Eddie Izzard loves pirate role
[from sun.co.uk]
EDDIE Izzard got so attached to the crutch he used as Long John Silver he took it HOME.
The actor and comedian learned to walk with it because his right leg is lopped off in the first episode of Sky1’s Treasure Island.
But Eddie, 49, couldn’t do without it — even after filming ended. He admitted: “I grew to love the crutch. It looks great.”
Eddie shaved his head to play the legendary pirate role and used a Cockney accent instead of the usual West Country twang. He said: “It twisted it a bit and made it mine.”
And he relished the gritty nature of the Christmas two-parter. He said: “I thought Treasure Island was like panto, but this has real edge.”
[from digitalspy.com]
Eddie Izzard: ‘Sky1’s new Treasure Island is kick-ass like Goodfellas’
Eddie Izzard has compared his Sky1 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island to the Hollywood gangster film Goodfellas.
Izzard said that he had previously considered the story to be more like a “pantomime”, but claimed that the new two-part drama was “evil enough” to lure him into taking part.
“I agreed to do it because it is a Goodfellas style kick-ass version.” said the comic.
Izzard plays pirate villain Long John Silver, alongside a cast including Phillip Glenister, Donald Sutherland, Elijah Wood, Rupert Penry-Jones, Daniel Mays and Keith Allen.
“The line that I was using was that the original Batman was quite a campy Batman. Then Tim Burton took it, kept it still for the family, but added a real edge to it. This is like the first Tim Burton Batman films,” said Izzard.
“We want to keep everyone watching it, but we also want to add a real edge to it.”
Shot on location in Ireland and Puerto Rico, the two-part adaptation was written by Stewart Harcourt (Poirot, Marple) and directed by Steve Barron (Merlin).
Treasure Island will air on Sky1 over Christmas and New Year.
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