by making me stand up straight and be not myself and not hunch about or use my arms frenetically.
And I did exactly as he did on the very scene that was my screen test when I went up for the job in the first place and I was called into Verity Lambert‘s office and told where had all my charisma disappeared to. And I explained that the chap who was directing me was quite keen.
And what he would use as an example of why I shouldn‘t be quite so mobile and Jewish in my expressions is: (mimics voice) „Take a look at Clint Eastwood! He does nothing.“ And I‘m thinking: „Yes, but, love, I‘m just some spud who they brought in off the street and if I do nothing I‘m just a spud doing nothing!“
But ultimately she then said to me what I needed to do was, after the take had gone, on every take for the next … for the whole series recording that if I wasn‘t happy with it I was to look over to the various people who were in charge of that section and say: „I‘d like to do one more for me please!“
And then I was supposed to do it exactly as I wanted to do it. As you can imagine, the director who was a director of some … some … some note back a thousand years ago and I then had no relationship with each other whatsoever and it led to all sorts of ghastliness.
Now, if I had been one of those people who can be an actor and can be a b… to everybody to get what they want and then actually people will say „Oh, he‘s such a diva, but the results are so spectacular!“ Well, you know, then I could do that. I just couldn‘t live with that. I‘d rather just get on and all that kind of stuff.
And what I should really do is look into my dark side and say: „No, love, I‘m doing it again because you haven‘t got a clue what you‘re talking about!“
So that piece of advice, „be yourself“, that‘s not helped me the best stead.
I might‘ve been waiting for a bigger answer, for a bigger screen test if I hadn‘t paid attention to that. But it‘s too late now.
Samantha Meah:
And didn‘t you do that show at Pebble Mill?
Ivan Kaye:
What was that show at Pebble Mill?
Samantha Meah:
Sam…
Ivan Kaye:
Yes, we did it … Yes …
Did you know, it was so long ago, all I can remember is being in Regent‘s Park, somewhere wearing a long coat and having been eating diet pills for about six thousand years before my first day of filming because they thought that my round face – which, of course, Verity Lambert absolutely loved – but Alvin Rakoff, there, I‘ve said his name, he said (mimics voice):
„You need to lose some weight, Ivan, really, to lose some weight.“ So I lost a lot of weight and I could barely stand up, I was so skinny.
I‘ve had a look at the publicity photos quite recently actually. I don‘t recognize that guy. I‘ve got at least three of him inside me now. But, yeah, etcetera, etcetera.
Samantha Meah:
And what piece of advice would you give to your twenty-five-year-old self?
Ivan Kaye:
I guess, to my twenty-five-year-old self would be…
You see, I went to thirteen different senior schools and that‘s because my parents moved.
They had a spectacular job as social workers, made runs to the hostels for people with special needs, for people with a delinquent this that and the other for troublesome adolescents etcetera, etcetera.
And so I was always going to a new school every sort of six months. Also between my O-Level two years, I changed school – and that was a completely different syllabus.
But what I learned to do eventually was – to not get beaten up as it were in the first few days at every single school I‘ve ever been to – was to keep my mouth shut and stop looking like I was happy with everything and smirking when people said something horrible to me and coming back with a witty epithet because that got me beaten up so many times, it‘s untrue!
So what I would‘ve told myself, just to save quite some beatings and a broken nose, is:
„Just keep your powder dry, love! You can end up – your wonderful, fascinating self could actually, you know, unveil itself into people‘s lives and consciousness over a gradual process. Don‘t try and turn up on day one and be the clever Dick!“
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